Not every customer is the same and therefore should not be treated the same way. It may seem unfair not to treat everyone equally, but it is actually unfair to treat unequal customers equally. How do you do that as a manager or business owner? Do you manage to treat different customers differently when they need it?
Choices you make can be jarring at first. However, these choices can ensure that your customers who really need attention get it and customers who don’t need it are not burdened with it either. After all, know that the larger customers are fine with paying a little extra for the service they get. The smaller customer is fine with the fact that they can only place their order online and that there is no personal contact. In fact, this need is not there because of the simpler order. As a result, the smaller customer then ends up being cheaper, which will make the customer even more satisfied. This leaves time for customer service to really give the larger customers the attention they need, allowing you to actually surprise them with your service.
By writing this down in process descriptions, these different approaches can be made clear to your employees and management. Writing it down also makes it clear what choices are being made. Blind spots suddenly become visible because you are forced to write down all the steps in the process. Hold sessions with your employees where you map out exactly what you do for your customers. And then ask yourself why you do it. Aren’t we providing too much for the small client and too little for the big client?
