Put Your Customers First

This article is a reprint of Wise Bread's contribution to OPEN Forum from American Express -- where small business owners can get advice from experts and share tips with each other.

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No doubt you’ve wrestled with products that are impossible to pry open, electronic device tags that can’t be removed with anything short of napalm, and clothing labels that are so scratchy they actually result in bodily harm. Why do companies put you through that? Because they’re so focused on what’s important to them that they don’t consider what’s important to you.

Here’s an example. We called a mobile phone company about an accounting issue, and they told us we had to go in to a store to solve the problem. What? You can’t do business by phone with a phone company? If they were more interested in what’s convenient for me, not what’s convenient for them, I’d be a lot happier.

In fact, if you think about it, all the devices mobile phone companies sell are made by someone else. Sure, they have to provide a network, but what are they really selling? The real business they’re in (or should be in)—is customer service. Yet they repeatedly earn among the lowest retailer customer service ratings.

So how do you keep your business from falling into the “it’s all about me” trap? Here’s how.

Make It Easy for Me to Understand What You Sell

I’ve been investigating a so-called dashboard software that can be used to make brain-numbing spreadsheets more understandable. I downloaded a demo, and was immediately contacted by one of the company’s “Customer Success Representatives.” A little pushy, but so far so good.

When the demo didn’t work, as in “at all,” I contacted her, but received no response. So I went to their website and watched what was described as an introductory video. But it explained how to change the colors of the user interface. When I signed up to download a tutorial, they never sent the link. I managed to find a set of instructions billed as “First Steps” but the very first step didn’t work. I gave up.

Make It Easy for Me to Do Business with You

Every company struggles to find ways to attract customers, and some do an amazingly good job. But many could flush the money they spend on ads down the toilet for all the good it does them. They make it so difficult for hard-earned prospects to do business with them that could-be customers simply go elsewhere:

• Websites have broken links or links to the wrong places;
• Ads and websites don’t provide contact information, maps or directions;
• Web forms don’t fill in city and state when a zip code is provided;
• Telephone systems require endless navigation to reach an operator who spends the first five minutes asking questions that solve their problems (say, verifying your address), not mine. Why not start with, “How can I help you” and solve your problems before they solve theirs?

Apple has made it so easy for you to do business with them they even let you use your iPhone to pay for accessories in their stores. The Apple Store app lets you scan a UPC code, touch a few buttons, and just walk out of the store with the product. It’s so easy some say it feels as if they’re shoplifting.

Make It Easy for Me to Use Your Products

Is some assembly required? Give me the tools. Does your gizmo uses batteries? Include them. You expect me to actually read the instructions? Make them big enough for humans to see—the 65 and older population is going to double in the next 15 years.

If you think I’m ranting about a problem that doesn’t exist, consider how many VCR and DVD players, how many cameras, and how many cars have clocks with the wrong time because they’re hard to set. Consider how many apps you have that you never use because they’re too hard to figure out. Consider how many wifi or bluetooth products you have that aren’t networked to anything because you can’t figure out how make them talk to each other.

But I bet all your clocks would be set, and all your apps would get used, and all your gizmos would be networked with one another if manufacturers and vendors would make it easy for you to do so.

Make It Easy for Me to Return Your Products

From an odd sort of perspective, one of the important ways to make people happy to do business with you is to make it easy for them not to do business with you.

There are plenty of apocryphal stories about people who have been allowed to return products to Nordstrom and Home Depot that, in all likelihood, weren’t purchased there. COSTCO will accept returns without question on almost every product they sell. Zappos is famous for paying shipping both ways, as they put it, so you can’t not buy from them.

The message? If they treat unhappy, non-customers so well, imagine what they’ll do for you.

Where to Start

If you think about it, the Golden Rule is a pretty good place to start thinking about customer satisfaction. Ask yourself, would you like your business to do unto you as you do unto your customers?