A Twitter post earlier this week brought a contentious customer service issue to the fore – appointment times that are not honored.
For whatever reason, some businesses are unable to grasp the concept of honoring the customer’s time as an extension of their customer service practices.
When a customer makes an appointment, it is likely he or she will structure other activities in their to-do list around this time. On the face of it, it makes sense to schedule a meeting three hours after your 10 a.m. doctor’s appointment. And most of us are not so unreasonable as to dismiss the likelihood that situations may arise that could affect our schedule.
What makes ignoring appointments a customer service fail is when there is no communication with the customer who turned up on time for the appointment, and is made to sit for hours, completely ignored as if the company is doing you a favor. Then there are those businesses who in theory have an appointment system, but staff members have generally accepted this as just a suggestion. When you’re pressed for time, however, and trying to squeeze in an appointment between two others, it can get frustrating.
But there are ways to handle this, and the best and simplest advice is to honor your word.
- Don’t make promises to your customers that you won’t be able to keep.
- Solicit customer feedback about the appointment system to evaluate if it’s working for them.
- If the business has both an appointment and walk-in system, structure in a way that will not diminish the service level for any customer.
- When making appointments, customers ought to be advised of any caveats to determine whether this is the best use of their time; likewise, walk-ins should be advised of the appointment system and how the company prioritizes its daily schedule of customers.
The key is valuing the customer’s time as much as you value their dollar.