When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there is a gap -- a huge gap --between theory and practice. There are books about customer  relations; there are videos about customer relations; there are gurus (mostly self-appointed) for customer relations. None of them actually have to deliver customer service. That chore is left to the foot soldiers -- the frontline people -- your frontline people. So what do they make of it all?
You know about Pareto's Law? Yes, that one, the one that says 80 percent of the business comes from 20 percent of the customers? Well, it (almost) applies in this case.
More than 80 percent of frontline staff have not yet totally bought into the idea of effective customer relations. The other 20 percent have discovered a very enriching way of achieving a satisfactory outcome from interactions with customers. In other words, most of the time they succeed. And when they succeed, the customers actually thank them!
This Can't Be About You -- Can It?
So what's the problem? The first answer is: "the directors," and the next answer is "the managers."
"Nonsense," you say. "I am one of those, and I have explained very earnestly why we must all focus on achieving first-class relations with customers."
That may be true, but creating business and profit-enhancing relations with customers requires the right environment, ethos, culture and philosophy. You cannot achieve it by simply telling other people to do it. You can train them in the techniques for turning "difficult" phone calls around, but if they do not feel like doing it, then they will not do it.
If you and your whole organization do not believe in developing good relations with all of your customers -- it will not happen.
Check Your Surroundings
When so much time and money is spent on training people about the need for constructive relations with customers, why is it often so bad? For much the same reason that, when so much money has been spent on telling people that smoking kills you, they still insist on smoking. The issue is the environment.
There used to be spittoons in bars. What is a spittoon? It's a bowl or bucket into which people spit. Oh yes, people used to spit into spittoons. They spat because they chewed tobacco; they spat because they had -- please forgive the term -- phlegm. For whatever reason, they spat. And so there were spittoons. (continued...)
© 2010 Jonathan Farrington under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.
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Social Media and the Customer Experience