We either ignore your brand or we judge it, usually with too little information. And when we judge it, we judge it based on the actions of the loudest, meanest, most selfish member of your tribe.It's so obvious, yet how many organisations... councils... libraries... give this any thought or attention?
It has been bugging me all day, how many opportunities we have to provide a bad experience to the people we serve. How many times have you formed a judgement about a company based on one or two interactions? A dispute with over a transaction; a telephone call transferred all over the place; staff who are too busy talking between themselves to notice you; even something as insignificant as staff who's use of language leaves a little to be desired.
And our websites aren't immune. You can spend all the time in the world on developing your site but if there's a key interaction or transaction that has been designed poorly you can leave your visitors with the impression the site is a waste of time. This was brought home to me when we started receiving feedback about our recently launched site. The feedback was generally positive, however, there were a few key things that didn't work as expected for our site visitors. We hadn't really tested some of the key touch points well enough. Because we understood how things worked we didn't, or couldn't, see where the experience broke down for users.
I'm not completely pessimistic though. I think that the converse is also true. Going the extra mile to make your customer experience better can have far wider positive influence than one happy customer.
Going out of your way to satisfy a customer request; taking responsibility for someone's enquiry even if it's not your area of expertise rather than just referring them on; working to make an interaction easier for the customer even if it means more work for the organisation. These are all ways that we can leave our users with a good impression. A good impression will leave them more willing to come back again. Do this enough and your organisation will build trust with our customers and that's something no marketing campaign will achieve.
How to make sure that all areas of your organisation are on the same page when it comes to this attitude? Well, that I don't know. Any thoughts...?
Excellent customer service should be the norm rather than the exception.
ReplyDeleteIt is not about how the staff feel, but about how they/you/me can make the client feel special. We may be having a bad day, but we should never take this out on the customers. Leave the service point and find someone else to cover for a while, if at all possible, if you are taking you day out on the customers.
Helping people is fun, and we need to convey profession enjoyment as part of our work.
Each time you help/serve someone you are representing the whole organisation. It is about offering directions when you are on the way in to work, or at lunchtime. Yes, it is your time too, but do you want people to have a bad opinion of your workplace? A few words at the right time, and a bit of help can made a really big different.
This is just a few ideas.