Customer Service Policies Help Customers And Your Employees
By Jayme Broudy, Contractor’s Business School
Dear Jayme: I’ve set a lot of policies up in my business like you say, but I get a lot of complaints from my people who deal with customers. They say that the way the policies make them deal with customers makes both them and the customer unhappy. I’m caught in the middle. What do I do? -Gene
Dear Gene: I DO stress the importance of formal policies and procedures because they’re the best way to get employees to produce a consistent result, but if your policy is making it uncomfortable for your people to deal with customers, it’s probably a warning sign.
You know how it feels to have trusted somebody, bought their product, had a problem, called them and been told “Sorry, that’s just the way we do it”. You hate it (and rightly so) and so does your own customer.
Here’s what NOT to do:
• Automatically blame it on the employee: sometimes there’ll be a whiner, but more often not.
• Blame the customers for being too demanding: Once in a while an unreasonable person will show up, but usually people are decent. They may, however, need to have more information to understand why things are the way they are.
• Ignore it and think the problem will go away: It’s your customers (and your good employees, if you keep forcing them to follow a bad policy) who’ll go away.
• Think that very customer-friendly policies are unaffordable. If your business is running right, they’re not. They’re actually excellent investments that hold onto customers and build reputation
To fix the problem, go after the underlying cause...
Collect the data:
• How many complaints are you getting about what kind of problems?
• Of the total business you do, are the number of complaints within reason?
• What job types are causing the complaints?
• Which crews or employees are causing how many complaints?
• Is a particular customer service employee having the most trouble with customers?
Identify the biggest offenders: The 80/20 rule is probably in effect for all of these.
Find the cause: It’s almost always because there’s an underlying system missing or not working well.
Create or refine the system that’s causing the complaints: Gaps in work rules, loose standards, poor scheduling, etc.
Track results: This means a call logging system for your customer service employees.
Here’s some good news: Customer complaints are a great thing. Really.
They give you feedback on what’s not working so you can improve your productivity.
They give you a chance to be a star. Anybody can do a decent job when things runs smoothly; it’s how you deal with problems that can set you apart.
Also, if your employees are feeling bad about enforcing an un-helpful customer service policy, they care about your customers. That’s a good thing.
To be clear, there DOES need to be a clear policy on how to deal with customer complaints, but it should be almost entirely weighted toward the customer. No matter what the specifics are, the overall guideline is that it should make the customer feel like a king. If it does, both your employees and your customers will be delighted.
My Best,
Jayme
Contractor’s Business School® is a coaching, training and consulting firm specializing in helping contractors produce more profit in less time. Calling on experience dating back to 1993, the company has worked with hundreds of contractors in many specialty areas to build successful stand-alone businesses. Visit www.contractorsbusinessschool.com, or call (800) 527-7545 to get the FREE CD "10 Key Strategies to Build a Business that Works."
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