Change please

If Douglas Adams had written a book on change management, the opening line would have read: "Rule 1: Don't Panic!"

And he would have been right.

In-source customer service

Customer service is a highly personal component of your customers experience with your company and contributes greatly to the emotions that a customer feels towards your company [your brand]. So why do some companies outsource major components of their customer service?

It truly doesn't make any sense to me. DSTv are a broadcast company and a highly successful one at that. They sell the decoder and monthly subscriptions but they have washed their hands of the entire installation process. Fair enough, they may have decided that this customer requirement wasn't profitable enough to internalise, but the cost of this decision is that DSTv cannot control the customer service element of the installation process.

DSTv now face these problems:
1. New customers walk out of the DSTv offices with a decoder and a carelessly typed list of installation companies - abandonment of your brand new customer
2. DSTv cannot unfairly recommend any one installation company so the customer needs to rely on luck in choosing a quality installation company
3. When something goes wrong, the installation company blames DSTv and DSTv blames the installation company, leaving the customer in complete limbo
4. The customer does not know where to turn and will tend to blame DSTv because it is their product that isn't working
5. Instead of DSTv handling the customers complaints directly and having the opportunity to immediately solve the issue, the customers only option is to complain to everyone they come in contact with - bad news for DSTv

The complete customer experience has been put in jeopardy by DSTv not wanting to take responsibility for all the stages involved in using their product. If you want to have control over your customers experience, then you need to be responsible for every customer contact point and not leave it up to someone else.

Customer choice

Much of my day today was spent in a presentation by Stratus - a company that deals in mission critical business systems. I asked the presenter what they defined as mission critical to a business, to which the answer was, "We don't, our clients tell us what is mission critical."

I had to smile because it was an excellent answer, and I left wondering if it was a genuine example of good business practice or simply good media training. I'm hoping for the former!

Engage brain please

I just saw this letter on Jo'blog and thought it was worth sharing for it's sheer cringe-worthiness! You would wonder how things like this happen, but they do. Dinner bookings and timings is a tricky issue because patrons want to relax and eat in relative peace, but a restaurant is a business, so maybe the manager had the right idea and the worst execution.

The manner in which the issue was handled is disgusting and the manager should have applied some thought to his problem instead of tackling it without his brain. In many European cities they have 2 seatings at restaurants - one at 7pm and another at 9pm. Patrons don't mind because they are used to it and the establishments are very clear when you book. Maybe some local eateries could try out a system like this for busy nights. This will enable them to turn tables and increase income.

I have no idea whether us South Africans would take to a system like this, but it has to be better than what Fishmonger came up with.

Focus

There are too many companies in business today that focus there efforts on what their competitors are doing instead of what their customers want. It is an easy trap to fall into because keeping up with the Jones' can appear to be incredibly important, and looking good against your competitors is a highly emotional reaction.

If you want to receive the best levels of service, stick with the companies that focus on you and not on their competitors. If you run your own company, spend more time on learning about your customers and less time worrying about what your competitors are trying to do to gain market share.

Your competitors are important, but not as important as your customers. Leaders focus on customers, followers focus on the leader - which type are you?