Article - Is the Customer Really in Charge?
READ: 2 mins
AUTHOR: Robert Craven
Question: if every company wants to delight its customers, then how come we don’t spend most of our customer days delighted?
If every agency wants to delight its customers, then how come they don’t spend most of their customer days delighted?
The reality is that customer service has reached the pits!
The biggest lie…
The biggest lie today (as put out by marketing departments) is that ‘the customer is in charge’.
Another lie is that ‘customer service is better’. Generally, customer service is bad. Everybody knows that! It’s harder to deliver good customer service than ever before, and yet customers are more demanding. They expect frictionless relationships and yet your blinking processes and systems (that help you get more efficient) get in the way.
In a world of imperfect customer service, many customers prefer to cut to the chase and help themselves (think IKEA).
A brief rant
As customers we feel betrayed.
It seems remarkable that an entire business philosophy: ‘the customer is king’ - a mantra chanted across the modern world - is so obviously without substance.
Most banks, universities, shops, restaurants, builders’ merchants, software companies and agencies patently fail to deliver.
The customer is not king. The customer is left waiting to be heard (again!).
The reality is dismal.
How often does the call centre tell you ‘we are experiencing higher than usual call volumes’ or ‘all our customer service operatives are currently busy’ or ‘you are in a queue’? These statements are almost always followed by a second (incongruous) comment: ‘we value your call’.
If they value your call then why do you always have to wait? If they are experiencing higher than usual call volumes then why don’t we (the customers) experience higher than average staffing levels?
How often do your potential customers end up with a 404 error or not being able to find what they want?
So empty promises are made and the company does nothing to put right their wrongs. They simply are not listening. That’s the truth of the matter.
Smell the coffee
Companies are starting to wake up to the fact that the customer is actually very angry with them. Customer service ratings are nonsense. After all, the average score is always ‘above average’.
And this is not a B2C thing. This is as much about you and your agency as it is about British Telecom!
So what?
Clearly, most customers do not feel ‘in charge’.
And clearly, most agency customers do not feel ‘in charge’.
You can use this to your advantage. Think how easy it can be to stand out from the rest if you really do put the customer in charge!
A call to action
Are you giving your customers and clients what they want in the way that they want to receive it? Are you sure? Really?
If you take nothing else from reading this article, then please think carefully about this: are you getting the feedback you actually need? (rather than the feedback you want).
My experience is that the majority of customer feedback systems do not give you the raw, uncensored data you actually need to improve your service. The really angry customers don’t bother to reply and the under-impressed ones often maintain a guise of politeness rather than giving you the honest feedback you actually need.
Customer engagement in practice
My tip of the day: run a survey.
Ask your clients what they want from you and when and why and at what price.
You will find the feedback fascinating.
The following demonstrates my point:
Last month such a survey was launched by an agency about their webinars. With over 200 replies they were able to do the following:
Design and market a new series of webinars reflecting the topics and price points requested by the majority.
2. Write and publish a report on findings from the survey.
3. Write and publish a Boardroom Briefing strategy document connecting the new survey with earlier surveys about digital training needs of marketing managers.
4. Write and publish three further articles and blogs about the process.
5. Create early engagement and awareness of a new initiative with potential attendees.
6. Create a list of ‘fans’ and ‘ambassadors’ who were happy to take calls about how they can be helped.
And the cost?
• One online survey: free
• Time to analyse results and write articles.
Could you do something like this in your agency?