What's Your Excuse?

See the 7 ‘golden rules’ on how to treat customers well. I said to myself, ‘No way!' The 7 rules may look simple but I have yet to encounter a company that practices it’. Well, maybe one or two rules but not all 7 rules.

Many companies can’t follow all the 7 rules because of these possible reasons.

1) Take the time to listen.

Reason 1 : We are too busy. We have too many customers to attend to and we are short handed.
Reason 2 : If we take time, as call agents, we are considered underperformers because the key performance indicator is to complete the call with a customer within 9 seconds.

2) Respond promptly and accurately to questions and problems.

Reason 1 : Sorry, my department doesn’t handle your problem.
Reason 2 : I can’t help you. I have no clue what you are talking about. Bye.

3) Don't rigidly adhere to company policies when the policies do disservice to a particular customer.

Reason 1 : I must follow. Do you want me to get sacked?
Reason 2 : A policy is there for a reason. (Even though I don’t know the reason).

4) Offer outstanding warranties on products and services and stand behind them.

Reason 1 : It is too expensive.
Reason 2 : We have sales quota to meet. No time or incentives to service our existing customers.
5) Educate the customer about products and services.

Reason 1 : We sell such an obvious product. Customers ain’t that stupid.
Reason 2 : No budget for customer education programs.

6) Go the extra mile when problems arise.

Reason 1 : What for? It is not my own problems.
Reason 2 : I got a backlog of problems to fix.

7) Provide value beyond product.

Reason 1 : Customers are paying for the product. Nothing beyond that.
Reason 2 : Our product is the value.


So, what is your reason (or excuse)?