Hey Client! Don’t Be a Stranger
If you’ve ever run into trouble with a product you’ve purchased, be it a piece of equipment or computer software, the first place we now instinctively go is online. It’s what we’ve been trained to do.
Here, we expect to find answers through FAQ pages, online forums or a customer service chat function. As companies have been able to put more information online, they’ve cut back on direct customer support services. Some companies bury their customer support phone number; others require you to go through a series of steps online before they give you a number to call; and others don’t post a customer support number at all.
Why? Maybe it’s an inferior product. Maybe they don’t have sufficient resources? Maybe it was poor planning. Regardless of the reason, too many companies use the Internet to “hide” from a direct connection with clients.
I can tell you from personal experience, there’s nothing more frustrating than searching and not finding an answer, wasting valuable time for something that should be a quick fix, and not being able to get the help you need.
That’s not an experience we want our customers to have and is one of the reasons we have invested in Client Relations. If a customer has a question or needs help, we want them to call us. We enjoy and crave that personal connection with our clients. Having those support conversations with customers helps direct us when it comes to product improvements or adding information to our training courses and Learning Center.
Our support staff includes two former plant breeders, which makes us ideally suited to know what our clients want and need — our staff have literally “walked in the shoes” of our customers.
One of the things I’ve come to understand is that it’s not a product that makes a company successful, but a company’s customers. You can have a great product, but if you don’t have the customer support to keep customers happy, they likely won’t return. We value our clients and strive to serve them to the highest standards, and that means talking directly with them when they need it.
First published on SeedWorld.com, January 2018
Find out more at agronomix.com
Christopher Leonard is President of Agronomix Software Inc. – developers of Plant Breeding Software for breeders and variety testers around the world.
