A happy customer is the key to a successful company
What, the caller from Hewlett-Packard wanted to know, did I think the big business issues would be in 2005? Well, I replied, in Hewlett-Packard's case, I thought the issues should be that my new HP printer-scanner-copier refused to scan when I bought it and it took me weeks to sort it out. Also the machine could not print on lightweight card, as it was supposed to, without jamming.
The man from HP (or, rather, from the research organisation contracted by HP) laughed nervously. Were there any other big business issues I would like to mention? No, I said. If HP took care of those small ones, the big ones would take care of themselves.
I could have talked for longer, but I had to call Powergen. I should not have been using the FT's time to sort out my electricity difficulties but no one had answered the 24-hour Powergen helpline the previous evening. This time I got through and, after a few false starts, Amit (as I shall call him) sorted out my problem.
I asked Amit where he was. Delhi, he said. Did he actually work for Powergen? No, although he spent all his time answering Powergen calls. Did he have any idea why I had not been able to get through the previous evening? The 24-hour helpline was not really available after 8.30pm, he said. (Powergen says this is not true, that my call should have been picked up by its Leicester call centre, that the company would like to apologise for any difficulties, blah-di-blah.)
Why is it so hard for companies to get things right?
The British utilities seem to have surrendered all their post-privatisation customer-service improvements. Some (not Powergen, I should say) have gone back to their tricks of 20 years ago, including not turning up at the appointed time and then claiming to have rung the doorbell and found no one home. Not that you would necessarily want them in your home. Some of these organisations appear to be staffed by people who opted to repair telephones and install broadband connections because English football stadiums have become too genteel.
Many banks, retailers and the rest are no better. Some seem to have cut back on the essentials of customer service training: please, thank you that sort of thing.
There are honourable exceptions (take a bow Direct Line insurance, Hotter shoes and Pret A Manger sandwich bars), but that is what they are: exceptions. I know this is not just a British phenomenon: every time I write about deteriorating customer service, many of you e-mail from elsewhere with the same complaints.
What is the problem? Some of it is industry-specific: either there is insufficient competition or dissatisfied customers cannot be bothered to change because they doubt they will find anything better. But I sense a deeper malaise: many companies seem to have forgotten what business is about.
They think it is about cutting costs: hence the mania for outsourcing. I am not attacking outsourcing as such; it is not, on its own, responsible for deteriorating customer service. It was, after all, Powergen's outsourced call centre that dealt with my problem and its in-house centre that let me down. Rather, the problem is the mindset that so much outsourcing represents: the idea that a startling reduction in employment costs (all those PhDs doing the accounts for $3,000 a year) is all you need to succeed.
Costs do matter. If they exceed revenues, you have no profit and no company, or individual, can carry on for long without profits. As Charles Dickens' Mr Micawber said: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”
But making a profit, essential though it is, is not the purpose of business either. It is its consequence. As Peter Drucker wrote: “Profit is not the explanation, cause or rationale of business behaviour and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity.”
The purpose of a business is to provide something that a customer wants at a price he or she is prepared to pay. In Prof Drucker's words: “It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods.”
It is a simple idea. You provide goods or services that customers are pleased with so pleased that they come back, and tell all their friends to buy from you too. You then sell more. Result: happiness.
Carrying this out, of course, is less simple. Others may have found a way of providing the same goods at far lower prices, in which case costs will have to be looked at again and you may have to move jobs to low-wage countries.
There is also the difficulty of execution: the bigger your business becomes and the more widespread your suppliers and customers, the harder it is to deliver.
You may need information technology systems to keep track of supplies and to ensure that when your customers call, it takes you no more than a few seconds to call up the information you need.
But when the new IT system has been installed, or the foreign factory built, or this or that activity put out to contract, there is only one test of whether it was worth it: are the customers happy?
As important as planning, talk and implementation are, once they are done, some part of the organisation, whether in Leicester or Delhi, has to deal with a customer and it either works or it does not. Jan Carlzon, the one-time head of Scandinavian Airlines, called that moment of customer contact the moment of truth.
It is with the customer that all business decisions should start and end. Everything else is detail. That, should any other researchers call, is what I think the biggest business issue will be in 2005 or any other year, for that matter.
成功的硬道理：让顾客满意
我认为2005年的重大商业问题会是什么？惠普(Hewlett-Packard)有人打电话来问。这个嘛，我回答道，拿惠普来说，我觉得问题应该是，我新买的惠普“打印扫描复印一体机”拒绝扫描，我花了几周时间才把它搞定。此外，这台机器理应能用轻质卡片纸打印，但实际上不行，卡片纸会卡在机器里。
惠普(或者确切地说，是惠普聘用的研究机构)的这位男子讪笑了一声，问我是否还愿说说其他重大商业问题。没有了，我说。如果惠普能解决那些小问题，大问题自会迎刃而解。
印度客服中心
我本可以和他多聊些时间，但我得打电话给Powergen公司。我本不该利用《金融时报》的工作时间来解决自己的用电问题，但前一天晚上Powergen的24小时服务热线没人接听我的电话。这次我接通了，在几次尝试后，阿米特(Amit，我应该这样称呼他)最终解决了我的问题。
我问阿米特他在哪里。德里，他说。他确实是Powergen的员工吗？不是，尽管他整天都在接听Powergen的电话。他是否知道前一天晚上我为何打不通这个电话呢？晚上8点半后，这个24小时服务热线其实就停了，他说。(Powergen说不是这么回事，说我的电话本该由公司在英国莱斯特的呼叫中心接听，还说公司希望就我的遭遇致歉，等等。)
20年前的老花招
企业把事情做好为什么就这么难呢？
英国的公用事业公司似乎已失去了私有化后出现的一切客服改善。某些公司(不是指Powergen，我要说明一下)甚至玩起20年前的老花招，比如不在约定时间登门服务，却称按过门铃但顾客家里没人。也不是说你盼着他们到家里来。某些公司的员工给人的印象是：他们之所以选择修理电话、安装宽带接入，是因为英国足球场变得太沉静乏味了。
许多银行、零售店和其它机构也好不到哪里去。其中一些似乎已砍去了客服培训的基本要素，如说“请”、“谢谢”之类。
客服差劣是普遍现象
也有些例外，比如“直线保险公司”(Direct Line)的保险，Hotter的鞋子，还有Pret A Manger的三明治吧。这些公司令人尊敬。但它们只是例外。我知道这不仅仅是英国现象：每次我写文章说客服质量不断下降时，读者中会有许多人从别处发来电子邮件，发出同样的抱怨。
问题出在哪里？有些问题是某些行业特有的：要么是竞争不充分，要么是不满的顾客觉得找不到更好的公司，所以不想费事改投他方。但我感到一种更深层的病症：许多公司似乎已经忘掉商业是怎么回事了。
商业就是关于削减成本？
它们认为，商业就是关于削减成本：因此出现了外包风潮。我这样说不是在攻击外包。就其本身而言，外包不应为客服质量下降负责。毕竟，还是Powergen的外包呼叫中心解决了我的问题，而该公司自营的呼叫中心却令我失望。确切地说，问题在于这么多外包业务所代表的一种心态：要取得成功，只需对员工成本进行惊人的削减(有那些海外的博士做会计工作，他们只需3000美元年薪，多便宜啊)。
成本确实重要。如果成本超过营收，那你就没有利润。而在没有利润的情况下，任何公司或个人都支撑不了多久。就像查尔斯?狄更斯(Charles Dickens)笔下的人物米考伯先生(Mr Micawber)所说的：“如果年收入是20英镑，而年支出只有19英镑19先令6个便士，那结果就是开心；如果年收入是20英镑，但年支出是20英镑6先令，那么结果就是不幸。”
赢利是商业的结果
但是，尽管赢利至关重要，却也不是商业的目的所在。赢利是商业的结果。正如彼得?德鲁克(Peter Drucker)写道：“利润不是商业行为和商业决策的解释、原因或逻辑，而是对它们的正确性的考验。”
商业的目的，是以顾客愿意支付的价钱提供他或她想要的东西。用德鲁克教授的话说，就是“正是顾客决定了企业是什么。惟有顾客为一件商品或一项服务付钱的意愿，才能将经济资源转换成财富，将物品转化成商品。”
让顾客满意
这是个简单的概念。你提供的商品或服务让顾客满意，他们非常满意，所以会回头光顾，并告诉所有朋友也来你这里买东西。这样你就卖得更多，结果就是：开心。
当然，实施起来就不那么简单了。其他人或许发现了一种方法，可以用比你低很多的价格提供同样的商品，在这种情况下，就不得不重新考虑成本，而你或许就得把工作岗位转移到低薪国家去。
同样还存在执行的困难：你的企业变得越大，你的供应商和顾客所在范围就越广泛，执行起来就越困难。
你可能需要IT系统来跟踪供应状况，并确保当你的客户打电话来时，你只需几秒钟就调出需要的信息。
但当新的IT系统已经安装好，或者当国外的工厂已经建成，或这样那样的业务已经承包出去以后，评判一切是否值得只有一个标准：客户高兴吗？
与客户接触的那一刻就是关键时刻
与计划、谈判和执行一样重要的是，一旦这些行动开展起来，机构中的某一部分(不管是在莱斯特还是在德里)就必须同客户打交道，这部分要么管用，要么不管用。曾任北欧航空(Scandinavian Airlines)负责人的扬?卡尔森(Jan Carlzon)称，与客户接触的那一刻就是关键时刻。
所有商业决策都应当以顾客为依归。其它一切都是枝节问题。如果还有研究人员打电话来问，我就会说，我认为这就是2005年乃至其它任何一年中最大的商业问题。
