Conventional wisdom says, “no news is good news.” When it comes to the business of customer service and support, this isn’t always a good axiom by which to operate. Many times, your loud and unhappy customers are also your most ferocious supporters within their companies and the general business community.

Businesses have millions invested in their IT solutions and the decision to select your product or service is often based on relationship, referrals, support expectations, or some value other than money. When the decision-makers feel they’ve been let down, there is an emotional reaction that often times results in loud, irrational behavior. This is nothing more than a cry for help and an attempt to communicate the importance of the situation.

Figure 1 shows a model by which you can evaluate or place your customers.

Figure 1: You want to keep most of your customers in the upper-left quadrant of this model for obvious reasons. You also want to keep them out of the lower-right quadrant.

Having most of your customers in the upper left is most desired for the reasons listed in that quadrant. While it’s natural to pursue customers based on happiness, it’s more important to stress the volume scale as that measure provides you with the feedback you need to move customers into that upper left quadrant.

While no one looks forward to hearing bad news from customers, it’s certainly better than having customers quietly planning to move to a competitor. Frequent and open communication is the only way you’ll truly know what your actual relationship is.

There are a few important things that all support organizations need to do in regards to sensing customer satisfaction levels.

Conduct customer surveys – Use this tool wisely as the data can be very useful when viewed properly in context, and very destructive taken out of context or in the wrong hands. 100% satisfactory surveys with no other feedback is NOT an indication of a happy customer base.

Make pro-active calls – The occasional, “How’s it going?” call when everything is quiet from manager to customer management may be your most valuable tool. It gives you an opportunity to check in on customers and nurture your relationships.

Solicit performance feedback – Any time is a good time to solicit feedback from customers. An especially good time to solicit feedback from customers on the performance of your support team or individuals is when it’s time for performance reviews. Feedback you get at this time has dual impact as it adds accountability to your team and makes the customer feel involved with a support partnership and not just a vendor relationship.

Track retention rates – If you’re having difficulty renewing or retaining existing customers, it may be an indication of customer dissatisfaction. (This issue may be lurking in the lower left hand quadrant of fig. 1.) Often retention issues get masked or hidden by discounts from year to year. Measure retention by the percent of dollars retained within an account.

Train – What kind of customer satisfaction training do you plan and budget for? Unless you’ve planned time and money for this part of the job, you aren’t committed to it and it’s just “management speak.” The handling of dissatisfied customers is an integral piece of this curriculum and the customers in the upper right-hand box in figure 1 are the easiest to move to the left.

The next time you get a call or email from an irate customer welcome that opportunity and thank them for being such a good business partner.

About the author
John Dunleavy is a veteran of 35 years in the IT support industry. Holding positions ranging from Director of Marketing for a Fortune 500 company to his current role as Customer Support Manager at one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, he has always had a passion for customers. A featured speaker at support conferences nationally and published author on the subject of customer satisfaction, John provides insights and creative approaches that push organizations to new heights.