All of us have been customers for a variety of organisations for a variety of household and electronic goods. Randomly, if a poll is taken then most of the people will express their dis-satisfaction on the quality of services being met out to them. The reasons can be genuine or otherwise.
I would like to share a couple of incidents that taught be some valuable lessons in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Again some examples of lessons that life teaches for one to perform better in our own professional life.
In the recent past, I received a call from a major insurance company. The insurance company had outsourced their tele-calling services to tap potential customers. I received the call from one such tele-caller. After the general round of introductions, I was detailed about a new policy that the company had launched. Then the usual round of questions started... What is my age? Hearing my age, he started addressing me as Mrs. Deepa. I ignored it and continued answering the questions....... Am I working? Where am I working? What is my monthly income? Am I married? ..... Now the last question was a little meaningless since he had already decided that I was married and was addressing me as Mrs. But my answer surprised him. I told him I was un-married. His shock at the fact was evident from his tone and the fact that he double-checked my age too. To make things even worse, he asked me who the decision maker in my family was? I was surprised at the question but I avoided it. But his insistence proved inflamatory to me as a potential customer. Looking at the fact that I was avoiding him, he made the last mistake.... he kept down the phone on me. And they lost a couple of potential customers forever........ and i hope they would loose a couple of more customers..... those who are reading this blog or those to whom I have narrated the story.
In a few words..... the quality of the phone call was dismal and un-professional to the extreme.
Lessons learnt:
1) Choose people who interact with customers carefully.
2) Train customer facing people with the utmost care.
3) Cultural sensitization has its own advantages. It should be practiced.
4) Be polite... be polite.... be polite.
5) Know how to end a conversation.
6) Do not, in any way, insult the customer.
Having been a part of the service industry for a very long time now I have had the opportunity to attend some soft skill workshops to handle our customers .... like Dealing with Difficult People. In this case, I was the one practicing my skills of 'Dealing with Difficult People' instead of the other way round..... ;-P.
Another incident that taught me a few valuable lessons happened with my sister. For making a trip to Delhi from Bangalore, she had made use of the e-booking facilities of a well known and well advertised travel house to book return flight tickets to Bangalore. Since she got the similar job opportunity in Delhi itself, she called up the travel house to cancel her return tickets to Bangalore. She was not given a transaction-id number since the computer systems there were not working properly. The next day she called up the travel house again and confirmed whether her tickets had been cancelled. This time round she was given a transaction id and assured that her tickets had been cancelled. Next month, she was surprised to find out that she had been billed the entire ticket amount since she had not cancelled the ticket. She kept on following up with the travel house for a month. Every time she spoke to a new executive and had to repeat her concern again and again and again. But without any solution. Inspite of repeated requests, she was not put through to the manager. Her mails to the manager too went un-answered. Finally, she landed up paying for the tickets that she had taken care to cancel and be penalised for not having any more reasons to go back to Bangalore.
In a few words..... the quality of the service was dismal and un-professional to the extreme.
Lessons Learnt:
1) Maintain records of customer interaction
2) Ensure that you give an empathetic reply to a concerned customer
3) Ensure that the customer is not the one to pay for the mistakes that the customer had not made.... financially or otherwise
4) Be open and tell the truth to the customer. That would save the customer a lot of hassles.
5) Follow-up with the customer in case the query remains un-resolved instead of the other way round
6) Stick to the deadlines / committments that you have made to the customer.
In short.... Life is a good teacher. You should know how to learn from it.
I would like to share a couple of incidents that taught be some valuable lessons in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Again some examples of lessons that life teaches for one to perform better in our own professional life.
In the recent past, I received a call from a major insurance company. The insurance company had outsourced their tele-calling services to tap potential customers. I received the call from one such tele-caller. After the general round of introductions, I was detailed about a new policy that the company had launched. Then the usual round of questions started... What is my age? Hearing my age, he started addressing me as Mrs. Deepa. I ignored it and continued answering the questions....... Am I working? Where am I working? What is my monthly income? Am I married? ..... Now the last question was a little meaningless since he had already decided that I was married and was addressing me as Mrs. But my answer surprised him. I told him I was un-married. His shock at the fact was evident from his tone and the fact that he double-checked my age too. To make things even worse, he asked me who the decision maker in my family was? I was surprised at the question but I avoided it. But his insistence proved inflamatory to me as a potential customer. Looking at the fact that I was avoiding him, he made the last mistake.... he kept down the phone on me. And they lost a couple of potential customers forever........ and i hope they would loose a couple of more customers..... those who are reading this blog or those to whom I have narrated the story.
In a few words..... the quality of the phone call was dismal and un-professional to the extreme.
Lessons learnt:
1) Choose people who interact with customers carefully.
2) Train customer facing people with the utmost care.
3) Cultural sensitization has its own advantages. It should be practiced.
4) Be polite... be polite.... be polite.
5) Know how to end a conversation.
6) Do not, in any way, insult the customer.
Having been a part of the service industry for a very long time now I have had the opportunity to attend some soft skill workshops to handle our customers .... like Dealing with Difficult People. In this case, I was the one practicing my skills of 'Dealing with Difficult People' instead of the other way round..... ;-P.
Another incident that taught me a few valuable lessons happened with my sister. For making a trip to Delhi from Bangalore, she had made use of the e-booking facilities of a well known and well advertised travel house to book return flight tickets to Bangalore. Since she got the similar job opportunity in Delhi itself, she called up the travel house to cancel her return tickets to Bangalore. She was not given a transaction-id number since the computer systems there were not working properly. The next day she called up the travel house again and confirmed whether her tickets had been cancelled. This time round she was given a transaction id and assured that her tickets had been cancelled. Next month, she was surprised to find out that she had been billed the entire ticket amount since she had not cancelled the ticket. She kept on following up with the travel house for a month. Every time she spoke to a new executive and had to repeat her concern again and again and again. But without any solution. Inspite of repeated requests, she was not put through to the manager. Her mails to the manager too went un-answered. Finally, she landed up paying for the tickets that she had taken care to cancel and be penalised for not having any more reasons to go back to Bangalore.
In a few words..... the quality of the service was dismal and un-professional to the extreme.
Lessons Learnt:
1) Maintain records of customer interaction
2) Ensure that you give an empathetic reply to a concerned customer
3) Ensure that the customer is not the one to pay for the mistakes that the customer had not made.... financially or otherwise
4) Be open and tell the truth to the customer. That would save the customer a lot of hassles.
5) Follow-up with the customer in case the query remains un-resolved instead of the other way round
6) Stick to the deadlines / committments that you have made to the customer.
In short.... Life is a good teacher. You should know how to learn from it.
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