A Marketing Miss?
We’ve been acting (on behalf of the elderly owner) as “palliative carers” for an elderly dog (13 years plus) who recently passed away.
She’d been taking a pharmacy-full of pills and was also prescribed three different tonics for other different ailments. In the end, we realised these were doing little more than prolong her (poor quality) life and that was even if she’d take them.
For the meds that were in pill form, there wasn’t usually a problem in crushing them up and mixing them in with her food. However, they had to be crushed up very finely. If you just put the pill in whole, she wouldn’t eat!
The problem came with the tonics. They were brown in colour, so discoloured the food . They also had a distinctive smell. If dog spotted that they’d been added to the food, she wouldn’t eat it.
I know that often with small children (and even some adults) “nasty tasting medicine” isn’t something we enjoy taking. The pharma companies have made efforts to disguise unpleasant tastes or smells without affect affecting the healing properties of the medication.
My question is, “Why can’t we do the same for animals?” Their sense of smell is far superior to that of humans, so it’s easy for them to detect a foreign object in their daily meal. The stronger the smell, the less likely they are to eat the food it’s being mixed with unless they’re really hungry.
There are those who’d say that it’s not worth making such an effort for animals, but when we think about the place they occupy in our lives, anything that makes it easier to alleviate their suffering is surely a good thing.
How many times have we encountered situations in our business where a simple change to a product or service makes it far more acceptable (and even desirable) to customers? At times perhaps the cost of making that small improvement isn’t worth it and that’s fine. But if a small cost is offset by a huge increase in let’s call it “acceptability”, it’s worth it.
Is our business “missing a trick” because someone thinks it’s “not worth it”?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling
Start As You Intend to Continue
Something my colleagues and I noticed in one of the organisations in which I worked was that, if somebody was “difficult” during the onboarding process, they were likely to be difficult throughout the relationship.
I can’t say if this was a case of “correlation” as opposed to “causation”, but what I can say is that we very often found this to be the case.
We all understand that different organisations have their own “way of doing things” and that, if we really wish to deal with them then we have no choice but to accept. There may become a point in time, though, when the phrase “enough is enough” springs to mind when we realise that the amount of effort involved to begin or continue that relationship is simply not worth the returns.
This applies whether one is the organisation “onboarding” someone or the one being “onboarded”.
Sometimes, we may have no choice, especially if dealing with monopoly providers, governments or other regulatory bodies on whom we depend for the continuation of our business or some service that no other organisation can provide. There have come points in time, though, when we decided in various organisations in which I worked that it was better to terminate the relationship than face the increasing costs of dealing with that counterparty.
Everybody needs their “bureaucracy”, especially where processing high volumes of material to deliver uniform services across a large body of customers. In the end though, such complexity costs the organisation in terms of money and resources to manage it as well as its clients or counter parties. At a time when business conditions are becoming increasingly challenging there’s a risk that we may lose business to bureaucracy. As business leaders, we need, where possible, to ensure that our process it:
- Result in the service we say they should.
- Are easy to use.
- Provide an enjoyable if not fun experience.
Doing this will result in increased productivity from our own people as well as growing and repeat customer satisfaction.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Teamwork
I Don’t Understand What You Do
This was the phrase a recruitment agent (or “headhunter”) used with me once.
Thanks to my varied international leadership background, I didn’t fit into any one neat little “box” that they could relate to. I’d run retail banking operations, middle office operations, trade finance operations, worked in HR and also as a corporate lending manager. I’d overseen correspondent banking relationships for Asia and worked in an investment bank on the client management team. Before all that, I’d been a ships agent in the South of France!
I’d worked in nine different countries, each with its own separate culture leading teams there. To be honest, I don’t think these poor people had ever encountered anyone with the same experience before!
No wonder they were confused!
At the time I thought it was their job to work out what I was good at and could offer to others.
No.
After having run countless CV writing and interview sessions where I tell my delegates that quite often, they have to “make it easy to understand them”, I realised that I’d failed to understand where the recruiting agent was coming from. Their job was to match up the right candidate with the right job.
What they needed from me was what I felt would be the right job. I had plenty of transferable skills, but people want to know where those skills will help them.
I don’t think any “headhunter” ever refused to meet me (some even called me out of the blue!) but I understand now why they found it difficult to “place” me. I needed to help them understand what I could do better. That was on me and I didn’t realise it at the time.
As people go through either the job hunting or interviewing process (either as an interview or interviewer) we fail to understand the other person’s position. Interviewers want to know, quite simply, whether we will help their organisation succeed in its goals and it’s up to us to understand the organisation, the industry in which it operates and its goals through diligent research. Knowing this, it’s far easier to relate our past experience and our current skills to what the employer may need in our view.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given by one of my university tutors was, “Always assume that the person reading your essay is an idiot,” he then added with a grin, “especially if it’s me!”
Those words have stuck with me ever since. He didn’t mean that I should assume I was more intelligent than anyone else but rather that sometimes people think in different ways and need help understanding another person.
I now understand better where I went wrong and can help others overcome this in their job searches or when they’re interviewing others. It’s taken time but I can now pass that hard-learned lesson onto others.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Career, Selling, Strategy
The Cost of Getting it Wrong
My wife and I had an experience that just went to show what the costs of “getting it wrong” can be.
Without going into detail, we’d decided we needed to carry out a certain piece of admin which involved adding me to a bank account. My wife had called in advance to find out what documents were required and these we duly prepared.
On the day, we went to the bank with the documents we’ve been told to bring only to be told that two additional documents were needed.
No apology. No acknowledgement that we had just spent an hour out of our business (total two full-time hours) to go there. No suggestions of how to remedy the situation (that was left to my wife!)
We managed to catch the manager who spoke to the staff member with whom my wife had spoken before. That person claimed they had tried to call my wife back to advise of the additional documentation needed but had not gone through. To be fair, my wife had been somewhere where receiving calls was impossible, so if they had tried calling her at this time, they wouldn’t have succeeded. However, the next day she was back and could’ve received calls. They also had an email address which could’ve been used. It wasn’t.
The costs? To the bank concerned, nothing in financial terms but a loss of faith in their professionalism. In fact, there will be a financial cost as we decided to move that particular part of business to a competitor… Oh, and a negative customer experience story to tell.
To us? As mentioned earlier, the time spent getting documents together, two hours away from our business at the bank (that cost can be quantified in financial terms) and general annoyance.
The advantage, however, was that we now had valuable information on how that organisation did business.
“Getting it right” can be extremely challenging when one’s faced with staff turnover, changing regulations, and a host of other factors. However, finding solutions to a problem that one has oneself caused is well within our control. The first step would have been an apology (which we finally got an hour later, and grudgingly, from the manager).
It takes little effort to move one’s service standard from “mediocre” to “good”. However, many organisations don’t realise that this is all it will take to differentiate themselves from their competition.
As business leaders, our job’s to make sure that our services and products are the best they can be and that, if any problems arise, they are handled quickly, professionally and show the customer why they were right to do business with us.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Selling
Again, It’s The Details!
At the end of 2025, we stayed at a hotel in Hong Kong where one thoughtful little device made all the difference to one of us!
This was an international plug adapter (see above) with the various “holes” (it even had USB and USBC sockets!) needed to accommodate any type of plug from anywhere in the world. How many times have we “forgotten to pack”, “left in the hotel” or “lost” such a device?
The weary traveller needing to charge their device could simply plug in their cable and charge whilst they slept. Of course, maybe they would then remove the adapter, but the hotel could simply add it to their room bill as they’d have taken the details of the card at check in.
Customer service and satisfaction are all about detail. Anyone can provide a “service”, but what will distinguish it is the attention to and level of detail they demonstrate.
Interestingly, this wasn’t even an “up market” hotel but, as I say, that one little extra made a difference to us. Someone had thought about their guests’ needs.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling
More Boards Please!
When I’ve been lucky enough to use an airport lounge, what strikes me most in many of them is how few boards there are with details of departing flights.
As a result, lounge users are obliged to go to the lounge entrance where the sole information board is on view.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted when I get to use the lounge, but one of the main purposes of a business class lounge is that it should be a place where one can relax, rather than constantly get up and down to find from which gate one’s plane is leaving. After all, you’ve either:
- Paid a premium price for a business class ticket.
- Bought that business class ticket on airmiles accumulated over taking many flights (so still paying for it).
- Used your “special” credit card (for which you may have to pay a membership fee or keep a minimum balance on account) to access the lounge.
In busier airports, the lounge staff also won’t announce departing flights due to the sheer volume of movements at the airport. If they did, they’d be going non-stop.
It’s a small thing, but as they say, “the devil is in the detail” and it surely wouldn’t cost much to install a few more boards where those who are paying for either business class tickets (which entitles them to lounge use) or those with other access privileges can see the boards and have a better lounge experience?
It’s all part of the “Customer Experience” - small things that can spoil an otherwise pleasant encounter. Has this ever been a problem for you?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling
Stop Using Scripts
These days, when I call a customer service hotline it often seems that the person who answers is following a set script. There’s a standard greeting followed by something like, “How may I help you?”
So far, so good. However, when the whole conversation sounds scripted from end to end, then there’s a problem. For example:
Operator: “Good morning, you’re through to (name of organisation helpline), this is (name of operator speaking. How may I help you?
Me: “Good morning/afternoon (name of operator) I need help on issue X.”
Operator: “I’m sorry to hear that you seem to be having a problem…” (another stock response – “operator shows empathy”).
In general, this would be perfectly normal and acceptable if you were calling about a genuine problem. In some cases, though, I’ve called to speak to a particular operator who is aware of my case and its history only to have exactly the same formula repeated!
It can get much worse if one’s problem goes “off script”. This means that the operator’s list of standard questions and responses is insufficient to deal with the problem at hand and things grind to a halt.
If a human is involved, they can at least refer you to a colleague, to a more senior person or to somebody with the authority to make things happen. If the scripted responses are combined with AI, things stop there.
I understand and appreciate that organisations are trying to cut costs by replacing staff with either cheaper (less qualified) staff who, instead of proper training, are given the “standard Q&A List” or with AI. What often happens though is that, in their efforts to cut costs, they end up with a sub-standard service.
People will say that “AI needs to be trained. Indeed, it does but at least let this training not be at the expense of quality service. An organisation that has “real humans” answering calls without a script is likely to take business from those who persist in turning to automation as the solution to everything. As an example, think about Dame Judi Dench training Call Centre operators in the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
No doubt in time to come, AI generated responses will be standard and appropriate to every situation. That time isn’t now however, and if we want to keep our business, we need to keep the “human touch”.
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling
“Cognitive Overhead”
I came across one of the most informative and clear explanations I’ve ever encountered about why customers may not always react the way we hope they will. It’s called “Cognitive Overhead”.
Simply put, it’s how much they have to think and/or do something to take action to get something. The easiest way to understand this is to think about two simple examples:
The words “click below to subscribe”.
The word “subscribe” used as a direct link (known as a “Uniform Resource Locator” or URL) to a page to fill in details.
In the first case, a customer reads the instruction and then must find a link somewhere below (maybe lower than the part of the screen they can see). In the second, they simply click on the word “Subscribe”. This may seem simple but the fact is that the first example requires two steps whilst the second only requires one.
If we imagine our processes in a similar way, how many steps do customers have to go through to obtain a product or service through our website? There will be a minimum number, but the question is how low will that be?
Sometimes customers have commented that they didn’t follow a process through because it was either:
- “Too long”
- “Too complicated”
- “Unintuitive” or
- All of the above.
If the third (let alone the last) answer comes back too often, our business has a serious problem. All it’ll take is one competitor with processes that are shorter, less complicated more “intuitive” or all three to take our customers from us.
As an example, my wife and I have both found that installing eSIMs from a certain provider comes under the “all three” category. We’ve given up using their eSIM.
As businesses, we need to minimise the “cognitive overhead” for our customers. As technology and complexity grow in our world, this is going to become harder. Developers need to understand how the customer works and how to blend this with how their business works.
The first question we should always be asking ourselves is, “Will this process benefit the customer?”. If the answer is “not much” then we shouldn’t institute it. People will try to justify complex processes for reasons like “legal requirements”, “regulations”, or similar. All businesses are subject to rules, but building processes around these rules or around what the business needs isn’t the way to go.
In short, “the simpler the better” is the way to go. Our problem is, how do we get there?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
If Only…
I had a memorable episode which showed me the importance of “covering all the bases".
For some time, I’ve been looking for one of those adjustable desks that moves up and down at the touch of a button. I don’t like to bend over a computer if I only have a quick bit of work to do but equally if I have a lot, then I prefer to sit at a desk.
I finally found my “dream desk” in one of our local stores. It looked good, had the correct electronics, a wire holder under the desk for holding things like power strips and a hook for holding a pair of headphones.
So, what went wrong? I asked the salesperson to show me the desk “in action” (i.e. make it go up and down on its electric motor). The desk wasn’t plugged in to an electric socket, as the nearest one was about 3 m away. Luckily, the store had an extension cable which it was easy to plug into that distant socket and then move closer to the desk. We plugged in the desk, but nothing happened. We looked for the instruction manual and here was the second problem: it was all in Chinese characters and no one could read it.
Where I live and work, three languages are spoken, one of which is Chinese. Unfortunately, they couldn’t put their hands on manuals in the other languages. So, there we were needing a “troubleshooting guide” and not being able to do anything about it…
I was more disappointed than annoyed. After all the desk looked right, had everything I needed and if they had had one that worked and/or a troubleshooting guide, they could have made a sale. Unfortunately, it looked like they now simply had a desk.
We need to make sure we get the details right. There’s no point in putting something on display if you can’t sell it (how many times have we said we wanted to buy a particular item in a store only to be told “Sorry, that’s just a display model.”) If it’s a display model, and you have no other stock, then take it off the display.
Equally if something is on display and stock is available, sales staff need to know how to make it work, where to find the manual and the manual needs to be in the appropriate language.
In retrospect, all of this seems “common sense”. However, it’s surprising how often we encounter cases where the “sense” isn’t so “common”.
What can we as business leaders do to make sure we cover as many of these little details that could lose our business as possible?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Teamwork
Handling Replies
In this age of 24/7 email, it’s all too easy for us to be “deluged” with emails from any number of people.
When I first started using email back in the 1990s, all I had were my corporate email (and that was an “in-house only” system, which did not allow us to send emails to people outside the employer’s network until later) and my personal “public domain” email.
Since those days, I’ve added two more personal email addresses (for different purposes), my own consultancy business email and my other business email, bringing me to a total of two corporate email addresses and three personal ones!
I receive email in each. Some require responses, some are for information only and others are “junk”. The trick is in handling responses.
One of my former employers had a standard for responding to email requests: two working days if no deadline was specified. Even if we could only send a “holding reply”, at least the sender knew we had received their message and were acting on it. This was considered “professional”. Not only is it “professional”, it’s also courteous and shows the sender that we take them seriously. Personally, if I feel someone doesn't take my requests seriously, I move on to someone who will.
Fast forward to the current age and things seem to be very different. Part of the problem seems to be caused by email systems sending emails from “unknown senders” to one’s “junk” or “spam” folders. This can be for any number of reasons which I won’t go into here.
From a customer service and professional point of view, we should have both corporate and personal standards for replying. My personal standard is that, if I need a response by a certain deadline, then I ask for it by that deadline. If I email someone without giving them a deadline in which to respond, I will generally chase after one or two weeks, depending on the urgency. Luckily I have a highly evolved follow-up system to ensure that I do chase.
For all of us in service industries, we should have response standards. Some organisations send out an automated response to every email stating that it will be handled within a certain number of working days. This is fine, provided that said follow up does occur. My experience is that most of the time, it does.
Does your organisation have “standards” for responding to emails with or without deadlines? If not, how might you change things?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling
Working With Entrepreneurs
I’ve been lucky enough to work for two global finance organisations as well as with numerous entrepreneurs in my consultancy roles.
Large organisations are, very different to a small business (usually headed by the founder). I continue to learn from entrepreneurs but can say now that there are several commonalities amongst all of them.
The first is a burning desire to bring something to market. It could be a product, a service, a solution to a problem, a way of doing something better cheaper faster or whatever. Whatever it is, they’ve found a way to do it and to do it well enough that people are prepared to pay for it. The thing is, only they really understand what it is they’re trying to achieve.
Following on from the above, once an entrepreneur has defined what it is that they want to do, they go “all out” to see their vision come true. They’ll work 24/7 to make it happen.
Another is what many of us may call “absent mindedness” or “inability to concentrate for long periods of time”. Entrepreneurs’ minds work very differently from those of their workers. They’re thinking about different things continuously and re-prioritising as they go. They may be accused of “forgetting what you said five minutes ago” but usually what’s happened is that something more urgent has appeared on their “radar” (unbeknown to you) and they need to deal with that. The key: keep your interactions short and to the point. Don’t waffle.
Not only are they thinking about the immediate present and what needs doing, they’re thinking about the future. They’re chairman of the board, director, CEO, chief finance officer, head of sales, head of product development, head of manufacturing and even head of logistics!
Many (but not necessarily all) entrepreneurs are also extremely flexible and patient (when they need to be). They have to be if their business is to flourish. Whilst their workers may have the “luxury” of getting impatient with others, entrepreneurs appreciate that often they have to “suck it up” if they’re to get the business. They’re great at finding solutions and ways around a problem.
Another trait that many have is they’re consummate salespeople. Again, this may not apply to all but it does to those with whom I’ve worked so far. Even if they have to take on someone as a “professional” sales person, they still have to “sell” their idea, product or service to that person.
Entrepreneurs aren’t always good when it comes to the details. That doesn’t mean they “don’t do detail”, it’s just that they tend to have the idea first and worry about details as they go along. I’ve been amazed at the level of detail into which some of the entrepreneurs with whom I’ve worked have gone, but equally there are others who need others to “make it work”. It’s a case of “have your people call my people”.
Are you an entrepreneur and do you see yourself in any of these? Would you add more?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Productivity, Selling
How Clever Are Apple?
I followed the speculation and rumour mills concerning Apple’s intentions (if any) to update its iPad Mini series of tablets.
The last time they did this was 2021 and, according to the pundits, if Apple followed previous patterns, the Mini was “due” for another update in 2023.
Rumours flew around about when (not if) the update would be announced in 2023 and 2024 and what it would consist of. I read articles, watched YouTube videos of how users love their Mini and why we should buy one, whenever it was updated... First people though it would be announced at the 2023 March Event, then September’s.
Meantime Apple remained silent! They let the market do the PR work for them. No need to build suspense, no need for expensive advertising. Even as they announced updated MacBooks, Apple Watches and others in the iPad range, the focus remained on Apple in between these announcements thanks to social media.
Let’s not forget: Apple are clever. They wait until they’re “good and ready”, then make their move. Remember the Apple Watch? Their competitors had introduced smartwatches well before Apple, but when Apple finally produced the first Apple Watch, they took the market by storm. Many still consider the Apple Watch as the “best” smartwatch out there.
I was given an Apple Watch for Christmas one year and wore it almost non-stop for three years without really having a battery issue (so maybe the “short battery life objection” isn’t really valid?). The problem was, after that time, I found that, to update the watch’s operating system, I had to wipe its memory and restart. None of my analogue watches obviously have this problem, but I’d suggest that smartwatch manufacturers look into this issue so that one doesn’t have to replace the watch every 3-4 years (although this may be deliberate).
Personally, I’m going to wait until they produce something that has more than 2 days’ battery life, that doesn’t look like a mini-iPhone on my wrist and that doesn’t require me to change it every 3 - 4 years.
I may have a long wait…
Apple have used the classic magician’s sleight of hand to make people think they’re doing one thing whilst they do another.
Whoever the genius is at the Apple Corporation, well done on getting the market to do your advertising for you!
The iPad Mini v. 7 was finally released in October 2024 and now the latest rumour is that Apple are considering a foldable iPad…
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Selling, Strategy
Are We Going "App-Happy"?
I read once “somewhere” that apparently 80% of a business’ users will look to access its services or products on their mobile (read smartphone) device. Small wonder then that the development of apps has grown exponentially over the past years.
There are apps, however, and there are apps.
Rather like those department stores that promise to sell us (almost) anything and everything apps are now doing the same job. As I go through life, I find more organisations, businesses and such like who “have an app for that”. Sooner or later, I suspect that even our tiny little six-person business will be forced to pay someone to develop an app for us (we don’t have the expertise to do it ourselves).
What I've found in a number of cases though is that when interacting with an app, firstly I risk tapping in the wrong place with my (some might call them large) fingers. Many apps also seem to require at least two levels of security. These are usually a username and/or password and/or One Time Password (OTP) sent to the user. Often the OTP is sent to their mobile phone number. That’s great if that user doesn’t travel outside their country or keeps their SIM in their mobile device even when travelling (incurring the sometimes outrageous data costs that this entails). Luckily, smartphone manufacturers have found a partial way around this through using facial recognition (although there are still some suppliers with whom I deal who insist on sending an OTP to my phone).
My real question is: how many apps can we truly deal with? In the end, I suspect that people will stop dealing with certain suppliers if they don’t buy their products regularly or if they’re just fed up with so many apps on their phones.
My personal experience is that, as I’ve aged, I prefer (and indeed need to!) access apps or services from a larger screen, such as a tablet or desktop computer. For young people with good eyesight and slim, nimble fingers, the mobile phone is great. For others it may be a curse.
Worse still are organisations who insist on transacting only through their app (they don’t even have a website). Again, if they’re interacting with the younger generation this shouldn’t be a problem but I wonder whether they’ll start to lose business as customers advance in years. No doubt there'll be others to take their place.
In the end, I suspect the decision will boil down to “Do I really value this product, service or supplier and, if so, is it worth continuing using their particular app?”
Only time will tell. Meanwhile, if we as businesses want to develop our own app, how are we going to make sure that it will be as “user-friendly” as possible?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
When is “Good Enough” “Good Enough”?
I’ve had the privilege of watching several entrepreneurs building their businesses over the years. What interests me most is their approach to what we might call “getting it right“.
For some, “perfection” is the only standard. For others, “good enough” will do and they then refine the product or service.
Both have their pros and cons. “Perfection” means that a lot of work will go into producing a product or service that genuinely meets customer needs. Inevitably, a number of elements have to be combined to make this happen: concept, assembly (if it concerns an actual product), delivery to customer and after sales service.
The downside is that getting to that final stage of perfection can take an awfully long time and delay product or service launches.
In some cases, perfection must be mandatory. We see this in buildings, automobiles, aircraft, bridges where if the product fails, a considerable number of lives can be lost.
On the other hand, especially in the IT industry, “good enough” will do. A programme or service can be launched and then, as customer feedback filters back, it can be “tweaked” to refine the product or service until it meets needs.
In some cases, “good enough” may be preferable both to take the market lead and to make sure that the product can be scaled or changed as needed. A very simple example would be the Apple Watch. Apple were by no means the first in the smart watch market, but when they entered some years after competitors such as Pebble and Samsung, they brought a totally superior product to the table. They’ve continued refining it as well (although battery life still seems to be their main hurdle).
For every entrepreneur among us, deciding when “good enough” is “good enough” and when to strive for perfection is very much a personal and business decision. For example, can Ford afford to aim for perfection every time? When should it do so? Power and transmission (engines) and safety issues such as indicators, lights, airbags, brakes and seatbelts need to be perfect. However, “small” refinements like tone of dashboard colour may mean they miss taking the market lead by getting the product out there faster, earning some money, and then improving it based on feedback. Look at every iteration of the same model every year – does the basic design change? Of course!
My personal view is that it depends on circumstances. If one has the resources and time available to achieve perfection, why not? In a fast-changing business and competitive landscape, being “second past the post’ may be the difference between success and failure. It will be for each and every business owner to decide for themselves.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
Hard Customer Service Facts?
I spotted an infographic developed by Rapid Answers that listed five key points that we need to think about during our interactions with our customers.
Fact number one: more than 60% of consumers are influenced by other consumers’ comments. How often have I looked up reviews on Amazon or other sites before making a purchase? How often have you? The 60% figure also looks very precise and nicely rounded – wonder how they got that.
Fact number two: repeat customers spend 67% more and are more profitable. I can’t comment on the 67% figure (again, it seems very precise) but it is fair to say that repeat customers generally will spend more than those who come only once. It’s logical.
Fact 3: 40% of organisations cite “complexity” as the greatest barrier to improving “multi-channel customer experience” - whatever that is. Again, without knowing on which survey the 40% figure is based I can’t comment on its accuracy. There’s no denying, however, that we live in an increasingly complex world and consumers don’t like complexity when accessing services (I’m one of them!).
Fact 4: 78% of consumers have bailed on (abandoned) a transaction because of a poor service experience. Again, can’t comment on the 78% figure but personal experience tells me that bailing on a transaction because of poor service happens. I’ve done it myself. Not only will people abandon the transaction, but they’re also likely to go online and tell millions about it.
Finally, it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. Another way of putting this is that it takes a long time to build trust but very little time to lose it. I have no hard data on how many positive experiences it takes to make up for a bad one, but I can say that one has to work a lot harder to build and then maintain that bond of trust. If, though, one does make a mistake after building up a substantial or sufficient “emotional credit balance”, customers can be a lot more forgiving than if we constantly provide poor experiences.
The long and short of this seems to be that organisations that genuinely focus on great customer experience will be the ones who succeeded where their competitors don’t. Their prices may be higher, their product range may be more limited, but they will still get the business because of their "service experience". In short, we need to focus on:
- Attitude and service to generate positive comments on our services/products.
- “Bringing them back for more”.
- How easily we can deliver our product/service and how easy is it for customers to obtain it.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Selling, Strategy
Customer Perception = Reality
Kate Zabriskie coined the above term which neatly encapsulates what is often the main cause of tension between customers and suppliers.
We’ve all heard phrases such as “The customer is not an interruption of your work, they are the reason you have work,” and so on but it was only when I saw this that light dawned for me.
Many businesses are organised “Around themselves”, that is, they produce goods or services according to processes that they have designed to deliver those goods or services.
Only a few think about how the customer may want to obtain or access those goods or services. This is where the “customer experience” concept comes in. Its objective is to make life as good as possible for customers using the following criteria:
- The product or service must meet the customer’s needs.
- It must be easy to use.
- The customer should enjoy using the product or service.
The problem is that, if we’re lucky, the product or service will meet our needs.
Easy to use? How do we have to fill in? How many fields do we need to complete online? How many steps to complete the process? Does our password need a minimum of 8 characters, at least one of which should be an uppercase letter, one a number and one a "special symbol"?
Enjoyable? How do we feel after completing endless forms and waiting in a queue for 30 minutes?
Very few organisations can achieve all three.
Once we know what the customer wants, and how they want it, we’re on our way. The only way to get this information is to talk to customers themselves. Unfortunately, the way many organisations do this is to use “focus groups” or “market surveys” that aren’t designed to elicit what the customer wants so much as to reaffirm that the processes are “right”. Even the use of the latest trend – “persona” that are meant to represent the “typical buyer” (there’s no such thing, buy the way) of that product or service look at the buyer from the business’ point of view rather than the buyer’s.
Once we get our heads around the difference that’s needed, we can start to understand how customers want to engage with us, what products they need to do what, and how they want to access them.
Until business leaders realise this, there’ll always be a conflict between their perceptions and those of their customers.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
Keep it Simple
Technology lets us do so much more in terms of accessing, using and providing information and services. Unfortunately, this may well be its main disadvantage.
If it’s to be useful, technology has to be user-friendly to all users. There will, of course, be exceptions: specialist technology etc, but I have in mind the “standard” apps that one uses on a smart phone to access services.
We’ve come a long, long way in a very short time in terms of what’s accessible on a mobile device. We now have a generation of children (“Gen Alpha”) who simply don’t know what life without a smart device is like.
Equally, we have a (dwindling) number of people who can best be described as “technophobes” (afraid of technology). These are most often found in the “Silent” (pre-boomer) and even the Baby Boomer generations.
As time goes on, apps are updated. The latest update to the Apple Infrastructure is iOS 18 which has caused some distress to users as it has changed the “photos” app into something that appears at first sight much more cumbersome to use.
It occurred to me that one of the problems may be that many of these apps are designed by Millennial and Generation Z developers who are perhaps designing them for their own generation without thinking about those who have gone before. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gen Alpha look on such apps in the not-too distant future and wonder how anything so anti-diluvian could ever have been allowed on the market.
Be that as it may, the one thing many apps seem to have in common is that, as they are updated, they become more complex and the user interface becomes less user friendly. I’ve frequently had to resort to Google to find solutions to simple problems once I’ve downloaded the updated version of an app which I used with no problems before. Developers design apps without always appreciating how they’re used by current users (even though the update may actually provide an even better experience, it still frustrates users until they’ve understood how to work it).
My advice to anyone (not just developers) is keep it simple. The simpler it is to use, the more users you’ll have. If you’re lucky, it’ll also be simpler to diagnose and rectify any faults in the coding.
We seem to think that, if something’s complex or complicated, it must be good. That is rarely the case. As Einstein famously said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Simple processes and procedures generally are easy to understand, apply and, if there’s a problem, it can be rectified fairly quickly.
What in our organisations could be simplified?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience 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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
