One of the biggest problems with businesses is their failure to develop systems to gather feedback. Some of the failures I have noticed are:
1. Commonwealth Bank - A failure to communicate with customers, a failure to design systems which suit a broad range of customers (despite marketing to a certain customer base), and a failure to use the preferred communication modes of customers. Too many organisations are undermining people's capacity to communicate in order to retain the benefits of scalability.
2. Google - Online solutions provide businesses with the ability to automate processes giving them a new level of scalability. What if the business acts unilaterally without informing the customer, even if they are in breach of their rules? Is that good customer service?
3. Tiger Airways: Airlines are shifting to online booking services. I note with Tiger Airways that there are no flights on the Manila-Perth route which they profess to offer? Tried to contact them. No email option. I'm not going to write a letter. Do they know? I don't think I want to deal with a company whom I can't readily contact. A business relationship is bi-directional. I think businesses that design systems solely to suit them are missing something.
These organisations will make the argument that its too easy for people to write emails, that email criticism is too direct and argumentative. I think this trend is because business organisations have been poorly prepared to deal with the influx of communication, so rather than resolving issues, they are instead closing this convenient mode of communication. Do we accept that most emails are a waste of time. That there are thousands of tragic souls in the world seeking to waste the time of business.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the tendency for business to see themselves as the centre of reality. They design systems that fit their 'business' without considering the broader consumer experience. What would you think of a customer survey by Commonwealth Bank which did not allow you to ask questions, or to make a specific complaint. A survey is not a good way to survey the market because it does not address specific problems, it allows problems to accumulate. More often the survey is designed to make the marketing executive look good. That is why the independent commentary option is often missing. Regardless, its a tool which is going to miss or understand consumer complaints because consumers are not fully invested in an organisation's problems 6 months after a specific complaint. Business is dynamic. The customer experience needs to be fully dynamic as well, if they are to be fully satisfied. The attempts by business to 'manage' the relationship by sabotaging the communication process does not serve them.
The implication of this is that the largest companies are tending to offer the worst services because they are interested in mass markets rather than any specific customers experience. It is therefore the discerning customer who is leading the market. What we need is better consumer feedback systems to feed people the business review information they need.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
1. Commonwealth Bank - A failure to communicate with customers, a failure to design systems which suit a broad range of customers (despite marketing to a certain customer base), and a failure to use the preferred communication modes of customers. Too many organisations are undermining people's capacity to communicate in order to retain the benefits of scalability.
2. Google - Online solutions provide businesses with the ability to automate processes giving them a new level of scalability. What if the business acts unilaterally without informing the customer, even if they are in breach of their rules? Is that good customer service?
3. Tiger Airways: Airlines are shifting to online booking services. I note with Tiger Airways that there are no flights on the Manila-Perth route which they profess to offer? Tried to contact them. No email option. I'm not going to write a letter. Do they know? I don't think I want to deal with a company whom I can't readily contact. A business relationship is bi-directional. I think businesses that design systems solely to suit them are missing something.
These organisations will make the argument that its too easy for people to write emails, that email criticism is too direct and argumentative. I think this trend is because business organisations have been poorly prepared to deal with the influx of communication, so rather than resolving issues, they are instead closing this convenient mode of communication. Do we accept that most emails are a waste of time. That there are thousands of tragic souls in the world seeking to waste the time of business.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the tendency for business to see themselves as the centre of reality. They design systems that fit their 'business' without considering the broader consumer experience. What would you think of a customer survey by Commonwealth Bank which did not allow you to ask questions, or to make a specific complaint. A survey is not a good way to survey the market because it does not address specific problems, it allows problems to accumulate. More often the survey is designed to make the marketing executive look good. That is why the independent commentary option is often missing. Regardless, its a tool which is going to miss or understand consumer complaints because consumers are not fully invested in an organisation's problems 6 months after a specific complaint. Business is dynamic. The customer experience needs to be fully dynamic as well, if they are to be fully satisfied. The attempts by business to 'manage' the relationship by sabotaging the communication process does not serve them.
The implication of this is that the largest companies are tending to offer the worst services because they are interested in mass markets rather than any specific customers experience. It is therefore the discerning customer who is leading the market. What we need is better consumer feedback systems to feed people the business review information they need.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
