One of the useful work practices I learned early on was to always put yourself in the customer’s shoes. As I went through my work career, that lesson was proven true time and again: any successful service operation begins with empathy and understanding the customer’s perspective.
My first real job was working at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop when I was 13 years old. Three times a week after school, I served ice cream to local folks. It paved the way for my belief in doing business with compassion and providing a great customer experience. It also taught me to be proactive in identifying areas of improvement, rather than reactive to an issue that could have been avoided.
Several days ago, I had a Christmas party to attend and I forgot to schedule a hair appointment with my regular stylist due to my busy schedule. I opted to go to a local chain beauty shop that provides hair, skin and beauty products as well as hair styling.
As I watched the hustle and bustle of the stylists and employees, one thing caught my attention: their phone system. The styling stations are located at the back of the beauty store, the cashiers at the front. When an employee answers the phone in the back, calls cannot be transferred to the front where the cashiers are located and vice-versa. The stylists have to leave their stations, walk to the front of the store and let the other employees at the front know there are calls waiting. By the time the calls were answered, however, the customers had already hung up. I counted 3 customer hangs-up in 15 minutes. If you multiply that by the number of locations this beauty store has, they are potentially losing tens of thousands of customers every day. I thought to myself, this beauty store is handing their customers to their competitors on a silver platter.
It surprised me to learn that this was a newly-installed system as well, to the dismay of frustrated employees hoping for a better system. It’s an easy fix, but the beauty company should not have gone through this dilemna to begin with.
It is important to work with a company who is vendor-neutral and on your side, ensuring that they not only have your company’s best interests but also your customer’s best interests in mind.
What I would have offered this establishment is a mobile-hands free device for individuals would wear. A device that would give employees the freedom to walk throughout the store and have the capability to answer and transfer calls internally. In addition, I would also add an app that would tie in all employees through their personal mobile phones for communication and collaboration. This solution would not only give employees the freedom from being tied to a desk phone, this would also solve the long hold time for customers who are calling in, reducing the lost of customers. In addition, this would reduce operating cost up to 50%.
This is just one of many products Konnect Up Solutions can help businesses streamline productivity and help reduce operating cost.
I hope this establishment listens to their employees before they become another failed retail statistic.
