NFIB

Don' t Let Technology Isolate You From Your Customers
05/ 03/ 2004


Use of technology may allow your company to be more efficient with fewer employees, but many customers are complaining that technology is cutting them off from any personal touches a company has to offer. Many customers like to deal directly with people, and the lack of such access can directly hurt your business. In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses points to a few areas in which this problem can arise.

It's tempting to think that technology can get you more uninterrupted work time. But don't assume that customers can be nurtured with an impersonal approach. Answering messages and voice mail are a source of growing dissatisfaction among customers in almost every field. Many people get irritated when the first thing they hear when calling in is: "If you have a touch-tone phone, please press '1' now." Some voice mail leads customers through endless loops, none of which enable them to speak with a customer representative. All too often, by the time a customer navigates through the maze and is finally directed to a person's telephone extension, all the customer hears is a message saying, "I'm sorry, I'm not available at present so please leave a message." This can be the death knell to customer satisfaction.

If you decide to use extensive voice-mail answering technology, make it easy for your customers to speak with a person when they need to (or simply want to).For instance, start your message with something along the line of: "To reach an operator, simply press `0 at any time during this message." Then make sure that someone is available to take the call. Simply assuring that your customers hear a live human voice can go along way to increasing customer satisfaction.

If your representatives use E-mail exclusively to keep in touch with customers, your company may become depersonalized. E-mail is handy and cost-effective, to be certain. But it often is written in a clipped, rather impersonalized way. Impress on your representatives the value of using the telephone once in a while to speak with customers.

Your Web site is a valuable asset, both for your company and customers. But even the most lively, innovative Web sites are, by their very nature, somewhat impersonal. Don't let too much time go by without direct contact by telephone or in person with your most important customers.

The very ease with which computer-generated letters can be cranked out may encourage a company to use such letters as the primary basis for customer contact. But people know when a letter isn't really written to them as an individual, even if it does have their name at the top. Fortunately, small businesses are often able to maintain an intimate touch by including something personal about customers in each and every letter sent out. This can give a small businesses an edge over larger businesses that have grown too large to maintain this personal touch.

Even faxes have a certain impersonal feel to them. If you have something to tell a customer, say it in a brief phone call. Then use a fax to follow up with specific details that are best noted or described in writing.

Remember that business is, essentially, direct dealings between individuals. Technology should serve to streamline the dealing, not replace it. Keep the personalized quality in all your operations, showing your customers that you care about them as people. They will respond, and your business will benefit.

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