Great Service Needn't Cost The Earth
We live in a world where price is often the defining
competitive edge and people don’t mind poor service/products if “the price is
right”. This, for example, drives how
low-cost airlines survive, or how discount stores operate with a bare minimum
of staff, space, knowledge or other assets.
In an environment of subdued economic activity and low confidence,
people may be more prepared to accept shoddy service or poor quality
goods. Right?
Wrong. You don't need to charge more for high
quality service. You could still provide that little
“something extra” that doesn’t cost you anything (or very little) but that
could make all the difference to customers who might not be expecting it.
Here are some examples of low cost/no cost ways to give your
business an “edge”:
·
Interview for attitude. Select employees who show the
right level of willingness to provide great service. You can't teach attitude; you can teach skills and product
knowledge.
·
Smile when you greet people face to face or over
the phone. It costs nothing; it makes a
huge difference.
·
I really appreciate talking to staff who know
their product or service. Invest more
time in training staff to improve their product knowledge.
·
If you tell a customer that you will do
something, do it. For example, if
you say that you’ll call when a product has arrived, call them (this means that you have to have a process in
place to alert you that the item has arrived and to call Mr./Mrs. X).
·
Offer to help set up a product or service, or to
deliver an item free of charge to your customer’s home/office if it’s not too
far away.
·
Offer some kind of after-sales support or advice
service. This doesn’t extend to
guaranteeing someone else’s product, but it could extend to how to get the best
performance out of it.
·
Contact the customer after a week or so to find
out if they’re happy with what they bought from you.
·
Contact customers to tell them when you have new
goods, products or services on offer.
·
Think carefully when arguing with customers. Is it worth the time and potential loss of
goodwill? You may lose money (this
time), but you gain more goodwill and more sales in the long run. Remember, unhappy customers tell at least 9
friends about bad experiences.
At a time when being competitive is key, do you want to be
“no worse than the rest” or to stand out from the rest?
I have spent more than half my life working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging”economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.Labels: Customer Care, Financial, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
It's All About Expectations - Great Customer Care
I
recently commented in my monthly newsletter that complaints arise because a
product, service or their delivery didn’t meet expectations.
In
the case of a product that's faulty, it's understandable. You fix or
replace it. In the case of service, you find out what went wrong and
correct it. If someone was perceived as discourteous, you get the facts,
make a decision and apologise.
Interestingly,
what often sets expectations is price. The
higher the price, the higher the expectations, and the more likely people are
to find fault. Equally, if something is
cheap, people expect it to be less-than-perfect. There are businesses and products that receive
"rave reviews" from customers whose expectations were clearly
exceeded at every level. These aren't always the "expensive"
products or businesses, either.
Every
customer has expectations and reacts differently when those expectations are
exceeded or aren't met. In the first case, (if you're lucky) they tell
their friends or write a good review. In the case of disappointment, some
are cool and point out what went wrong in a calm and positive manner,
suggesting what could be done to improve. Others (and we've all had them)
"blow a gasket".
Expectations
are linked to emotions. Every time you
don't meet expectations, you make what is known as a withdrawal from the
"Emotional Bank Account" (I'll call it the "EBA" from now
on). Trouble is, you need a lot more deposits to cover even small
withdrawals.
If
you're selling to/serving a customer for the first time, the EBA balance is
zero. Every action that you take will make deposits or withdrawals; at
this key stage you need all the deposits you can make. Where you have a
high balance, customers tend to be more forgiving of errors. If you have a low
or negative balance, they aren't.
Some
businesses have "reputations" which already set expectations in
peoples' minds. If I were to compare Singapore's national carrier with low
cost airlines, you would be forgiven if you assumed that you could expect poor
service, late departures/arrivals and hidden charges from the latter.
Your expectations are already set. You would not expect this of
Singapore Airlines, so if it happens, you might react more strongly.
In
one South East Asian country, people have a Three-Letter Acronym which
starts with "TI..." and ends with the first letter of the country's
name. This is used when things go wrong (which they not infrequently do).
It suggests "Why did you get your expectations up? Of
COURSE things will go wrong. This is, after all [name of country] where
mistakes, broken promises and being let down are the order of the day."
How terrible that people should actually have such low expectations of a
country and its people.
In
one country where I used to work, my boss told me to lower my expectations.
That way, if things went right, it would be a pleasant surprise. It
may be good for one's blood pressure, but is this really the message that you
want put out about your country, business, product or service?
In answer,
the head of one of the low-cost airlines, when confronted by the high number of
customer complaints received, is reported to have answered "Well what do
you expect for a fiver?" He set expectations about his airline low
because it was cheap. Gerald Ratner lost his job because he described his
(cheap) goods as "cr-p". He basically insulted his customers -
something they didn't expect.
If
you were a customer of your business, what would you expect in terms of
product, service and delivery? Do you give that to your customers consistently?
Does it justify the price? Do people get pleasantly surprised
because they get such a great deal for (what they see as) such a low price?
The
questions that you need to ask are:
·
What do my customers expect?
·
How do I give it to them?
·
Am I giving it to them?
·
What more could I do?
Customers expect:
·
Polite and prompt service;
·
Staff who know about the products that they sell;
·
A willingness to “go the extra mile”.
How difficult is that to deliver?
I have spent more than half my life working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging”economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Teamwork
The Perils Of Top Management
I’ve been following and commenting on various discussions on
top executive pay and performance.
So
far, the only conclusion that I can draw is that, with the amount of
disagreement over what behaviour should be rewarded (and by how much), it’s not
surprising that Chief Executive Officers and chairmen/women act the way that
they do.
Top management have to look after a number of interest
“groups”:
·
Staff
·
Customers
·
Shareholders
·
Lenders
·
Regulators
·
Legislators (politicians, not lawyers)
·
Tax authorities
·
Suppliers
·
Local communities
·
Environmental groups
·
The press/TV
… to name but a few. Often,
the interests of one group are completely opposed to the interests of
others. To take a simple example,
customers may want the lowest price possible, meaning that the business has low
margins and therefore reduced profitability.
This is in direct contrast to shareholders who want high profits as this
means higher dividend payments.
Top management are rewarded based on how well the company
performs. As we have seen ,
this can result in unethical and/or immoral behaviour which ends up damaging
the very interests that they were trying to serve. If you’re in a position where you’re only as
good as your last quarterly results and you want to keep your job, you will,
naturally, do whatever it takes. It’s a
brave CEO or chairman/woman who stands up to stakeholders of one group or
another and says that, for the long-term good of the business, he/she is about
to take an unpopular decision which may mean lower dividends, margins, revenues
or other negative results, even though it’s the right thing to do for the long-term
good of all stakeholders.
The key is “long-term”.
Our current system concentrates too much on and rewards short-term thinking. Performance
measures are set in one-year blocks, divided into 3-month chunks. Shareholders, analysts, senior managers and
others review these and comment positively or negatively. An organisation’s share price rises and falls
based on the perceptions of a few people who lack all the information,
experience or inside knowledge of the top management team.
“Market sentiment” may also impact share prices for no sound
reason. If one (say) bank shows poor
results, “banks” are sold on the stock exchanges, whether their underlying
business and fundamentals support selling or not. The same applies if sentiment is optimistic.
Programme trading, where brokers’ systems are “trained” to
sell if a share price goes below a certain value (or, conversely, to buy if it
exceeds a certain value) also cause markets to gyrate in disproportionate
ways. This can be triggered by the
“market sentiment” described above. Top
management have little to no control over this, short of talking regularly to
those (analysts, reporters and commentators) whose opinions (however misguided)
are seen to “count”.
Even if results are poor, top managers can still receive
handsome bonuses. If the CEO is sacked,
he/she still often receives a large payoff.
The rewards for mediocre performance are still all-too plentiful. A
recently dismissed bank CEO reportedly
earned $291 million over the five years he held the job (that’s $58
million/year), despite the fact that his organisation’s share price fell by 89% during his tenure. He will never need to work again…
In the face of conflicting interests, we need to take a step
back and ask:
·
What is in the long-term interests of a
business?
·
How best can this be served?
·
Who is most qualified to manage the business?
·
How much time will they require to achieve their
long-term targets?
·
How will the business measure and reward
success?
·
How will this be communicated to stakeholders?
These and other questions will form the basis of the Terms and
Conditions under which top management are hired and fired. It may mean reduced
revenues/margins/profitability. If it
also means a business that performs profitably and ethically and provides
long-term employment, economic and social benefit, then that’s what top
management are for.
I have spent more than half my life
working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging”
economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry
running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own
Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.Labels: Customer Care, Financial, Regulation, Social, Strategy, Teamwork
