Avionics News June 2012 - 80

BUSINESS BASICS

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guitar. Instead of fixing the problem, the airline gave him the runaround. His response was a social media thunderstorm, “United breaks guitars,”

all because, no matter how much he complained, no one would help. In other words, his gripe wasn’t about the guitar anymore. As a manager, you need to drive the feedback-gathering machine. Get it, and then do something with it. In

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fact, if the customer thinks you will do something with the input, but you don’t, they are likely to be more annoyed than ever. “It’s a gift,” Thomas said. “It’s a gift that I take my very important time to call you and complain. But, you better believe I expect you to pay attention.” Functionally, your team needs a channel to pass comments along to the people who can do something with them, Thomas said. Those people need to be on alert constantly for both boiling problems and simmering issues, and you have to create an environment where issues don’t create finger pointing, just solutions. In fact, your solution for the latter can be as simple as adding a few minutes to weekly all-staff meetings to share customer comments, or even hits-and-misses emails that provide the same. Or, it can be as “cumbersome” as providing your cellphone number to every customer. Keep a running compilation of these comments, suggestions and complaints to create a working prescription for selfimprovement. Once you have done so, follow up – both internally, to ensure corrections are made, and externally, so the customer knows you heard them. Follow-up is most important when there’s been a problem. In cases of service recovery, you not only need to provide a physical fix, but also an emotional one, Thomas said. Empathy and apologies must accompany your efforts to make things right to ensure the business relationship survives. In this case, it’s pretty obvious why you needed feedback. But, it doesn’t occur very often, and knowing how to ask for opinions and having a process that does something with them can even prevent it in the first place. Ultimately, talk doesn’t come cheap; it’s an investment in your success. And, not listening to your customers has costs you can’t afford to bear. q

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Avionics News June 2012

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