For All Who Work With Rude Customers

This was sent to me by a client this morning. Now I don't believe in having rude customers, but for those businesses that have yet to sign up to operate with Positive Expectancy in their business and life, then this may look like poetic justice.

Lindy




For all Employees Who Work With Rude Customers

An award should go to the Virgin Airlines gate attendant in Sydney some months ago for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo. A crowded Virgin flight was cancelled after Virgin's 767s had been
withdrawn from service. A single attendant was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travellers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, "I HAVE to be on this flight and it HAS to be FIRST CLASS".

The attendant replied, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these people first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out." The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?" Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public address microphone: "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please," she began - her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.

"We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Gate 14."

With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Virgin attendant, gritted his teeth and said, "F... You!"

Without flinching, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to fly QANTAS for that service."

Customers Ask: "Why Don't You Know Me?"

You know when someone loves you don't you. They hang off every word and want to anticipate your every wish, and they take the time to know what you like and to offer attention in ways that they know you appreciate.

You know when someone doesn't love you too, don't you. They don't bother with the attention and don't have any interest in hearing what you want or have to say and couldn't care less what you appreciate. This is also how many businesses treat their customers.

In a recent survey:
[quote]

Financial services customers regularly receive communications for products or services that are not relevant to their needs, or even worse, communications that promote products and services they already have through that company. Consequently, 59 percent of financial services consumers who responded to the survey claim they don’t feel valued when it comes to the communication of products and services from their existing providers.

Among the key findings:

--88 percent of financial consumers claim to receive regular communications for products and services that are NOT directly relevant to them and their circumstances.

--64 percent of financial consumers claim they are more likely to stop using companies that regularly send them inaccurate or irrelevant communications material.

--65 percent of financial consumers don’t feel like they are being treated as an individual with regard to the communications they receive.

--Well over half (56 percent) of all financial consumers say they are less likely to buy from companies that send them information on products and services that are irrelevant to them.

--More than half of financial consumers (58 percent) claim to regularly receive communications selling them products and services they already have with that company.

--71 percent of financial consumers claim to regularly receive documents from the same company at the same time in different envelopes.

“People are bombarded with information, so companies must find a way to cut through the clutter by demonstrating immediate relevance to their customers,” said Chris Stone, president and CEO of StreamServe. “This requires personalized information. Companies have invested a significant amount of time and money collecting information about their customers, and with StreamServe, they finally have the ability to benefit from these efforts by putting content in context—making each piece of communication personalized to each customer’s specific needs.”

[StreamServe.]

[/quote]

But is isn't just financial service businesses that are guilty of this. Every kind of business needs to look at how they communicate with their customers to pay attention to whether they are being treated in the way that the customer wants, or not.

But wait... if you aren't communicating at all with your customers, you won't be committing this mistake! Guess what? Not communicating with them at all is probably an even BIGGER mistake! That proves just as clearly that you are not interested in them as does sending them information that clearly does not apply to them.

So how do you get to know what they want?

Well, it is a very arcane and secret procedure that must be followed.
Known only to the chosen Few!

Shall I reveal it to you, dear Reader?
Okay, just for you, and you must promise to only mention this secret to those most close to you and your business.

Ready for the secret to be revealed?

The secret is...

You Ask Them.

How, you ask? Well, that may be a topic for another blog.