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Inspect What You Expect
By Ken Varga | October 16, 2009
To add a little more to my last post, it’s not sufficient to only institute systems that keep the customer/client in mind; it’s also necessary that you inspect those systems. You have to inspect what you inspect. You have to make sure that the systems are performing as you intended and make the adjustments necessary until they do.
For instance, your customer relation systems may be in place. Your instructions may be clear. But are your employees performing as the systems dictate?
As an example…
If you’ve been in Best Buy, you know they usually have a greeter inside the door, and the employees are generally courteous. So it’s obvious Best Buy trains its employees in customer relations.
However, Best Buy hasn’t inspected all its systems; why do I say that?
Well, a few weeks ago, I had to go to Best Buy’s Geek Squad. The audio on my laptop wasn’t working when I played videos. There were about 5 people in the line, so I was # 6. The problem was that there was only 1 person handling all of us.
After waiting for 1 ½ hours (which I couldn’t believe), my turn finally came. As the clerk was completing the form with my warranty information, a salesperson from another department came up and interrupted the clerk, asking him to come with her to answer another customer’s question.
Guess what? The clerk left to go to the other department without even asking me if I would mind.
Very poor training, and very inconsiderate! He could have said to the other clerk, “Bring the Customer over and have him/her stand in line”, like the rest of us. But he didn’t.
What a turn off! Insufficient staff and inconsiderate staff!
As I said, we know Best Buy trains its employees in customer relations. However, it’s obvious this department was not inspected for its compliance with that training.
The lesson here is to train your people the right way AND to inspect what you expect. Don’t think your staff is doing what you trained them to do.
When I was on the road, I always used to call my office to see if my staff answered the phones the way I trained them to answer. I also hired someone to visit my business and let me know how they were treated.
Remember your staff is your front line. They could either create a customer for you, or lose a customer for you.
Topics: Customer Retention, Growing your business, customer satisfaction | No Comments »