Don't Ignore Unhappy Customers
It’s a lucky
organisation that can afford to ignore unhappy customers. The only entities that may be able to do this
are either government organisations (we have no choice but to deal with them)
and monopolies.
A 2013 survey by Accenture found out that:
- 71% of customers rely on word-of-mouth communications (just
looks at the requests on Facebook if you need an example);
- 43% use official review websites;
- 25% use reviews and comments from social media websites.
Looking at the above figures, I can relate to all of them.
I’ll read customer reviews on Amazon or other sites before I buy and I live in
a country which has a Facebook expat group page that is usually filled with
requests for recommendations.
One of my favourite themes is “online unhappiness”. Unhappy customers can spread negative views
online, on social media and by word-of-mouth.
They can reach an awful lot of people, and it’s not just other customers
who see these reviews, it’s our competition as well! Imagine the value of this free market insight
to them!
Negative reviews mean lost business mean no sales…
We’ll never avoid unhappy or angry customers – something
will always happen according to the law of averages when humans are involved to
make someone upset. What we can control, however, is our
reaction. My personal experience in
handling angry customers is that they want to be:
- Heard
- Respected
- Handled
My own approach in these situations is:
- Don’t fight back (difficult, especially if you know the customer’s “wrong”!);
- Remain under control (again, difficult in the face of what
can be extreme provocation);
- Don't take it personally – they’re upset with my
organisation, not necessarily me personally (unless I’m the one that messed
up);
- Listen and ask questions to make sure I’ve really understood
what’s going on (again, can be tricky);
- Show I’m actively listening, that I empathise and understand
the issue;
- Apologise that they’ve had this experience (not necessarily
that the company has made a mistake unless it’s clear that this is the case);
- Find a solution – use any resources necessary (shows that
we’re serious) – and tell the customer when it has been found.
- Review what happened – what can we do to ensure it doesn't
happen again?
- Finally - make sure everyone in the organisation knows that they are part of the solution, not just the "Customer Service Reps".
I’m not going to come up with trite quotes on “The customer
is always right” – we know that often they're not, but they have a right to expect to be respected, taken
seriously and handled professionally.
They’re the reason we have a job and why our businesses make money. Their complaints are a great source of free
information on how we can improve.
Finally, if we “get it right”, they’ll act as “free
advertising” to others as well as continuing to do business with us. What’s that worth?
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 international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
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, Leadership, Selling, Strategy, Teamwork
Operators Can Sell
I recently needed to
get some information and called the company involved. The operator didn't have the answers I needed
and asked me to hold whilst they contacted the sales team. After three minutes on hold, I gave up.
At another
organisation with which I was dissatisfied with the counter service, the
operator seemed to be fully informed and was able to answer my questions
without hesitation. When she needed to
clarify something with a colleague, she promised to call back, and did!
Comparing these two experiences, which organisation would
have kept my business and goodwill? Of
course, the second – even though their counter staff had not provided good
service in the first instance.
It’s not unusual for the switchboard operator not to have answers
to every question at their fingertips, particularly in the modern era of
“job-sharing” or in situations where whoever’s available answers the
phone. What isn’t good for business is having our customers waiting… and
waiting… and waiting for a response or a callback. If we’ve decided that operators will simply
“field” calls and sort them into the right queue, then we also need to make
sure that:
- The call is routed to the “right person” as quickly as
possible;
- That the “right person” can answer questions and has the
authority to commit the organisation to a course of action.
Operators can be a vital part of the sales force. They are the first person to whom customers
and suppliers speak and should be as well-trained (if not even better trained)
than Customer Service Staff. They also
have the disadvantage that they don't have face-to-face contact with the
customer, along with often being the first point of contact for unhappy
customers.
I always wonder why we don't pay more attention to this
vital resource. The old adage of “If you
don’t look after your customers, someone else will” holds true. What would it
cost to train our operators?
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 international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
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, Leadership, Selling, Strategy, Teamwork
A Feather In (My) Cap
I heard the owner of a
small business make this comment some time ago after winning a particular piece
of business. I’ve been wondering why it
bothered me. After all, he’d just won a
new contract that looked as though it would pay well, so what was wrong?
When it comes to small businesses, the owners are usually
the salespeople for their business. They
know their market, understand the customers and how to appeal to them. They’re usually the ones to go out and get
the sales.
Then it came to me…
Like many salespeople, business owners can forget that, once
they clinch the sale, someone else makes things work. This is where the reputation of the business is
won or lost: not by slick sales, but by people making sure that customer needs
are met and exceeded. One of the reasons
behind the winning of the new business that I mentioned above was the
reputation that the company had built for its quality of service. The business owner set the standards (and,
occasionally, enforced them), but it was the team that did the job that built
its reputation.
We can forget, as business owners, that our success depends
on the hard work and loyalty of others.
As some of us may have heard, ‘There’s no “I” in team’. If the owner had said, “It’s a feather on our
cap.” That would probably have made more sense.
We need to remember the team and the part that they play in
our business’ success. How we talk about
our business tells our customers more about us as a person than we may realise.
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 international financial services around
the world running different operations
and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide 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: Leadership, Selling, Strategy, Teamwork
