Customer Service

A quick thought:

Many phone services around the world offer ‘Caller ID blocking’. This is where a number shows up as ‘Private’ when you receive a phone call.

In fact, most calls that I receive from business nowadays come with Caller ID blocking. In many cases you really wonder ‘why’? Unless you have a good reason - such as being a Pastor and not wanting to be harrassed by people you call or a government department - if you don’t reach someone the first time you call them, wouldn’t you want them to call back?

The effect of this would be pretty difficult to measure and in reality would not cause explosive effects on the business.

Get your business some style points : send your caller ID.

Another factor is this : when you are calling someone, they are much more likely to cancel a call if it is from a private number. Calls on private numbers very often tend to be those really annoying ones.

And lastly, if someone has the discourtesy to block their identity while invading your privacy, I don’t believe they deserve much courtesy returned to them.

One idea I had for my tailored shirt business was a scheme where I gave someone a discount code and if they or their friends used it, they would after five uses get a free shirt.

When I formulated this plan I had a lot of good feedback but since the launch of the business it has hit a pretty big snag - lots of people have got codes, but noone has been using them!

Why?

It’s a question of culture.

In Australia more than, say, America, we generally take particular exception to people trying to sell us things. I know this is a common complaint world-wide but it seems to be more prevalent here than other places.

Our culture doesn’t appreciate those who try to promote themselves. In many social situations it’s a pretty big faux pas to say anything good about yourself - at all!

Just two weeks ago I was talking to someone whose cousin was recently made partner at a prestigious law firm at a very young age. Was she proud of her cousin? Well, no, not really. She was crticising her cousin for having the gumption to tell anyone else - even family - that she had been successful.

This cultural rule extends into selling or recommending products to your friends where you get a kick-back.

Because of this low take-up I am going to drop this program and restructure my pricing.

Back to the Nando’s restaurant (Making customers feel valuable).

I was there having dinner with my brother and got chatting to the manager about their EFTPOS terminals somehow. (The machines where you pay for things using your bank card.) He told me about a regular customer who must have stuffed up her PIN because the transaction got declined. However, the customer service guy didn’t notice this, served her the food and she left. They discovered their error balancing the tills that night.

His solution?

(This guy is NUTS.)

“She’s a regular customer.. so when she comes back in we’ll settle the bill then.”

In other words, he’s willing to risk the possibility of sacrificing a regular - and lucrative, the bill was about four meals worth - customer for the sake of his staff members mistake!

As I turned away from the conversation I looked at my brother and his opinion was already written large on his face. “That guy is crazy.”

More on customer service :
Every customer is a potential competitor