But it's ME!

I am a raving fan of my family doctor. He is thorough, attentive and patient, the staff is knowledgeable and efficient, and even the lab does their work with little to no discomfort. Yet, at the four minute mark on hold listening to how “important” my call is, I begin to feel a wee bit put-off.

I know the wonderful receptionists give the very best service to all of their guests, yet I am experiencing a frustration that many of us have felt when things aren’t as personalized, as timely, or as efficient as we believe we deserve. It’s what I term the “but it’s ME” factor.

The soothing hold music is on its second loop at the six-minute mark. Six minutes and ten seconds after I dialed – a 2010 eternity – my call was answered. Of course, I got great service.

So what happens when your guests call or email you? Your raving fans no doubt have a very strong, “but it’s ME” factor, occasional users are having their suspicions confirmed either positively or negatively about their decision to use your company, and new guests have nearly as strong of a feeling of “but it’s ME” as your raving fans. We all want answers NOW, simply because it’s me.

We have a company-wide standard that all emails are personally acknowledged within 20minutes of receipt, and have a year-end goal to reduce the wait time to six minutes. After two unanswered rings, phone calls roll to another sales consultant and in-house guests are greeted between 10-20 seconds of entering the building.

Standards have been set in order to improve the quality of the customer experience. As with goal setting, if an organization is without a guideline for the speed at which we acknowledge our raving fans or newest customers (both should be the same by the way), we tend to get lost in the moment – a very dangerous place. Being lost in the moment can lead to customers seemingly getting in the way of us doing our jobs.

“Ugh – another phone call. Sheesh, when am I going to get this paperwork done?”
“My emails just won’t stop coming today!”
“It’s one thing after another!”

Sound familiar? Customers can’t get in the way of us doing business – they ARE our business. When we’re the ones providing the product or service, we need to adopt the “of course I can, because it’s YOU” attitude toward each of our customers.

When guests feel that we place the same importance on their questions, needs or concerns that they have - and they know that we understand and we care - we can leave everyone with their, “but factor” feeling really good about us and the way we do business.

By the way, the doc’s office just personally called to let me know that my concern was taken care of, I’m sure they did that just because it’s me.