Apr 11, 2006
Business Fear II - “But what everyone did this” again
I’m a huge fan of Guy Kawasaki and I just came across and article by him on providing great customer service, or as he calls it The Art of Customer Service. I thought I would point to this because it’s somewhat related to a previous post I made about the business fear, for as Guy calls it, business paranoia “what if everyone did this”.
6. Don’t be paranoid. One of the most common justifications for anti-service is “What if everyone did this?†For example, what if everyone bought a new wardrobe when we lost their luggage? Or, to cite the often-told, perhaps apocryphal, story of a customer returning a tire to Nordstrom even though everyone knows Nordstrom doesn’t sell tires, what if everyone started returning tires to Nordstrom? The point is: Don’t assume that the worst case is going to be the common case. There will be outlier abusers, yes, but generally people are reasonable. If you put in a policy to take care of the worst case, bad people, it will antagonize and insult the bulk of your customers.
I do love the term Guy uses here, “justification for anti-service”.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Tim Whelan
I laughed the last time and again there is a small chuckle. It isn’t the fear that others will all do the same, that’s actually just an excuse for the behavior. Fortunately most businesses, owners and managers alike aren’t subject to this short sighted demonstration. However if you are its alight to succeed. Actual research has shown that this anti business behavior is found in a person feeling of inadequacy and their fear of succeeding. In other words, if I made this decision and it worked, would I be able to manage this. If I did manage it upfront I know that I’ll probably blow it with a stupid decision and be a laughing stock etc.
So yea it is a fear. It is more of an antisocial behavior pattern with the fear of success as an underlining factor. Regardless, it still plays stupid when it comes to managing a business and the ensuing decisions. Can it be corrected? Yes, with help of course.
Apr 16th, 2006
Jake
Great post! (And great site - this is my first time to post)
Tim, I’m actually inclined to say that this IS fear and it IS fairly predominant, unfortunately.
Apr 20th, 2006
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