When our youngest daughter was still a toddler, I distinctly recall my surprise at her instant, intuitive judging of strangers. “I don’t like that man.” she once said, pointing out a fellow across a room full of people attending some kind of community gathering. “How do you know?” I asked her, “you’ve never met him.” Her dark pouty look was answer enough; her mind was made up. What surprised me even more, though, was that when I later struck up a conversation with the object of my daughter’s scorn, I concluded she was absolutely right – the guy was a jerk. How’d she do that?
We’ve all heard that first impressions are the lasting ones and that they’re usually on target, yet our culture tells us we shouldn’t be too quick to judge. We should give people a chance, give them the benefit of the doubt. So we go through the motions of keeping an open mind, but most of the time, we stick with our original impression. Guess that’s just human nature – a nature that an appalling number of businesses fail to take into account. I’m talking, of course, about the first phone or in-person impression given by an employee to a prospective customer or business constituent.
Research has shown that for most businesses, from 60 to 80 percent of revenues come from repeat customers, and the overwhelming majority of those became repeat customers because their first impression at least wasn’t an unfavorable one.
Do these phrases sound familiar?
“That’s another department; you’ll have to…”
“She’s not in yet.”, “Hold on, hold on, I need to get some paper and a pen.”
“Who did you say you are?”
“Can I help who’s next [when staring straight at the next person in line]?”
You want a what? Never heard of it [end of subject].”
Then, of course, there is the “service” personnel who chat with their fellow employees while ignoring customers, who only seem to be able to deal with one person at a time in rigid order, and whose whole body language expresses an extreme dislike of their job, or whose movements and thought processes make a snail look like a racehorse.
As customers, it’s astonishing that we put up with it. Unfortunately, most of the time, we have little choice – such treatment is just standard these days, it seems. But maybe that’s good. With stiff competition between products and services, this is one way you can truly make your business stand out.
While competitors’ customer contact employees are focused on their internal business processes and procedures rather than customers, you can distinguish your firm by hiring and training customer contact people to be responsive, helpful, knowledgeable, and prompt.
For businesses that haven’t emphasized this most important function, the usual alibi is that they can’t find the right people, the work is too boring, and they can’t keep good receptionists or customer service people, the pay is too low to expect much. Balderdash, I say. Not only can it be done, but it is being done all the time by smart businesses.
Several years ago, a major local fast-food franchisee sold his stores back to the parent company. Within a week, the deterioration of service was noticeable despite the fact that the minimum-wage customer contact personnel were all given a raise.
During the Christmas madness, I marveled at a single shipping company employee who weighed packages, took payments, answered the phone, and was as cheery and personable as could be, all the while facing a line of customers that stretched out the door. And she was fast!
And probably the best telephone receptionist I ever encountered at a local law firm was with that firm for years until the partnership was bought out by a larger firm. This partnership clearly understood their key receptionist’s importance and made sure she was well compensated and appreciated.
How do these rare businesses do it? It’s simple but takes effort. It’s a priority, and they never settle for “…the best they can do…”. They screen employee applicants thoroughly, sometimes interviewing 20 or 30 people for one opening. They use personality-measuring instruments. They discuss their standards with each candidate employee and give each a written description of what is expected before making the hiring decision. And in requiring such standards of customer responsiveness, they pay well, or if not, they offer first-rate training in how to make customers feel attended to and welcome (what better ‘perk’ can you provide an entry-level, first-job employee?).
For firms that have a high turnover in customer contact personnel, they have a written training manual, a system for periodic review, and a customer response system (auto dealers and car washes do this by leaving a postcard in the vehicle for customer response to service), and the bosses will often make periodic checks personally by calling their own office disguised as a prospect, or employing a “shopper” service whose personnel pose as prospective customers. Training is continuous, and it is never left entirely up to a departing employee. Outside training seminars are a frequently used resource too.
As we all know, business goes where it is welcomed, so make sure your organization has the best welcoming committee in the business.
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.
