Businesses want their customers to be very happy with their product or service. They strive very hard to please them. Many businesses go over the top to pamper them. Just like how we want to please our kids. We take them to the candy shop. The kids get excited. There are 100s of candy choices. We ask them to choose one and they get confused. They struggle to select one out of 100. Even though it is a struggle, they are delighted because it is a nice problem.
Businesses often give the same nice problem to their customers
They give many options for the customers to contact them. Customer can either call, Email or chat live. They are asked if they would like to speak to the technical team, sales team, complaints team or “any” others team. So businesses, expect their customer to be delighted just like the kid in the candy store. However, in most cases the customer gets upset. They begin the call in an irritated tone. They often start the Email on a sour note. After all we are trying everything to be of help, but they are upset. Why?
Why giving multiple options to the customer upsets them?
The customer at the phone is desperately looking for some help. The customer does not have the time and leisure of a child at the candy store. They want a quick answer or quick solution to their problem. Giving many options will make them confused and they cannot decide on what will work for them. Thats why businesses must be careful about giving away too many options.
How to give options that make life easy for customer?
Option is actually a good thing. As long as the option follow the assurance. The customer must first be assured that his/her needs be looked after and then taken through the option. For example, if a customer calls in regarding a complaint, they must first be assured that the complaint will be dealt with in 48 hours (or any certain number of hours) and then shown the option of complaint form, email or a phone complaint at this number. When given assurance, customer would feel much more relaxed when taken through the options.
Just like the kid at the candy store who is assured of a candy first and then given the multiple choices.
