Most people don't call.
Somehow one phone call really stuck with me...
It is not so much about what I heard. It was much more about the person actually called.
If you are above 40+, you would definitely remember dialing on the phone rotary phone in this picture. The stiffness of the dial, the painstaking one by one digit, the error that forced you to hang up and redial the whole thing.
For all those reasons, making a phone call was a difficult feat back then. Fast forward to 2020, a phone call is literally a button away or even a voice-command away. But the problems is most people don't make the call.
Going back to my recent experience of that special phone call. It was a call from AWS. The reason for the call? I just singed up for a new account with their free-tier service. The person was clearly a local from Hong Kong speaking with lots of enthusiasm and a mindset to help. There was no selling. I did not rush to hang up.
Being in the tech business, I have used and interacted with hundreds of service providers over the past few years, from startups to giant companies from a lot of countries in the world. The fact is that despite we think we understand the importance of human connection, most companies don't bother to call. They don't even call when you are threatening to take your business away. And for some, they seem not to care even when you explicitly tell them you are ready to make a big purchase.
So when a company call not to sell, but to help, we human beings get touched. It created a lasting impact for me for days and days, especially when it is the least expected person that called. So, what motivated that call I got? Let's back-trace.
Step X: a company agent called.
Step X-1: making the call is on the agent's job description, and that's why it happened.
Step X-2: the agent was hired for the job, and that's why he made the call.
Step X-3: the agent's incentive is to keep the job and make some money based on HR policy.
Step X-4: the company HR decided that the job of the agent is to delight and not to sell.
Step X-5: the company business leader understood the power of a call and hired the right HR person to hire the right agent.
Step X-6: the company business leader's boss thinks the same way.
Step X-7: the company business leader's boss's boss thinks the same way.
That's it !
It goes deep into the company culture. It is the common language that defines success in the company. But if you ask all the CEOs of the top companies, all of them would tell you that part of the culture is about people. They want to be people-focused and not profit-focused.
So where exactly has it gone wrong?
Two words: Priority & Consistency.
Why do companies talk so much about customer service but perform exactly horribly on it? They do not prioritized nor practised it consistently. The bigger the organization, the harder it becomes to steer the ship in the right way.
I have learned so much from this 2-trillon dollar company calling me, someone that has not spent a dime on their free service.
What have you learned from your own experience?