I ended one of my early on Globalstar video posts with, “If you can’t get a hold of us, we are literally dead.” That is the importance we place on accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through in relation to our valued consultants, clients, and partners. We place a high priority on attributable labels of accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through when it comes to expectations related to our vendor type relationships. Often however, many companies fall flat in the area of these fundamentally critical attributes that lie at the heart of superior service.
As with most everything in business and in life, greater ideals and higher objectives start at the top. Accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through must be absolutes in terms of expectations. There are no excuses that suffice, especially in today’s world of exceptional person-to-person connectivity. By extension, most businesspeople have their phones and computer systems synced-up, so ultimately, if you don’t hear back from someone, they are choosing not to respond. Of course, there are always exceptions, but they are a rarity.
Adopting accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through as a part of your business model oftentimes means changing your culture. Whenever I run across a business that consistently has poor communication in which the “right and left hand” don’t have a clue what the other is doing, I can’t help but think of how much business they are losing as a result. There are also companies who place too high of an emphasis on technology to drive interactions with customers and prospective employees. I don’t know a single person who prefers an automated customer-facing robot over a human being. None of us like talking to a robot or digital application when it comes to relaying information. Especially, when that information is of a sensitive nature or has urgency attached to it.
Some companies also hide behind their technology, then excuse their inability to perform at an acceptable level as some sort of software glitch or systems failure, but they’ll get right on it. Then after having to call back multiple times in pursuit of a resolution, customers are not only disgruntled, but disillusioned to the point of never using them again or at a minimum, giving them a negative review. We’ve all noticed the trend where companies are overly enamored with their online 5-star reviews. If they just did a better job in the areas of accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through, those reviews would organically take care of themselves.
Another area where accessibility, responsiveness, and follow through really fall short is in the area of hiring. I am shocked by the stories I hear from people that are excellent at what they do, and in some cases the best I’ve seen, who never even get a call back, much less an interview. I’ve had people tell me that these companies say they are among the top 2-3 finalists for a job, but not only didn’t they land the job, but they never even talked to a human being. That is completely unacceptable!
At Globalstar I make a point of personally having at minimum, a full hour call with every prospect, and this is after plenty of upfront pre-call due diligence by others. At the end of the day, we are all still working with human beings, so let’s act like it by showing ample respect and professional courtesy to those who take the time to express interest in our companies. I think a lot of companies lose sight of the fact that we are all here by choice as customers, colleagues, partners, and vendors. Being proficiently accessible, responsive, and following through honors those choices.
