May 03 in Customer Relationships
Written by: Heather Rast
As a customer, how many times has “It’s the rules, ma’am.” stood in the way of a mutually agreeable solution? How many times has the sharp drop-off between “Thank you for your business.” and “That’s no problem. We can work with you on that.” sent you spiraling over the edge of logic, into the abyss of disgruntledness and negative perception?
Black and white
Rules are meant to protect the primary interests of the issuer (“The Man”), and establish a field of parameters. We acknowledge rules, perhaps even study them (think: driver’s exam prep). We know they’re there; we’ve run into them before. They cause us to consider risk versus reward. But one size does not fit all.
…and shades of gray
Life and circumstances being what they are (unpredictable whims of nature, or holy master plans if you’re feeling more respectful),
sometimes situations – everyday mundane stuff – don’t fall easily into clearly defined boxes. You know what I mean – the slight pause when you decide between 64 mph or the “safe bet” 60 mph for the cruise. The age you give the cashier at the restaurant where kids 12 and under eat free (and your kid’s 13).
The applicability or necessity of certain rules can be fuzzy, even sticky. Making the right choice, doing the right thing may not be so clear-cut, obvious or popular. The right choice may not make your company a buck nor cut out x-number man hours of annual administration time. The right choice may cost your company easily deployed, by-the-books, across-the-board simple rigidity (the kind even a monkey can parrot) that efficiency experts recommend.
“It’s company policy, ma’am. No exceptions.” I call B.S.
Many times, doing the right thing – making the right choice – can be the right thing to do even if it’s against the rules.
Life, unscripted
It takes good judgement, independently vetted and dispensed, to determine the appropriateness of a formal rule to any situation.
The sooner companies citing “no exceptions” rules wise up to the fact that sometimes life won’t wedge into a predefined box of circumstances, that good people make human mistakes, that there are exceptions to every rule and statistically few customers are out to game the system, the sooner those companies dissolve high-handed barriers that keep their customers at arms length.
And isn’t the key to entangling your customer, wrapping them up in service and value to create loyal ambassadors, isn’t the key getting them closer, not pushing them away?
Business is business, I get that. Structure and procedure are important, especially to scale. But there’s a point when rigidity overrides just plain smart thinking, when a businesses’ need to exert control and maintain procedure squashes out the softer art of interpretation, situational awareness, service-mindedness, and basic human compassion.
Your rigid rules just made you look like a jackhole. And customers don’t like jackholes.
Learn from the likes of the Ritz Carlton. Turn your rigid rules into suggested guidelines, and let your smart employees serve your customers well.
Watch their lifetime value soar. Bonus: they might even tweet about you in a good way.
No related posts.
[...] your rigid procedures tie metaphorical hands, adding to the remote and cold perception of your [...]