Being Right versus the Right Thing

I am constantly amazed by poor services and red tape. Mangers who put process before people and empathy.

I have lost count of the amount of times a company, more often than not, a large organisation has chosen to be right over choosing to do the right thing.

Too many companies overlook empathy and solution. Does it really matter if you’re right? What benefit does a company have to be right?

I worked for an uninspiring, one dimensional CEO a few years ago who saw his role more than anything else to prove the company right. Not by doing or leading or inspiring or innovating. But by defending.

I find this fascinating. Dealing with a customer is simple. “If you want the customer to remain a customer, give them permission to believe they are right.”

This means that you have to be aware or acknowledge that the customer is in-fact upset in the first place. Trying to be right wont help. Trying to be right will more than likely cost you a customer and whoever else they decide to take with them on their journey of telling anyone who will listen.

I had lunch yesterday with 4/5ths of my family. At the table next to us was a mothers group. To highlight my previous point. They spent most of their time discussing all the bad things that have happened to them in the past weeks. Most of which related back to poor customer service.

People talk.

So, when you are given the choice between acknowledging that your customer is upset or proving them wrong, which will you choose?

Only one outcome wins.

Do you have any examples of poor customer service worth sharing?

About the Author: Ben Rennie is founder and creator of uncluttered white spaces.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 11:15 pm and is filed under BUSINESS, THE WHITE ROOM and tagged with BUSINESS, inspiration, MARKETING, STRATEGY. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.