The following article was written by Tuck Aikin, a former colleague of mine, several decades ago, but it is as true today as it was then. I hope you enjoy it.
“You are incorrect, Mr. Aikin,” she informed me. “We have only been working on this problem for two days, not five, as you claim. Today doesn’t count as a full day, and our company is closed for weekends, days for which we are not responsible.”
This is from a technical customer support person in Seattle assigned to help me figure out how to install their $500 electronic Internet firewall gadget into my home two-computer network. I’d already had to completely rebuild one of my machines, which took weeks, because of viruses that lurk out in cyberspace just waiting to prey on us unsuspecting high-speed users. The device I was desperately trying to install would purportedly help me ward off such attacks, and I’m pleased to report it actually seems to work, at least so far. But what about the attitude of their technical support person? “Not responsible” for promptly helping a customer utilize the equipment they’ve designed and manufactured?
This “We Can’t Be Held Responsible” reaction to customer requests for assistance is all too familiar. Often, it’s generated by the legal and insurance industries, which instruct their business clients to be wary of exposing themselves to too much liability. Sometimes it’s caused by the firm’s desire to cut “unnecessary” costs such as by limiting non-revenue generating customer support payroll. Frequently, however, it is the result of managerial neglect: a failure to recognize that given no direction about the company’s customer support philosophy, employees will take it upon themselves to establish the level of customer service they are willing to perform. Everyone does it to them when they’re a customer, so why not pass it on? Whatever the reason, businesses that fail to view responsive customer support as essential to their success, if not their survival, are making a critical error in judgment.
Some years ago, I learned this important lesson when over a hundred of our firm’s business customers automatically called us for technical help with their computer access equipment, even though it was leased by them from a third-party vendor.
At first, we took the “not responsible” attitude but soon discovered that regardless of the fact that we weren’t technically responsible, our customers viewed us as such because we had sold them on the idea of using the equipment to access our database service. We knew that well-healed competitors would soon be breathing down our necks and that one of their most effective strategies to get our customers to switch to their service would be through computer access equipment, so we quickly changed our support attitude.
Not only did we assume responsibility, but we embraced it. We learned how to diagnose whether perceived equipment problems were, in fact, equipment failures, electronic communication glitches either in their office, our office, or with Ma Bell, or were employee training problems. We learned how to replace equipment components on-site at our customer’s office, and we even bought an inventory of equipment to loan to customers if the repair was beyond our capability and the outside vendor’s repair turnaround time was beyond our standards for customer service. We became so effective at this that later we often received calls to “fix” a business’s data access device that was our competitor’s! Do you think we responded anyhow and attempted to switch the client back to our service? You bet.
Now let’s look at the squandered business opportunity of my computer anti-virus equipment provider. Not only was their support provided begrudgingly, but their technician also declined to call my broadband Internet service provider’s technical support group even when I offered her a toll-free phone number and a technician’s name, who, by the way, also refused to call my gadget’s manufacturer as well.
In my struggles to set up the device, it had become clear that the problem was an incorrect software setting in the equipment, and neither firm was familiar with the technical requirements of the other. Both firms had recently broadcast their concern about attacks by computer viruses, yet neither was willing to go ‘above and beyond to provide a solution for their common customer! These are large, well-known firms, and the exact problem which I was left to solve for myself (which I did) undoubtedly will be mirrored at least thousands of times by my fellow customers. What a huge missed opportunity this is for these firms to ingratiate themselves with customers, to build customer loyalty!
The point is, of course, we business owners and operators must view customer support and service not as a cost or as a responsibility to be limited or avoided altogether but as an opportunity to seize new business and build customer allegiance. After all, if we don’t do it, somebody else will.
Tuck Aikin was a former SCORE colleague of mine for many years until his retirement. Tuck is a prolific writer and wrote small business-themed articles for the Colorado Springs Gazette for many years. As a co-mentor, Tuck was my inspiration for me starting this blog. The preceding post is reproduced with permission from the author.
