Keeping Customers Informed Retains Them

One issue facing many companies is this: when do you communicate with your customers and when do you stay silent?

Example

Here's a personal example. Calnet is a local internet service provider. The small firm offers DSL and wi-fi services in the greater Sacramento area. They face stiff competition from giants such as A,T&T and Comcast and, given the rural nature of the Western Sierra, satellite providers like Dish Network. Satellite connections are prone to weather-related outages, which is why we switched to Calnet's wi-fi service (DSL is not available to us).

Several months ago, we complained about extremely slow connections, especially between 5-9 p.m. Monday-Friday and on the weekend. We were unable to access the net at 11 p.m. Feb. 3 nor at about 9 a.m. Feb. 4, prompting yet another call to Calnet's tech support.

It turns out that Calnet has been dealing with other technical issues affecting a different group of its customers, devoting all available resources to those issues and providing better service to this large group. Limited staff and limited resources means that while one group's issues were being addressed, other groups' were not.

Two Perspectives

There are always at least two sides to every conflict, the company’s view and the customers.

Calnet’s view, the senior tech support person we spoke with said, is to not give people false hope of improved service until the improvements are actually in place. People will be more upset if the improvements are not done at the time promised than if they never know the improvements are being made, he explained.

My view as a customer is this: our service was no better than it had been under previous providers. It was—and still is—actually worse in that connections were lost despite perfect weather. We would be more understanding if Calnet had taken the time to let us know what they were and are doing, and how their actions to benefit other customers impacts us.

Possible Solutions

Calnet’s view of not releasing information early means its customer base is split into three groups: those who are seeing the improvements take place; those who do not notice any change in service; and those—like us—who are calling and complaining.

The first group is happy, the second unmoved and the third concerned or angry. Part of the third group may decide that other options are better and move on. Companies in similar situations wanting to avoid losing customers should consider these communication techniques.

Email Newsletters

This a perfect way to get the word out that your company cares about its customers and is taking steps to insure their continued support. General information like updates on new areas reached and new milestones achieved are all ways of letting existing customers know your firm cares.

Include a section like “In the Pipeline” that tells customers what changes are being contemplated and asking for both help and patience. Proactive apologies—“Our tech support wait times may be longer than normal while we roll out this new service. Please bear with us.”—will help.

You can also include tips and comments to help people in the event of outages or other likely scenarios. For example, backing up your data to an external hard drive is a good idea.

The critical part is that by communicating what is going on with your customers, even if you are uncomfortable giving them precise dates, means most people will wait and work with you. Not communicating means some will feel your company does not care about them and move their business elsewhere.