It was time to renew the P.O. Box for my business. I mailed it at the post office the day it was due.
A week later, I came to check my box for mail, but I could not get in. It was locked from the inside. When I reached the counter at long-last to discuss my access with a post office employee, the following conversation took place:
“Hi, my P.O. box is locked, but I made the payment on the day it was due.”
“OK, I just need you to show me the receipt that you paid. It will be in your P.O. Box.”
“The one that is locked because of non-payment?”
“Yes.”
I can’t make this stuff up.
It’s easy to laugh this one off and chalk it up to “government follies,” but companies need to set up rules…and then teach employees when to break those very rules when it comes to customers.
This week, my husband and I called to move our timeshare to another week. (Someone–ahem, me–thought it would be a FABULOUS idea to take a vacation in August and then another one in September…until faced with getting ready for the second vacation!)
We were transferred to one department at one phone number, only to be told that another department at another phone number had to handle rescheduling. When we got to department #2, they said that department #1 had been in error, and they had to be the ones to reschedule the date. Instead of giving the employees power and authority to handle situations like these even if we were speaking to the wrong department, the company had policies in place that encouraged games of hot potatoes with customers instead. Four telephone transfers later, I was losing my patience and they were losing my goodwill. From a customer perspective, a schedule change is not on the same level of complication as a deed transfer.
As for my P.O. Box? My receipt of payment was indeed in the P.O. Box that was locked for non-payment.
Don’t make it difficult on your employees to love on your customers.
[tweetthis url=”http://wp.me/p5Ltwi-Fc”]Don’t make it difficult on your employees to love on your customers.[/tweetthis]
Teach employees to follow the company rules. Then, teach them when to toss the rules in favor of customer happiness. Both your employees and your customers will thank you for it.
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