Welcome to a series of 3 posts on the importance of how a company does things.
Like our interactions with other individuals we find there are companies we like to deal with and others we don’t. This is simply a matter of treating people decently – as you would wish to be treated yourself.
An area I have noticed personally in recent times is Resentful versus willing service. We have all probably dealt with a company where the individual gives the impression they would rather be somewhere else – the counter attendant more interested in chatting to a friend than serving a customer. But what about the companies whose ethos seems to be – we write our procedures to protect us and don’t care if it makes it difficult for customers once we have their money.
Consider the humble call centre and the joy of dealing with one that is fully staffed (no waiting, no muzak), by cheerful people speaking clearly over a good phone system (short menus, clear lines) – who are permitted the time to actually sort the problem and not bound to a corporate script (not discernibly) and well trained and experienced, not cut price people trying their best and frequently failing for lack of allocated corporate resources.
How does your company measure up? Have you ever used “phantom shopper” techniques or follow up interviews to more carefully understand your customers experience?
