Blindside BY JOHN M. POOLE Avoid the CIMS helps you establish a balanced, structured business model. I t’s a Monday morning, and in sorting your mail, you see an envelope from one of your customers—one that has been your customer for a long time. As you open the let-ter, you are perplexed, wondering why this is so formal. “What’s going on?” is your thought as to why it’s not just a phone call or an e-mail. When you open the lett er, you see it is a very formal lett er that tells you that your services have been terminated and states your last day of service. You are fl abbergasted. What just happened? There seemed to be no warning signs. Troubled, you call your customer immediately. In your conversation, you ask all the questions, trying to fi gure out what happened and how this lett er can be rescinded. You try damage control. You try service recovery. Ultimately you come to the realization that this termination is in place and is fi nal. But why? What happened? You begin asking your managers for insight. Feeling blind-sided, you start the process of uncovering what the causes might be. You must regain your composure and begin the task of discovering why? Customer erosion Notice these important customer observations found in Ser-vice Management: Operations, Strategy, and Information Technology: Fitz simmons’ seventh edition: “Average busi-nesses only hear 4% of the customers who are dissatisfi ed, meaning 96% of the customers do not bother to complain, and 25% of customers have serious problems. Further, 60% of the complainers would stay as customers if their problem were resolved, and 95% say they would stay if the problem were resolved quickly. Importantly, a dissatisfi ed customer will tell from 10 to 20 people about their problem. A customer who has a complaint resolved will tell approximately fi ve people about the situation.” 1 If management had been informed in time, they might have successfully made the adjustments or corrected the cus-tomers’ complaints quickly. First thoughts require a quick analysis by senior management to examine what the company standards and objectives are. Are they being met? Is a process in place to analyze a major complaint or diffi cult customer sit-uations and to provide answers? Paramount to the analysis is what changes must be imple-mented, such as communication within the fi rm and from the customer. Were there procedures in place to respond to the situation? Who was aware? Customer erosion happens incrementally. Slight deviations in operational procedures and processes occur. The quality plan and the service delivery plan may slip. Management participation may become complacent, not putt ing the time into customer relationships by inquiring and asking questions about their performance. The quality control program could be slipping, inspections becoming infrequent, with small items becoming bigger and more pronounced. The litt le things just keep adding up. Crew turnover is observed by the customer. Floors are losing their luster. Restroom fi xtures are not cleaned. Complaints keep coming daily. Your project manager is overwhelmed. By not regularly visiting accounts, middle managers are often more surprised 30 ISSA Today | March/April 2023
ISSA Today March-April 2023: Page 30
