TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 125 These may be, and some This is a very great error. times are, necessary incidentals and serve to assist the agent in the attaining of his object. The valuable agent, however, is not the one who depends only on his suaviter in modo, who "cons" the public by his smooth address. He seldom lasts, and generally leaves the company a heritage of trouble from which it finds it difficult and expensive to extricate itself. The wise man will rather assure himself first of his position as represented in the ultimate advantage to be derived by the company. He will satisfy himself that the financial terms of the contract are fair and profitable; that the clauses in the contract are carefully and legally drawn. The agent is often too anxious to sign his name to a contract for three or four thousand lights, to study well whether the contract is worth the paper on which it is written. But with the financial terms of the contract fair and profitable, with the clauses carefully and legally drawn, the agent may cheerfully approach that customer. He may then supplement the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, and nine times out of ten he will land a customer, and one who, with tactful handling thereafter, will be a satisfied income-producer and a good advertiser. I will take up one other department-one so important, and in its very essence depending so very much upon tact, and, if tactfully administered, of such great and lasting importance to the central-station company, that to omit it in a paper of this kind would indeed be a grievous error. I refer to the department dealing with complaints from customers. I am sure you will agree with me that here indeed is the opportunity for a display of tact of the highest order. The customer ap pearing before the representative of the claim department is, from the very fact that he is there, almost always in a state of antagonism to the company. If he comes honestly to complain, he feels that he has suffered an injury. He feels that, intentionally or unintentionally, the company has done him harm; that he has been asked to pay for that which he has not received, and, worse than all, he comes with a premonition that, dealing with a corporation, he is to receive no consideration, and that he must fight his battle to the bitter end. It is, of course, unnecessary before you, gentlemen, to argue why he is mistaken. It would, of course, be superfluous to remind you that the employees of a corporation who have rendered him his bill, have done so in all honesty and with fair intent; but, gentlemen, it devolves upon the claim agent to convince this exasperated man that no injury has been done him, or that if he has suffered an unintentional harm the company is only too anxious to right the wrong. The claim man, therefore, should be one who would instinctively and at once be able to judge the character and temperament of him with whom he is to deal. In the majority of cases, I think it is a mistake to try to convince the claimant of the correctness of his bill at the first interview. Rather, I would advise that his complaint should be carefully and respectfully listened to, and then he be informed that a thorough investigation would be made. When this investigation has been made, the claim man should look well into the conditions and satisfy himself that having once taken a position based upon that investigation his ground should be so sure that no evidence could afterward be brought to cause him to withdraw therefrom. TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 127 Should the result of his investigation show that an error had been made in the reading of the meter, or in figuring the bill, or in any other way, he should at once hasten to apprise the customer of this fact, state to him the rebate to which he might be entitled, and make the customer feel that the company is grateful to him for giving it an opportunity to rectify the wrong. Where the result of the investigation shows that the readings are correct, and that no injustice has been done to the customer, then I believe he should, as far as possible, seek a personal interview in which he may explain to the customer why the bill appears to be right, and in which he may receive from the customer information which would tend to show the justice of the company's position. The position of claim agent is a very trying one, but it has its ray of sunshine in that oftentimes the claim agent can afterward point to cases where he has proven to the customer's satisfaction that the bill as rendered was correct; and he will find that that honest contestant, once satisfied as to the company's just treatment, will thereafter not only cheerfully pay his bills so long as they are correct, but will at all times, in and out of season, bear evidence to the fair, just and tactful methods pursued by the company. Finally, let us remember, gentlemen, that the primary object of our business, as of any other business, is financial advancement. What the citizen needs in our line we must give him; what he thinks he needs, we must find for him; what he is unaware of in his needs, we must show him, and all for the commercial betterment of our city and the financial advancement of our company. |