Customer relations are a crucial element of any business, the POMPI: point of most potential irritation. Skillful dealing with customers--retail or B2B--requires a significant amount of patience, knowledge of psychology and a healthy dose of common sense. The “customer is king” is hardly a new concept but in the modern world the stakes are significantly higher. Nevertheless, many companies seem to have practices that are stuck in the 1980s and have cut back on critical staff training despite a workforce that lacks manners:  the casual approaches in both schools and families have resulted in a lack of etiquette and customer respect. This can form a real danger for the public image of your business.

The pissed-off-customer tsunami: the grudge factor

Anyone dealing with customers in a POMPI position should, first and foremost, be drilled to focus on the long-term relationship instead of the few euros, pounds or dollars the company may lose in a single transaction. A simple example from my own experience:   a prominent department store refused to make a duplicate of a photograph that I wanted to use as a gift, despite my having proof that their processing had ruined the original negative. Result: for the price of one replacement photograph the store lost my total business for more than a year and I never placed photo orders there again (think: annual vacations, second child, several new pets, etc.). You do the math. I HAD been a loyal customer before that.

In my example, the attitude of the person handling my complaint exacerbated the situation. Blind to the big picture, she was clearly an inappropriate choice for a public-service position. Most people can surely think of at least one example of a company that they abandoned or at least treated more negatively after they felt cheated, handled with suspicion, or were just not heard. If you were a loyal customer, the potential losses are huge.

Like it or not, your company needs to focus on keeping the customer happy and loyal. An angry customer WILL hold a grudge. My example, from many years ago, was relatively simple and included the two traditional negative responses:

o   losing the customer’s business
o   bad publicity when the customer reports the incident to friends and family

With the internet, it comes as no surprise, your risks spread out like the flood waters of eastern Japan. Now that smart phones/tablets/laptops are added to the customer’s arsenal there is as significant risk of widespread negative feedback when they tell the whole world about how rudely they felt that they were treated without even having a cooling off period after the event!

Never before have the dangers been so great and they are likely to intensify as more and more consumers are taking matters into their own hands and rating establishments. So choose your personnel carefully and train them well to give the customer the benefit of the doubt and to never, ever, EVER underestimate them.

And a final tip: do not ignore the “point of most potential irritation” support staff!

Being the buffer between your company and increasingly demanding customers is a high-pressure job. Employers need to appreciate, encourage and invest in their POMPI staff.  Signs of frustration will reflect badly on the company. Address this issue directly and with sensitivity by, for instance, listening carefully to your employees and, when necessary, investing in:

·        extra staff support
·        ways to help them let off steam
·        methods to improve their emotional and physical health

These are small investments if one considers the big picture: you are supporting the staff that holds the key to the return a critically endangered species: the loyal customer.

Last time I discussed how to make phone and email portals to businesses more customer-friendly. Today we will look further into communications with the low-tech population and ways to welcome guests for personal visits to your business. 

Snail Mail
It is hard to fathom, but not all customers use computers. Response staff should resist the urge to send computer references for further information to the low-tech crowd: these will likely annoy rather than enlighten. Pamphlets, printouts from the internet site and other printed materials are preferable. A telephone call can help appease the frustrated customer, who already feels (and is) left behind by technology. Never forget that behind every customer is a network: family, friends, neighbors and other connections that will appreciate a company that addresses the concerns in a sympathetic manner. In this way, even the “disconnected” customer can provide more positive feedback for your company.

Personal visits
Many websites lack 21st-century instructions on how to reach companies.
Verify that your internet site includes:

• coordinates and other GPS-friendly details. If necessary, give an alternate street address that a GPS is more likely to recognize.
  
• a clear note of significant road-work--inevitable in metropolitan areas--preferably with a link to a site that gives up-to-date information on road closings. 
  
• detailed information on parking, including free options for the thrifty customer.
  
• updated public transportation information, if applicable. 
  
• unless it is obvious, instructions on how to get from the parking lot/bus stop/train station to your establishment. 
  
• time indications: if visitors need to allow for extra time for parking or walking, it should be noted. 
  
• Any further details for those with mobility issues. 
  

In addition, if you have invested in signage in the vicinity, make sure it is complete. It is frustrating to be led partially to a destination only to come to a cross point and have no indication of which way to go.  

Further: once customers arrive, are the entrance and reception areas clearly indicated, attractive, inviting and wheelchair accessible? Are visitors warmly received? Is there a comfortable waiting area, preferably with internet potential?

In short, an accessible company is customer-friendly. Take steps to optimize accessibility by empathizing with your customer’s needs. The most important way to do this is to provide clear indication that your company values their time. That powerful message should keep them coming back for more! 

It is critical to regularly step back and analyze your business from the perspective of the customer, who is increasing impatient, judgmental and acutely aware of their options. Think: how can we improve things for this instant-gratification generation? If necessary, hire someone from the outside to look over customer reception in each of the standard channels (more to come in a future blog!):



Telephone
The definition of consumer hell is an endless maze of push-button choices or waiting for an eternity while listening to mind-numbing music that is interrupted by insipid messages like “for further information, check our website.” Telephone choice menus and waiting lines are so 1980s and should be eliminated or cut down to a bare minimum. Yes, you want to take care of as many problems as possible without involving human labor, but it is safe to assume that your customer HAS already inspected the website or simply does not have access to it.

One possible, more customer-friendly, system falls back on the ages-old system of having a general receptionist answer and take a message. These are immediately sent to the appropriate authority, who answers by phone or email. Or, if the customer insists, they will be transferred to the specialist but then the choice to wait is their own. This is, of course, not the only method. Whatever one chooses, it should take into account the impatience and easily irritated nature of the modern consumer: by streamlining the process and shortening the average waiting time, you will do wonders for your customer image.

Email
Initial automatic-reply emails reassure the customer that their request has been received by your company.  Customers expect their queries to be answered promptly (preferably immediately!), so assure that the email turnaround time is short. 

However, quick replies ≠ thoughtless ones. After one computer-generated response, one should be able to expect a personal reply. With rare exceptions, your customers will not to write to your company unnecessarily and they will have perused the website before trying to make contact. A “stock” email crafted with several links for further information that do NOT ADDRESS the actual QUESTION gives a sloppy and uncaring impression. The underlying assumption is that the customer didn't look hard enough for the answer. Although that may be the case, it could also be that the solution is not there or is buried in an illogical place. Links are just irritating if the material requested is unavailable.

Response staff should therefore first 1) read the question carefully and 2) examine whether the answer really is available on the website. If necessary, the response-team member can send a general, but whenever possible, personalized message that they are looking into the matter to buy time with their impatient twenty-teens customer. A telephone call to them can also do wonders, sometimes looking at the website together can help to better identify the problems and save valuable staff time. Most customers will appreciate the personal service. (Staff should, however, also be trained in the fine art of politely extricating themselves from the occasional “sticky” customer who is starved for contact!)

Having waited an eternity yesterday to speak to someone at the Belastingdienst (the Dutch equivalent of the IRS), I was reminded of their motto "we can't make [doing taxes] more fun, we can make it easier!" They should start by making a major overhaul of their telephone system!