Be Different or be dead

December 6, 2011

3 simple ways to make it incredibly easy to serve your customers

Source: Pexels

3 simple ways to make it incredibly easy to serve your customers.

Most organizations are on the hunt to exceed customer expectations and provide remarkable customer service.

If you had the energy and capacity to do only one thing to advance toward this goal it would be…

“MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS TO ENGAGE WITH YOU”.

Sounds reasonable and straightforward doesn’t it?

The problem is it doesn’t always happen. Organizations often put their customers through hoops and inconvenience when they try and serve them.

— Ever stood in a lineup for 40 minutes before being served?
— Waited 60 minutes on the phone before a call center rep answered your call?
— Tried to navigate through a voice response system to get to the right person to talk to?
— Had to repeat your story to 4 different people after being transferred among several departments?

We’ve all been there.

When these things happen, it is impossible for any business to claim they care about wanting to serve us well, let alone exceed our expectations.

What is the root cause for this dysfunction? It boils down to operations planning — systems and processes.

And it’s also about trying to control costs.

The organization designs it’s operations to suit itself in a cost efficient way rather than serve the customer in an easy way.

Cost efficient systems and processes drive what the customer transaction looks like.

If you really want to take a giant step to BE EaSY follow these steps:

1. Involve the customer in process design

Ask a panel of your fans if the process is easy. Customer-driven re-engineering rather than having internal process management experts lead the way, would produce huge benefits.

Also as a major side benefit, your customers will appreciate that you invited them in to help you. They will tell others of your openness and willingness to let go of some control.

2. Simplify your business processes

Eliminate steps. Reduce the amount of work performed in each step. Minimize the number of times the customer is required to do something. Take the burden off the customer and place it on your organization.

3. Never pass a customer around

This is probably the greatest annoyance to any customer.

“Sorry, but this isn’t my area; I will transfer you to sales and they will help you.” NO! The employee with the customer should stay with the customer until they are satisfied. They should own the issue and work it through to a satisfactory ending for the customer.

4. Say ‘yes’

Create a service culture to ’say yes’ to customers. Do whatever you can to satisfy their needs and wants. Don’t let your internal rules and policies get in the way. Bend them or break them if they are preventing you from saying ‘yes’ to your most precious assets.

These steps won’t make you perfect overnight but they will put you on the right path.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.6.11 at 07:42 am by Roy Osing
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