My first job out of college was with a small industrial automation distributor in New York. I was the youngest of a half dozen reps and employed technology to track customers. Internally, the company used a 1980’s server to manage territory sales, profits, and commissions. Every month the dot matrix printer would grind for hours printing territory reports.
Glenn, my sales manager, insisted I not bring my Palm Pilot into accounts as it could potentially distract from sales. My job as an outside salesperson was to create relationships and close sales. My concerns were customer relations and being rewarded with commission.
This week I want to discuss how technology impairs some businesses from actually helping their customers. I’ve noticed many companies unintentionally placing customers second due to misplaced technology. Let’s face it, technology is great but too much can be a roadblock to great customer service.
Perhaps the best example of a system gone awry is my bank. I recently discovered the teller I had been giving credit, hadn’t actually received the credit. With every new location and account I open, I put that super suave teller’s name on the referral line. I understand it was her job to offer the service, but without her I would have never known.
As it turns out, within her company there are multiple computer systems in place. She has access to one, the merchant services department another, and the investment group another. Rather than make it easy to obtain her reward, the bank created a protocol for tellers which requires access to multiple computer networks. This type of system is designed to keep employees from collecting incentives.
Tablets are being adopted by many salespeople partly because they’re fairly inexpensive and ultra portable. An advertising representative visited my Greenfield store last week and promptly swiped through to his sales presentation. Rather than try and create a solution for me, he read a bulleted list and showed me some slides. By the end of the pitch I had forgotten the services he was selling but probably will be purchasing the same tablet he carries.
Sales organizations use a piece of software commonly referred to as contact relation management (CRM). It can be helpful maintaining basic information about customers including customer names and contact information, conversations, and managing written communication. CRM software is wonderful if used for informational purposes. It can be deadly to allow sales and frontline employees to lead with this rather than their personality.
Remember the old days of faxing and then following up with a phone call? Times have changed and companies are now using email and attachments as a primary form of contact. Email is great but it detracts from personal contact. Faxing still created a personal touch because documents were, as the name says, facsimiles of the original.
Back office employees should be the only people in an organization with computers between them and customers. Accounts payable, receivable, inventory control, and other behind the scenes tasks are best handled with computers. Forcing frontline employees to juggle between customers and computers ultimately puts the customer second and may decrease business.
75% of employees will not collect their bonuses because of a clumsy and frustrating computerized reward system like my bank uses. Of those, about 50% will underperform because of lack of morale. Half of the remaining 50% will head to greener pastures. I fought to change a similar commission system with my last employer and insisted salespeople shouldn’t sell from computers. After six months of being stonewalled I finally gave up and started a computer repair company. Who knew?
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)