I am often amazed at the lack of real people that I talk to anymore. Today I tried calling for a question about my credit card** and it took me through a series of ‘press # if…’ for 10 minutes before I had pressed zero enough times got me to an operator. So of course, during those 10 minutes, I got to thinking about how companies and people interact with other companies and people. I thought about the phases that I went through with this credit card company.
I had an issue, so the first thing I did was went to their website:
- Your website – Is your phone number easy to find? What about the mailing address? Is it obvious what your business does? Can they send you an email straight from your website, and is it easy to do? A great way to test this is ask a 10 year old to look at your website and see if they would know how to contact you. Ask them to tell you if your site is easy to use. *If you don’t have a 10 year old, borrow one from a friend*. If someone has to hunt for a way to contact you, they won’t.
- Your phone system – What happens when I call your company? Do I reach a recording, press 1, reach another recording, press 4, reach another recording……or, do I reach a real live operator that directs me exactly to where I need to be? What about if the office is closed? Does your voicemail welcome me to leave a message and give me an email address to send a question to? Does it tell me when you will be checking messages or how quickly I should hear back? All of these questions are things to think about when setting up your phone system. If someone has to fight with the navigation or has trouble leaving a message, they will more than likely find a different business to talk to.
- Customer retention systems – Ok, so you have me as a customer. Now what? If you can’t answer that question, you don’t deserve me as a customer. The best way to get more business is to treat the current business with respect, and make it fun for them to work with you. Referrals are the cheapest business you can get and the easiest to lose. The key point? Don’t neglect your current customers or they won’t be ‘current’ for long.
After finding their number easily (score 1 for them…), I picked up the phone and dialed.
Well, as you read above, it took me 10 minutes to reach a person. So, that’s -10 for them, since not only did I waste 10 minutes, but the directions to reach the person were almost impossible. Overall now, they’re -9, which leads me to…
After spending 10 minutes on the phone, and dealing with a very unhelpful person even after I got one, I am no longer their customer. I would much rather lose the ‘rewards points’ that I got from them then ever have to deal with their system again.
I know that we have so many methods of technology and communications, but when your clients can’t reach a real human, or when we do, the service isn’t good; we don’t really want to stay your clients for long.
What are you doing to make sure that you don’t lose your clients? What systems do you have in place that helps? What have you tried that didn’t work? Have a bad customer story to share?
**The point of this blog was not to tear down the company, so I have chosen to leave them nameless. I felt there was no need to know who they were to be able to learn from their mistakes**
Related posts:
- The 5 emails you need to write today!
- A phone call? Do people really make those anymore?
- 4 people in your life that can make you more creative
Kirsten
