Combing out the snarls - customer relations

Combing Out The Snarls

THIS IS THE ONLY NOTICE YOU WILL GET. That is one insurance company's greeting in its annual bill to its customers. Yet, the marketing vice president for this large, competitive corporation probably does not know that it is going out to his hard-won customers.

Lower and middle level employees, operating out of sight of both management and the customer, undermine millions of dollars spent on marketing and advertising with insulting notices. Service representatives, billing officers and others have the most frequent dealings with customers, yet these employees often unwittingly sabotage the corporate image.

Insulting collection notices, unfriendly phone operators and bills that sound like accusations all create a sense of silent antagonism by the consumer toward the company. But the company, particularly the marketing division, all too often is oblivious to the fight that is going on.

Often the customer never sees or speaks to the person who originated the message. If there is any personal contact, it may be an occasion for aggravated outrage.

In the middle of film production at Cleveland-based Cinecraft Studios which produces corporate training films, 30 staff members waited on the set while President Paul Culley dashed off to a pay phone--his business phone had been disconnected. Culley maintained that some mistake had been made, but the phone company official stood by his records. He refused to discuss anything until the check for the outstanding balance was in his hands.

When Culley arrived, furious and carrying his check and copies of payment records, he was stopped in the lobby. Security guards would not permit him to enter the elevators unless he had an appointment with someone. They told him to leave his check at the teller window and send in a mistake claim by mail. This was from a company whose ads claimed, "We understand your business."

Management is often woefully unaware of how the customer is being treated. George N. Havens, chairman and chief executive officer of the Jayme Organization, a Cleveland marketing firm specializing in business-to-business advertising, says, "The unofficial communicators outnumber our official communicators. But they fly way below management's radar, deep within the corporate bureaus. They seldom or never meet a customer, don't know one if they see one, don't know how hard it is to get hold of one." Havens claims that many of these employees look at customers as interruptions. "They believe efficiency could be improved if the nuisance could be eliminated."

In order to help employees improve their relations with customers, communication needs to be coordinated on all corporate levels.

If you would like to make some changes in the messages that go out to your clients, the following steps should get you started.

1. Collect samples of all forms that go out to customers: billing communications, delay of shipment notices, acknowledgments of requests for information, back order notices, customer service replies, surveys and announcements of training sessions.

Robert Cottle, vice president of marketing at Ralph Wilson Plastics, of Temple, Tex., suggests you have a trustworthy salesperson revise the forms, making sure the forms are courteous.

If they must go through your lawyers, Cottle advises that the salespeople have a final review afterward.

2. Institute a system for the marketing department to monitor routing communications to customers. "When someone invents a new letter to customers, someone in marketing should see it," says Steve LaFerre, a public relations officer for the B.F. Goodrich tire division.

3. Establish a system for grief mail to get upstairs for regular review. "This is not easy," says the Jayme organization's Havens. "It isn't that the public has not been trying to tell us the problems. It's more that corporate bureaucrats hesitate to send the bad news up the channels. If you're seeing only good news in your correspondence from customers, look for a bottleneck downstairs."

Conrad Hilton operated under this theory when he sent out apology letters under his own name. The letters included enough detail to make the recipient feel Hilton knew about his complaint: "Please accept my apology for November 13. The fact that you were kept waiting, and then obliged to use another hotel, is distressing to us."

4. Keep tabs on what outside, hired organizations are saying to your customers. The customer will remember your company's name, even if it is the middleman who annoys him.

In amherst, Ohio, a bank handling utilities payments sent the customers' money in late. The utility automatically sent each customer a disconnection notice. "Your account is past due. If we do not hear from you by your service will be discontinued. Reconnection fees will apply. This is your only notice." Neither the company nor the bank apologized or took responsibility for the mishap.

5. Refine telephone answering techniques. Philip D. Estridge, president of the entry systems division of IBM, ordered the removal of all telephone answering machines. "IBM's respect for the individual cannot be carried out by an answering machine," he says.

Cottle points out that the people answering telephones are often not a whole lot more respectful than the machines. Again, the change must start at the top.

Richard J. Jacob, chairman of Dayco, a Dayton, Ohio manufacturer, answers his own phone. He handles nuisance calls because, he says, "one of the calls may be from an auto executive wanting to talk about a half a million dollars worth of automotive equipment." 6. Offer training for employees. Have your own salespeople devise a short, fast-paced customer relations seminar. It could include skits, dramatizing different ways to handle phone calls or to wait on customers. Humor helps.

7. Establish a refresher course and some follow-up programs. Personnel changes, people slip back into old habits, but most of all, people need to be reminded and encouraged to listen to themselves talk.

Employees, like customers, appreciate it when they feel you notice their efforts and reward them when they try harder.

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