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This week’s customer service "Touchstone"

Perhaps it stems from when lawyers were paid by the page, but whatever the cause, one of the biggest challenges facing business today is how to simplify the complex.

I was reminded of this when I recently visited Hong Kong. The paperwork required for entering Hong Kong was truly amazing and refreshing. It consisted of a passport-sized piece of paper with a carbon copy attached. The only information required was my name, nationality, passport number and flight number. That was it. In addition, the immigration and customs procedures were minimal and I was off the aircraft and into a cab within 20 minutes. That included waiting for the high-speed train that carries passengers from the arrival gates to the main terminal building.

Departing Hong Kong was even more streamlined. No paperwork whatsoever, just a simple handing over of the carbon copy of the arrival papers which had remained in my passport.

On return to Australia, the information required included name, passport number, flight details, how long had I been away, what was my occupation, where was I intending to spend the next 12 months, what duty free goods was I carrying etc. etc. What made it worse was the thirty-minute wait just to clear immigration, then it was off to collect bags and complete the rest of the arrival formalities.

As a customer of each country, I know which way I would rather be treated when it comes to simplicity of paperwork and procedures. Yes I can hear the bureaucrats screaming about how necessary it all is, but I don’t believe them. It’s just that we have conned ourselves into believing that all this information is both necessary and important. It’s not! In fact I think it’s time we all started raising our voices in protest at the amount of bureaucratic red tape that we currently find ourselves wrapped up in.

This example serves to get you to question the complexity of dealing with your own company.

Ensure that all your forms are simple and easy to read and that the information required is kept to a minimum. When designing your forms, leave plenty of room for people to write in. That includes adequate space for address details, telephone and fax numbers, mobile telephone numbers and email addresses. There is nothing worse than running out of space when filling in a form. When next you are redesigning your forms, trial a few on customers and seek their feedback. They will soon tell you what is acceptable.

Whatever you do, ask yourself how you would wish to be treated. Your customers are no different.

Until next week, many happy customer returns!

Graham Harvey APS

Watch out for Graham’s new book Seducing the Vigilante Customer – winning strategies to guarantee the return of happy customers and healthy profits, available in all good book stores early in 2002.

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