Hubris, big egos, poor foresight, and lack of humanity kill great companies — small and large — every year. We can learn from their misguided decisions, but we need to do it before more of our businesses fail and more of our country’s leadership is lost forever.
The following list of mistakes represents some of the dumbest thinking by companies across all industries. Read about them and learn from their failures.
#1: “Let’s cut back on customer service levels to save money”
“Due to unusually high levels of calls, we are experiencing long delays before we can answer your call.” What kind of crap is that? What they really mean is, “Because we don’t want to spend as much money on customer service as we should, we’ll put you in a queue for as long as you can stand it before hanging up.” I recently spent 45 minutes in a Verizon queue that never ended. On the other hand, T-Mobile answered my call in under 20 seconds. Guess who has my business and my loyalty now? This is particularly dumb because the cost to acquire a new customer easily offset the costs of having a few more operators.
#2: “Human beings can be replaced with machines to answer our phones”
Today, it’s a treat when we call a business and get an actual employee on the phone. Very few voicemail systems are as smart as they are supposed to be, and these poor tech systems cause untold losses in sales, customer loyalty, and goodwill. I am seeing a lot of real-world evidence that the cost of having a receptionist is easily offset by the improved customer satisfaction generated. My advice: Break away from the crowd and show your customers that you care about how they feel.
Read the rest at TechRepublic.