Tips to keep customers happy

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In a recent survey of more than 400 South African customers, 72% said that they had experienced rage with a business at least once in the last four months and anyone who has tried to solve a problem with a bank, airline booking or mobile phone service provider recently will know what this feels like.

The horrendous state of customer care is not particularly new but what is new is that companies are going to pay a higher price for not taking care of customers, because rebellious customers become more able and willing to take action.

The most important issue for our generation is not humility or frugality, but trust. We feel betrayed by governments and businesses, (as well as many other organisations,) and the trust is gone. What has made it worse for companies is that customers find ever-easier ways to deal with competitors, to identify and expose the 'lies' and 'fraud' committed against them by companies trying to separate them from their hard-earned money.

There will be more Wikileaks and HelloPeter.com sites (18 million hits every month, making it South Africa's most popular website) that expose companies' worst practices and customers will continue to take action against any business that is vaguely unethical, greedy or abusive.

However, the damage that customers do goes way beyond bad-mouthing a company and affecting its reputation, (in the social media and everywhere else.) Withdrawal of business, taking legal action, contacting consumer bodies and media, abuse of staff and property and not paying accounts are some of the other negative consequences. In addition, all this is in an environment where comparisons are happening in real time and customers demand better prices through decreased cost and waste.

Customer care trends to avoid pitfalls of poor customer management:

• For many years, companies have employed 'brand police' in senior executive positions to ensure that the company image is clearly defined and communicated. More companies will hire senior 'customer police' who are obsessed with ensuring that customers are treated right. As author Chris Anderson put it, "A company's brand is not what the company says it is, but what the customer says it is on Google... The ants have megaphones now." Early on, Jeff Bezos of amazon.com brought an empty chair into meetings so that company executives and managers would be forced to think about the crucial participant who was not in the room: the customer. Now specially trained employees play that role and when they frown, executives tremble. As the power of traditional marketing and promotion activity fails even more, companies will need to focus on giving customer better experiences.

• Businesses will be forced to make customers' lives easier and more convenient. Companies need to look at four levels: What can they do to make it physically easier for customers? What can they do to make things less challenging intellectually and conceptually? What can they do to ensure that customers' emotional frustrations do not occur? How can they save customers' time? Businesses need to look in the real world, as well as online.

• Customers will definitely become even more demanding about basic customer service issues in 2014: greater reliability, quality and keeping promises; more speed; greater 24/7 availability, (never be hard to reach); more personalisation and humanness in communication; more competence and consistency, (and less unpredictability); more friendliness, warmth and empathy; and a greater sense of security and safety. We also predict that much training and motivating people who deal with customers will become a bigger priority for larger companies.

• Companies make mistakes often, (whether it is overcharging your credit card, or sending the wrong product,) and customers usually want to hear two simple little words, "We're sorry." Unfortunately, businesses often have trouble expressing that sentiment, which only leads to more frustration and anger from consumers. Do not ignore customer unhappiness and do not be petty or stingy when sorting it out.

• Innovation and added value will separate average organisations from the unique, distinct and successful ones. To this, we can add customers' expectations of memorable and amazing experiences that they will want repeatedly. It is not only about gifts and entertainment: the personal touch has and always will be very desirable for all customers, not just the select few.

• While social media and the internet will increase in usage, online retailers will not surpass bricks-and- mortar businesses until there is a vast improvement in their half-hearted, excuse-driven service and delivery. With one notable exception - Yuppiechef - SA online retailers leave a lot to be desired in service, reliability and delivery. It is not about fears of credit card fraud, poor internet speed, or an unreliable postal service, it is mostly because South Africans do not trust that their orders will arrive.

• On the other hand, many companies will get cleverer about the way they manage their customers. They will be more adept at creating loyalty and retention, especially for the selected "good customers," cross-selling and upgrading customers, and using the power of referrals and recommendations. Nevertheless, if those customers do not feel actively positive about the business, these strategies will backfire, leaving an even darker void for salespeople. Moreover, decisions will need to be made about the 'long tail' of smaller customers that have the potential to grow.

Many executives may question what the return on investment on customer management activity will be. Our answer is unequivocal; the ROI of taking care of customers is that you will still be around in the next five years to talk about it.