Stay connected
You need to be in touch with your customers so you understand what they think of your company and the service you’re providing. Without that connection, you won’t have a strong hold on your strengths and weaknesses.
Nelson says making that connection can be broken into two simple, but necessary, steps. Step one is provide the customer with an avenue to communicate with you. Step two is being proactive in personally connecting with the customer.
Nelson oversees institutions with 136,000 students. They’re in 98 locations in 30 U.S. states and Canada, so reaching out to each one of them is nearly impossible. Even if you can’t directly talk to all of your customers about their questions, concerns and general feedback, you have to give them the ability to reach you.
“By providing them an avenue to have access to you, that allows them, those who may have low-end type of feedback, an opportunity to communicate with you,” Nelson says. “Then, you can make sure that you’re addressing their issues.”
There are fairly simple ways to give customers constant access to the company or divisions within the company. You can set up hot lines or e-mail addresses that cater to specific segments of your organization. Perhaps you send out a survey that is readily available to them when they use your product or service.
“The most important thing is to make sure that you have and you’re providing them a tool at their fingertips that they, at any given time, can communicate back with you,” Nelson says. “There are a lot of different things that you can do. Just make sure that it’s accessible and visible for the customer so they know they can get in touch with you.”
Communication is at its best when the tools to converse are simple and allow for timely and ample reply. While you have to use a communication structure that works best for your company, it’s always a good idea to ask those whom you’re serving their preferred method of communication.
“By talking with them or communicating with them and asking them that question, they’ll let you know,” Nelson says.
That ties into the second step: being proactive in maintaining that line of communication. You don’t only need to understand how your customers want to be communicated with but, also, how often. Those are two questions that can differ drastically based on your company, industry and service offering. The easiest way to find out that information is simply ask the customer.
Nelson says a direct conversation, whether in person or by phone, tends to be the most efficient means for communicating.
“Your ability to communicate effectively is enhanced because you’re not only able to hear what they’re saying, but you can put it in the context of whether there’s body language,” he says. “Also, I believe it shows your commitment to your product and the customer. For example, in my past, when I’ve had someone who has physically taken the time to talk to me about something, I know it’s a priority.”
Depending on your number of customers, you’re going to have time and, possibly, geographic limitations trying to touch base with all of them. Those restrictions mean you need to work even harder at determining who to engage in conversation to understand the views of your organization.
The best thing to do is reach out to a methodical sample of your customers.
In EDMC’s case, the company picks a communication vehicle and then pulls from a cross-section of students based on geographic locations, degree programs, online students and on-ground students.
“Where there’s any differentiation in a particular class of your customers or group of your customers, you would want a reasonable sample,” Nelson says. “Again, it’s us proactively going out and communicating with them and not waiting for them to have to come back and communicate with us.
“It’s a way to build a better, more responsive, healthy organization because, at the end of the day, the most important people are your customers and your employees. It’s just incredibly important that you know what they’re thinking. Otherwise you could lose touch with whether you’re really doing a good job providing that service or product to your customer.”
