Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Businesses believe:

• Front line employees' attitude cause most customer dissatisfaction. Prevalent folklore suggests that 70 percent of customers leave due to uncaring employee attitudes. - WRONG! - It is what employees are told to say and the products they must deliver that causes dissatisfaction.
• Answering the phone quickly is the key to success. Most companies try to answer the phone in 30 seconds. - WRONG! - What happens after the phone is answered is much more important. As long as you answer the phone in 60 seconds, the customer will be happy if you can handle the question or problem.
• Most consumers are crooks. - WRONG! - There is general agreement among most executives that only 2 percent of customers are trying to game or cheat the system, so why hassle the other 98 percent? It takes time and creates angst for both employees and customers.
• The best service is talking to a human. - WRONG! - Most people are not calling you for their social experience of the day, they want an answer and the computer, if easy and painless to use, is fine.
• Price is the key to success. - WRONG! - Price only matters to one third of customers. The rest will pay for a better experience. A good example of higher price for a better experience is Starbucks. However, one mistake or problem doubles price sensitivity and two mistakes double it again.
• Phone trees are naturally aggravating. - WRONG! - Listening to complex options is maddening, but if you publish the menu options wherever you publish the 800 number, satisfaction goes up dramatically.

Consumers believe:

• They don't have to read or follow the directions. Consumers can make serious errors, such as asking that liquid bleach be made to taste better, such as cherry-flavored. One technology company has a card in the top of the box that says, "When all else fails, try reading the directions!" This novel idea actually led to reduced calls.
• There is no point complaining; nothing will be done and nothing will change. Customer service professionals call this "trained hopelessness." Your complaint rates may be declining, but that doesn't mean everyone is happy. Customers may have just given up. You need to aggressively solicit complaints with the message "We can only solve problems we know about!"
• The frontline is the enemy. Customers' expectations are now so low that they are prepared to do battle with the service. If frontline staff start off with eye contact and a smile (even over the phone), the customer calms down and the potential for conflict is significantly reduced.

Most of the above is common sense, but common sense is often in short supply. If you examine some of the common perception problems in your business, both from staff and from customers, and work to solve them, your customer service will improve dramatically. The payoff is enhanced word of mouth and if you can get strong enough word of mouth, you can spend much less time and money on marketing.

Leading companies with great word of mouth get 70 percent of their new customers via referrals from existing customers. What is your percentage? Do you have to buy new customers with expensive sales and promotions efforts or let your remarkable service system generate them for free?

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John A. Goodman is author of Strategic Customer Service: Managing the Customer Experience to Increase Positive Word of Mouth, Build Loyalty, and Maximize Profits (AMACOM 2009) and Vice Chairman of TARP Worldwide.