Deadly sins of customer relations -2

When I entered the supermarket that day, I came with the intention of buying many things that would have resulted in my parting with a few thousands of Naira. At that time, it was one of the most famous supermarkets in the city of Ibadan and definitely the biggest in the Ring Road, Challenge-Oluyole axis. Because it was my frequent shopping place, I had tried to develop a personal relationship with the owner. But it never went beyond cursory banter. On the day in question, after I had finished with my shopping, I proceeded to the cashier’s counter to pay. When it was time to ring a particular item, I noticed that the price charged was way above the price indicated on the sticker on the product. Of course I raised an eyebrow. That drew the attention of the owner of the supermarket. I thought that he would naturally resolve the issue in my favour, considering the volume of what I was buying and because it was the proper thing to do. After all, I wasn’t the one who placed a wrong price tag on the product in the first place! Instead of doing that, he told me that what I saw on the sticker was the old price which he had earlier instructed a staff to change. The staff had probably changed the tag on other similar products but had obviously left out this one. He called the staff and began to reprimand her very harshly in the full glare of customers in the supermarket! Then he turned to me, and as if that was the solution to the issue at hand, regaled me with excuses and several stories of how incompetent staff could sometimes be. And, in a way that seemed an afterthought, he apologized while insisting that I paid the new price! I was totally miffed! I simply dropped every other thing I had intended to buy and walked out of the place! I have not been back there since then. And that was several years ago. I made up my mind that I would rather not have something than go to buy it there! Did the business fold up? No. But it lost a good customer, who up until that time had been very loyal. Today, that supermarket is a ghost of its former self. Not surprising. One of the easiest ways to shed customers and whittle patronage is to have the habit of explaining away or finding excuses for doing what a customer is displeased with. Once you have established that the customer has a valid reason for his displeasure, resolve the issues in his favour with an apology first. When he has left, you can deal with whatever or whoever caused the problem. Calling your staff names in the presence of customers not only denigrates the personality of the staff but also demeans you and the establishment.

The greatest mistake you can make in customer engagement is to put profits before people. So many businesses are guilty of this and hardly learn their lesson until things go awry in the marketplace and they begin to hemorrhage in market share. Then they turn the heat on their sales team with all kinds of unrealistic revenue targets. Your profit is in the customer not your product. A great product without buyers is of no value to the one who produced it. But even a product that started out as not being so good can be improved upon if people want it! When you have a good product and you build a robust customer relationship network around it through effective Emotional Intelligence skills, they will give you the profit you seek.

Zappos is an American online marketing firm that started operations with selling shoes but has now grown into ten different companies. I once listened to Tony Hsieh the CEO of the company talk about the company’s operating culture or business philosophy and I immediately understood why the initially understated online shoe sales company has become the huge conglomerate it is today. The company culture is not predicated on the sale of shoes. It is on the delivery of happiness to the customer. For this reason, its service delivery strategy is designed to empower its staff to do all that is needful to make the customer happy. No matter how small your order is, you get it shipped free. You have one whole year to return the product in its original condition and get a full refund if you decide you no longer need it. And you are not charged any fee for doing so! Any wonder they are doing well while many others are groaning?

Putting profits before people also means that you would not subscribe to the Extra Mile Principle that I wrote about last week. Going the extra mile for the customer is perhaps the quickest way to earn the customer’s trust and loyalty. About two years ago, I had to facilitate a training program for a bank in Abuja. I lodged in a hotel with a very imposing structure and with good facilities. On the night before my final day at the program, I needed to get some paperwork done before my presentation in the morning. So I went to the reception to ask if they had a photocopier and printer I could use even if I had to pay. The guy at the reception was very nice and he was doing his level best to solve my problem. This meant my having to stay with him to show him what I wanted done. I was about rounding off my instructions when the Madam whose husband owned the hotel came in. When she saw me with the receptionist, she asked who I was and what I was doing in the place where I stood. Promptly, the receptionist told her that I was a guest who needed to get something done and he was only trying to help. Then she proceeded to shower all sorts of abuses using unprintable expletives on the poor guy who was only trying to be a good face of the hotel. To her, I did not matter at all even though I did not ask for or receive a discount on my room rate! And the rates were not cheap! I made up my mind there and then that I would never step into that hotel again, talk less of lodging there. When you abuse a staff whose only crime is trying to go the extra mile to help a customer, you are sending a terrible message into the moral fabric as well as the morale of the entire organization. Trust me, no staff experiencing or witnessing such would ever give sterling customer service after that! When that continues, what happens to all the investment on physical infrastructure?… continued

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!