MUCH HAS BEEN SAID OVER THE LAST 19 YEARS about the
value of getting close to customers; listening to
their needs and meeting their expectations. Indeed,
a lot has been said but little has been done to improve
the art of employee-customer communication in even
the most mundane of places, such as in the local grocery
store, restaurants and the consumer retail sector.
Customer satisfaction has been a major management
topic for several years. There again, if you fail
to satisfy your customer, the only way to know what
went wrong may be to listen to your competitors’
message and pay attention to the way their employees
communicate with their customers. Why? Because THEIR
customers are no longer in your store, that’s
why!
Here are two well known facts:
• Customers cost a bundle to attract and retain.
• Few customers will actually take the time
to share their views with employees or managers
unless they are “extremely” unhappy
The end result is the ill-served customer leaves
and the opportunity to improve your customer-interaction
process is broken. To make matters even worse, the
lost customer is now sharing with his/her friends
a story about a former unpleasant experience and/or
a newfound and now “favorite spot.”
You had an opportunity to communicate and further
solidify a bond with that particular customer at
one point. Now, however, it may be too late. The
customer may not care about your business anymore
and may have become “loyal” to one of
your competitors. What happened? What can you do
to prevent customer defection? How will you find
out so that you may solve the problem?
