Here's a conundrum ...

You're manning reception (or these days I suppose I should say 'personning' but that just sounds silly) or working in a store and the phone goes. At the same time a customer walks up to you to ask a question. Which do you attend to first? 

Or you're in a deep and meaningful conversation with your boss and the phone rings / a customer walks in. What do you do?

As I've grown older and less tolerant of poor customer service, every experience like this which isn't handled well presents an opportunity for the individual and thus the company / business / organisation to do better. There should be proper training and clear guidelines as to what is expected of everyone working for a company, and in many there are - and they get it right. Are you sure that's your business?

How important is the customer? How do you know if that's a new one on the phone waiting to give you a huge order? How do you know if the person walking in is a mystery shopper?

How often have you fumed while you travel the world virtually through call centre systems when the business you're calling about is located just down the road?

Each time I stand in line waiting for service when the person behind the counter is so busy chatting to his / her colleague about what they did the night before, or I'm fighting with a health centre receptionist to get an appointment (to which my response is usually "Three weeks? I'll either be dead or better by then"), or my local leisure centre when they can't find my booking when I made it in person the week before, I want to go straight to the person at the top and tell them there's a training need. And sometimes I do.

Why am I, as a Public Relations and Communications specialist, talking about Customer Service? Because it can make or break your business. Get it wrong and it doesn't matter how good your products or services are because your customers will go elsewhere. It'll have a direct affect on your reputation, sales and ultimately your profits. And that's the connection. That's why it's so important.

To rectify the need, my Customer Service 101 training workshop looks at the topic from a PR and Comms perspective and is going to be held in Brighton on 20th February. 

Come along for a refresher; if you're starting a business come along to ensure great Customer Service from Day One; or send your team for a couple of hours out and some fun, informal and interactive training. 

Practical tips you can put into practice straight away will put a smile on your Customer Service face. And as they say in certain establishments "Have a nice day now!"

You can book tickets at an insanely competitive price here.

5 ways to improve your customer service and your reputation

You’ve got your branding spot on. You even have a style guide. You’ve got all the employees you need. Your premises look great. Your website is sparkling. You’re proud to be eco-friendly and sustainable, not a plastic straw in sight. You have leads and appointments. You have a sales pipeline. You aren’t worried about cash flow. Yet. You have it all down pat.

What could possibly go wrong?

Have you seen bad press for companies that give poor customer service? How you treat your customers, even just one customer, can have a good or bad effect on your company.

Customer service is about every element of the purchase experience with your company, from the initial research to after-care support. If you have a small business, you’re more likely to be aware of how your customers are treated. If you are at the top of a large company, this isn’t possible. How do you know how your customers are being treated?

The main reason why a customer leaves or doesn’t buy from you again is because they feel you don’t care about them.

How can you show them you care? It’s simple. Provide excellent customer service and be authentic from the top down in your desire to give your customers an excellent experience from start to end, which then becomes the start again – there’s nothing better for the business heart and for the business pocket than repeat customers.

From the person on Reception who chooses whether to acknowledge the customer who has just walked in or carries on talking to their colleague (BAD), to the car dealership which sends you a personalised video every fortnight to let you know how your new car is being built thereby keeping you in the loop (GOOD), it’s a choice each business owner must make.

Show your customers you care

Do you have “We provide excellent customer service” somewhere on your website, in your mission, vision or values? Do you really mean it or is it something you thought you had to put on there?

There are thousands of negative customer service stories on the web but relatively very few positive ones. People tell many more people when they have a bad experience than when they have a good one, and word of mouth counts. I am the sort of person who takes to Twitter immediately I have dreadful customer service because it’s absolutely not necessary and the offending companies need to be outed.

Here are five ways in which you can offer excellent customer service for your customers:

1. Call back or respond as quickly as possible

Doesn’t it make your blood boil when someone promises to call you back and they don’t? In my experience, I always expect the worse then I can be pleasantly surprised when it does happen. I make bets. I’m not often wrong. And isn't it nearly always the mobile phone and utility companies?!

Rather than an empty promise to call back, if you can’t do so with the information needed, then call back anyway and say it’ll take longer. It’s amazing how much this will alleviate stress on behalf of the customer, and it’ll give you extra brownie points in the long run.

With the thousands of emails we all receive, find a way of prioritising the important ones and exercise good time management to get back to the others within a reasonable period, say within two working days. A footer added to your corporate signature explaining this customer service promise will make people aware. It’s good PR.

Ditch those hated automated phone systems. Last week I was holding on for over ten minutes while the message cut in every minute to tell me my call was important to the company. It clearly wasn’t important to the company because if it was, they would have a better way in which to answer their phones. And I don’t mean outsourcing to overseas call centres who can only deal with customer enquiries via scripts. It’s not the customer service assistants fault, it’s the fault of the company which isn’t equipping people well enough to be able to offer excellent customer service.

2. Know your customers inside and out

Great interactions begin with knowing your customers’ wants and needs; what makes them buy; what mood they’re in when they buy; what time of day they buy; and what is it that prompts them to buy from you.

If your business is small enough, get to know your customers, remember their names and previous conversations. If you have a larger business, use an effective CRM system so that when someone calls your company, the person answering the phone can see the last contact with the customer and effectively deal with the query or update them on the previous issue.

3. Be prepared to do something to rectify a problem

One of the best ways to damage your reputation is by not taking responsibility if you get something wrong. And even if you don’t think it was your fault, weigh up the cost of putting it right anyway to avoid a disgruntled customer.

Consider these scenarios:

You buy a relatively cheap bunch of flowers for home from a low-price supermarket. You’ve used the store a fair number of times and you’ve been happy with the quality of the goods. You’ve purchased similar flowers and they’ve always been fine. You’ve never had to complain before. You’re a good advocate of the brand. On this occasion, the flowers died more or less overnight. You couldn’t get back to the store because you were busy and it took several days before you visited. The customer service assistant was arrogant, rude and tried to make you feel small. You complained to the manager who was no better. Is the very small cost of refunding a cheap bunch of flowers worth the rather large cost of the many people you will tell about your experience?

On the other hand, mentioning this to a friend who works for a higher-end supermarket, she said their policy is to immediately refund or replace regardless. Now consider which store you’ll visit in future.

There is a direct correlation to the bottom-line profits of those who offer excellent customer service.

4. Aim for excellent and achieve it

Going above and beyond will not only result in repeat business and happy customers, it will have a positive effect on your reputation, arguably your most important asset. Make sure everyone in your business, whether it’s one employee or thousands, offers the same level of customer service. Regularly do mystery shopping to check. Make it a part of your business culture and get buy-in from everyone from the CEO to the delivery driver. Have consequences if someone lapses and find out why. Maybe there's something you can do to put it right. Always investigate and report back to the customer.

5. A customer is for life not just for Christmas

Think long-term and keep your customers happy, and they will be loyal. Customer retention is so important. It costs much more to locate and convert new leads than it does to retain and satisfy existing customers. It’s a no-brainer.

6. Buy five and get one free!

If your brand is known for excellent customer service always, then there is an argument that says you’ll be able to charge a little more for the privilege or if not that, then customers will buy more from you thereby increasing revenue. 

Either way, it makes sense. Can you afford to get it wrong?

Chimera Communications can help you identify what’s going right and what could go wrong in your organisation. We can work with you to get your internal and external communications right. And we can show you how to make your customer service excellent.

Contact us now for an initial chat on info@chimeracomms.co.uk or 01903 812275.

Top 5 customer service fails of 2017

Yes, I know this is slightly tardy but I have had over a month’s-worth of poor health due to some version of the infamous flu bug, for which my flu jab wasn’t ‘person’ enough for the job [Note: proper PC word use].

There are few things that set my temperature valves to breaking point than the truly awful examples of bad customer service that I am destined to experience, and last year was no exception.

It has to be said that the bigger the company or organisation, the worse the customer service. Usually. I have worked in and for organisations of all sizes over the years, and it doesn’t need to be so. It comes down to management and communications.

Consider the effect that poor customer service has on me. It ranges from:

·         Mild irritation. The problem gets sorted, I tut and then get on with something else

·         Simple frustration. It takes longer to get sorted but it’s ok, we get there in the end

·         Some short, sharp words of advice from me. Often about a training need

·         I ask to speak with a manager. It gets worse when they refuse to put me through

·         Some tweets ending with #fail

·         Emailing the Chief Executive. “Dear [xx], I’m not normally prone to writing directly to the top honcho, but on this occasion …”

·         A formal complaint. If I have the energy to fill in copious forms. It depends on the incident

·         Advising the Ombudsman. Must have been a bad incident

·         Contacting Watchdog. Must have been a very, very bad incident. Don’t they know they’re dealing with a PR person?!

·         Considering sending the boys round (I jest. Really.)

During the course of the above, my blood pressure rises along with the volume of my voice. 

Especially if I’m getting scripted responses from an overseas call centre where the very nice people have not trained their very nice people to veer off-script to actually help customers. Sometimes, if I’m in a very good mood, I’ll play along with the idiocy of it all and tie the poor person up in such knots that they may need psychiatric support after my bout of mischief. I apologise unreservedly to them all.

What these companies and organisations seem incapable of understanding is that there are real ramifications of ignoring the bad customer service practices they operate. Be aware:

·         It’s bad PR, folks

·         Customers will go elsewhere to buy goods or services

·         They will tell everyone they know about their bad experience (and less frequently about their good one)

·         They will leave bad reviews; as we all know now, reviews are increasingly used as online testaments for potential customers

·         You don’t know who you’re dealing with – who customers really are and who they know (they might be the one person instrumental in getting your next huge contract)

·         Your profits will suffer

·         Your shares will suffer, and your shareholders will ask questions

·         Your brand will suffer – you’ve spent a lot of money and effort getting it right and one or two bad experiences can have a significantly negative effect

·         You may be fired

Top 5 fails of 2017 – according to my own experiences during last year

• NHS
• GP surgeries with rude receptionists who don’t allow you to see your own GP unless you wait a month, by which time you’re either better or dead
• GP surgeries which don’t offer an effective online booking service. Or one at all
• NHS area appointment booking services which on the face of it seem like a good idea until in practice, they’re totally rubbish
• No emailing allowed. Come on, it’s 2018
• BT – truly awful customer service and accounts. Yes, both personal and business accounts were moved to other providers
• A certain mobility bathroom installer – young business owners/fitters working on our neighbours’ place; showed no respect and were rude when asked to move their van from across our drive. Repeatedly. They might have gained work from the whole road if they’d been more accommodating. Much lack of foresight shown
• Port of Tilbury – normally the most courteous and helpful assistance but one individual being offensive lets the whole side down. Considering giving him a Jobsworth Award
• DPD UK – ringing the doorbell, not waiting and taking a parcel away immediately. Twice. Perhaps it’s a corporate game of Knock Down Ginger

Also: O2, Vodafone, Royal Mail, Lloyds Bank, HSBC – the list goes on.

As I said, it doesn’t need to be this way. No matter what size or sector, organisations should be offering the best customer service they can, through proper training and management. Managers should be trained to manage – not simply be called a manager because they’ve been there the longest.

It’s not always the size of your budget, but the way in which you manage it. 

Managers/business owners shouldn’t be afraid to bring in change and not do something ‘because it’s always been done that way’. Life has moved on and you don’t need to be afraid of, for example, automating a process and retraining your team to work in a different way. As long as you communicate change effectively with all your audiences in the way in which they need to be communicated with, and in a language they’ll understand, they’ll come along with you.

Our clients are used to me asking why something’s being done a particular way when it doesn’t seem logical to me. Most of the time there’s a rational reason but now and then, I can suggest a different way of doing something which involves less cost, resource or duplication of work, and I love it when it works. Our smartest clients are those who are open-minded and listen, then participate in the process. Quite often, it will enable them to work smarter too. Plus I get to learn plenty from my clients, and I can pass this on to others to help in their businesses.

You see, PR with Chimera  is not only about communicating effectively, promoting and selling more, it’s about the whole in terms of business strategy – and that’s because we’re experienced, skilled people who have worked with a wide variety of companies and organisations across the years.

And every now and then, if you stand outside my office, you can hear the gentle ripples, caustic comments, or volcanic eruptions caused by poor customer service. 

One thing though – I always compliment people and say ‘Thank you’ when someone gets it right or goes above and beyond! I hope you do too.

Cruising out of your comfort zone

I’m lucky enough to be able to go on many cruises. If you follow realchimeracomms on Instagram, you’ll be able to see a selection of photos from our working adventures around the world.

Recently it struck me that there is some correlation between being on the high seas and our working lives ...

Stepping out of your comfort zone

I’m claustrophobic. I never wanted to go on a cruise. I couldn’t bear the thought of being encased in a large metal box on the high seas. Being over thousands of feet of potentially treacherous water, miles from anywhere, also frightened me. I’d always said I’d never do it.

Something life-altering happened, after which I decided to live for the moment. I decided to try a cruise. I started with a short one. And the miraculous thing was ... as soon as I stepped on the ship, I felt at home. I’ve since done plenty of cruises as it’s part work, part holiday. It’s a marvellous life and I love it.

I’ve been on many ships now including one where we were in the middle of a ‘weather phenomenon’ and another with Force 10 gales. Of course, it’s challenging and the sea can be kind to you or very brutal. Being at the heart of Mother Nature is incredibly invigorating and you just have to put your faith in fate.

If I hadn’t been determined to try it the first time, I would never have known that I would come to love going on cruises, travelling the world while working with clients, and seeing places I never thought I would.

This has shown me how to take unchartered waters when it comes to work situations. Just because it looks frightening, it doesn’t need to be so. It’s amazing how good you feel after doing something you really didn’t think you could.

The many benefits of being reticent but doing it anyway

Business survival depends sometimes on taking that risk. Being nimble, flexible and agile, and diversifying if necessary. If I’d carried on doing exactly what I’d always done, I wouldn’t have discovered a whole world of delight and wonder.

If you’re stuck in a rut, the courageous thing to do is ‘something different’. If you’re scared of speaking in public, for example, the more you practise and the more prepared you are, you really can step of your comfort zone and do it anyway.

Take your blinkers away and upskill. Challenge yourself to learn something new to benefit yourself and your business. Keep up-to-date with new technology (which can be very scary) and open up new horizons.

Having a great crew around you

Every efficient ship needs a great crew, working together as a team. Seeing how every crew member on cruise ships is part of the whole, believing in the very best customer service to look after their guests, as well as how intricately the organisation of each ship works, is truly inspiring.

Getting the very best people around you for the benefit of your business (team members, suppliers, contractors etc) goes a very long way to ensuring you will be ship-shape and sea-worthy.

Happy sailing!

You talking to me?!

If you’ve attended any of my training courses, you’ll know how frequently I stress the importance of talking to your target audiences (the different groups of people with whom you need to communicate) using language they understand. By this, I mean making it easy for your customers and potential customers, as well as any others important to your business, to ‘get’ what you’re all about, why you do it and how you can be of value to them.

No jargon, no patronising sector speak, just simple, straight talking.

The Chimera Communications strapline of ‘Simply Delivering the Message’ says it all.

I’ve come across several situations recently where organisations and businesses have made the mistake of assuming customers understand their language. With some sectors like finance, there’s no getting away from regulations requiring information to be delivered in certain ways. There are some companies incredibly effective in translating this to customers, but many are not. People get confused, and results can be misunderstandings, wasted energy and resource, and duplicated work as well as products.

Understanding your customers means knowing when you need to go the extra mile to explain things in the right way. It’ll save you more time and effort later on.

With online polls, surveys, questionnaires and emails, as well as the good old-fashioned method of actually talking to someone, there’s no excuse for not qualifying what your customers need.

So here are some tips:

·      * Ask your customers when, how and what information they’d like from you – in other words, what is of value to them

·      * Know your customers so well that you understand the language, tone and messages they need to receive, rather than what you churn out to them

·      * Ensure all your teams (if you have rotas or shifts) know what’s going on so customers don’t have to repeat themselves again and again, which is not only frustrating and irritating, but can lead to negative PR through word of mouth and bad online reviews

·      *Make things simple and easy to understand – that way, you’re far more likely to engage and do more business with them

If you don’t connect and build a relationship with your customers, the risk is they’ll go to someone else who ‘talks their language’.

Is the customer always right?

Despite our in-built response mechanism to believe the customer is always right, is this true?

As a service provider, our clients are buying in our years of expertise and experience, our professional qualifications, adding all of this to their teams and commercial weaponry. Each client has a choice about whether to do this or not, based on their ability to shop around, listen to recommendations and referrals, check out our quotes, hear our initial ideas and choose whether they trust us to deliver outcomes and advice worth taking up.

But how often do we provide our best advice only for clients to ignore it and to come back at a later date saying "We should have listened"? Thankfully not that often, although our reaction is tinged with a slight sadness and frustration that time will have been lost and efforts will have to make up for further slippage in reaching objectives.

If we have toothache we go to the dentist, we don't try to fill the tooth or take it out ourselves. So it makes sense to choose your business advisers, consultants or mentors very carefully - take into account personalities, approach, gut feelings, recommendations, testimonials, previous work, a mutual sense of humour and likeability. Then, trust them or at least give them a chance to prove they can be trusted; because they should be bringing their best work to the table, to the benefit of you and your company.

It certainly takes a degree of confidence and the ability to let go of the reins in favour of someone whom you consider knows more about a topic than you do. Some executives are unable to do this but the ones who do, get the best results. 

Listen to your consultants or advisers, ask questions, calmly consider then make your decision to take their advice, or explain why it might not work. Try a different approach to the issue to make it work if necessary; it may be something has not been passed on correctly or some information is missing. If you decline every piece of advice on the basis you know better, you have to ask: why employ anyone? It's a waste of time, money and effort on everyone's part.

Similarly if there are issues communicating or your relationship of trust is compromised, it's probably better to make a change. 

Working in partnership with a client should be a joy, filled with successful outcomes. We have certainly found that's the best way to work.

The difference between good customer care and bad

Today, as they say in footballing circles, has been a day of two halves.

I have received some of the worst customer care ever - and then, to reinforce my faith in human nature (even corporate nature), I had some first class customer care.

The first involved a matter which had been going on for almost a year. OK I have to admit I was responsible for some of the initial delay but after that the company messed it up all by themselves.

This was a case involving some really important issues so the detail on all the paperwork had to be right. It was quite a complex case but on every single piece of paperwork, something was wrong - a name here, an address there. Each time it was pointed out to them, we were promised it would be rectified and each time it was but with the addition of another error.

At one point it seemed almost impossible to believe the catalogue of cock-ups the company was making. It beggared belief in this day and age of the spell check, let alone competence and intelligence. 

Where one or two meetings were needed, five or six had to take place. As a consultant, I should have been charging them for my time!

There was a final fundamental straw which broke this camel's back and I lodged an official complaint. Nearly three months on, I think, and you'd imagine we'd have a written reply to my request for confirmation that the paperwork throughout had been done correctly and we had a full copy of each document.

But no, what I did receive today was a call from a gentleman who had been delightful at the beginning but was now patronising, rude and downright argumentative on the phone. When I pointed out that - ahem - I was the actual client who had paid their fees and (a) I was not happy, (b) I didn't like being spoken to in that manner and (c) as he hadn't been involved after the initial stage and admitted he knew nothing of what had gone on after, he was unqualified to make any comment. He said he was merely ringing up to find out how I was - most strange after nearly a year - and that I had jumped down his throat. As he didn't let me finish any of my sentences, the boot was definitely on the other foot. 

I tried to let him know that as a senior person within the company, he mus surely want to know that the service itself didn't work (thus believing I was putting some other poor soul out of similar misery in the future) but he just wouldn't hear what I was saying. A typical example of a man shouting over a woman, thinking her to be a fool. When I asked who was the principal of the company, he fobbed me off with the name of an administrator, thinking I wouldn't notice. 

A shortsighted move, for sure. Will I refer business to them? No. Will I recommend them? No. Will I ever use them again? No.

The man's answer to me was that the business had increased some six-fold in size. Actually, companies should ensure their base service and capabilities are in place and working perfectly before expanding because if they can't get it right when they're small, what chance do they have when they're bigger?

By comparison, and coming close on the first call's coat sleeves came a call from a large company. This young man had taken our query first thing this morning and needed to pass some information on to another department to get us an answer. He called around midday to say he hadn't been able to get through but he didn't want us to think he wasn't on the ball.

The second call was to tell us he'd been trying all afternoon but as today is an extremely busy day (Cyber Monday - quite understandable), he still had no news for us. He gave us a Plan B and said he'd check on our case first thing in the morning. He was at pains to say how much he wanted to give us great customer care - and it was appreciated.

So, companies of all sizes out there - please note the difference in PR profile, company reputation and downright good sense that can be garnered through your approach to customer service and dare I say it - customer care. Everything will be affected from your shares, your bottom line, your staff to your raison d'etre - your customers.

What a crazy start to 2014

This New Year started in a completely different way from how I'd pictured. 

Days had been spent in the office during our shutdown period, tidying out, filing, doing expenses and all things admin with a view to hitting the ground running in 2014. Alas, it was not to be. While people nursed their hangovers from New Year's Eve or were first through the doors for the sales, our office broadband and land lines disappeared in a puff of smoke, just like Aladdin's genie, but without the three wishes.

And so it started. Three weeks later, umpteen calls to the provider, several engineer visits, hair turning grey and many lattes drunk in local internet cafes and at borrowed desks from helpful business contacts, normal service resumed. Which meant another backlog to deal with and evenings and weekends spent catching up.

They say you don't miss something until it's gone and boy, did we miss broadband. Living and working in a semi-rural location, mobile signals are at best intermittent and at worst non-existent. Land lines are essentials taken for granted. Lack of telephone connection takes us back to days of yore when women wore crinolines and waited to get the vote. Of course, mobile signals came back as soon as I drove somewhere urban and broadband was readily available at the cost of a short walk or drive but that's hardly the point - if I'm late in paying, the supplier would be down on me like a ton of bricks. So why are we expected to accept poor service for the money we're paying?

Lack of broadband in my office left me feeling stranded. No internet banking, no emails, no ability to work in my normal streamlined way. Taking my laptop to cafes was all well and good but their broadband wasn't secure and I couldn't have confidential calls on my mobile, in the middle of a pack of yummy mummies with screaming babies, grumpy grans or earwigging execs.

My goodness, how we have become dependent upon the internet. I am a frequent flyer in the world of online shopping - in fact, my air miles would take me round the world and back. I'm so used to being tied to the office that I (almost) had to force myself into stores and shops again. 

However the situation forced me to remember that there is a world outside the office and I enjoyed the luxury of allowing myself half an hour here and there to take a walk or simply wander round the shops, remembering the joy in actually touching goods and delighting myself in better choices in-store than online. Getting out and about gave me some respite from constantly working and a breath of fresh air as well as a break, so I went back to the office somewhat refreshed. Only the irritation and frustration of the situation still irked me.

The inefficiency shown on behalf of the broadband and phone provider made me angry. Each person told me something different. That was, when I finally got through automated systems and actually spoke to a human being. Call centres abroad told me ridiculous solutions to the initial problem that would have meant buying whole new phone systems, which I knew we didn't need. As usual, the bigger the conglomerate, the worse the service is. 

The good news is that it did all come to an end, or so I thought. My business survived. My clients, on the whole, are a wonderful bunch who showed empathy and understanding. My team supported me and the business. All was relatively well with the world ... until today, when we were supposed to be having new super fast broadband laid on. Suffice it to say that despite having written confirmation that an engineer was due to call today (which meant staying in all afternoon especially), as well as a reminder text yesterday, no-one turned up. When I finally got through to somewhere over the other side of the globe, it turns out the order was never placed and we have to start all over again.

Dreadful customer service? For sure. Bad PR? Absolutely. The funny thing is that at the end of the call today, I was asked to complete a customer service survey. Strangely enough, they received 'Very poor' on every count. 

Are you surprised?!!

Poor customer service = bad PR

Yet again this week, I’ve had speedier and better customer service through complaining on Twitter than I’ve had from contacting the company in question. On the one hand, I’m delighted to see social media working well. On the other though, what does that say about the level of customer service we’re being offered (and accepting) from businesses today?

Why should our complaints not be dealt with efficiently, courteously and quickly on the phone or by email? Why should we be constantly fobbed off by truculent call centre operatives, front line staff who appear to need basic customer service training or endless automated phone systems? Clearly that’s not always the case and I’ve certainly received some excellent service and where that’s happened, I always say thanks and go on to do more business with the company.

The key word here, of course, is ‘service’ and picking up on Jamie Oliver and David Cameron’s comments recently about young people being disinclined to do certain jobs, it does seem that there is a percentage of people in the UK who feel that doing anything which offers a service to others is somehow beneath them.

Essential elements when considering a business’s perception to its customers and potential customers, effective reputation management or successful marketing, are the quality of its people as well as the quality of the service/product being offered. Every business will have its own corporate culture and it’s vital that everyone acts as an ambassador for the business at all times. Just one incident of poor customer service may result in the customer going elsewhere for good. That has an effect on the company’s bottom line, not least of which through word of mouth, and in turn the ability to keep staff employed. Does every company explain that clearly to its people? Would staff act differently if they realised that each phone call, email or contact could have an effect on their jobs and those of their colleagues?

As an example, I want to buy an item from an organisation which sells in the UK but emanates from the US. They are out of stock of the item in the UK but have some in the US. How easy would it be to send one directly from the US to me; I’m happy to pay the extra postage? It seems I’ve entered into protracted correspondence with the company, which can’t find its way round its own procedures to make one customer satisfied and also make a sale. How bizarre is that? I want to give them money and they don’t want it!

Companies are keen to get it right on social media these days and increasingly so. I’d like to see as much effort go into face-to-face customer service, telephone and email communication as well.

How do they get away with it? Because we let them!

Originally published in The Argus on 5.11.13