Customer relations
I am really angry these days thinking about the stuff I’ve been through the last few weeks. As I mentioned in my first post, I am an area sales manager and I am working at least 9 hours a day communicating with the companies costumers, with people. I am not even close to be perfect, but it really bugs me when idiots hired for support or just for forwarding mail to the right person don’t do their job or are incompetent to do it. You don’t wanna do it, go away, let someone else do it. You can’t do it, find something you can.
There are a few basic rules to start and maintain a good relation with your customer. First, if he contacts you for anything, even if he wants to ask you when is your grandma’s birthday, you have to answer him. If your customer does not get an answer for his question you will probably lose that customer. Second, if your customer asks for any information you don’t treat him like the most dumb person in the world. Third, don’t waste your time on details. Tell your customers exactly what he wants to know and let him know he can contact you for further details. He might just need some basic information about your product, the rest being obvious. If you start telling him all the details he might get confused, lost and forget the thing he was actually supposed to remember. Forth, and last for today, be sure you give your costumer the right information. Customers are usually really unhappy to get as a reply information that they did not need without any relevance to their request.
I wrote these few lines because I can’t really understand how companies like Kodak can afford to ruin their image by paying idiots to answers peoples support requests. I, for example, asked a simple question about the Orientation Sensor option, which my Kodak camera has, but uses it wrong and the one answering my mail start explaining how it works, how can I turn it on and off. OK, so he called me a lamer and flooded me with information I already know, leaving me with the problem unsolved. Oh, he also mentioned that my camera works correctly. I really don’t wanna mention the outcome of my reply.
Stories about customer relations departments are still many to be told, but maybe another time!
Sweet dreams, Greyheart
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