The angry customer hat

When was the last time you took a hard look at your organization's products or policies? I'd suggest you do it today and before you do, put on your "angry customer hat."

As its name implies it helps you remove your 'insider' glasses, industry knowledge and justifications, so you may consider how your products or policies might be viewed from your customers' perspective.

This is harder to do than it may sound.

Read your copy in your product flyers, catalogs or ads. Look for ways it could be misunderstood or twisted. Consider your marketing campaigns with this hat on a month before your launch them, so you have a chance to adjust as needed.

If you need some help getting in the right 'angry' frame of mind, ask your front line staff. Sales or customer service people can provide you some real world feedback which they hear everyday. It will get you going the right direction, with the right intentions.

Now comes the critical part of this process. Just because someone might try to twist something doesn't mean you need to change it, but it does mean you need to be ready with your answer and maybe a sense of humor.

Most certainly, you want to be sure you are clear - beyond reasonable misunderstanding.

And, you want your product or policy to make logical sense. Does it have a solid basis? Is it smart.

Doing this well, will save you and, more importantly, your sales, customer service or installation staff a lot of headaches. If you don't know where to start, think about places where customers first interact with your company. Start there with your angry customer hat.

How to make people care.

Many have written about this topic and the issue is not solved evidenced by an example I witnessed while traveling recently. Here's the short version: Flight was oversold in an airport full of people who had been delayed by weather, so there is a standby list. Gate agent continually begs people to give up their seat, so they can get down to the number. I'm not sure if anyone bit or not. Regardless, boarding goes on as normal.

An adult son of one of the standby passengers is on the plane. He calls Mom and says they are about to close the door and there are 5 seats available. Mom goes to gate agent saying, "Hey, please get me on that plane. My son on the plane says there are 5 open seats." Agent was about to close the door says, let me check. Turns out there were 6 seats available, so most of the stand by passengers got to go - thanks to the son.

I understand that in this situation there are MANY moving parts. Stress is huge for all involved. The airline wants to be 'on time.' However, I was struck by how little the airline staff seemed to care. They had 6 open seats on a plane leaving an airport PACKED with people and they didn't appear to be acting to fill them. Wow!

Again, I realize it is crazy for airline staff in situations like this, but what a perfect time to really care about the people standing there waiting to go - wherever they planned to go.

This situation caused a discussion among our traveling party about how to make people care. Of course, there are no quick fixes and even caring people can have a bad hour or two.

So what can you do to instill caring as part of your company culture? Here are some things to consider.

     1. If you have the chance, hire to this skill. Make it one of the skills you MUST have. Department doesn't matter.

     2. Make sure you model caring to your staff. Help people. Show compassion. Let them know this is who you are as a company.

     3. Make your expectations clear and give them permission to fix a problem. You might need limits, but keep them general.

     4. Reward employees who consider customer experience - before or during a problem.

Regardless of your industry, caring employees matter. Your company will thrive because of them while others wilt.

What are your favorite ways to make employees care?