I accuse customers of bearing some of the responsibility for the deterioration in customer relations?
We often deplore the lack of customer focus among frontline teams. We constantly seek methods and tools to foster a customer-centric mindset and thus optimize the customer experience.
Despite all our efforts, some team members become discouraged, sometimes because of the customers themselves.
Customer behaviors that wear teams down
Don’t you find that too many customers are rude, disrespectful, bad-faith, stressed, condescending, ungrateful, and so on? How hard is it to smile at someone who acts like they’re entitled to anything “because they pay”? The customer pays, but in return, they receive a product or service.
Sympathy, smiles, and understanding are not contractual obligations. There is no customer-supplier relationship when it comes to these things.
Therefore, I hold rude customers co-responsible for the shortcomings of our businesses in terms of customer experience.
A call for shared responsibility
Some will say our frustration stems from organizations’ own lack of customer focus, that businesses “started it.” 😊 True, some organizations deserve our frustration… but perhaps not their employees. This doesn’t change my conviction that businesses have a monumental task ahead in building a customer-centric culture. But please, all of us, customers that we are, let’s help them by being good customers too!
Customers also have a role to play
- Encourage those who go the extra mile to make our experience special.
- Say thank you, leave a tip, express your appreciation.
- Respond kindly to an email that offers a solution.
- Smile, and stop wielding your purchasing power like a weapon.
“We are all customers. Let’s help businesses make us happy by being good customers ourselves.”
Author: Guillaume Antonietti