Customer Services: Part III: No To Know

In continuation to my last blog here I have something for you that require your contribution. I am going to discuss about something which also affect our personal life. Although I will not discuss any personal matter, however, you can post your comments relating it to personal life.

How many times do you say ‘No’ in your personal/professional life? How often you hear this word from your friends, partner, family members, colleagues and business rivals? How do you feel when you hear this word? What do you feel about the person who speaks this word to you?

I found it very important to discuss here. There are almost eight times out of ten when your customer’s expectations go off your (individual and or organizational) limitations. The moment becomes very embarrassing when you have to say ‘No’. There is always a fear of break up or rift in your relation. The relation may be personal or professional.

As I was going through a case of a bank, I found one very good scenario to discuss here. Let us do some sort of analysis. In a top banking firm, in phone banking department, an agent got a call from a customer. This customer had problem with one of the branch office of the same bank. He was searching for a branch of the same bank at his native place so that he could fulfill his banking related stuff from his native place. He asked a banker for the same and got reply that there was no branch at Kannur (customer’s native place in India). He was very much frustrated. He contacted the phone banking department of the bank. As the agent received the call he started vomiting his frustration on her and insisted her on transferring his call to manager. She got stuck by listening to him. She tried to make him calm down but all of her efforts were appearing useless. She understood his problem and searched from her end. She found that there was really no branch at that place. She searched for the customer profile and found that he had been very loyal to the bank for a long time. She was in dilemma of how to deal with this customer.

A very difficult scenario where the answer is crystal clear, it’s none other than a simple ‘No’. Instead of saying No you try to make him understand your limitations and throw the problem into a cold bag. And the customer is left in dissatisfaction. You don’t even think of his problem after that. You forget his importance and that is the point where customer feels that nobody is there to listen to his problem. It is your responsibility to understand his problem and make him feel that you are working for him. He is the most important person for the organization.

Once you know his problem you can start our analysis over it. Let us take it as an opportunity. How many times a customer gives feedback of your service? How frequently you/your organization say No to the customer? Does your organization maintain any database for the requests for which the answer is No? Have you ever thought that this No comprises a lot of information in it? It contains the need of your customer which your organization does not provide. Also tells you the area of improvement. It works like your complaint box if you pay more attention to it.

Here I am stopping to write further on this and want to know your views. Please share your ideas on how to convert this No to Know.