Companies of all size make this common mistake
No matter the size of a company, what commonly happens when you hit a certain stride is that comfort sets in. It isn’t always apparent, and it doesn’t always end in dramatic tweet-offs or Yelp battles, rather results in dissatisfied consumers and clients.
On this topic, Omar Aqel has observed seven signs that your company may be too comfortable and in need of a change. Aqel is the Co-Founder of PTel, one of the original no-contract wireless companies in the United States, and Co-Founder of newly created GIV Mobile, a new no-contract wireless service dedicated to giving 8 percent of a monthly Unlimited Everything Plan to charities of the customer’s choice.
Aqel asserts that no business leader should ever quit learning, so in his own words offers the following seven signs based on his company’s culture that will reveal whether or not your own company is too comfortable:
1. Letting Emotions Make Decisions for You:
Work can be stressful at times but that is no excuse for allowing emotions to get involved. Oftentimes employees or even managers make the mistake of letting heated conversations between themselves and customers reach the point where they act out of emotion. For example, by denying a customer the courtesy of waiving a shipping fee because the customer was rude, he or she potentially lost that customer’s business.
If nothing else, letting your emotions get the best of you once makes it easier for them to get the best of you again. We teach our employees to understand our customers first before seeking to be understood themselves. It’s very unlikely customers are contacting us with the intent to be spiteful. More than likely, they are looking for someone to help them with their problem. Remember, your hurt feelings will last a minute. A lost customer will probably be forever.
2. You Forget You Need Every Customer:
We train our employees to treat each customer as if they were our most important one because I honestly believe that’s true. The moment you lose this mentality and take the customer for granted is the moment your company begins its decline. On top of making each customer happy, this objective creates happier employees. If a customer representative denies a customer’s request to waive a fee, a charge, etc. this could be considered “good” for our bottom line. Objectively, our employee saved us money.
But the customer representative doesn’t get anything out of it, right? Instead, they got an uncomfortable, maybe even heated, conversation. By telling our employees to treat each customer as the most important customer, we give them the freedom to do right by them. With this practice, our employees never hesitate to pick up the phone, making happier employees and in turn happy customers. Your business will never fail if the customers are happy.
3. Companies Don’t Give Back:
Many companies these days make an effort to be charitable to their communities and employees. However, this giving often time dries up with added success. Whether or not a company becomes too busy, I believe companies stop being charitable at their own risk. For GIV Mobile, giving to charity is the cornerstone of our business.
I believe it’s our responsibility as a company to give back in an effort to better our community and in turn, the world. Giving back fosters a community of “people doing good,” which is what our company stands for. On top of boosting morale, giving back also helps us appreciate how much we have.
4. Outsourcing Customer Support and Becoming Out of Touch with Customers’ Concerns:
Everybody knows that many U.S. companies outsource their customer service call centers to different countries with the benefit of reducing overhead. However, there is a reason these call centers have developed a negative stigma. Oftentimes customers will call these centers looking for assistance and end up on the phone twice as long just trying to explain their situation. Outsourcing customer service to another company comes with the risk that the employees will not have the same level of knowledge or care as your own employees.
Our customer service representatives are part of our company in more ways than one. We do our best to treat our customer representatives like family and instill in them a sense of pride at GIV Mobile. If they can’t answer a question they will find the person who can. Our customer service representatives want to do everything in their power to make sure the customer hangs up happy. Companies should constantly research if their customers are truly happy with the customer service they are being provided – if not, immediately make appropriate changes so that the next time they call, they are 100% satisfied.
5. They Don’t Regularly Train Their Employees:
A lot of lip service is paid to training when a company is first established. Often there are training regiments and procedures in place to audit an employee’s performance. However, when a company grows quickly or aims to cut costs, training sessions can become less of a priority or even an inconvenience. When a company allows training to fall by the wayside, they are communicating that the service they are providing is just “good enough.” The real issue isn’t a busy schedule; rather the attitude that “good enough” is acceptable.
6. Lack of Discipline, from Top to Bottom:
The art of discipline cannot be overvalued in any company. A manager might avoid using discipline for fear of being seen as the “bad guy,” but more often than not he or she will come off as lazy, incompetent or apathetic. This can cause employees to lose respect for them. A lack of discipline can also translate into a lack of feedback, causing employees to feel stressed by not knowing whether or not they are doing a good job.
Discipline often gets harder the higher one climbs up the corporate ladder, but if a CEO can’t find it in his or her heart to discipline the managers, one can hardly expect managers to do the same for their people. Discipline always starts at the top.
7. They Forget to Thank Their Customers:
A friend of mine once told me an interesting story: her father never threw out his trash at a fast food restaurants unless the lid had “Thank You” written on it. Quirky, to say the least, but that story had a significant effect on me as a businessman. We always thank our customers. When customers call in, e-mail us or even if they are returning a product, we thank them.
Of course we want to show our customers gratitude, but by thanking them we are constantly reminding ourselves, as well as the customer, how valuable he or she is. Your customers don’t have to give you their business. If you’re selling socks, so is someone else. At GIV Mobile, we remind ourselves that appreciating and thanking our customers is essential to maintain a long-term relationship.
The takeaway
Becoming to comfortable is not synonymous with complacency – sometimes overlooking the simple details can cause a decline in the perception of your brand, and as Aqel said, every customer counts. Revamp your efforts today to keep your business successful.
