Making it easy

I’ve been doing some work to help a client translate feedback from customers into better ways of working.  Stripped of consultant jargon, this means: "Your customers say they don't like it when you do this. Please stop."

If only it was that simple. The things we are helping our client to change are in existence because the client needs to manage their costs and the trade-off of  improving the customer experience while keeping costs down - is not simple.

So we are turning things on their heads. Instead of thinking "what can we do to make things better?" we are thinking "What can we do to make it easier for our customers to deal with us?" In other words, thinking as if we were customers.  

And you know? It's working.   An example: one problem we had was that customers were calling our client for help, when the information they needed was already available to them on the website. When we checked it out, we found that customers could find the customer service telephone number at the top of the webpage, while the information they needed was a few clicks further down the page. So they called straightaway, rather than taking the thirty seconds or so to look down the page.  Result? The customer got the information they needed - but after a time-consuming phone call taking five or more minutes, rather than in seconds from the website.

So our client made it easier to draw the customer's attention to the necessary information - and moved the telephone number to the bottom of the page.

Result? Calls from customers have been cut by 50% - while customers are getting the answers they need in seconds, not minutes. Lower cost, happier customers.

So many companies don't realise that one of the fastest and easiest ways to boost customer satisfaction and sales is make it as easy as possible for your customers to deal with you.

In other words, pay as much time and attention to managing and motivating your customers as you do your people - and you'll be rich.

-  Drib