How is communication with your staff and other stakeholders?

Internal and external customer relations are critical functions of any business seeking to grow and get a return on its investment. FILE PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

By NJERI KAGWE More by this Author

Internal and external customer relations are critical functions of any business seeking to grow and get a return on its investment.

However, it often seems like a challenge for many businesses to strike a balance between treating customers as people and not just numbers.

In the world of business, it is commonly acknowledged that the customer is always right, and this cannot be overstated. Top-notch customer service can be a differentiator for small businesses.

A recent incident involving a governor and a local airline exemplifies the importance of clear communication and customer satisfaction.

The governor accused the airline of charging excessive flight fees, a claim that sparked an online debate.

The airline tried to offer a clarification on the misunderstanding, but whilst both parties might have been right in their statements, lack of clear communication from the airline caused unnecessary public outrage and frustrated a customer who cancelled future staff trips with the airline.

The incident mirrors report findings by Salesforce in 2021 that indicated that 62 percent of customers are likely to share their bad experiences with family, friends, and co-workers through word of mouth or on social media platforms. This demonstrates the importance of establishing favourable customer relations.

The first customer is the employee. How the business treats employees is equally crucial to the growth of the enterprise as it reflects their motivation for work and how they in turn treat the customers.

Employee issues such as low pay, long working hours, sexual harassment, and illegal termination of contracts can derail the growth of the business.

Both external customers and employees want to feel valued and heard.

The companies are expected to promptly react to the raised concerns depending on the magnitude; by either improving on the services and product quality or launching an investigation into the raised issue.

Unfortunately, SMEs sometimes don’t pay enough attention to complaints because they are small in terms of resources, cautious with their expenditure, and only invest in urgent issues.

This approach increases their reputational vulnerability. In my experience in the communications field, most SMEs fail to reach profitability due to a lack of proper communication channels with their stakeholders.

Lack of an internal communication plan leads to poor outputs and losses, for instance, if there are no constant internal updates to ensure employees are on the same page for the smooth execution of tasks.

On the same note, SMEs that lack a crisis management plan are the most affected when incidents occur.

Good customer and employee relations directly speak to the kind of business strategy developed by the business as it means that the business leaders took time to understand the customers’ expectations and they are willing to exceed the expectations.

Ms Kagwe is a communication consultant. Email: kagwe@communicis.co.ke