Who designs the client experience in your office? Oh yeah … give that one a big pause and a quizzical, “What?”
Who DESIGNS your clients’ experience?
If you’re like most businesses you tout “excellent customer service”, because you have “good people”. But the actual experience delivered to your clients is at the whim of each of those people … and their moods for the day. And no matter how “good” your people are, your clients aren’t necessarily having the experience YOU want them to have.
Now, I could write volumes on this subject as it impacts every nook and cranny of your business – but not today. Today I have one specific idea for you to consider – one of my pet peeves – to drive the point home. Imagine this along with me …
—- I’m your client. It’s 10:30pm. The kids are in bed, finally, and the wife asks, “Honey, did you call about the insurance thing today?” Dag-nabbit, I forgot again. No worries …
I jump on my home PC, type out a quick question and finish with, “Please call me at my office tomorrow to discuss.” I click Send, and it’s taken care of. You gotta love email! Off to bed.
Tomorrow, I don’t get a phone call. Back home at 7:00 pm I check my email, and there’s a stinking, impersonal automatic reply that says you’re “out” this week and to contact who-cares-who “in your absence”. —-
Please … Think about how I FEEL about you and your agency right now. You’ve wasted another 24 hours of my life, and my wife’s giving me a hassle because I still haven’t taken care of “that insurance thing”, yet. I communicated using a method YOU gave me, and you allowed a machine to blow me off.
Now, really see this … when I sent you – or any of your staff – an e-mail, I didn’t really send it to YOU – or them. I sent it to your BUSINESS.
Your business is supposed to solve my problems – not give them back to me! Not make me work to get help, forcing me to contact other people.
Man, I really hope you can see that. Is that the experience you want your clients to have? I hope not! Yet, we unwittingly DESIGNED it that way! It’s totally our fault – if we could only be awake to that.
OK. What’s the solution? Let’s DESIGN the client’s experience the way you (more importantly, they) want it. Create a SYSTEM that solves the problem. There could be many approaches to this specific problem, but here’s what I do …
- Outlaw out-of-office email replies in your business … period. Using them is now grounds for immediate dismissal. Send out a memo. Put it in your handbook. Whatever. Make it a law. I’m not being melodramatic. YOU decide how your clients are treated.
- Use e-mail forwarding rules, instead, like this …
- Assign every employee a backup staff member, and create an automatic e-mail rule that forwards email to the backup.
- Law #2 … when someone will be absent, they MUST turn this rule on – just like setting their voice mail greeting.
- Email is then automatically forwarded to the backup, who gives it its due attention – transparent to the client! (By the way, exceptions can be put into the rule, so certain emails do not get forwarded – like these tips, for example.)
- What if someone’s out unexpectedly? In that case, they weren’t able to turn on their forwarding rule in advance, right? You must have a SYSTEM for activating absent staff forwarding rules – logging into their PC, opening their email program, and turning on the rule. Someone must be accountable for it and have the authority to do it. Otherwise, clients get no service at all!
With these systems in place – systems designed with intent to deliver the experience YOU want your clients to have – imagine the above scenario a little differently …
—- I’m at work, having sent my email to you last night. I receive a phone call from your office. The caller explains you’re out, but she got my email, and here’s the answer. —- Wow! What a difference!
Your BUSINESS solved my problem, and I love you. Isn’t THAT the experience you want your clients to have? It happens that way only when you DESIGN it that way and systemize the process. (PLUS the problem’s not waiting for you when you get back … bonus!)
The out-of-office email reply is a pet peeve of mine, but the concept applies everywhere – answering and routing phone calls, greeting visitors, conducting appointments, service calls, welcome kits, out-going mail … the list is virtually endless.
“Designing the client experience” means deciding, with intent, how you want their interactions with your office to go – so they have a specific, positive experience … regardless of someone’s mood, regardless of the day’s circumstances, regardless of staff turnover, etc. … And then implementing the systems that make sure it happens the way YOU want, every time.
Take notice of what makes you feel good, and what makes you feel bad, when dealing with other businesses. And then ask yourself, “Do we do THAT to our clients?” Then, fix it with systems.
Posted by Joe Hagan 