Think back to your last interaction with a ‘service provider’, be it commercial or public service.

It may have been in person, on-line, over the phone, or any combination of these.  Did the interaction leave you wanting to continue to deal with the provider, or make you hesitant to return, or make you resolute never to return?  Of course, if it is a public service, you may have no option but to attempt to deal with them as best you can.

Now ask yourself, “How do our customers feel when they interact with us?”. Your organisation will flourish or fail based on its ability to profitably create and maintain customers.

A simple measure of whether you are too hard to do business with is by putting yourself in the shoes of your customers.  Customers have a sliding scale of willingness to deal with a business based on their perceived value that they obtain versus the difficulty they experience dealing with the business.  Having the cheapest price, best offering, and/or being the most convenient will only entice customers if they are willing to put the effort into dealing with the business.

The level of effort customers will expend depends on the match between your business and the demographic of the customers that you focus on.  If you are a convenience store targeting customers that drive, parking needs to be easy.  If you are aiming at senior citizens, relying on them to deal with you ‘on-line’ may be problematic.  Focusing on e-commerce means that your on-line presence, transactions, and delivery must be smooth using the access methods of your target demographic.

How do you know if you are easy to deal with?  Here are a few suggestions to find out:

Use ‘anonymous’ customers.  Get them to do a sample transaction and list what is good and what is not so good about doing business with you.

Constantly survey your customers in a non-intrusive manner.  It may be as simple as asking one question such as “Would you recommend a friend to do business with us?  If not, why not?”

If your business is large enough, use the service yourself.  One wonders how many board members and senior executives of airlines travel in ‘Economy’.  If you run a grocery store, see if you can read the labels on the shelves and move around the shop with a trolley easily, etc.  If you sell plumbing suppliers, do the service staff know their products? Etc.

Once you have the feedback from customers, act.  Always remember, ‘people buy from people’.  Ensure that all interactions are friendly, courteous, and effective without being officious.  Prioritise any deficiencies that are identified by customers and work to resolve those issues that will provide the greatest win/win for the customer and you first.

Never stop working to be the ‘provider of choice’.  Experience the offering of your competitors and ensure that your offering is at least as easy to do business with as theirs and preferably better from the customers’ position.  Look for technologies that will assist you to service your customers and delight them ahead of your competition.  Beware of cutting costs that impact how your customers perceive how easy it is to do business with you.

Deal with customer complaints positively, working to resolve them and using them to improve your processes.  Customers that complain are highly valuable because they care enough to let you know.  It is the customers that quietly stop doing business with you but who will tell all their associates why they won’t do business with you that can do significant damage to your business.

Successful businesses are easy to do business with.  If you don’t know the answer to “How hard are we to do business with?”, find out, address any issues, and outpace your competition that either don’t know or don’t care about answering that question.

Philip Belcher MBA, FAICD, FIML is a specialist CEO Leadership, Strategy, and Execution Advisor and Principal of LSE Consulting Pty Ltd.

www.lseconsulting.net.au,

philip@lseconsulting.net.au