Courtesy of Dizzyboy

I have had heard of several situations lately that have me scratching my head? I recently had a drive up window experience you can probably relate to. I purchased a meal and when the young lady handed me the bag it was dripping so much grease that it got on the console of my car and my clothing. It was like a half a cup of pure grease straight from the fryer. I couldn’t believe the server didn’t notice, didn’t look I mean at the bag!

Another is a patient who went in for a procedure, there was a complication and the procedure couldn’t be completed. They were assured the Doctor would be calling shortly and explain what happend. Then a nurse called and said I do all the calls. This patient’s situation could easily and was by most assumed that Cancer was the problem. It took over a week to get the appointment with the Doctor to discuss it and then a P.A. comes in and say’s well I see everything went fine! the patient is in a stupor now, explains that the procedure was not completed due to complications and get the Doctor in here. The P.A. says well your appointment says that either the Doctor or a P. A. can see you. The patient says I was told the Doctor wanted to talk to me personally. The PA steps out of the room and returns and says, Oh it was a doctor only appointment. He will be right in.

I saw a copy machine tech come in to service a copier, it was filthy with toner dust all over and it would get on your clothes, I asked isn’t this machine on a maintenance agreement? The Tech said yes, I opened the side door and showed him all the toner dust and how dirty it was. He looked dead at me and said, I’m not going to clean it. I called the company and they assured me that this was something he should have done automatically and sent over an supervisor to do it shortly.

As you can see from the picture above this can happen in any business. Quick Lube, Lawn Mower repair, HVAC Repair, and here is a big one Mortgage Application,Etc.

The key point I want to stress is that what happened to common courtesy? What happend to “Walk a mile in my Shoes” We are so complacent that if someone advertised that “if you become our customer; you will know everything that happens! when it happens! and we guarantee it!” they could garner tremendous market share.

My point is when you engage a customer for a service or a product purchase ; they deserve to be given some kind of summary of what to expect. For example the Attorney, “This case could take me a couple months to get filed, I have quite a work load in front of you , however I do believe you are in the right and will keep you updated every two weeks as to the progress or sooner if a development arises.”

That is all you need, some expectation as to know when things are gone awry! The doctor put out expectations twice that were false, leading the client to spend days in worry and agony. A simple phone call would have taken care of it. The procedure was over 5,000 dollars surely it was worth a phone call .

The copier technician was either indignant or unaware of the conditions of the service agreement.

Here are my tips for you to consider,

What is that customer worth over time?

What does it cost you to lay out the expectations and live up to them?

Is it a cost effective thing to spend the time and effort to keep the customer in the loop?

Have you ever had a customer express frustration over not knowing what the status is?

What did you spend on Marketing last year?

How many customers did it get you?

How many did you lose?

What did that cost you?

This must become a priortity in your organization and the example must come from the top down. Employees must be made aware of the need to keep your customers up to date and be friendly about it not as if they are being put out and it is a great inconveneience to them.

You need to have a process in place to check on this whether it is a customer survey, mystery shoppers, or listnening in on calls for quality assurance. There needs to be disciplinary actions for people who offend your cutomers and rewards for those who garner great praise from them.