As we draw towards the holiday season, perhaps we should
take a look at our customer care and some of the good decisions and some of the
bad that we may have made during the past year. While not attributed to any
specific business or person, these cases may help all of us make the New Year a
more rewarding one for everyone.
Who thought that it was a good decision to broadcast how
wonderful customer service can be and then not follow the example given? If we
tell everyone how great our customer service is, we should at least acknowledge
our own faults and mistakes. If we proclaim how sanitary and safe our
facilities are, we cannot then avoid criticism about additional problems that
our customers may have. We could at least help them recover their status as it
was before they suffered at our hands.
Who sold all these businesses on the voice mail greeting: “Your
call is very important to us”? Hearing it multiple times each day gets really
irritating and only means that we will be on hold for far longer than we should
be. If we really record calls as we claim to do, we would know how irritating
some of our customer service conversations may be or how happy our customers
are to sit on hold for more than 5 minutes.
“We are experiencing busier than normal customer service
call volumes” is not an acceptable excuse for long waits on hold. Either hire
enough people to solve the problem calls for customers or prevent the problems
from happening in the first place. In addition, training customer service
representatives before they take
calls might be a great idea to build customer loyalty.
How many people can we say “thank you” to in one day? We
should try to do so each and every day. Sure beats what we are currently doing,
doesn’t cost us much, and might even make us happier. In addition, how about
starting a conversation with a total stranger the next time we have a spare
moment in a coffee shop or business. Treating receptionists like we don’t have
time for them does not work as well for us as being nice instead.
My friend, Jon Turino always has time to chat with others,
give them advice and encouragement, and discuss what they are doing versus what
they should do in their business. His knowledge and help are invaluable, but
not everyone will seek him out and spend some time with him. If we have mentor
type people in our circle, we should always make time to ask them about what
they need and how we can assist them. It is only common courtesy. Thank you Jon for caring about everyone.
When we meet new potential networking partners, ask them
what they do, how they do it, and what they need. Otherwise we cannot introduce
anyone to them that may be a good fit for either person. Next time we sit down
to chat with anyone, see who can ask the other person the most questions about
themselves. It would be rewarding and fun.
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