Customers are also human…

There will be occasions (hopefully few) where a mistake is made with a customer.

<Humans Make Mistakes>

These could vary from the immaterial (e.g. typo of someone’s name) to the highly material (e.g. impact resulting in major consequential damage). However, the resolution of both is always the same:

• Do not over-complicate the solution
• Do not initiate a ‘witch-hunt’ or play ‘locate the scapegoat’
• Admit the problem
• Have a ‘damage control’ or ‘rescue plan’ to table
• Check relevant insurances (if applicable)
• Ensure enough & availability of the correct resources to ensure a successful plan
• Agree plan with the customer
• Implement plan (including roll-back if plan fails – then revisit point 4)
• Independent Postmortem (One-on-one discussions with involved parties; Report of occurrence; Action plan to implement interventions that will ensure there will be no re-occurrence of the event/s.

Customers are also human and, basically, want to be treated in the exact way that you would. Nothing more and nothing less.

<Difficulty in building Customer Relationships is Detrimental>

So, what’s the real issue? Sadly, it’s the organisation’s culture and also how they implement their processes, guidelines and rules.

For example, an organisation with an embedded fear culture is doomed to failure, since when problems occur, they are more difficult to identify, manage and resolve. How do you identify those companies?

• Cascading eMails whereby ‘everyone’ is cc’d
• After problem identification, they are not addressed with the relevant personnel but broadcast to achieve belittlement of others
• White-Anting rather than open communication
• Closed door mentality
• ‘Not Invented Here’ syndrome
• Escalations rather than focusing on the problems at hand
• Employees keep quiet rather than communicate things that could have material impact
• ‘Yes People’ syndrome
• Sycophant support structures
• Acceptance of mediocrity.

<Companies with a Fear Culture, Fail on Many Levels>

Understand and have Empathy with Customers:

• Empathy is the capacity to recognise emotions that are being experienced by another
• One may need to have a certain amount of empathy before being able to experience accurate sympathy or compassion.

<The Customer will also make mistakes – be there to support & assist>

<Communication is Key to Building & Maintaining Relationships>

<Resonate with your Customer – on all Levels>

Inhibitors along the Seller-Buyer journey dilute meaningful customer discourse value and ongoing revenue potential:

• Irrelevant Metrics – ‘Tick-sheet reports and Dashboards’
• Ambiguous Data - ‘Multiple Versions of the Truth’
• Unproductive Workflow – ‘Defined by Non-Sales Professionals’
• Ineffective & Inefficient Tools/Systems – ‘Activity/Productivity’
• Revenue reduction – ‘Holistic Company-wide Impact’
• Unclear Communications – Confused ‘Brand Messaging’
• Diluted Customer Contact effort – ‘Unplanned Moments of Truth’.
• Increase in commodity selling – ‘Box Dropping’
• Unclear Customer Loyalty – ‘Increased Churn’

Closing Statements:

• Industry Knowledge is an Imperative for meaningful customer engagements with mutually beneficial discourse
• “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success” - Henry Ford, American Businessman
• “You should sit quietly for fifteen minutes every day to gather your thoughts, unless you’re too busy, in which case you should sit for an hour.” – Anon