A view on the Customer Apathy.

I stumbled upon this article in a national newspaper while on a boring train trip and thought of sharing it with my readers. The writer is the CEO of Equus Red Cell.

This is my favorite topic and, in the same breath, my per piss-off point. My two insurance agents are like Santa Claus. They come visiting once a year when they have to collect their premium cheques. Through the year, they are nowhere to be seen.

They know i am alive purely because a claim hasn’t been made. They have no idea about what’s going on in my life. Worse still, they have scant knowledge about my kids or wife. As a result, they have lost business that they could have got had they not waited for their annual sleighs to be delivered to their doorsteps. 

Banks are worse. Typically, and you can check this out, any branch manager of a bank makes two calls a day. One to address a customer crib. And the other to cross-sell a product. Hawk like all they do is keep an eye on your balance and the moment they see a bob of extra cash in the pot, they come armed with another investment option. Besides that, not a single call to ask whether you are well or whether they can be of any use.

I have often wondered about the origin of this customer apathy. More so, given the fact that you have oodles of your customers’ money in your coffers.

There are other categories that are equally tardy. Real Estate. Have you ever got a call from your builder after you have bought home?

Increasingly, blokes like the ones in insurance companies and banks must understand that having a relationship manager and having a relationship are two matters. They have to come to terms with the fact  that the data that they acquire when they opened your account or commenced a “relationship” is about 20 years old and needs some dusting and spring cleaning.

My banker doesn’t even know the ages of my children. How cool is that?

So what really is the point one wishes to make? The fact that all brands are relationships. They require constant conversations, the odd seduction, the little surprises and some TLC.

Had they not made the entire process of changing your number into a thesis in astrophysics, number portability can be an excellent example of how customers will be ruthless with those who don’t care.

Indeed, in my estimation, the time has come to understand a defining moment in consumerism. 

Customer care can no longer be a division in a company. Customer care is the brand on offer.

How does it sound? The guy is really pissed off with the whole business of customer care, and he is somewhat true. In his piss off he has really shown the way to our relationship managers and customer cares the key to the heart of the customer and in turn the master of the business that can be generated from there.

My personal opinion differs in the case of my insurance agents. I was blessed with two very fine insurance agents and they were the people who were in constant touch with me and still are after 5 years even though I am not giving them any sort of further business. The benefit – the moment I or any of my friends had to invest they were the first people who got the business. And one of them even was awarded on an all India Level in his company. 

Yes, it’s true that customer care of a product or service is now a brand to offer and it really affects even the first hand sale. 

Even, what happens when we receive a call for certain product or service from a customer care division. We are pissed off and either we cut the phone, say sorry or fool around with the caller. Is it not true that each one of us may need any of these products or service at any stage in life? And when the time comes, who is there to grab that opportunity?