You Haven't Earned the Right to Sell to Me!
This post is not about the customer, but the company. It's on how companies get away with bad service and lousy products.
Companies know they have your attention. They feel that they can do anything and you will still buy from them regardless of what they offer for sale. The only thing that matters to the company is getting your money, period!
The sky is falling on our customer service industry! Remember when a company took pride in the quality of their merchandise? Nowadays things are sold as junk just to make more money. Insurance companies seem to be at the top of this list with their "products." I was just reading an article about how one man died because his insurance carrier refused to pay for his liver transplant . . . the guy died.
In July of 2011, my life was saved by the liver transplant I received after 35 years of suffering with a difficult disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) . . I contracted PSC at age 18 when, like many young people, I began to drink alcohol heavily.
I am not discrediting companies that sell insurance. They need to make money, but they also need to honor their contracts with their customers. Companies that sell insurance policies should honor their contracts (not the case in my experience). When an insurance company is not honoring their contract with a customer, it's no wonder we are also not honoring our contracts with companies that sell us products and services.
In the business world today, we are so used to getting lip service and bad customer service from companies that we take it for granted. I do not think a company should exist if they can't meet all of their commitments to customers.
I am a critical thinker. I don't believe in lip service and I don't believe in bad customer service when I'm being called on my cell phone by some one who has no idea who he or she is talking to. I am so sure we have a lot of frustrated consumers out there who are not buying from companies that are not honoring their contracts with the customer.
If the message is sent to companies selling us products and services, then I believe consumers will start to honor their commitments with these companies. If you owe a company money, pay them! If something is broke, fix it! And if you don't wanna do it, say so! I think you get my point here.
I want to acknowledge some companies that I think deserve my respect. Some of these companies just stay true, even when they know they will lose a customer. I've been recognized by many companies for my loyalty to their products and services, but I have to single out the following three companies as people I think are truly a credit to their industry:
1. CarMax 1. Mazda 2. Honda 3. BMW 4. Toyota
Is there anyone else out there that deserves praise? Sure there are . . . if you believe in lip service and bad customer service, be sure you know who they are before you make your purchase decision! As a consumer, we have a lot more power than we think . . . all it takes is an attitude adjustment!
Stay tuned for the next installment of " You Haven't Earned the Right to Sell to Me! . . . yet!"
For direct mail and e-mail marketing, contact the author at gregwozniak@yahoo.com . Greg is available for keynote presentations and seminars. [POST END]
This is one of the best blog posts I have ever read. While there are some companies with good service, such as CarMax, the vast majority of companies do not put their customers first. This post should be mandatory reading in every company's training department!
As a software developer, I can tell you that in my business, it's a case of "even if we know what to do to help customers be happier with our software, we just don't have time. Let's put that in next quarter's backlog - oh, but wait, that already has a million other things on it."
I know I'm guilty of this. As consultants and software developers, we should always be working to improve the software and our customer service. We should have a "time to market" mentality, but instead we have this "let's do the bare minimum" mentality. If more business people put more of their effort into improving their products for their customers and give less lip service about how much they care about the customer, the world would be much better off.
As a consultant, I find that consultants who can tell you that they care about the customer are nervous consultants, while those who can show it are more confident. I have talked with many people in companies who tell me that they care about their customers, but they have not taken the time to truly listen to their customers and understand more about what is wrong with the software and how to fix it.
It's not obvious what "caring" really is. I believe that if someone just wants to keep his job, wants enough money for family life, and doesn't want to take risks because of fear of failure or being unemployed again should not be called a "caring" person. I believe a "caring" person is someone who has a vision of what the product or service should be and will take risks to make that happen.
In this blog, I do a lot of talking about independent software development (ISD), but in my business and in my personal life, I try to do things first to make sure that there is less risk than doing nothing. I don't look for the lowest-risk way to get something done.
I never hire someone who knows enough about a subject that we just need someone who can tell me what they think or tell me what I want to hear because they are afraid of making mistakes. That's why I hire people who do not know anything, because they are willing to learn. People who have a vision of where they want to go and what they need to do to get there will take risks and learn when it comes to software development.
In my personal life, I am also guilty of lip service. I never talk about the things that matter most--that my wife and I truly care about each other and have a great marriage, that all people should respect each other, that we should support the things we really believe in, and so on. I want to make sure my children grow up with values of respect and honor and not just lip service.
In the software industry, I believe this is much more important than getting on a "time to market" mentality. To me, it's about ideas and thinking beyond the "minimum" idea or the "faster is better" mindset. In my personal life, I try to be careful of going into debt and being reckless about how much money I spend for things that do not really matter all that much in my life. ~~~~~~~ If you like what you have just read, please subscribe! http://eepurl.
Conclusion
Computer products can be more expensive than the hardware they run on. That price tag is the product's warranty. You are not paying for the hardware, but you are paying for its warranty, which is sometimes just as good as that of a hardware manufacturer. If you run into problems with your computer, and it turns out to be the product's fault, you can take it to a company that will repair, replace or refund it at your request.
You may be able to get quick responses from local service centers and repair shops for minor malfunctions on your computer. But most of these companies don't have the personnel or equipment necessary to fix major problems with your computer.