Answer the damn phone
Tried to call an insurance company lately? Or maybe a utility? Or heaven forbid, a bank? There’s a good chance that you’ll settle into listening to some obligatory hold music as you curse whatever has required you to make the call.
If your experience with customer service standards have slipped, you’re not alone. A study out of the UK showed that in the hospitality industry, 61% of people believed service standards slipped during the Covid era, with a 43% drop in service quality and a 32% fall in service speed. Ouch. But don’t blame it all on the pandemic, according to The Economist, the ACSI index (a metric of customer satisfaction out of USA) has been falling since2018.They also highlight that we, as customers, have become more demanding… but that’s a story for another day.
While we were coming out of the lockdowns and the economy was being juiced with low interest rates and other stimulus, it was understandable that service levels suffered. But some of these service level drops seem to have become embedded. While, as a customer, this is a real pain in the arse, as we’ve written before, this presents an opportunity for small businesses. Or put more simply, businesses with remarkable customer service are likely to pick up market share as we come out of a downturn.
This article from Hubspot has some great insights as to ‘how’ businesses can improve their service levels.
Coming out of a recession is one of the times that market share changes the most drastically. One of the factors that will affect this change of market-share is a perception of value. And a big driver of perception of value is service. What could you do to lift service levels in your business?
Tax collection time
Over the last 3 or 4 years, IRD have largely put investigation and collection activities on the back burner. That has led to some people and businesses wracking up some pretty significant debts. However, the tide has now turned!
Among other activities, IRD are presently running 2campaigns. One is via text message demanding contact be made with IRD within 48 hours. If contact isn’t made, they will commence formal debt recovery.
The second campaign is IRD officers knocking on doors. They are visiting places of business and houses looking to find and engage with people with overdue tax.
Historically, we have got a better outcome in debt negotiations with IRD when we approach IRD first. This means pealing the sticking plaster off and taking some proactive steps. If you’ve been neglecting to ‘pay the man’, get in touch!
Investigations
There has been a significant budget allocation towards investigation activities. Historically, investigation activity returns anywhere between $6 and $8 for each $1 spent – so it has a fantastic ROI.
There is often a thought; ‘I’m too small’ or ‘IRD will never find out,’ without much of an understanding of what powers IRD has or the data they have access too. If you are curious about how an IRD investigation unfolds, this is a great example.
Have a great September.