CUSTOMER ACCESS STRATEGIES

Communication should be a two way street, not a dead end road

Perhaps I am just cynical, but I get very suspicious when an organisation announces that it is developing a new ‘Customer Access Strategy’.

In real terms, to my mind, this means that they will be looking at ways to prevent customers getting to speak to real live people who might be able to answer their queries or concerns in person, instead reverting to the press 1 for, 2 for.... the ‘your call is in a queue and will be answered shortly’ or ‘to find out more information access our website at ....’, scenarios, often at the customer’s expense, and usually to no avail.

As a customer service trainer I continually bang about staff taking ownership and responsibility for their customers, but increasingly it is difficult to find a specific person to speak to, and very often e-mail contact will only be by using a pro-forma of the organisation’s choosing.

This brings to mind the whole concept of modern day communication, where no matter what the organisation, whether public, private or charitable, the one key factor that is proving a barrier to progress is poor communication, both internally and externally. Recent research has shown that this is also one of the biggest complaints amongst employees when surveyed about their views.

With the advent of computers, almost 50 years ago, we were promised a paperless revolution, which has clearly not happened. What has replaced it though is the e-mail equivalent of junk mail, where we are bombarded day and night, whether we like it or not, with messages and attachments that take forever to open, and which we, the recipients, are expected to print off, at our own expense.  

Communication can take many other forms but nowadays gone is the expectation that we will do so by letter, long since consigned to the ‘snail mail’ bin by many.

To replace it, in addition to e-mail, we have the invidious creep of texting, social media, Facebook, Twitter and others; constant but often meaningless sound bites, the communication equivalent of the ubiquitous Japanese knot weed, invading everything within its orbit.

If I were to be a willing communicant (which I am not) via all of the various websites I am expected to access, I’d spend most of my time glued to a computer or similar device, going from one site to another; in addition to trying to recall different passwords and access codes.

We are all expected to be proficient at communicating, but what increasingly seems to be missing is the vital link between the sender and the recipient, where at the touch of a button we can convey our message, however irrelevant, to any number of people.

This is clearly not GOOD communication, where there is little opportunity or expectation of both parties to engage in meaningful two way dialogue.

Increasingly communication in large organisations is from the top down, when they choose, and to their agenda. There appears to be very little that is initiated or readily accepted from the bottom up.

I believe that what is needed is a fundamental shift away from this approach, particularly when dealing with customers. If by using your goods or services I am contributing to your pay packet then the least you can do is to allow me the opportunity to contact you when I want, on my terms, not yours.  Of interest to readers will be this website which has captured the personal contact details of many top CEOs www.ceoemail.com.