The customer comes first.
That has to be one of the biggest lies ever told by businesses today. It ranks right up there with: “Honey, you are the best.” It sounds good and that’s what businesses want us to hear. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Read any book or listen to any speech given by business experts, and
they will insist there is nothing more important than looking after the
needs of the customer. Do that and the rest will fall into place. At one time, customers did come first, but that’s when businesses
were smaller and still had face-to-face contact and interaction with the
people who buy or use their services. Today, the only thing most businesses care about is their bottom
line. It doesn’t matter how well they did last week, last month or last
year. That bottom line is the only yard stick by which all things are measured. When it comes down to customer service versus the bottom line, the
result is predictable. Bottom line wins hands down every time. If something can be done to improve customer service, everyone is for
it — unless there is a cost attached to it. Suddenly, that great idea
needs more study, more consideration and more debate until it ends up on
the back burner. That’s where good ideas end up and remain until they
die a slow death. A small business can be successful for a number of reasons. There is
something that sets them apart from the competition. There is something
they are able to offer and provide that bigger companies simply can’t be
bothered or completely ignore. When things go right, small businesses begin to grow. A small
business is always watching what the big guys are doing hoping to learn
from their experiences. Deep down, that small business wants to become a
big business, so it might merge with another small business to be more
competitive with the big boys.
Suddenly, that small business is gone and it has been transformed into a big business that puts its bottom line ahead of its customers. Some might view that as being successful, but the price that has been paid has been at the cost of forgetting about the customer. The evidence can be found wherever you look. Receptionists who once answered phones and dealt with customers face-to-face have been replaced by answering machines and voice mail. We press a button for this and a button for that only to be left frustrated when we run out of buttons to push and the message starts all over again. Slamming down the phone and uttering a few choice words only goes so far. It’s like businesses are doing everything they can to distance themselves from customers. Soon, customers realize they can do without the product or service or they can get it from another source. As customers start to drop off, a business gets the sense something must be wrong because their bottom line is hurting. By that time, it might be too late to recover. All that hard work, effort and determination has simply vanished into thin air. Sometimes customers get so frustrated they lash out at the first person who picks up the phone or happens to work for the company. That person doesn’t set the rules or policy, but that’s who has to hear the complaints. Hear enough of those complaints during the day and it becomes harder for those front-line workers to keep on smiling. Workers come and go, customers come and go, businesses come and go.
Loyalty becomes a thing of the past. If there’s any one lesson to be learned from all of this — the customer comes first.
Hope there are some businesses out there that are listening.
tony.ricciuto@sunmedia.ca
Suddenly, that small business is gone and it has been transformed into a big business that puts its bottom line ahead of its customers. Some might view that as being successful, but the price that has been paid has been at the cost of forgetting about the customer. The evidence can be found wherever you look. Receptionists who once answered phones and dealt with customers face-to-face have been replaced by answering machines and voice mail. We press a button for this and a button for that only to be left frustrated when we run out of buttons to push and the message starts all over again. Slamming down the phone and uttering a few choice words only goes so far. It’s like businesses are doing everything they can to distance themselves from customers. Soon, customers realize they can do without the product or service or they can get it from another source. As customers start to drop off, a business gets the sense something must be wrong because their bottom line is hurting. By that time, it might be too late to recover. All that hard work, effort and determination has simply vanished into thin air. Sometimes customers get so frustrated they lash out at the first person who picks up the phone or happens to work for the company. That person doesn’t set the rules or policy, but that’s who has to hear the complaints. Hear enough of those complaints during the day and it becomes harder for those front-line workers to keep on smiling. Workers come and go, customers come and go, businesses come and go.
Loyalty becomes a thing of the past. If there’s any one lesson to be learned from all of this — the customer comes first.
Hope there are some businesses out there that are listening.
tony.ricciuto@sunmedia.ca