Are your employees empowered to make decisions on the spot in favor of the customer? Your single goal should be to have overly happy customers. Too many things go wrong each day. You want your employees to understand they are in customer service, and their No. 1 responsibility is to take care of customers. If they fall in love with you, your competition is dead.

It often takes two miracles at a time to get an employee to spend $10 on a customer. But the Ritz-Carlton allows any employee to spend up to $2,000 to take care of a customer. What is your ceiling?

Most customers don’t complain when dissatisfied; they just never come back. All front-line employees must be trained in customer service and empowered to take care of a customer to the customer’s satisfaction.

Biggest mistakes that drive your customers away

1. Never have a live person answer the phone.

2. Install an electronic system (IVR) to answer your phone so you avoid talking to a live person.

3. Make sure there is no option to talk to a live person.

4. Never return phone calls.

5. If a live person answers the call, make sure you transfer it to someone who isn’t there and will not return the call.

6. Require a survey with each customer. This will only take another 5 minutes.

I find most firms in the U.S. have no need for more business, based on how difficult they make it to buy your products or do business with your firm. Most firms believe most of their market is customers who are 16–25 years old. The big question is, “Who has the money?”

Jeff Bezos said if you want more of something, “reduce the friction.”

Not having smart people with good soft skills answering the phone can be expensive. As you lose customers, you can now buy a phone system with voicemail. With fewer customers, you will not be as busy as you might have dreamed.

Customer satisfaction surveys are common with most transactions in the U.S. Unfortunately, I suspect not much happens with the results. It helps HR look like a hero and blend in with all their friends. The Wall Street Journal always asks for a survey when you have to call in because the paper isn’t delivered 80% of the time. The survey has nothing to do with the delivery.

I suggest you take the money you spend on surveys and train your staff in superior customer service.

Service Quality Institute has a book on empowerment in English, Spanish, Russian, and Georgian—and you can find all of my books here. They expand on the issues discussed in this article.

Published June 10, 2024, on the Service Quality Institute blog.