The first one is that “The Customer is Always Right”. Actually no, they are not always right, but really what is the profit in telling them so. Communicating that will make them defensive and heighten their emotions to a level that makes it hard for them to be “satisfied”. Knowing how to help them see correctly can be challenging but who doesn’t like a good challenge. Bring the customer alongside and talk out the process and the guidelines makes it helpful for the customer to be better informed and a part of their service by being able to make decisions where they are needed. When we do this we are empowering them to feel in control. We never want to tell a customer that they are wrong. We must be strategic in how we explain the process and let them come to the conclusion that they are incorrect. If you are lucky enough to get them to admit it, then let’s be ready to assure them it is no trouble, and carry on with the next sale all the while they are now informed and ready to make clear decisions into their care.
The second myth we should be aware of is that “if customers aren’t complaining they must be happy”. Again, nope. Statistics show that for every one complaint there are twenty-six other unhappy customers who remain silent. It is very difficult to get some customers to give honest feedback. The best way to close this gap is creating good relationships with customers. However, for this myth to be resolved, it will take the 80/20 system. It will take 80% of the employees and 20% of the customers to get some honest feedback. An example of this is when I had a customer that was overcharged on their account. When they called they weren’t upset per say, but I could tell they were not happy. I gave them the opportunity to open up. We talked about the kids and family, most women love talking about family and kids. Men we talk baseball and football. That is not to say that one has to be for women and one for men but you get the idea. As we were talking I was looking over their account. While the billing was not out of error as we were talking I brought up if they were happy with their service, was there anything we could do better their experience. They bought up that they thought the cost was cheaper than they were charged. As I looked into it, the company I worked for at the time owned three different companies and they did get billed the cost of one of the other companies. While there was no error, I was able to write off the difference. There truly was no loss to the company, however if I had stood firm on the five-dollar difference, then we could have lost a customer. See how it was 80% on me to mend the situation and 20% on them. I just needed to know what they were perceiving, and it was so easy to make them happy.
The third myth is that the “Customer Comes First” Ding, ding, ding. Nope! The customer does not come first. The employee serving that customer comes first. I have seen companies that treated the customer better than the employee, would you like to guess what that caused. That’s right, high employee turnover. Costing the company more money than if they had supported the employee. I have seen so many companies on both sides of the counter make this critical error. Having right-fit employees with right-fit roles is critical to keeping the customers happy. Then supporting those employees through their experiences is as critical as teaching a child to read. Training employees with all the tools and information they need to be successful creates an employee that will be loyal and open to growth. Just like children love their teachers because they feel empowered when they learn, so do adults. We never lose this value as we grow older, we only become numb to the order of processes. We become tired of dealing with everything without help that most tend to give up.