I have heard it said many times "this job would be great if it wasn't for the customers" and of course at times I have expressed this opinion myself when things were not going entirely to plan.
Working with customers is always challenging but whoever heard of a business without customers. At the end of the day we spend millions marketing our products and services to attract new customers but quite a few of us it seems don't give the same level of impetus to looking after our existing customers.
Product or services orientated business, online or high street, it doesn't seem to matter which type but there appears to be a growing trend to make it harder for customers to make complaints or to even make contact with customer services.
It's not only the little companies that offer little or no customer services, when was the last time you tried to speak to somebody at a large online business? In most cases you get the nasty little forms to fill in and that's only after you are forced to spend an hour reading through their Q & A to see if you can find an answer to your problem.
Well as a customer I don't want to read FAQ's or Q & A's, I just want to talk to a human who knows at least 10% about the product or service that the company provides, is that too much to ask?
It appears so as companies large and small are constantly devising little schemes to eliminate the need for any real customer services support and this is definitely a growing trend.
So How Do You Turn It Around?
For starters when somebody phones up and there is a problem with the service or product there are a lot of reactions you can have but there is only one answer that always works and that is an honest reaction to the problem.
Talking to customers like human beings is no doubt the best possible route to handling problems and to keep them happy. There will always be problems to resolve and you have to commit to solving these problems as they arise.
There are too many people out there that start businesses - especially online -and because they are in their home or office they think they can hide away from their customers. The fact is if you are not prepared to provide customer services and deal with your customers problems then you shouldn't be selling to them.
When customers complain they are telling you that something is wrong with your service or product. Well in a way that's good news. If it was my business I would want to hear these complaints because these are the customers that will help me to create a better service or product for my business.
Which would you prefer, a customer who complained or one that didn't and went to your competitors the next time? Well personally I want to keep my customers and for every complaint my business resolves successfully we are assured of a returning customer.
From a marketing point of view you are probably aware that on average it is far cheaper to keep existing customers happy with a good customer services policy that it is to keep finding new customers.
To see a good example of an online company that clearly promotes their customer services support by placing contact details on almost every page take a look at
Architects Supermarket. This site bucks the trend and reassures the visitor quite quickly that they have immediate access to customer services support.
