Ignoring Customers
It happens that some service providers ignore customers — intentionally or unintentionally — without realizing the danger of this behavior for the future of the relationship between the brand and the customer. The reasons are many. Chief among them is being present on certain channels or platforms without a prior strategy for how to handle customers on that channel. The other reason is a shortage of resources — either human or technical — to manage customer interactions on the channel in the best possible way.
Types of Customer Ignoring
Behavioral Ignoring
(Where the customer is actually ignored.) Failing to respond to the customer despite a long period since their contact — whether the reason for contacting was an inquiry, request, or complaint.
Dave Kerpen says: “Not responding to a customer is itself a response that says: we don’t care about you.”
Whether the lack of response or engagement was intentional or not, the service provider has effectively responded to the customer (even by not responding). Even if the information the customer is asking about isn’t readily available, or a solution to their complaint isn’t ready, we must contact the customer and let them know we will follow up (and actually follow up later, honoring our promise).
Some think ignoring customers is a viable option that spares an employee the burden of dealing with them. As stated in The Experience — which details the customer experience at Disneyland — page 98: “There is truly no greater insult to the customer than the insult they feel when you ignore them.” Don’t assume the customer will forget over time and play dead, as the colloquial saying goes. Be up to the responsibility and follow the matter through to closure.
Tip: Even if you don’t have technical tools to support follow-up, use a notebook to log such cases so you remember to follow up later. Don’t trust your memory too much.
True story: Dave Carroll. He flew United Airlines, his guitar was smashed due to the negligence of baggage handlers, he complained, was ignored, and received no compensation. What the company didn’t account for was that he might use his talent for revenge — and he did. He sang a song describing his entire experience and posted it on YouTube, titled United Breaks Guitars. To date, more than 20 million people around the world have watched it. Watch the clip here. The company’s share price dropped roughly 10% as a result, equivalent to approximately $180 million.
Perceptual Ignoring
(Where the customer feels they’ve been ignored.) Such as failing to inform them of information many other customers know, or not following up with them on a suggestion they submitted or a complaint they raised (even if it seems trivial to the provider). Closing the feedback loop with the customer is extremely important to some customers.
Although we can’t control customers’ perceptions, we can apologize to them and later make sure not to repeat the problem they’re complaining about — by working with the relevant departments on root-cause analysis and eliminating it.
Adopting a culture of proactivity is another way to avoid generating perceptual ignoring among customers. For example: tell the customer in advance about service outages when they’re expected, with a justification and the estimated time service will resume. That’s much better than ignoring the matter until the customer is taken by surprise and starts calling to inquire.
True story: I suffered for more than a month trying to recover a transfer that didn’t reach the beneficiary (my brother) because his bank changed his IBAN without formally notifying him. My brother felt ignored, and what made it worse was that his bank didn’t directly admit the error and tried to evade in several ways — even though the mistake was on the bank’s side. The transfer remained suspended for more than a month and the error wasn’t corrected. To not drag you through the timeline, the matter stretched for nearly two months. My brother ended up filing a lawsuit against the bank over the suffering and damages caused by the error.
In Closing
Always imagine if the customer were a relative or a dear friend — how would you serve them, even if you didn’t have a ready solution or a complete answer? Would you ignore them? Wouldn’t you call them back more than once to update them on the efforts you’re making to fulfill their request or answer their question? Try to adopt the same stance and behavior with all customers — and they’ll be deeply grateful.
Related concepts: Closed-Loop Feedback, Voice of Customer (VoC), Moments That Matter.
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