Topic 8 Materials: Client Communications

For this week’s topic of discussion, it was about client communications. The article for this week’s topic of discussion is
titled, “Doing vs. Being: creating rules that put customers first” written by Sharon Drew Morgen. The two YouTube
videos needed to watch for this week’s discussion is a YouTube video titled The Buying Facilitation™ Method and
Helping Your Customers Decide both created by Sharon Drew Morgan.

In the article, Sharon discusses her three most recent transactions, and she felt the services she was provided with were
dysfunctional. Most importantly, she felt the companies were unwillingly to go outside company rules to fix the
problems. She raises an important question about how we as consumers can take part in the Trust Economy if our
corporate rules preclude us from taking care of customers? She comes to this conflict in which there’s a divergence
between company rules and customer needs. Sharon will than elaborate with three specific transactions she has faced in
which the company was not willing to go outside of their policies and provide the best customer experience.

Wheaton International Movers, is a big cross country moving company and Sharon has selected them for moving
assistance. However, her experience with this company was not pleasant. She stated the driver was drunk on both ends,
boxes were lost, and an expensive sculpture was broken by their packer. Eventually, she felt a reimbursement was
necessary, but that process took 4 months. During those 4 months, she was ignored, lied and finally when she was
compensated it was only a fraction. The company told her “Well, unfortunately Ms. Morgen, that would go against our
rules”. No body did not apologize to her, and some items she had were gone.

CVS online pharmacy was her second transaction she was unsatisfied with because they sent crushed pills. Sharon
fought for weeks to get them replaced and she was requested from CVS to send back the damaged pills. She had to
make time for self to send back the pills because the post office is in a different town. CVS has responded to Sharon’s
frustration by stating “I understand your concern, but we must operate according to company rules.”

Finally, her third transaction was with Fitbit. She purchased a Fitbit watch from their online service but it was delivered
as damage. Fitbit said they were going to send a replacement, but she did not get one. When she did receive the
replacement, that as well as damaged. Representatives at Fitbit has said they receive hundreds of calls a day’s similar
problems to Sharon’s but couldn’t do anything it until their fix was ready.

The reason the author gives these three detailed experiences about her poor customer experiences is to show each of
the major companies took care of themselves instead of taking care of the consumer. They put the Doing before the
Being.

Eventually Sharon demonstrates a list of consequences when a company follows their own rules that are in conflict with
the customers needs. These consequences can be listed from: without customers, there’s no need for rules; customers
complaints go viral; hurting, cheating, disregarding, and ignoring customers always loses business; and for each
customer who does not feel fairly treated, companies lose unknown – hundreds of prospective clients for an uncertain
time moving forward. This is where Sharon comes to differentiate the terms doing and being. When companies confuse
their rules (the doing: regulations, results, performance) with a customer’s needs (the being: values, feelings,
requirements), they miss out on the opportunity to connect with their markets and address their concerns. Sharon later
pivots into instructing how companies need to put the customers first and taking care of their corporate rules. The first
strategy is to use an impossible customer request as a means to create a life long partner. Sharon provides an example
in which she worked for Bethlehem Steel and during her time there was a trucker’s strike. This led to their clients
purchasing steel from another competitor to make sure they did not face an expensive downtime. Bethlehem Steel
showed they kept their client happy during the time when the truckers went on strike.

Strategy number two is to use the customer’s feelings to exhibit your dedication to them. Sharon goes back to her
experience with Wheaton how the representative said to her “If you don’t stop shouting, I’ll hang up on you”. Instead,
the customer representative should have said “Wow. Sounds like you’re really upset. I can imagine how annoyed you
must be. I’m so sorry.” Finally, strategy three states make sure the customer service representative owns the problem.
Customers do not want to follow up on an issue and then be placed on hold.
Sharon pivots to her final conclusion it is possible to take care of the company’s policies, employees and the customers.
The author gives six arguments stating the company should always focus on the customer. The first argument, Sharon
goes back to her CVS online encounter where instead of CVS saying to her “Send us the damaged pills” instead CVS
should have stated “The prescription is important to your health. I’ll send you an entirely new bottle and include a return
mailer so you can send the bad ones back at your convenience. I’m sorry.” The second argument, companies should
trust their customers, they are not their enemies and pay their bills. The third argument, if you break your own product,
referring back to Fitbits broken watch, the company should fix it. The company should not take the costs on to the
customer. The fourth argument, make sure each customer has had a wonderful experience and are happy at the end of
their transaction. The fifth argument, create a vision statement that includes the words ‘Customer Service’. Finally,
argument six, which is the most important in my opinion are employees are customers. Happy employees take care of
customers. A lot of todays well known companies push their best in providing their employees so it can reflect their
performance to their customers. For a while, Comcast had the reputation for poor customer service and it can be
inferred they did not treat their own employees well.

From the article, there are a lot of points about client communications which is heavily connected to Sharon Drew
Morgan’s YouTube videos. The first video, discuss about helping your customers decide. She introduces the video with
an example how a dentist reaches out to an old customer six months later. The dentist calls the customer concerned
about her teeth, and the dentist states: we haven’t seen each other in a while and your teeth is poorly in shape, if you
let me fix them your teeth will look better. Obviously, we can’t go with this approach, even if this person is correct about
that person’s teeth. Sharon’s makes a strong point, its not about yourself it is about it is about the customer who will
make a decision. Sharon continues throughout the first video stating we have our own bias about ourselves thinking how
great we are. Instead, we have to pivot from this mindset and first think about the person on the other end who needs
to make a decision. Sharon goes back to her dentist example and says the dentist needs to change his approach by
reaching out to the customer saying: I haven’t realized you haven’t come back the past six months and I am concerned
about your teeth and care right now. I am wondering if we could have a conversation, look at various options, and I can
make sure your dental care is properly managed. In Morgan’s second video, The Buying Facilitation Method, she has
made a lot of bold statements throughout her presentation. She talked about the way sales have been pushing products
in some way, so the buyers can have a sense of wanting an item. Sharon goes off how the sales team tries the best to
make a pitch to a single or group of clients, then the marketing teams gets involved, etc. Information does not teach
people how to make a decision. The only way the consumer will change their mind or make a decision, when their values
get touched. I agree with Morgan’s statement on this because if I am getting pitched a product or service, the
information may be interesting to hear but how does this product or service help myself?

From the article and the two YouTube videos produced by Sharon Drew Morgan’s her ideas and philosophy toward a
client center focused can all be connected and used as a toolbox for this week’s case study. This week’s case was
different, instead of reading the case and answering the designated questions, instead myself and others had to pitch a
business to a potential investor. The considerations needed to run the business we wanted is similar to Sharon’s
philosophy in what the customer wants, not the business. What research is required when considering a product or
service and attempting to create a match with potential client needs? How do you get buy-in to secure investments
within your organization (time, resources, funding, people) to launch your product? How is your product/ service
distinguishable from others and how does it address a specific client need? How will you manage its development or
refinement in terms of a work plan and deliverables? How will you address various aspects of your persuasive appeal --
Ethos (Credibility), Pathos (Emotion) and Logos (Logic)? What are your implications regarding metrics, strategy, change
implications, potential organizational conflicts and performance management issues? These questions are meant to
answer the investors point of view, not myself and my colleagues who at the time decided to pitch an Italian restaurant.