Happy Fourth of July, gang. As I write this, I need to talk about how our country was founded on life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and at one point, firecracker customer service. Now, it seems more like a fizzle. Have you been on a phone waiting to reach somebody on the other end who turns out not only to be unfamiliar with the type of problem that you are having but also having to wait twelve minutes till you get through?
I don’t know about you guys and gals but I make a note to try to avoid going back and buying products where the support lines are several hours to several days in trying to contact them through voice or e-mail.
It is getting worse instead of better and I blame it all on trying to save money and trying to pigenhole all problems into digetible e-mails or IVR recorded sound bites. If you are running a business, please take the time to improve your customer service comunications. Unless you are selling something that absolutely and positively has to be bought from you, if people encounter too many problems with trying to either get a question answered or trying to get a product returned, they just will stop buying from you. Period.
Businesses forget that in times of financial Depression, they have to beef up the following divisions in their companies:
1. Research and Development
2. Sales
3. Customer Service
Some may ask, why, Kim? We aren’t going to be profitable if we are wasting money in divisions like that. That is where they are wrong because when times are tough, customers have less money to spend, they get very discriminating and they tend to spend money on:
1. The latest and greatest – look at the Apple iTouch series of products. People may not upgrade to the highest end product but they will buy something if the perception is that it is cutting edge or makes them trendy at a reasonable price. Even when people don’t have money a lot of them try to look like they do. Personally, I don’t think people should live beyond their means but that is what makes freedom of choice and capitalism so wonderful, right?
2. People need to know about your product and with the blaring of commericals, web ads and endless stream of sales pitching going on you need to make certain that people hear about your product one way or another. Maybe your product is better served by word of mouth. If so, all the more reason to get your human sales force out there and talking up your product.
3. Killer customer service will sometimes negate the stigma of higher prices. If you offer a higher price for your goods or services and people feel that they are getting value from you they will go ahead come back to do business with you if they feel that you can help them with whatever it is you were selling (televisions, food, tax preparation services).
In this day of contraction of businesses and destruction of resources, now more than ever you need to treat every customer as if he or she were your only customer. I am not talking about the people who want to discount you to below your cost of the product but you should be willing to work with and negotiate – and pleasantly I might add – with your clients. Competition is fierce in the global markets and money is tight.
It isn’t cliche or stupid in these economic times to try verbally and in text to be a little polite. Back in the day, if you didn’t say “please” or “thank you” you wouldn’t get the time of day, a parent might hit you (yes, back then, they could get away with that) or if you were in the Old West in America (or even any city today), you might get a bullet in your head.
The coolness of being rude, ignoring people, one upmanship and all that jazz has no place in running a profitable business and frankly in conducting one’s life. Sure, there are times to be hip and cop an attitude however most of the time people have enough attitude handed to them and the last thing they need is more people yelling at them or being rude.
Parents must not have learned manners themselves or spend too much time thinking about themselves. That must be the only way to explain it. People today and their kids just don’t want to take the time for a little bit of courtesy. Be honest with yourself, do you like it when people cop an attitude with you? Sometimes your rudeness might be interpreted as unforgivable.
So, before you cop the attitude, take a second and really think about what you want to say. If you are guilty of not saying please or thank you, you may want to think twice because the next time you deal with a particular clerk, gas station attendant, fast food worker, grocery store person, plumber or Department of Motor Vehicle’s worker, you may find that you are either sent to the back of the line, your product may be “out of stock”, your order may be “misplaced” etc.
Have a fantastic and safe July 04 2009!
Hey, don’t go anywhere yet. Having some tax issues or tax questions? Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed? Please read on.
I am expanding my practice and taking on new tax clients. If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.
I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.
I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.
If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.
Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.
Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.
Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Firecracker Service