Respond to their input. If you’re listening for 80 percent of the meeting and appearing genuinely interested, you might say at the end, ‘Let me comment on a few of the things that you said today. You brought up this, which was 100 percent correct. You also mentioned this. Are you aware that we have the following solutions?’
You have the opportunity, then and there, to correct some things immediately before your departure.
There’s a time for customers to talk, then there’s a time for you properly to help them understand the truth and the fiction. It may be going back and following up with a note or an e-mail, saying something
like, ‘It was great to spend time with you. I’ve been thinking about what you communicated to me. I have the following thoughts.’ But it should never be confrontational.
Set an example for employees. You’d be naive to think that there aren’t breakdowns in communication or employees that have just had a bad day. If the employees understand that there are disciplinary consequences to not treating customers the way that they deserve to be treated, that will filter through.
We don’t monitor calls in any wide scale. We do monitor customer complaints. We do communicate customer complaints to department heads. We address them and discuss them.
I’ve never found policing to be very effective. It really has to filter down.
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