I recently entered an agreement with a company to provide software for the outbound calling part of Business Development Concepts. I made this decision after weeks of investigation and evaluation. The product seemed to be a great fit. The company that was providing it seemed to have a great reputation and even provided the same product to a number of well know national firms whose needs were far greater than ours. I was particularly impressed with the fact that they would assign me an “implementation manager” to walk my staff and I through the learning and development process. So earlier this week, we were slated to walk into the world of learning this new and fascinating system that would ultimately make us more efficient………WRONG!!!!!!! Instead we found ourselves in a world of broken English speaking computer geeks that had no idea what we were trying to accomplish and seemed to not really care. The process was hampered by log in information coming only minutes prior to the web-meetings. This, created chaos among my staff that resulted in the cancellation of the first training session. The second attempt was just as disastrous due to a new implementation manager stepping in with no idea of the configuration of the system we were to train on. It was made worse by this barely understandable training person using acronyms and terms that we had absolutely no knowledge of their meanings. Another web-meeting cancelled.
It’s apparent that the software company did a great job developing and selling a product and service only to toss me into the “black hole” of offshore call center training in order to safe a buck. I’m disappointed that this initially great company with fantastic product had taken the cheap path as part of their customer development process.
The lesson I learned by this pointed to a problem common in today’s business. We many times work hard to provide a great product only to ruin our efforts with a cheap and ultimately weak link in our business chain. This can be the rude person that answers our phones or delivers our product. Believe me, your customer will remember the bad experiences far more than the good ones. As a matter of fact, a bad experience will not only cost you the customer, but also impact the impression of potential customers in today’s world of social media and chat rooms. Your customers travel and sales pipeline and the question is……is there a person or problem clogging your pipeline or creating a leak. Don’t put re-tread tires on your Mercedes or wear discount store shoes with your Armani suit and most of all don’t weaken your business chain with a process or person because it simply saves you money. Step back and take a look at your business and its day to day way of functioning and do the following:
• Evaluate the attitude of your staff……happy staff usually means happy customers.
• Evaluate the attitude and demeanor of your customers……happy customers commonly show it.
• Personally ask current customers their opinion of your business and where they feel improvements could be made……..customers love to empowered.
• Ask your staff to name 5 changes they would make to strengthen your relationship with your customers……..this can bring another angle to the customer perspective.
• Evaluate the nuts and bolts of your business that impact your customer’s impression or level of service………what is the visual and logistical perspective of your customers?
Don’t cook the world’s greatest steak and allow a clumsy waiter serve it cold on a paper plate. Get the message?
