What are Customer Turnoffs?
Everyone has pet peeves about the way they
are served, or not served.
Often these little annoyances have a
cumulative effect, making a dissatisfied
customer or, minimally, an indifferent one.
Typical pet peeves include:
Being ignored
Waiting
Poor quality work
Dirty restaurants
High-pressure sales
Unknoweldgeable
employees
Out-of-stock sale
items
Deep telephone
menus
Condescending
employees
Unmarked
merchandise
Reducing turnoffs can be the best form of
advertisement.
Customers whose problems are addressed by a
company are actually more likely to do repeat
business than customers who have never had
a problem.
Customer turnoffs fit into three areas:
Value problems
Systems problems
People problems
WE HAVE TO KNOW FIRST!
Before we can address what turns the customers off…we have
to ensure WE know what it is we are hoping to provide!
We have to establish what we are all about – and determine
our vision for our business.
Our mission and our vision will dictate what we value.
Then we can develop broad strategies through effective
values, systems and people.
VISION STATEMENT
 Stems from the corporate mission
 Is “what we strive to be”
 Is a set of general “goals to reach for” in the future
Concrete, specific achievable goals/metrics are not
in a vision statement
 Used by the corporation as the starting point to
 frame specific metrics (measuring devices) for each
objective
 formulate strategies and tactics
CUSTOMER SERVICE PHILOSOPHY
A written statement of what the company expects of itself and
commits itself to in terms of customer service.
Reinforces expectations to internal customers (employees,
managers, owners)
Demonstrates commitment to customerS when posted
where external (and internal) customers can see
Is the key to accountability
Fosters excellent relations with customers by setting forth
expectations
Source: Goetsch,2004,
STAGES OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
Adapted from: Shinkle, G., Gooding, R., & Smith, M. (2004). Transforming Strategy Into Success: How to implement a lean management system.
New York: Productivity Press.
Customer turnoffs fit into three areas:
Value problems
Systems problems
People problems
Value
Value is the apparent quality of a product or service
relative to its cost.
Company leaders are the only ones with the power and
authority to make changes to the value of a product or
service.
Systems
“Systems” refers to anything involved with getting the
product or service to the customer. (processes)
Company managers are best suited to solve problems
with process systems within a company.
Typical systems turnoffs include:
Procedures
Policies
Technology
Training
Staffing
Locations
Facilities
Systematic actions
People
People problems are communication problems.
Employees communicate poorly by their words or
nonverbal actions.
Everyone can help eliminate people problems through
improving interpersonal skills.
Service recovery
Seeks to win back the customer who had a bad experience
Attempts may build stronger loyalty-Regularly identifying and
working to reduce possible customer turnoffs can provide a
basis for building customer loyalty.