Now that I’ve given my mini rant, here are some of the easiest and unfortunately, most common ways businesses send their customers running for the door (and across the street to the competitor).
1. Ignore customers – they love this. Maybe if you do this long enough, those pesky, annoying paying customers might just go away (yes, they will – to the competitor).
2. Don’t smile – wrinkles, who needs ‘em? And customers don’t care if you look and appear friendly.
3. Never make eye contact – for heaven’s sake, that’s rude isn’t it? I mean, good communication starts with eye contact and why risk clear, concise communication with your paying customer and showing them they are important?
4. Don’t listen – it takes too much energy doesn’t it? I mean, you have to concentrate, let the customer know you heard what they said and if you were a real professional, you’d have to summarize what they said so they know you heard them. Waayy too much work. I mean aren’t you busy counting the minutes until your next coffee break?
5. Use jargon and slang – isn’t it fun to confuse your paying customers? Your secret little language with co-workers will surely provide you with the power trip you deserve in lieu of the pride of being a service professional.
6. Fail to response to concerns – even though they can help an organization improve their service delivery and unveil fail points, customer concerns (aka “complaints”) are a lot of work aren’t they? First you have to listen, then you have to report it to management....nah, just easier to say that’s company policy, watch the clock and think about what’s for dinner tonight.
7. Fail to follow up – So you’ve promised your upset customer the world and now what do you do? What’s that? You didn’t realize companies need to be good on their promises? You didn’t know there are no third chances in the world of service recovery? Okay, just do nothing and you’ll probably lose your customers at warp speed.
8. Have altercations with your co-workers – here is a sure-fire way to make the customer feel like running for the door. My favourites are the very dramatic outbursts between staff in front of customers; complete with expletives and one storming off to the backroom. When we talk about wowing your customers, this isn’t quite what we mean...
9. How low can you go? It’s all in how you talk to your customers. So low they can’t hear you; so fast they catch only every third word. It’s bad enough in person-to-person communication but you can lose your customers even faster over the telephone just by failing to use your voice. Enunciating properly and taking the time to be articulate is not in the job description is it?
10. Last but certainly not least, let your emotions rule! In a bad mood? Let ‘er rip at your customers. When all else fails in attempting to rid customers from your presence, one can always rely on plain old rudeness. A sharp tone, patronizing answers, body language, the odd curse word or ending every sentence with a flippant, “mam”, “sir” works like a charm. Practice it enough and you could have the whole day to yourself without customers interrupting you. In fact your customers will likely drop off as fast as the company’s profit margins.
If you are reading this and you are recalling moments when your staff have been, shall we say, following these guidelines, maybe it is time to consider a refresher course on service professionalism. Service Essentials service professional workshops deliver relevant, practical course content in a fun and interactive environment. Contact us for more information on either an established curriculum workshop or customizing a course for your industry/business needs.