Collect the email addresses

A friend (and client) phoned me after seeing my last post to remind me that I always tell him to be sure to collect the email addresses of customers, prospects and enquirers as well.

He’s right. If you are building a business you need a constantly growing database. The email address should be part of the customers’ initial information record along with his/her address, telephone number and other pertinent information.

Using a simple content management system (CMS), you can generate an email auto-responder asking customers, new or established, if their last transaction with your business was satisfactory and “If we can help in any way, please contact us.” It’s an opportunity to gather first-hand marketing data, identify “holes” in your client care operation, and ensure that a dissatisfied customer becomes very satisfied.

A customer who recognises that you’ve “gone the extra mile” to fix a problem is one who will remain loyal because s/he recognises your commitment to their satisfaction.

Web Technology and Customer Care

I was trying to find the phone number for an Australian State Government department the other day. After searching their website for about 10 minutes I found the details buried in an obscure page.

If you conduct some parts of your business digitally, that is, online, you have access to additional means of ensuring customer satisfaction.

On your website, be sure to include a “Contact Us” page that provides numerous channels of communication. Be sure to include a telephone number (preferably toll-free), a street or mailing address for those who still use snail mail, an email address, and, finally, include a box that equips an unhappy customer with a fast and easy means of dashing off an online complaint and sending it off with a single click.

All of these online communications should be directed to your (the owner or manager’s) inbox – even if you have a customer service department. As the head honcho, you should be aware of customer problems. 

In a Wired World: Bad News Travels Fast

Customer care is at the core of any successful business. Without well-tended clients or customers, your business may survive, but it’s unlikely to thrive. If you intend to grow your business, customer care has to be at the top of the day’s agenda. Everyday.

Last year I was on the organising committee for a conference that was held at a premier conference resort.  From the moment I arrived at this prestigious and pricey venue, I ran into case after case of mishaps and missed opportunities.

It started when I arrived very late at night and was told that I didn’t have a reservation.  My room reservation had inexplicably been changed by the hotel staff. Now mind you, I’m on the organising committee of this shindig. And I don’t have a room. Okay, mistakes happen but I don’t want excuses, I want solutions.  And to be fair this issue was resolved quickly.

But things got worse. After several “minor” incidents I asked the Meetings Assistant Manager why we’d run out of dessert at the opening night barbeque.  Her response was “overeating.”  She later complained to her manager that I had been “too aggressive” in querying why we’d run out of food, and her manager wrote a letter of complaint to the conference organizer.

Memo hotels: You don’t write letters of complaint about customers unless it’s a rock group who trash a room and you’d like reimbursement.

What really concerned me was that the staff totally ignored the fact that the resort had run out of dessert, and further down the time line we also ran out of both meat and salad on one of the buffet tables.

In each case complaints were met with excuses not fixes to what were obvious systemic problems in the kitchen. Unfortunately, this was the approach the resort took throughout our conference. Excuses.

The last experience is the one that remains uppermost in the human mind. That’s the nature of perceptions.

You may frequent a certain eatery for several months and enjoy the experience each visit. Then, one evening, you’re seated at the “table time forgot,” and assigned a waitperson who makes a point of ignoring you. Going back to that restaurant next weekend? Not very likely, even though you’ve enjoyed yourself there three out of four times.

Bad WOM (word of mouth) is toxic to any service-driven business. It not only slows business growth, the CPA (cost per acquisition) for each new client or customer increases proportionately.

On the other hand, positive word of mouth is no cost advertising. And it packs a real punch. Think about it: you’re more likely to check in to a resort recommended by your neighbour than one you read about in a slick brochure.  

More about Hiring, Firing and Litigation

Three more bad hiring decisions:

1. Being Lazy

Employers who are lazy hire the first person who looks “almost” suitable. If you don’t want to do the job properly, then hire someone to do it for you.  Recruiters and search firms do this for a living.

2. Allowing Emotions to Influence Decisions

We buy a car by first choosing the car we want from an emotional viewpoint and then searching for logical reasons to justify the decision.

Some people hire the same way.  They make their decision within the first few minutes and then they spend the next half hour justifying the decision.

We all know that “emotion sells and logic tells”. Don’t let emotion into your interviews. Guard against it by having someone else involved in the employment process.

3. Failure to Recognise and Fix Bad Hiring Decisions

Many businesses know when they have made a bad hiring decision but don’t do anything about it.

The “wrong” employee must be dismissed as soon as possible. Do it quickly and try to help the person by offering assistance – but act before it is too late. 

Hiring, Firing and Litigation

With businesses facing high rates of employee turnover, wrongful dismissal claims and sexual harassment allegations (just to name a few issues), it surprises me that more thought isn’t put into hiring decisions.

Here are three mistakes I see all too often.

1. Not really identifying the business needs.

What are the skills, experience, character, and competencies you need? More importantly what are the organisation’s short-and long-term needs and the effect this hiring will have upon those needs.

When these are clear define the standards a candidate must meet including the educational background, work experience, and technical skills they must have.

And don’t forget to ask yourself if these could be supplied more effectively through outsourcing?

2. Hiring out of desperation

A key manager quits and must be replaced.

Most businesses have become so desperate at some stage that just about anyone will do. It’s only later that we realise how bad our decision really was.

If you can’t conduct a proper hiring process, hire a “temp” or borrow someone. But don’t hire in haste—too often you end up with a very bad taste.

3. Promoting from within

Remember the Peter Principle. (People get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence.)

Your best performers aren’t necessarily always the most qualified candidates for a specific job. This is especially true when promoting to management level. Just because someone is good at a particular role doesn’t mean they are capable of managing bigger teams or other functions.

Make sure you follow a thorough process when promoting from within. Not only could you lose other good people because of a bad promotion, just like incest, you can also create inbreeding and stagnate creativity.

Hotdoggity

I was reading a newspaper article about how we are headed for recession and it reminded me of the story about the man who sold hot dogs.

He was a bit deaf so he didn’t have a radio. He was a bit blind so he didn’t read newspapers or watch television.

But he sold great hot dogs.

He put up signs on the highway to tell people how good they were and stood at his stall calling out, “Buy a hot dog,” to everyone that passed.

And people bought.

He increased his orders of rolls and frankfurters and bought a bigger stand with the latest cooking equipment to take care of his customers.

One day, his son came home from university to help him out.

The lad said, “Dad, haven’t you heard the news? “There’s a huge recession. Unemployment’s at an all time high. Government spending is sending us all broke. No one is making any money.”

The old man thought, well my son’s been to university, he ought to know. So he cut down on his frankfurter and roll orders, took down his signs and didn’t bother to call out to passers by. And his sales fell almost overnight.

“You’re right son” he said. “We really are in the middle of a bad recession.”

 Moral: Don’t stop doing the things that work.