Three Tips to Relate to Customers
Three Tips To Relate To Your Customers
By Rickard L. Tarzwell, CPA
Sam and Bud Walton built the world’s largest retailer on a cornerstone philosophy that there is only one boss – the customer.
In today’s global and information-age economy, the customer has to be focal point in order for any business to survive. During my seven years working as a software systems business analyst who services medium-sized city and county governments with their financial requirements, I have seen customer attention turn a dissatisfied customer into a fan. I’ve also seen customer inattention turn a satisfied customer into an ex-customer.
Whether I am servicing a customer, whether it is during an on-site implementation training or by solving a problem from our office help desk, I have found that if I follow these three tips, I can usually satisfy the customer to the point that they are a fan of our system, and often they provide a favorable reference to other customers or to our sales prospects.
1. Prepare For The Discussion
You have to know your business in order to be able to service a customer. Customers expect you to know more about your business than they will ever know, not just more than they know.
Whether I am on-site on in-office, customers frequently ask me questions how to process site-specific transactions in our base-code system. How could I give them the interpolative ideas that they need without knowing our system more thoroughly than thorough? I have visited customers who have asked analysts to go home when they could not answer their questions, and they did not pay for the (lack of) training.
Whether I am speaking to a Ph. D. or a G.E.D., the customer person quickly discerns whether I can help to solve the problem or not. Always prepare yourself in advance of the discussion if you want to give yourself a chance at relating to the customer.
2. Listen, The Loudest Cry Is Silence
We have two ears and one mouth for a reason; we learn more by listening than speaking. I have found that listening to customers requires exceptionally keen attention and perception because often the loudest cry for help is silence.
When I am training at a customer site, I worry most about the attendees who are not participating; I have an advantage in that I can see in their eyes the silent cry for help; that is the easy listening in my work. After the customer starts using our system for their daily business, I worry most about those who do not call me with problems; this is my hard listening if I want to retain the customer and make them reference-able as sales prospects. No news is not necessarily good news.
Laura Liswood, in her 1992 book Serving Them Right, disclosed a banking industry study, which concluded that one complaint equaled 26 lost customers; in other words, for each customer who bothered to report a problem, 26 quietly and politely did not come back. That is why I worry when I do not hear from customers for a while.
Whether or not I implemented them, I know who has recently started to use our system, and I will call them directly and ask what problems they are having. Granted, some say that they are working with the system just fine and have not needed to call for help. Several others have been very happy that someone took the time to call because they were too frustrated to pick up the telephone. Hence, silence is not always golden. Do not fail to contact customers who have not contacted you.
3. Break The Ice
I have found an “ice-breaker” to be invaluable as a means to relieve a customer’s concern, and sometimes frustration, at the beginning of a discussion.
Since I work with customers in several states, I have learned states nicknames to use when first speaking to a customer. Recently, our sales staff needed my assistance via telephone when they were on-site with a prospect in
An ice-breaker will not substitute for preparation or attentive listening; it will help to start a conversation without excessive tension.
Thus when dealing with customers, prepare yourself in advance, listen to the seriousness of silence, and break the ice at the start of the conversation. I have turned customers into fans by doing these; you will, too.
Rickard Tarzwell is a business analyst with Harris Computer Systems / GEMS in Clayton. He is also a member of the MSCPA
