Friday 1 August 2014

Sorry's Not The Hardest Word...

… but doing something about the problem is much harder.

“Customer Service” departments or their equivalent are now very good at apologising for mishaps that have given their customers cause to complain.  We all need to accept that mistakes can, do and will happen whenever human intervention is required (and even when it isn’t). 

The problem is often not so much in the errors, but in the follow-up (or lack of it) that occurs to solve the problem in the first place.  Failure to follow up, resolve the problem and (hopefully) prevent it from occurring again all combine to create a lasting negative impression of a provider’s goods or services.  Word of mouth publicity can now spread easily thanks to the internet, meaning that the “multiplier effect” of a dissatisfied customer can do real harm to a business’ ability to survive.

By the time you come to realise there’s a problem, you’ll need to spend a lot of management time and energy (as well as real dollars and cents, pounds and pence or whatever currency you work in) restoring reputation and persuading customers to return.  Meanwhile, the business is loosing reputation and money…

When asked what businesses can do to correct the situation, my response is that there’s a short-term and long-term process.  The short-term process is relatively simple:
  • Clarify the problem
  • Clarify what caused it;
  • Apologise to the customer;
  • Put things right (whether by refunding the customer, sending out the goods they ordered promptly, etc).

The long-term solution takes more time, energy (and money) to implement, but starts off the same way:
  • Clarify the problem
  • Clarify what caused it (care, there may be more than one cause!),THEN:
  • Identify solutions (care, there may be more than one!) to eliminate the cause(s);
  • Implement the agreed solution;
  • Check that the solution is actually working (many often forget this in the excitement of and pressure to “find a solution”).

For things to work, communication is essential.  The departments (or “stakeholders”) that need to talk to each other (to name but a few) could be:
  • Sales
  • Customer Service
  • Finance/Accounting
  • Suppliers
  • Printers
  • Production/Manufacturing
  • Quality Control
  • Shipping/Despatch
  • Warehousing
  • IT
  • Legal
  • HR

A solution that solves Warehousing’s problems may create more work for, say, Accounting.  Take into account also that parties outside the business may also be involved (you’ll notice I mention “Suppliers” in the list.  Equally, if you rely on a third party to make deliveries (e.g. a courier company) then they also need to be involved in any solution.

It’s hardly surprising that some businesses don’t seem to “get it” when it comes to service issues; the list of potential problems, causes and stakeholders is enough to put anyone off.  Much cheaper to let the customer suffer?

The thing is, if you don’t look after your customers, someone else will.


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.

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posted by William Martin @ 09:33

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