A recent experience reminded me how important it is to make it easy for your customers to deal with you.
As some of you will know, we are seeking commercial premises to establish a primary office. We made an appointment to view a particular vacant storefront and were shown through. Now, as we had taken the morning off already, we decided to head directly back to the real estate (less than 100m away) and see if we could also see the vacant commercial premises for lease right NEXT DOOR to the real estate. The rent was almost double for a premises 2/3 the size, but it had other qualities which appealed to me.
The exchange went something like this:
Young girl at the front desk calls out to other staff member at back of the office, “Where are the keys for next door? I want to show these people through”
Girl at back responds “Do they have an appointment?”
Young girl at front desk: “Do you have an appointment? You need to make an appointment.”
We explain that we were just shown through the premises a few doors down and would like to also see the one next door aswell.
Young girl at the front desk relays this infomration by calling it out to the other staff member at back of the office who responds, “You’ll have to let Miss X [person we just met with] know.”
Young girl at front desk tells us they need to ask Miss X first (we saw her less than 2 mins before but she hadn’t returned to the office yet). They try calling her mobile to no avail. No answer after several attempts.
Young girl at front desk: “She’s not answering her phone. Can we get your details so she can call you back?”
So here we stand before them; qualified prospects who are there right then and keen at the moment. The store keys are there. The premises are adjacent. At least three staff appear to be free. The store has been vacant for a lengthy of period in a poor economic climate and, they want to get back to us. It doesn’t take a superior salesperson to work out what’s wrong with this picture.
We leave our details (which, I might add, Miss X already had from the appointment we’d just had with her) and left hoping to hear back while we were still in the area. Obviously, anyone looking at commercial premises is a busy person with little time to waste. As it were, two days later, the call is returned and we were invited to make an appointment to view the premises next door to the Real Estate the following week.
Now, I understand policies and procedures; in fact, I’m a firm believer in them when they contribute to efficiency. However, a simple request should be able to be met with an immediate simple solution. Your clients or customers do not want – or have time for - unneccesary complications.
My advice:: DON’T MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS WORK TOO HARD TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU!!! (they won’t).
Have you had
Article by Christie Lewis
Christie is Practice Manager at Alan Lewis Accountants . Besides accounting, her passion is for all things small business (and blogging, of course). You can contact Christie directly at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.
Christie has written 799 awesome articles for us at Alan Lewis Accountants – BLOG
Twitter: @christielewis
