Your Most Unhappy Customers Are Your Greatest Source of Learning
This was one of Bill
Gates’ observations, and it resonated with me for a number of reasons.
Human beings naturally avoid pain, so when we get a customer
complaint, our natural reaction is to go on the defensive. It’s called the “fight or flight” reaction
referring to man’s early time on earth when he had to either run away from
danger or face it if he had no choice.
II’ve worked with managers whose strategy in these situations
was to find some way of making it the customer’s fault that something had gone
wrong. In many cases, there may well be
contributing factors on the customer’s side that resulted in things unfolding in
the way they did.
We have three choices when faced with complaints:
- Ignore them (some organisations have a reputation for this);
- Fight back (same applies);
- Sort out the problem and learn
from the experience.
Complaints are good – they mean our customers like our product
or service and want us to put something right.
It’s the ones who leave without saying anything (except to their friends,
maybe costing us future business) that we need to worry about. “No news” is not necessarily “good news” in
this case.
A complaint is free
information that something is wrong.
There is no such thing as a “fool proof process”. We can never account for the reactions of our
fellow humans. What I understand by, for
example, the colour “grey” may be “light grey” or “mist” or “smoke” to someone
else. I recently saw an instruction to
customers to click on a “teal” coloured button in a website. If I don't know what “teal” looks like or am
colour blind, this instruction is of little use. Whose fault is it if something goes wrong?
When customers complain, we can learn how to improve our
processes, products, website, training and more. A complaint may also be an indication that
fraudulent activity may be taking place.
If we see the number of complaints about a particular product, service or
person rising, we know where to take action.
Businesses rely on customers to make a living. No customers, no money, no business.
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, Productivity, Selling
"Gut" or Plan?
The “Action
Imperative” – the need to “do something” - is something that we will all have
experienced. Our society demands
“action”, Winston Churchill’s catchphrase in WWII was “Action this day!”. If one is not see to react immediately to
various events or stimuli, one is considered lacking in initiative or drive.
When our “action” works out well, we get the glory; when it
doesn't, we either try to forget it or get criticised by others.
Startups and corporate projects are
fertile grounds for “action”. The new
excites us and can even act as a drug (after all, we’re “doing
something”). This is why one can
see many busy (but few productive) people in the workplace.
Because of the need for “action”,
we face the “I haven’t got time…” syndrome.
We all have multiple tasks to carry out, hundreds of emails to answer,
meetings, conference calls… and often “no time to think”. As a result, things
may not receive the attention or consideration that is needed to avoid
potentially serious consequences.
A recent example is the decision to
require passengers to pack their laptops in check-in baggage as terrorists were
supposedly manufacturing explosive devices designed to look like laptops. The rationale behind the decision was
perceived by safety experts as flawed because laptops run on lithium-ion or nickel-metal
hydride batteries which can overheat. If
such a device catches fire in an aircraft cabin at 35,000 feet, cabin crew can
do something about it. If it’s in the
cargo hold where no one can get at it, catastrophe can be the result. In the end, the ruling was rescinded, with
passengers now required to take laptops out at airport security checks and turn
them on to prove they work.
Technology has only served to
exacerbate the problem, with people expected to be “online” 24/7. When I first began my professional career,
email didn’t exist, so communication was by letter and memo. These had to be thought out and (perhaps)
dictated, allowing additional time to think.
There is an expectation amongst some that emails should be answered
immediately.
The result of this is that,
instead of considered responses, we end up relying on that part of our brain (the
“limbic” part) that we use when under stress – the part that works on emotion
(“gut”) rather than thinking things through.
Some call this the “fight or flight” response. When Cro-Magnon man was a hunter-gatherer,
this instinct served him well, and it still has its uses in certain situations
in the modern world. However, if a
“fight” reaction occurs at the wrong moment in the business world (and one only
has to look at the behaviour of certain world leaders for examples…), this can
have disastrous consequences.
The conclusion? We need to have a clear understanding of our
business environment and its attendant risks.
For this, we need to think. Thinking finds new (and possibly better)
solution, but requires time. If we
understand our environment, we have that extra time to think things through,
even if there remains a degree of uncertainty.
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, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
