Kevin Morris

Your company needs to value the knowledge made available from its customers’ input. Hearing what your customers really think can be intimidating, but burying your head in the sand and choosing to ignore them places the company in a far worse position.

Most companies are terrified about opening themselves up to their customers’ feedback. But why are they frightened by customer feedback? Are they afraid their service level or products are substandard and can’t be fixed? Or, is the information just too uncomfortable to handle? Basing business decisions on customer feedback could be one of the smartest business moves ever made. Every one of us must remember that at the end of the day, companies live and die by how well they provide solutions for their customers — their primary assets.

SECOND CHANCES

Negative feedback is simply a reflection of the fact that a customer doesn’t feel they were treated fairly, coupled with a request for the company to take responsibility, positive action, and right the wrong. They are offering you a second chance. Don’t waste it being afraid. Embrace the feedback and use it to make positive change.

The best way to ensure a positive experience for customers is to treat them as equal business partners. It is tempting to see them merely as numbers on a spreadsheet, but understanding customers instead of analyzing them lends itself to better business growth.

This philosophy has changed the way we conduct business where I work. The company doesn’t allow its employees to tell any customer “no” without first getting management’s authorization. Instead it provides other options that are helpful and beneficial to the customer’s needs. We have also authorized each employee to spend up to $1,000 to satisfy a customer’s problem or issue. Rarely does anyone spend $1,000 because the issue is usually resolved to the customer’s satisfaction for far less. Just knowing they can take care of any customer problem, however, empowers the employees to make the right decision for the customer. This has proven to be a gold mine.

Further attempting to satisfy the customer, we prominently post our after hours contact list in each of our locations and on all after hours phone recordings. We also freely give out what we call V.I.P. cards so each customer has the cell number of every key cfm employee including the president and the vice president of the company. If the customer has a problem, we make it go away. Very rarely do customers abuse this scenario, but when they need us we are always there for them at their convenience, and their convenience can be after hours or weekends. They can reach any of us at any time, which, for the customer, is peace of mind.

Customers are important business assets. Strive to think of them as such. They are your livelihood, your future, and the very people whose opinion you should value and trust the most. Ask your customers how your company can get better and it will.

Publication Date: 06/15/2009