Every Customer Is A Consultant by Jonathan Farrington

Directors and management often see customer relations as the affair of a
complaints department, while they are occupied with running the business.
This is a form of warfare carried out against the irritating habits of customers
seeking fair treatment, a fair deal or equality of relationship.
Salespeople often see customers as an unruly, disobliging and dishonest
source of commission.
Support staff accept that they are paid to (try to) cope (on a good day) with
unreasonable, whining, stupid, ungrateful customers who just will not be
behave.
Administrators see customers as dunces who must be forced to follow the
rigid procedures developed for the convenience of the supplier (an endless
nuisance to the customer).
Technical people often see customers as stick-in-the-mud know-nothings to
be loftily put in their place by the use of elitist techno-jargon.
Production people ignore customers entirely, because otherwise customers
would get in the way of how they want to run the place.
Finance people treat customers not as people, but as reference numbers
with obligations required to fit processes.
Unkind comments? Not at your place? Great! But anti-attitudes like this
abound right across the commercial spectrum. You do business with your
customers -- not despite them! Customers pay the wages for everyone, not
just the sales force.
There is always a penalty for poor customer relations. It plays out over the
weeks and months ahead when people -- and those they influence -- simply
avoid your firm.Why Try?
"Why should I be nice to someone who is yelling at me?" says one of your
people. Well, that is not an unreasonable question. Let's try to understand the
psychology of people who grumble -- or worse, complain.
Believe it: For most people (apart from a psychotic few), complaining is a very
stressful thing to do. Apart from whether the problem itself has made the
customer angry, having to pump themselves up enough emotionally to have
a "confrontation" makes people short-tempered. So people dealing with
customers must expect them to be upset and angry.
Let's analyze the language. The customer says, "That is not good enough,"
quite probably with a few expletives thrown in for good measure. Now, the
person handling the call probably did not cause the problem themselves;
someone else did. Why take the blame for that? Well, because the person
handling the call is part of the team and happens to be the one taking the
call.
The drive for continuous improvement will come from your customers -- if you
let it, and if people's arrogance does not get in the way. Believe me, the
customer is an expert in your business. They may not know how to make
grommets, or how to merchandise goods, or how to write software, but they
do know what they want from you. Imagine them saying, "As customers, we
do not want it your way; we want it the way that suits us. And we will tell you,
if you want to listen, and providing we see you want to do something about
it."
One of the problems with employees in many companies is that they just do
not want to be told anything, especially by a customer. No one's going to get
anywhere with customer relations until they recognize that customers are
valued assets, not dumb milk cows for money.
What's the Lesson?Customer relations is a strategic understanding, not a departmental name.
Most people in most companies don't think about their responsibility for
developing good customer relations, because they simply do not see it as
their "job." The trouble is that you cannot see the cost from a simple item on
the profit-and-loss sheet. Most of it is hidden in the cost of losing business and
winning new business. Existing customers cost much less to keep than new
customers cost to win.
And you? Can you truthfully say in your heart of hearts that you believe in the
value and need for everyone in the business to help to build good customer
relations? If not, then watch out for the competitor who will figure that out first
-- or the person competing for your job who knows that is how it's done.
Customer relations is that serious.