| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
A New Way To Handle Complaints, Or Is It?
What a lot of money we have been wasting on dealing with customer complaints. Instead of dealing with them and attempting to satisfy the customer we should create a process that makes complaining so difficult then when customers complain they get such a huge negative experience and never receive any satisfaction. They will think very hard before they complain again. This approach is working already. Fifteen Years ago I moved up to the West Coast of Scotland. After three years of the Highlands I decided to make it my permanent home and settled down to live in the most beautiful imaginable spot on the shores of Loch Long. In the mornings I would lie in bed and listen to the radio, gently smiling at the all the roads in England that were listed almost daily as the announcer plunged again and again through the litany of names that spelled delays and frustration for millions of trapped motorists. I had lived in Surrey and then Bedfordshire and one of the principal reasons for getting away was to avoid the frustrations caused by the movement of large numbers of people that were a permanent feature of living in this overcrowded corner of England. I felt quite smug to have got away but last year cruel circumstance forced me back to within commuting distance of London. The first thing I decided was that any trips to London would be on the train. I had spent too long laughing at the travel news to believe that it would ever be possible to penetrate inside the M25 in a car. On my first trip to London I got a lift to the station. It was only fifteen minutes, then I stood on the platform waiting for the train. There was a train due every fifteen minutes and after about ten minutes one arrived. Travel time was to be an hour so I sat down to read some proofs. As the train got closer to London it filled up until the announcer declared that the train was full and would not now stop until it arrived in London. I have since discovered that this is the normal routine but at the time was heartened to hear what I thought was a sensible decision being taken. The train was full but not uncomfortable in the same way that a full tube train is. After a further ten minutes the announcer came on again to tell us that the train was broken and that instead of delivering us to our station of choice in London, it would now drop us on the outskirts from whence we would have to make our own way to town on the tube. It took me a while, and a conversation with the man next to me, to decipher what the change meant to me in terms of connections etc but having left an optimistic 45 minute buffer for my speaking engagement I worked out that I could cope with the extra delay. Having settled my own mind I started to look at my fellow passengers and realised that when the announcement had been made there had been absolutely no reaction from the rest of the passengers. There was no hint of outrage, no gasp of resignation and no casting heavenwards of the eyes of despair. No reaction at all ! I began to ask why that was. Did the train break down every day? That could explain the lack of reaction but it hardly seemed credible. There had to be an expectation of some sort that caused this complete lack of response, and I thought that I could see what it was. When we are given a stimulus we respond to it. We are drawn towards warmth as we also avoid heat and cold. Pavlov created an expectation of hunger in his dogs with the bell such that they salivated even when no food was present. The lack of response that I saw on the train told me that the passenger's expectation was that they were absolutely powerless to do anything about their situation and therefore there was no point wasting any energy on being indignant or concerned. When the train stopped everybody got off and I followed as we descended into the tube station to continue our journey into London. It was on the tube train that it suddenly occurred to me what a lot of money we have been wasting on dealing with customer complaints. If instead of dealing with them and attempting to satisfy the customer we instead create a process that makes complaining so difficult then when customers complain they get a huge negative experience and never receive any satisfaction, they will think very hard before they complain again. Before long the expectation of the customers is that there is nothing to be gained by complaining and the whole of the resource that was dedicated to dealing with complaints can be reallocated to other more needy areas of the organisation. The provision of nursery care for the children of employees and assisted study programs to retrain the personnel who used to work in the complaints department. There would be a small staff kept on to deal with the complaints about why there was no complaints department but, using the same strategy, that too could be phased out in time. The one requirement for the organisation considering this strategy would be a captive market. So long as the customer did not have a choice I felt that I was on to a winner. The more I thought about it the more I realised that all of the organisations for whom the prerequisite of a captive market already existed had been running the same system for years. That is why the passengers on the train failed to react. These same people will still react when their cheap no frills flight fails to turn up but that is simply because these airlines are relatively new and the expectation that complaining is pointless has not yet been made. These airlines are working hard at their complaints procedure, if complaints are still being received they have clearly still got some way to go. Give them time. Peter Hunter's career started on a nautical theme. After leaving school he spent six years as a navigating officer in the Merchant Navy working within a strict hierarchy. It was not until he joined the Royal Navy in 1988 that he began to realize how valuable people really were when they were allowed to be. Peter studied for his master's degree at Cranfield Institute of Technology before going to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth as an Instructor Officer in the Royal Navy. He rose to become Head of Department at the RN Strategic Systems School, Faslane where he further developed the concept that "management is a two way thing". After 8 years with other consultancies Peter formed his own company on the West Coast of Scotland. Hunter Business Consultancy associates are now based all over the United Kingdom and are expanding into Europe. Peter is the Author of the book "Breaking the Mould" - http://www.breakingthemould.co.uk and at http://www.hunter-consultants.co.uk.
MORE RESOURCES:
Court Staff Receiving Customer Service Training - Government of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service
Customer-Service - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Listening to Customers - 5 Tips In a strange juxtapositioning of articles, this month's UK 'Management Today' has three pieces, relating to the importance of listening to customers.Susan Rice, CEO of Lloyds TSB makes it clear how vital it is for great leaders to listen and hear. Minimize The Pain of Check Recovery $350 million in bad checks are written each and every week. That fact alone makes bad checks a serious problem for American businesses. Making the Connection: Customer Relationships That Build Your Business Have you ever wondered why you often find a coupon tucked inside your cereal box, or get invited to a customer preview sale at your favorite department store? Those companies know that their existing customers are the best - and most profitable - customers they'll ever have. So it's not surprising that they'll do whatever they can to keep these customers happy and coming back again and again. When a Customer Has Done Everything to Get Your Goat You try to make your customers happy. You sincerely WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. Your Actions Tell Your Clients How You Expect To Be Treated There is a widely accepted principle of human behavior that goes something like this. "Your actions tell the world how you expect to be treated. In the Villa of the Sick Cat -- A Lesson in Customer Care If you're a pet owner, you know the stress of having a sick pet and you know that having a great veterinarian is a wonderful thing. My cat, Zoe, came down with a nasty infection that had me racing off to the vet's office last week with an unhappy, howling kitty in tow. Keeping Clients Happy Keeps them Coming Back Whether you are a seasoned small business professional, or you have just opened your doors to new clients, your marketing strategy should not only involve bringing in new business, it should also include keeping your current clients, your most important asset, happy and coming back for more or referring your services.Top-notch customer service is the most important contributing factor in the success of your business. Dealing with Difficult People 1. Don't get Hooked !!!When people behave towards you in a manner that makes you feel angry, frustrated or annoyed - this is known as a Hook. Add Value - And Kill Mediocrity in Customer Service There are two kinds of customer service we all experience occasionally, outstanding customer service, and bad customer service. What we experience most of the time is mediocre customer service. Increase in Customer Sales = Increase in Customer Service One of the most popular questions asked in online business forums or even by my customers and subscribers is this :"How the hell can I increase my sales?"or"I've got tons of visitors but nobody seems to be buying anything? What gives?"FISHNETS WITH HOLES? ANYONE?Getting traffic is not the be all and end all of a successful online business. It requires skills, specific online marketing strategies designed for your site and a robust customer service strategy. Making The Most Of Newsletters Newsletters can be wonderful tools for communicating with your customers or prospects. Because of their format, they're often infused with more credibility than traditional brochures. Developing A Customer Complaint System Background The company was experiencing an increase in the number of customer complaints and an increase in the cost of processing them and we were hired to analyze the current situation and develop recommendations to increase the effectiveness of the process of administering and resolving the complaints.Identify Customer Requirements A consultant was assigned to the design of customer service systems and complaint processes, and who had done extensive work in QFD (Quality Function Deployment), which is a methodology that analyzes the needs of the customer and integrates them with the company processes to ensure the needs are met. Carpet Cleaning in Surrey Like any business, carpet and upholstery cleaning requires excellent customer service and great value for money. There are a number of ways in which one can obtain these. Can Three Words In Websters Dictionary Be The Key To Customer Loyalty? Are you concerned about customer loyalty? Are your customers so loyal that they will stick with you through hell and high water? And if not, you really need to question how you can create a customer relationship that's so gluey, that you never go bluey in the face. Funnily you don't have to go far. Customer Service and Marketing that Works Go into many businesses today and try and get service, its sometimes impossible! The customer service officer is on the phone talking about personal issues, there is not enough staff, and they are disinterested and distracted.The old days of customer service is where you the customer were viewed as valuable and important and you received service from a person and not a machine. Five Ways To Wow Your Client Running a business is about providing goods and services to human beings. Their experience with you can make the difference between a good day, a terrible day, a nothing-special day, and a "WOW" day for them! Wouldn't you like to be the reason a client's day changes from boring to "WOW?"The benefits of this approach are good for everyone involved. At the Carwash; The Customer really is always Right You have no doubt heard the saying that the customer is always right. When you are a customer you happy with this position, when you are the owner of a small business, sometimes you see this is like opening Pandora's box. 4 Easy Steps to Better Online Customer Support Customer support is very important when you're running a business, whether your business is on or off the net. If your customer support is hopeless, you'll soon find your customers running away from you and worse, telling others to stay away too. Customer Service - Winning Customer Experiences Winning Customer ExperiencesMuch research has been done on what the makes a winning customer experience. What is it that makes customers come back to your business instead of going to someone else's? If your repeat business is low, what is it that you are doing to drive your customers away? There is a consistent theme that emerges across the research - winning customer experiences are built on consistency. How to Keep Customers Who was it that said - "The customer is always right"? Well for those of you who can't get through the day without knowing, it was H Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges's department store in London.The question I want answered is; did he ever work with customers on day-to-day basis and if so, was he some kind of saint?Let's face it; customers can be a real pain in the neck.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
