Is there a pattern?
I had two interesting emails this week.
The first came from a large nation-wide retailer. The email explained that several times a year they
brought new employees to the national office for a three-day induction course. It went on to ask if
I would help design an interactive session to help the new staff understand the importance of customer
service. I was told they wanted the session to be delivered by one of the company’s senior managers.
And, oh yes, they were allowing 30 minutes for the customer service segment.
I wish I could tell you that I was amazed to hear a company would allocate only 2% of their induction
course to customer service when 100% of their profits come from their customers but I cannot. It was
all too sickeningly familiar. When Air New Zealand was in trouble a few years ago, senior management
decided to hold a series of one-day seminars for all staff so they could outline their new strategy
and re-kindle confidence in the airline. I was asked if I would do a slot on customer service, which
sounded very exciting until I was told they could only afford to spend 15 minutes on customer service.
I told Air New Zealand what I told this national retailer: You are clearly not serious about customer
service so I suggest you do not waste your time or mine pretending that you are. I also suggested to
the national retailer that since research shows that the quality of the customer experience is becoming
the most important factor affecting the customer’s decision to buy, they might want to spend three
to four hours on customer service. If they did not feel they could do that, I suggested they could explain
the importance of customer service by telling their staff, “Customer service is so important we
are spending more time on it than on morning tea but not as much time as on lunch.”
That was the first email.
As chairman of the New Zealand Association for Customer Excellence, I get many emails from people
wanting to tell me about bad experiences they have had as customers. A few make me laugh but most leave
me shaking my head in disbelief that companies could, well, not to put too fine a point on it, be that
dumb. After all, as I keep saying, 100% of your profit comes from your customers, so why would you want
to abuse them?
The email I received the other day, was from a client who described how the Department of Immigration’s
call centre, or at least the automated answering system, tells you that you have called at a busy time
and suggests you call back at a different time and then promptly hangs up on you! “That's one
technique for reducing the need for call centre staff,” observed my client.”
That was the second email.
When I read these two emails, figures kept flashing before my eyes:
- 80% of managers in an American study said they did a great job
of looking after their customers but only 8% of their customers
agreed.
- 96% of Americans and over 70% of Kiwis say they have at least one bad experience every year.
- 70% of Americans stopped doing business with a company because of bad experience.
- 85% of Americans say they had an experience so bad it made them throw something, yell or cry.
- 67% of Brits say customer service has not improved in five years.
- Customer satisfaction with airlines around the world is at a 15 year low.
- 82% of people ringing a call centre say they have to wait too long
- 81% of Kiwis tell 13 other people about their bad experience.
- 48% of Canadians say they avoided doing business with a company as a result of hearing a bad customer
experience story
Is there a pattern here? Could it be that mangers know that looking after customers is important but
when push comes to shove, do not believe it is as important as many other things that go in the company.
Therefore they allocate very little time’ to telling and re-telling staff how important customer
service is. Unsurprisingly, staff get the message it is really not all that important and end up making
policies, taking actions and saying things that customers think are really dumb. The end result is customer
reactions like those listed above.
What message does your company really send to your staff about the importance of customer service?
How much time do you spend training your staff in how to create an outstanding customer experience?
By the way my client who told me about his experience with the department of Immigration also put
forward a really good idea. “Why don’t you ask people to pass on to you stories about really
bad things that companies do to customers and then publish them once a year in a little booklet?” he
said
Why not indeed?
I am inviting you to email me (ian@ianbrooks.com) with your very bad customer experiences. Please
tell me the company’s name as this will be a name and shame exercise. I also need to know your
name and the city or town in which you live. I will consider that by sending me your story, you have
given me permission to publish it along with your name on a web site or in a book should I decide to
take it that far.
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