Jonathan Farrington's Blog

When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there’s a gap - a huge gap between theory and practice. There are books about customer relations, there are videos about customer relations, and there are Gurus (mostly self-appointed) about customer relations. None of them actually have to deliver customer relations. That chore is left to what was known in the last two World Wars as the PBI – as in “Poor B….y Infantry”- the foot soldiers. The front line people – your front line people. So what do they make of it all?

You know about Pareto’s Law – I discuss it often enough – yes that one, the one that says 80% of the business comes from 20% of the customers? Well, it (almost) applies in this case. More than 80% of front line staff haven’t yet totally bought into the idea of effective customer relations. The other 20% have discovered a very enriching way of achieving a satisfactory outcome from interactions with customers.

In other words, most of the time, they succeed! And when they succeed, the customers actually thank them!

This can’t be about you – can it?

Let’s find out! Just click on the banner below, to download my latest Free Ebook for you.

Today’s News:

Fellow Top Sales Expert and really all round good egg Diane Helbig, is a contributing author to a brand new book focussing on a very brave and ever-growing group of women, who sacrifice so much in order to balance their lives, whilst still pursuing their dreams. There are not adjectives in the Oxford Dictionary to describe the respect that I have for Diane, and the thousands, if not millions of women like her.

If you are looking for inspiration, this is a book you really must read – just click here to grab your copy of “Chicken Soup For The Soul – Power Moms” now.

In fact, Diane is the guest over at TSE Dailies today, so you can catch up with her by simply clicking on the banner below.

Tomorrow: Talking of inspirational women; my guest tomorrow on The JF Guest Author Spot is right up there – she oozes chic, intellectual band-width and so much more …..  we can all learn from her. Join me tomorrow and enjoy the words of wisdom from Nancy D. Solomon

For companies to remain competitive now, their sales organisation must be able to respond positively to changing economic tides. As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople but ensuring that these new methods are widely practised and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:
Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain. To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:
Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed because their staff regard them as part of the sales team but coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.
Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:
The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognise and reward outstanding achievement, formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognise and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behaviour and results that you reward.”

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary, from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off. Interestingly some organisations we know, base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

Today’s News: Three Top Sales Experts are presenting over at Business Expert Webinars this week: Cheryl Clausen, Anne Miller and Leslie Buterin – you can get all the details here

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, Colleen Francis – “Make 2009 the Year You Reinvent Your Sales!”

My personal view is that as we hurtle into 2009 and all of the financial uncertainty that we are destined to face on a daily basis, the organisations most likely to survive and even thrive, will be the ones who are willing to adapt and be prepared to change direction when market conditions dictate that they should.

Inevitably, that means smaller companies will do better, because they will not be weighed down by unnecessary beaurocracy and the “decision by committee” mentality; they will not have to wait for corporate boardroom decisions to be taken, often miles away from the frontline; no hanging around waiting for budgets to be approved, leaving the competition to steal the lead etc. etc.  

Compare the braking distance of a juggernaut with that of a small family saloon – you get the picture.

I also believe that smaller companies are more capable of building stronger, sustainable relationships with their customers, and we can certainly say that 2009 will also be the year of “Customer Focus” – it’s what me learned colleague Colleen Francis refers to as “Love the one you are with”

But what exactly does “Customer Focus” mean?

Customer Focus Creates Competitive Advantage:

• The one term that sets top performers apart – customer focus
• Outstanding sales results depend on:
- The ability to think from the customer’s point of view
- Understanding the customer’s agenda, buying cycle and best interests
• Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, salespeople must gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate
• At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively – the best salespeople are masters at capturing information
• Customer focus means taking the customer seriously – to-day the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground
• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors – customised to support specific goals
• Another myth which can be exploded is that whilst customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.

In summary, in order to maintain customer focus the best salespeople become facilitators, creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong – it costs seven times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!

The right to do business has to be continually earned and never assumed – that is certainly a message we will all need to heed in 2009.

Today’s News: We are changing the format slightly here on the Blogit: On Wednesdays I will be providing you with a book review and also giving away FREE, one of my ebooks – so, you have the chance to build up a collection of fifty two books over the course of 2009.

However, I am going to retain the two JF Guest Author Spots, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The JF Uncut posts at weekends, will not be regular features, but rather I’ll post if there is something I need to get off my chest! 

Tomorrow: My first guest of 2009 will be my good friend Paul McCord – best selling author, sales guru, senior Top Sales Expert and a fellow member of the soon to be launched “Global Sales Council”

Customer care has become one of the most important issues facing businesses in every market – there are less customers, spending less and making fewer purchases. There has never been a more appropriate time for every organisation to examine it’s approach to customer retention.  

Customer care programmes come under a number of titles – customer services, customer satisfaction, customer focus, customer orientated etc.

Their common theme is meeting the customer’s requirements and ensuring that all aspects of the business contribute to customer satisfaction. The intention is to build repeat business if customers are satisfied with the product and the standards of service they receive, they will return again and again.

Inconsistent Customer Care
 
Inconsistent customer care performance can have a negative effect on customer perceptions. Petrol companies for example, know that every time a customer walks into one of their outlets, wherever they are in the country, they should expect to receive the same standards of service. Nation-wide consistency is essential when customers are likely to visit multiple outlets – one poor performance can threaten the customer’s perception of the entire operation.

What Is Customer Care? 
 
 Customer care is about addressing three sets of requirements:
 
• Customer
 
• Staff
 
• Organisation
 
These requirements are interrelated, i.e. it is more difficult to deliver consistently high standards in customer care if the needs of both the organisation and the staff are not taken into account

Customer Requirements
 
• Excellent personal service – feels valued, listened to, treated as an individual

• Products that meet expectations

• Encouragement to express views and give feedback

• Effective relationship with the organisation

• Problems and complaints are handled effectively

Staff Requirements
 
• Effective management style

• Suitable working environment – pay and conditions / tools for the job

• Relevant training to develop skills

• Career potential

• Clarity of role / job description

• Performance standards and appraisal systems

• Sense of involvement / value

• Open communication

• Teamwork

• Rewards / Recognition

Organisational Requirements
 
• Mission statement
 
• Corporate structure
 
• Feedback and communication systems
 
• Profit
 
• Human and technical resources
 
• Demonstrated commitment

Who Are Your Customers?  
 
If you are not serving the customer, you should be serving someone who is. Harmonious relationships with customers and colleagues are essential to service success, because providing outstanding customer service is primarily a team effort. For excellent customer service to exist it has to be practised on an internal basis

The What And The How
 
 The “What” is the material and the “How” is the personal element. To be outstanding, organisations must deliver excellence in both material and personal service. Customer service is no longer just a question of interpersonal skills

The difference between you and your competitors is achieved when expectations are exceeded. Doing the unexpected, going the extra mile, moves us from meeting expectations to exceeding expectations

How To Delight Customers:
 
• Be enthusiastic enthusiasm is the driving force of quality service.Customers do not just want products they want products plus enthusiasm
 
• Be professional the word professional does not go with the job it goes with the person
 
Be The Best
 
• Someone, somewhere has to be the best at this job – why not me?

• Decide to be outstanding
 
How To Be The Best
 
• Use positive self talk – e.g. tell yourself ‘Everyday in every way, i get better and better’

• Don’t be ordinary

• Develop a ‘How can I do it better?’ mind set

Today Everyone Sells
 
 In a successful company the number of sales people equals the number of employees

• Everyone sells something  – either products, services or the image of the company
 
And Finally: How To Help Yourself Sell
 
• Pay attention  – give people the benefit of your attention

• Customers like to give their business to those who show they want it

Ready to overhaul your customer service approach? You’ll find a lot of helpful advice here

Today’s News: I’ve talked about the number of “Social Media” sites that I have been tempted to get involved with, but you know, I always come back to just four. That’s not to say that all the others are not good, they are, but for me it is a time issue.

So if you want to contact me, link with me or even follow me, just click on one or all of these banners -

Tomorrow: It’s the w/e, and that means it is JF Uncut. Tomorrow, I am going after the biggest horse’s ass that I have ever listened to – stand up Brad Blakeman, I am coming. Be sure to join me

I need to say right up front, that most people who complain have a legitimate reason to do so and we should actively welcome customer complaints. In fact this is a topic on which I evangelise almost daily to my clients.

However, sometimes it is just not possible to reach agreement with or appease a dissatisfied customer or client. You should always be alert to the following:

The Manipulator:

Everyone would like something for nothing given the chance, but most of us stop short of deliberate scheming. Those who are clearly out to complain to get freebies – meals, vouchers, tickets – need firm handling otherwise they go away and tell their friends to try the same trick. They could put you out of business.

The Noisy One:

Plenty of volume, fist thumping, table banging, bulging veins but no real cause for complaint. Sounds familiar?

These people just want to be heard. They’ve got a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Take them away from the crowd, sit them down (it’s harder to get angry then), stay in control and if all else fails say, ‘I’m not prepared to listen until you stop shouting’. If need be, call for back-up

Techniques For Special Situations:

Chronic Complainers:

Some people (less than 10%) complain out of habit. It’s a behaviour pattern they have learned. You can see them coming, again and again. The rules are simple.

• Be patient; don’t give them real cause to complain about your attitude.

• Ask closed questions, keep dialogue to a minimum.

• Stick to the point.

Some managers call their bluff.

‘Well Mr. Davis. I am really sorry you are yet again unhappy with our service. Perhaps you would like to try … on the High Street.’

This often stops them in their tracks.

In Summary – Drawing The Line:

Every company will draw its own boundaries but some general guidelines used by many businesses include:

• Threats of violence – physical and verbal

• Abuse – swearing, shouting

• When nothing seems to be acceptable

• When reason doesn’t prevail

• When you correct the problem but then there’s something else …!

• When it’s clear your customer is out to abuse the system

Some customers aren’t worth having. They are bad business. Don’t be frightened about losing them providing you are certain that you have been fair, acted with integrity and endeavoured to obtain a “win-win” conclusion.

Today’s News: Over on Salesopedia, the hot-topic is “Home Working” and as more and more of us realise that we can be so much more productive, with far less downtime, by extending the study, you will discover some insightful advice here

Tomorrow: Drew Stevens PhD, marks his debut on The JF Guest Author Spot. This young man is incredibly talented, and a really nice guy; you will not want to miss his words of wisdom.

Ask a colleague to define the customer and they will probably say ‘Someone who buys from us.’

What about internal customers? Colleagues, other departments, branches, suppliers? They are equally as important and deserve to have their problems and complaints taken seriously.

External customers sense if there is a good working atmosphere, a co-ordinated approach to customer service, teamwork, and high morale. It gives them confidence to stay with you.

Passing Blame
Why is it that when customers blame us for something going wrong we are quick to blame others, especially in big organisations?

‘We passed the order to stores weeks ago; I don’t know what they have done with it.’ (You know very well it’s still in your in-tray!)

Customers see through these feeble excuses and are not impressed!

Why do this?
• Stores are always making mistakes; attributing one more to them won’t make any difference
• There’s a particular person in Stores you don’t like
• No one will find out whether they are to blame are not
• They have blamed your department often enough
• They always beat your staff at the annual bowling challenge

Two Way Process
Lack of communication between departments is often cited as the reason for poor working relationships.

“They never tell us anything” is a frequent cry.

Communication is a two way process. The most efficient of systems will not be effective if people don’t read their messages, look at the notice boards, and log on to their computers, check their voice mail or pay attention at meetings.

Getting people to sign memos only provides proof of receipt, not of having read them. They need to want to know what’s going on.

Low morale and a critical and suspicious environment will prompt employees to see customers as a nuisance and not the lifeblood of the business. Every employee needs to appreciate that they contribute to customer satisfaction even if they are working behind the scenes, e.g. maintenance, cleaning, refuse collection, etc. They deserve to be kept informed!

Company Culture
Some departments pride themselves on being the most efficient, the best organised, the most responsive, and expect others to live up their standards and follow their procedures. This can foster resentment and lead to a refusal to co-operate. Frustration and conflict can cause bad feeling and a desire to sabotage. This often happens when an organisation has no clear vision or has not communicated one to the staff. Poor leadership or managers with their own agendas are other contributory factors.

Working in isolation, split site or satellite offices often result in an autonomous management with a workforce who want to do their ‘own thing’.

This has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. Customers become the victims of internal politics.

What’s it got to do with them?

Insecurity
Another cause of internal conflict is insecurity: downsizing, management restructuring, fast-talking business consultants, threat of job loss, short term contracts, all might trigger a loss of pride in the job and a couldn’t care less attitude. Customers become anxious and take their business elsewhere.

Insecurity manifests itself in a number of behaviours:
• Gossip and back-stabbing
• Shifting blame
• Anger, depression
• Increase in absences due to stress
• Constant moaning and whinging
• Negative thinking

In this environment it is likely that customer complaints will increase. It is essential to keep the customer at the centre of everything you do, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. – Without customers you don’t have a job.

Taking Action
Managers need to be very observant. Early identification of problems is the key to a successful solution.

Look out for:
• Deadlines not met
• Increase in illness
• Poor quality work
• Atmospheres
• Arguments

Action:
• Ask questions in a confidential manner
• Reassure, calm fears
• Praise, encourage
• Don’t blame or challenge
• Involve people
• Motivate, reward

Multi-Skilling & Interdepartmental Working
Conflict also arises through ignorance. Giving people the opportunity to learn about the work of others and equipping them with new skills, helps dispel fears, boost confidence, and motivate. It also takes people out of their enclosed worlds of Accounts or the Post room and gives them the bigger picture.

Many complaints arise because staff feel they are expected to do a job without any training. Allowing them to attend courses out of the workplace is very beneficial. It gives them the opportunity to network with others, revitalise their ideas and acquire new skills. Hopefully they’ll come back and think, ‘It’s not such a bad place after all’.

In any business, we are all customers of each other. Unless we get the internal customer service right it won’t extend naturally to external customers.

How can you do this?
• Have a positive attitude to your own work and that of your colleagues
• Help out when necessary

Remember you are all working to a common aim, customer satisfaction.

And Finally: Team Building
It isn’t necessary to take the workforce paint-balling in Sherwood Forest to ‘bond’, build trust or foster better working relationships.

Time away from the desk or shop floor to discuss issues in small groups, social evenings, and interdepartmental activities can be just as effective.

Everyone needs to understand their own worth and value to the company.

High self-esteem = reduction in conflict = better customer relations = more profitable business.

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia the topic is “Sales Talk Tips” featuring fellow Top Sales Expert Colleen Francis – Colleen says “Top sales performers pay attention to the dialogue they have with their prospects. She provides tips on how to “share the love” in conversation by using softening statements, deploying echo techniques, creating space, and being honest but not brutal. Find out why you want to remove the word “I” from your conversation.” You can listen in here

 Tomorrow:On The Jf Guest Author Spot one of the most recent recruits to the Top sales Experts team, Linda Richardson of Richardson Training is my guest.

It is said that 91 percent of people do not complain. They prefer to obtain their revenge by not buying from a business that has given them an inferior product or a poor service. They have passive power, and they know it!

The following is a true story – only the name of the business has been changed.

Blooming Buds was a well-established garden center on the outskirts of a growing town. Two years before it closed, it had expanded to include a café, a gift shop and an organic fruit and vegetable outlet. As well as employing a core staff of 10, it took on a number of seasonal and part-time staff.

The company didn’t have a customer service policy, nor did it believe in wasting money on training. Customers seemed happy enough. After all, the business hardly got any complaints. No, everything appeared to be rosy with Blooming Buds.

The manager should have been a bit suspicious. A lack of complaints doesn’t necessarily mean that all customers are happy. In fact, most of us don’t bother complaining. We just walk away and never go back.
The business’ expansion, unsurprisingly, led to a variety of organizational and logistical problems. There were staffing shortages and managerial inexperience. They experienced a reduction in quality. Gradually business dropped off, but still, nothing was done about it.

The staff stopped telling the manager about some of the problems they had encountered because he wouldn’t listen. He invested heavily in advertising and made sizable capital changes. He never once thought about getting some feedback from his customers.

Eventually, the inevitable happened. The business had to close.

Complaints Are Opportunities

That’s right: complaints are actually opportunities. Opportunities to do what, you ask?

You can use complaints to:

• Evaluate how well you are doing
• Identify weak points in your system and processes and put them right
• See situations from the customer’s point of view
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Create long-term loyalty – handling disgruntled customers well often leaves them feeling more positive about your organization than before.

Some Worrying Facts

One unhappy customer tells 10 to 15 others about their experience, and if it is really bad they will tell the whole world. For every complaint that could be made, around 20 people do not even bother. This means potentially 20 lost opportunities.

If you handle a complaint badly or with an “I could not care less” attitude, or worse, if you hide behind the “rule book,” you will lose that customer for good.

While the example above comes from the brick-and-mortar world of retail, the same rules apply for business-to-business (B2B) sales as well as e-tail and e-commerce.

Whether your team sells and services your customers face-to-face, phone-to-office, or over the Web, the strategy is the same: Welcome complaints, encourage complaints and ensure that your organization is “complaint friendly.” Your business will be healthier as a result.

Today’s News: Have you visited the Top Sales Experts site recently? A number of very talented new team members have been added recently including: Debbie Fay, Nigel Edelshain, Alen Majer, Terri Dunnevant, Steve Kramer, Stone Payton, Karl Goldfield, Dave Kurlan, Shane Gibson, Paul Cherry and Tim Wackel – do drop in here 

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome back Tim Wackel.

 
Why is it that when customers blame us for something going wrong, we are quick to blame others, especially in larger organizations?

“We passed the order to Department X weeks ago; I do not know what they have done with it.” (You know very well it is still in your in-tray!) Customers see through these feeble excuses and are not impressed.

Why do we do things like this? Here are a few justifications:

• Department X is always making mistakes; attributing one more to them won’t make any difference.
• There is a particular person in Department X you do not like.
• No one will find out whether Department X is to blame or not.
• They have blamed your department often enough.
• They always beat your staff at the annual bowling challenge.

Two-Way Process:

Lack of communication between departments is often cited as the reason for poor working relationships.

“They never tell us anything” is a frequent cry.

Communication is a two-way process. The most efficient of systems will not be effective if people don’t read their messages, look at the notice boards, log on to their computers, check their voice mail or pay attention at meetings.

Getting people to sign memos provides only proof of receipt, not evidence that they’ve actually read the information. They need to want to know what’s going on.

Low morale and a critical and suspicious environment will prompt employees to see customers as a nuisance and not the lifeblood of the business. Every employee needs to appreciate that they contribute to customer satisfaction, even if they are working behind the scenes, e.g., maintenance, cleaning, refuse collection, etc. They deserve to be kept informed!

Insecurity Creates Conflict:

Another cause of internal conflict is insecurity: downsizing, management restructuring, fast-talking business consultants, threat of job loss, short-term contracts — all might trigger a loss of pride in the job and a could-not-care-less attitude. Customers become anxious and take their business elsewhere.

Insecurity manifests itself in a number of behaviors:

• Gossip and back-stabbing
• Shifting blame
• Increase in absenteeism due to stress
• Constant moaning and whining
• Negative thinking

In this environment, it is likely that customer complaints will increase. It is essential to keep the customer at the center of everything you do, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Without customers, you do not have a job.

Taking Action

Managers need to be very observant when employees are showing signs of dissatisfaction. Early identification of problems is the key to a successful solution.

Look out for:

• Deadlines not met
• Increase in illness
• Poor-quality work
• Bad atmospheres
• Arguments

How To Address Employee Dissatisfaction

• Ask questions in a confidential manner
• Reassure; calm fears
• Praise, encourage
• Don’t blame or challenge
• Involve people
• Motivate, reward

Multi-Skilling & Interdepartmental Working:

Conflict also arises through ignorance. Giving people the opportunity to learn about the work of others and equipping them with new skills helps dispel fears, boost confidence and motivate. It also takes people out of their enclosed worlds of Accounts or the Mail Room and gives them the bigger picture.

Many complaints arise because staff feel they are expected to do a job without any training. Allowing them to attend courses out of the workplace is very beneficial. It gives them the opportunity to network with others, revitalize their ideas, and acquire new skills. Hopefully they will come back and think, “This is not such a bad place after all.”

In any business, we are all customers of each other. Unless we get the internal customer service right, it will not extend naturally to external customers. Remember, we are all working for a common aim: customer satisfaction.

Today’s News: A very exciting initiative is now very close to launching – Business Experts Webinars, will provide a series of top class webinars from some of the world’s leading business experts and my good friend Lee Salz, should be very proud for bringing this all together. I have developed five sessions and my first broadcast is on May 6th – I will provide further details, just as soon as the site goes live. 

Tomorrow: Another good friend and best selling author, Jeb Blount is on The JF Guest Author Spot tomorrow, with the excellent “The Sound Of Silence”

I dedicate today’s post to the three major organisations who last week provided ample proof – not that I needed any – that in terms of customer care, the UK has slumped to new levels of ineptness and incompetence, and is now only slightly ahead of France. Gone apparently, are the days when the customer is King – now the customer is barely a pauper; short-term profit is the driver and ensuring that the customer experience is as impersonal, uncomfortable and as frustrating as possible, the primary objectives. 

Directors and Management often see customer relations as the affair of a ‘Complaints Department’ whilst they get on and run the business – which is a form of warfare carried out against the irritating habits of customers seeking fair treatment, a fair deal or equality of relationship.

Salespeople often see customers as an unruly, disobliging and dishonest source of commission.

Support staff accept that they are paid to (try to) cope (on a good day) with unreasonable, whinging, stupid, ungrateful customers who just will not be told.

Administrators see customers as dunces who must be forced to follow the rigid procedures developed for the convenience of the supplier (an endless nuisance to the customer).

Technical people often see customers as stick-in-the-mud know nothings to be loftily put in their place by the use of elitist techno-jargon.

Production people ignore customers entirely because otherwise they would get in the way of how they want to run the place.

Finance people treat customers not as people but as reference numbers with obligations required to fit processes.

Unkind comments? Not at your place? Great! But anti-attitudes like this abound right across the commercial spectrum. You transact business with your customers — not despite them! Customers pay the wages for everyone, not just the salesforce.

There is always a penalty for poor customer relations. It plays its way out over the weeks and months ahead when people – and those they influence – simply avoid your firm, as those three organisations who abused my trust last week, are about to find out. 

Today’s News:  

 On March 27th, London Heathrow Terminal 5 will welcome the first British Airways passengers through its doors. It’s the culmination of an amazing project that began with one thought – to make connecting the world simple and pleasurable again. The result is a seamless and upgraded airport experience unlike any other in the world, and one that’s exclusively for British Airways passengers.

In their own words:

“At Terminal 5 we’re putting the joy back into air travel, especially for you, the British Airways traveller.
That doesn’t just mean smoother check-in, fewer queues and less waiting around. It doesn’t just mean more time for fun things like eating, shopping or relaxing. Nor does it just mean an inspiring, state-of-the-art building that could be a destination in itself.

It means giving you an outstanding experience from the moment you check in online to the moment you step through the door at your journey’s end.” 

Amazing experiences begin at Terminal 5:

Here are a few of the Terminal 5 features that make them justifiably proud:

• The £4.3 billion building is so light, modern and spacious that it’s hard to believe it’s an airport terminal at all

• Terminal 5 offers seamless check-in, with 96 Check-in Kiosks designed to eliminate queuing

• The floor to ceiling windows give outstanding views of the runways, aircraft, countryside and even Windsor Castle and Wembley Stadium

• There will be huge improvements in punctuality and baggage now that they’ve brought nearly all British Airways flights together in one terminal

• The state-of-the-art baggage system has been designed specifically for Terminal 5 using proven technology already in use at a number of global airports

• They’ve got the largest, and possibly the most luxurious, airline lounge complex in the world, large enough to cater for 2,500 passengers

• Harrods, Coach and Prada as well as great British names such as Paul Smith, Ted Baker and Reiss are all opening stores at Terminal 5

In a word – incredible!

My thanks to my friend Claudio – known as the “BA Terminal 5 Insider” for keeping me fully updated these past few months and for sharing a raft of information and images, which has allowed me to feel part of this exciting initiative. Claudio works for one of the top PR agencies in the world, known simply as Agency.com - they have certainly done an amazing job

Here are some links, so that you can have an early preview yourself:

Take a look round T5 

Wine Galleries

Tech Room

Concorde Bar

Kitchens

Cinema

You can also see an excellent interview with a very proud Willy Walsh – CEO of British Airways – here 

What we can say for certain is that BA understand that when it comes to customer service – everyone must play a part.

Tomorrow: On the JF Guest Author Spot - Tibor Shanto makes a debut appearance.

Directors and Management often see customer relations as the affair of a ‘Complaints Department’ whilst they get on and run the business – which is a form of warfare carried out against the irritating habits of customers seeking fair treatment, a fair deal or equality of relationship.

Salespeople often see customers as an unruly, disobliging and dishonest source of commission.

Support staff accept that they are paid to (try to) cope (on a good day) with unreasonable, whinging, stupid, ungrateful customers who just won’t be told. Administrators see customers as dunces who must be forced to follow the rigid procedures developed for the convenience of the supplier (an endless nuisance to the customer).

Technical people often see customers as stick-in-the-mud know nothings to be loftily put in their place by the use of elitist techno-jargon.

Production people ignore customers entirely because otherwise they would get in the way of how they want to run the place.

Finance people treat customers not as people but as reference numbers with obligations required to fit processes.

Unkind comments? Not at your place? Great! But anti-attitudes like this abound all over the commercial spectrum. You do business with your customers – not despite them! Customers pay the wages for everyone, not just the salesforce.

Personally, I think that all my people truly believe in good customer relations, if only because of the many compliments I receive. But I could be wrong! There is always a penalty for poor customer relations. It plays its way out over the weeks and months ahead when people – and those they influence – simply avoid your firm.

Why Try?

“Why should I be nice to someone who slags me off?” says one of your people. Well, that’s not an unreasonable question. Let’s try to understand the psychology of people who grumble – or worse, complain.

Believe it, complaining for most people, apart from the psychotic few, is a very stressful thing to do. Apart from whether the problem itself has made the customer angry, having to pump oneself up enough emotionally to have this ‘confrontation’ makes people short tempered. So people dealing with customers must expect them to be upset and angry.

Let’s analyse the language:

The customer says “That’s not good enough!” quite probably with some expletives thrown in for good measure.

For a start, the person handling the call probably didn’t cause the problem themselves, someone else did. Why take stick for that? Well, because that person is part of the team and happens to be the one taking the call. Feeling part of a customer sensitive team is a vital element in wanting to and being able to deliver sensitive, constructive customer relations but, by ‘team’ I don’t just mean the Customer Service Department. I mean the whole organisation.

Too many organisations operate Customer Support (you can see the language varies a bit) as a quite separate entity from the operations of the business. They are in their own sterile ‘bubble’ charged with keeping customers from ever speaking to the people in Operations who have normally caused the problem in the first place. That’s not how it is supposed to work – but it is convenient for the business that doesn’t want to deliver good customer relations, it just wants to shut customers up for as low a cost as possible.

Empowerment Pays:

The problems facing staff members are: knowing that no-one wants to hear what the problem was; that they can make no changes in the way the organisation operates; that they cannot set out to improve things for future customers so that particular problem will never recur. They simply try to ‘win’ discussions with customers and give them anodyne replies in accordance with ‘the rules’. Is it any surprise that those people simply don’t believe in customer relations? They do what they are told to do and get paid for that. Think of your own experiences. Think of how often you’ve been ‘put in your place’ by someone. Think how you detest being forced to talk to ‘Customer Service’ because you expect not to have the problem resolved.

Tech. Support Is ‘Customer Service’ Too:

The ideal model of a Technical Support Department is that the phone never rings. The trouble is that most people who operate one expect the phone to ring in proportion to the number of customers. The missing bit is that if the people on Help Desk have no involvement in making changes, then they cannot prevent the same problem recurring fifty times a day. The basic rule should be that the moment you deal with a customer problem, you put in place changes so that problem will not recur for that reason. Staff with power are highly motivated to be helpful. People without power hate having to deal with cranky customers and simply try to fob them off.

Can You Believe It?

As just one illustration, I once purchased an accounts package from a high profile, very well known software company. Amongst many problems was the fact that occasionally if you added up the pence charged for the various items on an invoice, the total would be different from the total shown at the bottom. What! Unthinkable on an invoice. Together with other more peculiar problems, that system cost us hours and days of lost time; we had staff in tears; we pleaded for help (but we could only talk to Customer Support who couldn’t help). It took about a year for the supplier to put the problems right. It took about two months to get a reply from the Chairman’s office. No, he was far too august to reply himself – but a Director did. Eventually, we got back exactly what we had paid for the package. Not a penny in compensation; not a tear shed. Now tell me how that company views customer relations?

Every Customer Is A Consultant:

The drive for continuous improvement will come from your customers – if you let it and if people’s arrogance doesn’t get in the way. Believe me, the customer is an expert in your business. They may not know how to make grommets, or how to merchandise goods, or how to write software – but they do know what they want from you. “As customers, we don’t want it your way; we want it the way that suits us”. “And we will tell you, if you want to listen and providing we see you want to do something about it”. One of the problems with people in many companies is that they just don’t want to be told, especially by a customer. No-one’s going to get anywhere with customer relations until they recognise that customers are valued assets, not dumb milk cows for money.

What’s The Lesson?

Customer relations is a strategic understanding, not a departmental name. Most people in most companies don’t think about their responsibility for developing good customer relations, because they simply don’t see it as their job. The problem is the good old whip and trident management style which works fine in a seller’s market and costs a small fortune most of the time. The trouble is that you can’t see the cost from a simple item on the P & L. Most of it is hidden in the cost of losing business and winning new business. Existing customers cost much less to keep than new customers cost to win.

And you? Can you truthfully say in your heart of hearts that you believe in the value and need for everyone in the business to help to build good customer relations? If not, then watch out for the competitor who will figure that out first or the person competing for your job who knows that is how it’s done. Customer relations is that serious.

Today’s News: Sadly, despite all the hype, my new site The JF Consultancy will not launch next Tuesday as planned: We are almost ready to go but our graphics expert, Bill Jeckells is poorly, so we have some cosmetic work still to do. Bill, we wish you a speedy recovery.

We anticipate needing an additional week, but I will keep you updated – the wait will be worth it, I promise

Tomorrow: A w/e off! Yep, really, that doesn’t happen too often - wherever you are, have a great weekend and I will be back here on Monday – JF