Businesses spend millions of dollars for promotional efforts and advertising and then flush that investment down the toilet.
Prospective customers, including prospective patients and clients, are frustrated when they can’t reach a human being when they call or the person they first speak to doesn’t respond in a helpful way to connect them with someone who can help them with their problem.
I organized and promoted a Legacy Celebration Picnic for the Silicon Valley San Jose Chapter of CalCPA. All of the chapters are being terminated by CalCPA, so this might be the last social event for our chapter.
One of my promotional efforts was to call all of the CPA firms that are located in Santa Clara County on the Silicon Valley Business Journal‘s 40 largest San Francisco Bay accounting firms list. I asked for a name and email address of a firm member that I could send a promotional flyer to with the details of the picnic to be distributed to firm team members or displayed in the break room.
My phone call to almost all of the firms was initially answered with an automated attendant voicemail system. Most of those systems had an option to dial 0 to speak to a receptionist. When the receptionist wasn’t available, I was invited to leave a voice message. Almost every time that I left a voice message, my call wasn’t returned.
Twelve receptionists either told me to send the information to them to distribute or gave another name and email address to send it to.
I was stunned when a receptionist told me the “Big Four” firm I was calling OUTSOURCED their telephone receptionist function. That person did give me a “generic” email address to send the information to, but didn’t seem to know what to do with me.
When I called the “San Jose office” for another large regional firm, the call was forwarded to their SEATTLE OFFICE! No connection there.
I tried calling another large regional firm with a “San Jose” listing on the Business Journal list and I learned they don’t have a San Jose office.
I was impressed that the receptionist at PRICE WATERHOUSE COOPERS(!) expressed some enthusiasm for the event and invited me to send the information to him. Huy Dang of Price Waterhouse won the “Best Receptionist” award for this exercise.
Despite my efforts, no representatives of any of the firms came to the event.
Admittedly, most firms depend on email for their communications. (Email addresses were not included on the Business Journal list.) I still believe it’s a mistake to not handle telephone inquiries properly. Prospective clients who aren’t treated well are likely to tell their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances about their experience.
As the old saying goes, “There’s no second chance to make a good first impression.”
Your prospective customers believe they are your most important prospective customer. They want to solve their problems. Prospective customers don’t care about your accomplishments until or unless you show that you care about them. When they don’t believe you care, they’ll keep searching for someone who does. That means all employees of the firm should exhibit a helpful “Be Of Service” attitude when interacting with customers and prospective customers.
Someone should be occasionally “mystery shopping” your business, playing customer and and reporting his or her experience to management to learn how customers and prospective customers are treated. It should be someone who isn’t recognized by members of your team. There are businesses that offer this service.
To discuss how to learn and evaluate how prospective customers are treated in your business, contact Michael Gray at 408-918-3161.