So What Are You Doing to Create Crazed Customers?
One of my tag lines, “helping you handle crazy times and difficult people,†gets a lot of traction. Kathy Jo wrote and asked why her business is seeing more and more difficult people.
It’s easy to blame the problem on things “out there.†In one of my seminars an exasperated manager actually said, “I think it has something to do with the full moon or solar eclipse.â€
It’s not rocket science and you don’t need to consult astrology to figure out why customers get difficult. Just be a fly on the wall in your business.
When’s the last time you called a department in your own company? When’s the last time you tried your own processes and systems? Tried to log onto your website? Waded through all the bells and whistles on it just to find how to contact you? Ever taken a trip through your telephone hell? Punch 3 for purchasing, punch 0 for a directory, punch the wall …
I agree the world is getting crazier by the minute. We’re a global community and information travels at the speed of thought. We just know too much about what all the miscreants are doing ‘out there.’
Someone gropes Faith Hill’s husband inappropriately and her explosive reaction is on TMZ** or YouTube in an hour. Five years ago we would have heard about it a week later in an Entertainment magazine. You never know who has a picture phone, who’s skulking around listening to your employees, or in the back end of your website.
We are more stressed in our abundant world than our ancestors were 100 years ago. Of course, they died younger, so they may not have had the time to get into as much financial and relationship mischief as we do today.
But here’s the bottom line – if you KNOW there are more crazed people out there, why taunt them? Why make their lives more difficult? Fix your company, your processes, and your information stream so people have an easy time doing business with you. Make that goal clear to your employees. Then enlist their help in fixing every hole, every glitch, and every confusing process you have. Truth is, your younger employees know more about cyberspace than you probably do. Let them do what they do best.
Not only does it make sense, it creates a higher level of loyalty in your staff. When you ask them for their assistance it creates a stronger sense of ownership. They want you to understand why they are frustrated, and when they see you doing something about it, they respect you more.
Try it, and let me know.
Take care!
Beth
Just tryin’ to get common sense solutions out to the world
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Beth Terry, CSP
The Corporate Cowgirl
Speaker and Author
Website
** Sigh. Ok, here’s the clip from the Faith Hill / Tim McGraw debacle
© 2007 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc.
