I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the corporate world of late. As companies grow larger, become multinational conglomerations, push out local businesses, and generally change from a collection of businessmen and women into an entity, they’ve found new, more elaborate ways to divorce themselves from their customers.
I’m sure they all have reasons for this. Some do it in the name of efficiency and progress, arguing that increased computer-assisted help cuts down on hold times for common questions, making it more and more difficult to find an actual person to help you not just over the phone or the internet, but in physical locations as well. A few companies will say that they simply can’t afford to provide the customer service needed for the size that they’ve grown without a huge expenditure of capital. There are even corporations who unabashedly insist that customer service is not important in light of lower prices.
All of these arguments are poor excuses for what is essentially a desire to avoid having to deal with the repercussions of business decisions. I’m not suggesting that huge companies are looking for ways to swindle consumers like the robber barons of the 20s and 30s and get away with it, but rather that it is impossible to please everybody, and any decision a company makes will cause a certain part of their customer base to balk. The time and effort that it takes to address the concerns of customers and clients is by no means miniscule, and one could easily spend all of their time addressing every single concern.
However, the answer is not to develop labrythine systems designed to avoid the problem. The answer is to recognize that every individual problem is separate from the one before and, while offering computer-assisted solutions, make sure that you have a staff of human beings trained to deal with whatever problems may arise. If your company is too large to do this, then your company is too large.
No company, to my knowledge, has found a successful business model that did not, at one point or another, rely on consumers to generate cash flow. The nature of trade is that it is done between people. That’s how it was done when I was growing up and how it will continue to be done. Separating yourself from your customers is a short-term solution that encourages poor service, bad products, and eventually profit loss.
Regardless of how big or small your business is, think in the long term. The money you save cutting corners on customer service will eventually be money you wish you’d have spent.
