Dear Sales Person, Customer Service Representative, Company – basically anyone who calls me their “Customer”!
Follow @ironconsult
You don’t have to sell luxurious goods or provide expensive services to make me feel special – just show me that you care about me and value my time and I will be more than happy to spend my money on your offerings.
Ask me what I’m expecting – don’t assume you know. Get my basic expectations right in the first place before you start trying to “delight” me (look up the Kano Model).
Don’t think about cost all the time – sometimes small favours / little delighters that you offer me free-of-charge could make me a life-time promoter of your brand and your service.
Ask me what I want – don’t assume you know. Sell to me based on what I am interested in, not on what you want to say to me.
Understand what’s important to me. Often I will value speed of resolution / service, but frequently I will be happy to wait if it means that the problem will not occur again.
Respond to my questions, not to what you think my questions are. If you’re not sure or didn’t understand the question, tell me – otherwise by answering the wrong questions you make me feel not listened to and frustrated.
If you’re standing in front of me and are looking like you hate your job and hate the fact that I need your help, don’t be surprised if I respond to you with the same energy. I understand that everybody can have a bad day sometimes. Just don’t unload your anger onto me please and I won’t do the same.
If I’m at the till waiting to be served / helped and you are not paying attention to me and are chatting away to a colleague, I won’t be impressed and might get frustrated. I understand that effective teamwork requires social interaction with colleagues. Just please don’t blatantly prioritise it over my needs.
Keep your promises – if you’re saying that the delivery will take 3 days, it better take max. 3 days. If you’re promising that you will call me at 5 PM, you better call me at 5 PM. If you’re saying that you’re “aiming to respond within 3 business days”, then don’t respond within more than 5 days without being sorry about it. If you can’t keep your promises, don’t expect my loyalty / my business.
If you’re saying that you value my time and make me wait or put me on hold when I’m getting in touch with you, you are really telling me that you actually couldn’t be less bothered about my time.
I’m happy to fill in surveys to help you improve – as long as they don’t consist of too many questions and don’t require too much effort & time of me. Remember – if you say that the survey will take a minute and it takes 10 minutes, you just made sure that I will never participate in your survey again. (Maybe try NPS surveys?)
If you have already asked about my details, don’t ask me about them again. Every time I repeat myself makes me more and more frustrated and prompts thoughts that you don’t have your shop in order. Same goes for online / omnichannel experience – every time I have to input my details again makes me less and less impressed with your offer and I will eventually give up.
Lose the word ‘but’. If you say to me “I appreciate that you are frustrated, but…”, you are actually saying the exact opposite. ‘But’ cancels the first part of the sentence!
If you make a mistake, the worst thing you could do is make me pay for it. I will immediately become an unsatisfied client and will make sure that all my friends know about the ordeal you have put me through.
If you say that something is fixed and it isn’t, I won’t be impressed. Firstly, because you will sound like you have no idea what you’re talking about and secondly, because the thing is still not fixed and you’re wasting my time!
If you handle my “Moment Of Truth” query correctly, I will become a loyal and enthusiastic promoter. Get it wrong and I will either leave immediately or jump ship at the first opportunity.
Even if its my fault, please don’t point it out / rub it in. I’m getting in touch with you because I need help, not because I want to feel bad about myself. More often than not, your pointing out of my mistakes will make me feel attacked.
If you need me to come up with an elaborate password – tell me about it upfront. If I go through the effort of creating a password, submit it and find out then that it’s not compliant with your rules, it will make me frustrated. A hover-box or a simple line of text at the point of password entry would suffice.
I don’t like feeling like I’m being ignored. If you’re not responding to my queries, you will eventually receive a frustrated call from me that you could’ve avoided by practising communication at even a tiniest level.
Understand and implement even half of these points and the experience of your customers will improve significantly.
IRONCONSULTANT 