Felicia Slattery: Communicating with Customers: A Case Study in What NOT to Do

Communication with your customers is so important. Don’t let this happen to you:

I am SO over having to dial 1+area code+phone number to call my Mother on the other side of town.

I know many places in the country have had this “issue” for a while now, but here in the Chicago area, we just made the switch recently. Now instead of simply dialing the seven digits to my Mom’s house or my husband’s cell phone (the two numbers I dial most frequently), I have to push 10 buttons. And when I don’t, I get this rude “beep beep beep… we’re sorry but….” I hang up before I can find out what they’re sorry about because I remember. I forgot to add the previously unnecessary four numbers first.

The way I learned about the switch to “10-digit dialing” as it’s called was through a conversation at a networking meeting a few weeks ago. Did Big Phone Company send me a post card or letter about it? No. Did they send an email? No. Did they put any ads anywhere I would see them? No again. So if it wasn’t for my networking friends, I would have thought my phone line was down whenever I wanted to make a call all day Saturday.

What’s the lesson for small home-based business owners about communicating with your customers? There are five things we can learn what NOT to do:

1. Do not assume your customers will hear about what you’re up to. If you are making a major change in your service, it is your responsibility to tell the people who are paying you for it. Even if the change you make is minor, the people who are paying for your products and services ought to know about it. Make sure that every single customer is aware of whatever changes you make.
2. Do not allow word-of-mouth to do your talking for you. As a business owner, you want to be in control of your own message as much as possible. That means crafting a well-written message to be sure your meaning is fully captured. It’s also best to explain your reasoning in your own words rather than relying on the grapevine to do it for you.
3. Do not think in the short-term only. You may be small now, but if you plan to get big someday, start THINKING BIG today. When my family moved to the Chicago area in 1980, there was one area code for the entire region: 312. Then a few years later 708 was instituted for the suburbs while the city kept 312. A few years after that, it changed again so that people from Chicago or the suburbs had one of six area codes: 312, 708, 773, 847, 630, and 815. Of course then cell phones were added and all those numbers had to be entered into the equation. With each change, Big Phone Company said that would be it. They failed to plan far enough into the future. If you do the same, you could end up with some disgruntled customers who are “over” your service like I am with Big Phone Company’s.
4. Do not inconvenience your customers. Make it easy for people to buy from you. The more of a pain it is, the more likely you’ll lose them. Don’t make people dial an extra four numbers and give them an insincere “we’re sorry” recording when they forget. (You know what I’m getting at here!)
5. Do not forget about customer SERVICE. The power of small business over ginormous businesses like Big Phone Company is our ability to show unparalleled personal service. We know our clients by name. If you treat your clients like just another order, you’ll quickly be out of business. Communication for the small business owner is about understanding your customers on multiple levels and providing the best you can to meet their needs and wants.

Lucky for me, my husband just arrived home. So I don’t have to dial his now obnoxiously long cell-phone number. I can simply walk into the other room!