The Power of One

ong>

A co-worker joked to me the other week that they were tired of hearing people complain that they were ‘too busy’. Here’s the thing…

We all are.

We are, our customers are, and the people we’d love to be our customers are. There are not enough hours in the day, days in the week, or weeks in the year to accomplish everything we set out to do. The stress of multi-tasking and trying to meet deadlines makes us irritable and stressed. A vacation proves to be just the ticket – except the next thing you know, you’re back in the office with double the workload and umpteen emails to plough through. I hear you; it’s not easy.

Yet just knowing we’re all in the same boat should encourage us to lose the attitude; to breathe. Because that one person we take things out on might just be one person to us, but that same person will walk away with an armful of negativity they’ll be dying to vent to someone else.

We all like to be treated as someone with legitimate questions or concerns. It’s embarrassing and humiliating to be spoken to as though you should know better, or as if you’re of no importance, simply because your inquiry has been heard ten times over by the same pair of ears already today.

In their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. note that “customers have memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not.”

There’s power in these memories. In today’s social media age, it’s the easiest thing in the world to draw the attention of those companies who have forgotten the Power of One. After one telephone call with a dismissive sales employee, you can simply hop online and log your experience via Twitter, a blog post, or a community forum. (Top tip: read Mashable’s HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster.)

Listen out for these mentions: they are a fantastic opportunity to make things right. Plug your company and brand names into Google Alerts and Social Mention alerts. These services will e-mail you regular updates on where you are being talked about online. Use transparency (never hide your relationship with the company) and diplomacy to ask for or suggest a solution when needed.

All complaints – however they are received – are a chance to show you understand and to do everything you need to in order to make amends. Use them to inform your customer service strategy going forward so that you don’t make the same mistakes.

Sadly, the majority of dissatisfied customer will walk away from us and never tell us why they no longer wish to do business with us or what we could have done better.

That’s why it’s imperative we show empathy in our customer relationships. This is the only way to build strong relationships that will stand the test of time.

Never forget the Power of One.