Some businesses have created a customer service culture; it seems that others really don’t care. Those who work at creating a customer service culture have less difficulty attracting and retaining their customers. It seems obvious that those who design products and services should keep the needs of their prospects at the forefront.
Some go to great lengths to make their products more customer-friendly. As an example auto makers Nissan and Ford have their designers mimic physically challenged drivers by having them wear “weight belts” that add inches to waistlines so they can incorporate the needs of heavy people in their cars. Designers also wear “aging suits” that inhibit physical mobility to make those designers more sensitive to the difficulties older people have when entering and exiting cars. They use that experience when designing doors, seats, and controls. They even wear “foggy” eyeglasses to better enable people with sight problems to drive with a greater degree of safety.
Has your business created a customer service culture? Does it design products and services to meet the needs of people who, for one reason or another, find it difficult to go into the marketplace? It would be worth the time to audit all aspects of your business to insure it is meeting the needs of all your customers and prospects.
A customer service culture means that you inspect your public areas to see if they can be negotiated by a mom pushing a stroller or a person in a wheelchair. Read your forms and signage to see whether the “fine print” is too fine for someone with poor eyesight. If your advertising is aimed to special groups (teens, seniors, ethnic populations, people whose native language isn’t English) make sure word usage, syntax, and abbreviations are relevant and appropriate. My mother is 94 years old and under five feet tall. She has diffic
