Reacting To Customers Effectively
I see so many
complaints about customer service (or lack of) on internet chat rooms, customer
forums and buying sites that I often wonder how it is that we never learn.
I say “we” because I include myself amongst those who can
cause complaints. At some time or other,
we’ve all acted in a less than “professional” manner. It’s tempting not to respond immediately, or
to return that call even if you have the time.
The complaints are usually along
the lines of:
·
Don’t keep promises (e.g. to return my call);
·
No reply (or very late reply) to my enquiry;
·
“Not interested”.
So what is it that you’re saying by not reacting
promptly? In my opinion, there are
several messages that you’re sending out to customers or potential customers:
·
You aren’t important enough.
·
You’re wasting my time.
·
My promises can be broken with impunity.
·
Your opinion of me/my business is unimportant.
·
I’m not in control.
None of these messages is something that a customer or
potential customer wants to hear about you or your business.
One thing that I've noticed is
that the really “important” people do have the time to reply to your enquiry, or to return your
call. They know that the enquirer of
today could be the buyer of tomorrow. They
know that the dissatisfied customer of today can reach out to millions over the
internet, ruining their business’ reputation overnight.
They’re not thinking “now”,
they’re thinking of the future and the “big picture”. They’re also in control.
The standard objection to these
comments is “we’re already so busy that we don’t have time to get back to
everyone the same day” or similar.
Here’s a fact: everyone has the same amount of time – 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. It doesn’t matter whether
you’re the Chairman of the Board or the cleaner. If you “don’t have time”, it’s your problem,
not the customer’s. If you don’t “have
the time”, they will find someone who does; someone who’s in control.
Here’s what happens when you
handle people badly. You lose:
·
Trust
·
Confidence
·
Business
·
Profitability
·
Reputation
In the end, you lose your
business and your income.
Here’s what you get when you
treat people well:
·
Trust
·
Confidence
·
Business
·
Profitability
·
Reputation
Notice anything?
When I set up on my own, I
developed my own simple Business Code of Conduct;
·
Always be honest; it may not always make you
popular, but people will trust you.
·
Keep your promises.
·
Take personal accountability.
·
Reply to enquiries or to calls within 2 working
days if there’s no deadline.
·
Treat people as you would wish to be treated
yourself.
I don’t believe in more – people
can generally remember 3-5 points.
Being professional isn’t always
easy, but the rewards are always worth it.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change 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 to offer solutions for
improving performance, productivity and risk management. I 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. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy, Teamwork
Effectiveness And Efficiency
I’ve been looking at a
case of a UK National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust that has suffered
severe problems resulting in a higher than expected number of deaths. The main problem seems to be that the Trust is
pursuing efficiency as opposed to effectiveness.
The best definitions I’ve found for effectiveness and
efficiency are:
Effectiveness: getting
the right results.
Efficiency: doing it
with minimal wastage.
As you can see, effectiveness and efficiency may well be
opposed to each other (the pursuit of effectiveness can be more expensive). One example of effectiveness can be found in how
banks used to check signatures on all cheques (certainly when I started my
career as a banker in 1985). Now they do
it only for cheques over a certain amount, as general experience has shown that
cheques are correctly signed. If they
miss a forged signature, or an incorrect one, it’s cheaper to refund the amount
that shouldn’t have been paid.
When people look to “streamline processes”, what they’re
doing is looking to remove wasteful or duplicated steps – in other words to
improve efficiency. Nowadays, banks check signatures on cheques
over certain values only as it would cost too much to review signatures on the
millions of cheques that pass through the system every day.
Going back to the start of this article, health services
exist to make us better – they are about effectiveness. Curing someone is about just that: you either
cure them or you don’t. There’s no
“halfway house”. Other products/services
may well be about efficiency. Britain’s
NHS’s changes are to save costs (to be more efficient).
Once companies reach a certain size, they look to do things efficiently to control costs. This is perfectly natural (and even
sensible). The risk is that it may be to
the detriment of the high quality product or the effective customer service which got them there in the first place. The problem is that those who are in
charge of operations and cost control tend to forget this. If they fail to understand that certain costs
are necessary to secure revenues,
they may well end up destroying what made a business unique.
Remember...
Effectiveness is:
·
Providing excellent products or services
·
Getting it right first time
·
Focussing on the end product to the exclusion of
everything else
Efficiency is:
·
Cutting costs
·
Streamlining processes
·
Removing things that customers may like but
which either add to costs or processes
Low-cost airlines are great example of effectiveness/efficiency
management. They understand that
travellers want cheap flights and will put up with a lot to get rock-bottom
prices (e.g. departures at uncivilised hours, delays, lost/delayed luggage,
paying to check luggage into the hold, flying to “out of the way” airports). They know to the last cent/penny how much it
costs to fly a plane from A to B and eliminate any costs that might increase
that or discourage passengers from behaving in ways that increase, for example,
fuel costs.
When you start looking to reduce costs and/or streamline processes,
ask yourself if, in the name of efficiency,
you're sacrificing the effectiveness
that secure your organisation’s revenues and make it the success it is. The questions are:
·
Why are we here (what do we exist to deliver)?
·
What makes us unique?
·
What do our customers like about us? / Why do
they keep coming back to us?
·
What complaints do we hear about our
competitors?
·
What other things don’t our customers like?
·
What do customers say that we do well?
·
What do they say that we don’t do well?
·
What will/won’t they tolerate?
·
Will we feel better about ourselves?
·
Will this change destroy our “uniqueness”?
Is your organisation about effectiveness or efficiency?
I have spent more than half my life delivering
change 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. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Financial, Productivity, Strategy
