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McCutchen 1 Caroline McCutchen Research Paper Final Professor Alicia Bolton 4 November 2013 Locked In The story ATM

begins on Thanksgiving night of 1999. James Gallagher went to his local branch of Commerce Bank. That particular bank is supposed to have a twenty-four hour ATM. When James pulled up, he noticed that no one was there except him, but since it was Thanksgiving he just thought that everybody was at home with their family. As he approached the ATM at 8:59 pm Thanksgiving night, he looked and noticed helpful tips posted about how to use the ATM. He began to use the ATM to fill his request of a withdrawal but as he waited, he then noticed another computer that was set for something different. As the ATM handed him his money heard the doors lock and realized what had happened. He pulled on the handle of the door and it was no mistake that he was locked in. He began to search for a telephone and then realized there wasnt one. So, he couldnt call for help either. He was stuck. James stayed there all night long until 6 a.m. the next morning. After leaving the bank, he withdrew all of his money and hasnt used the bank since. The spokesman from the bank described it as a freak accident. But, these freak accidents tend to happen more than just on occ asions. The major problem is business communication. If a sign had been posted to notify James of the closing time, then he wouldnt have spent Thanksgiving night locked in a bank. It is the businesss responsibility to communicate thoroughly with their customers so that incidents like this do not

McCutchen 2 occur. Therefore, business communication with customers within todays world is a major problem that could be changed with better communication skills. One way to better communication skills between businesses and customers is by being organized. If you are organized in everything that you do in the business, there will be little room for mistakes or mishaps between the business and the customer. Caldwells Business states that If you do have an organized and effective customer communication program and give attention to your customer relations you will gain in business . But the less organized you are, the higher the chance of accidents happening which could cause a loss in business instead of gain. Many business communication mishaps like what happened to James happen too often in todays world. Although many of the incidents arent as big as what James went through, they still cause consequences between the business and the customer. Caldwells Business also shows different incidents that resulted in a negative effect for the Business because of lack of organization. The due date on an account payment plan was set up with a due date of the 14th of the month. Actually the payments initially needed to be received by the end of the previous month. The customer was not told this and discovered the actual due date to keep their account out of jeopardy by accident. Lost: The trust in the company and interest in doing business with the bank. And A customer was coming off of a payment program. A slight over limit balance was on the account. It was weeks before the payment due date. The credit card company kept calling the customer every couple of days for a payment that wasn't even due yet. Lost: The customer was outraged by the continued unnecessary harassment by the company for something that wasn't even due yet. If the payment wasnt due yet there wasnt any reason to have as many calls as the customer received. Their system needed to be more

McCutchen 3 organized and know when to call and how many times to call. If the business was organized in a way to communicate thoroughly with their customers, these incidents may have been prevented. Another way to improve communication skills between business and customers is the simple fact of listening to the customer. Listening is a key ingredient in every business, no matter what job. It can be as simple as taking an order at a fast food restaurant or as serious as making a payment with a company. If you do not listen to your customer with open ears, it creates an easy way for mistakes to happen. In the segment, Listening with Half an Ear a customer is upset and angry because the order they placed with an employee was incorrect. The employee wasnt listening as well as they should have been, which caused a problem with the shipping order they had placed. All of these problems come directly from lack of listening between the business and customer. As Caldwells Business says, If you do not have an effective customer communication program and give attention to your customer relations you will lose business. That was exactly what happened to James Gallagher and the Bank. After the freak accident, James withdrew all of his money from the bank and doesnt do business with them anymore. They lost a regular customer because of lack of communication and listening between them as the Bank and James as the customer. Posting notices, signs and/or notes is another way to better communication skills between the business and the customer. If the bank would have had better communication with the customer, then James would have not spent Thanksgiving night locked in his local bank. Other businesses around the world have become more into making sure accidents like this do not happen by posting signs, leaving tips, and giving advice to other businesses to help

McCutchen 4 better their communication with their customers. In Excellence in Business Communication, Courtland L. Bovee states, Provide practical information. Give recipients useful information. Leaving signs to assure a customers knowledge of something that may be taking place in a business is a good idea. Whether it is an early closing time or a closing day, it will be made known to the customer in a clear way. When James was using the ATM, the only useful information that was posted was a sign of tips to use while using the ATM. A sign that said the closing time on a Holiday like Thanksgiving would have been useful for James. He would have known that 8:59 p.m. was too late to make a withdrawal because the Bank closes at 9 p.m. But instead he continued to use it because he was under the impression of the ATM still being open 24 hours. That is practical information that should have been provided to the customer in a form of signs, notes, or postings some way or another. Another way to improve customer communication is to recognize that it is important that businesses recognize what needs to be told to their customers. In the eBook Effective Customer Care, Wellington asks, How do you know what your customers needs and requirements are? (Wellington 23). That is something the bank should have asked. By research, the customers require knowledge in any specific area that could affect them. It is the businesses responsibility to obtain information and release it to the customers when it could affect them and their business. Even if a sign wasnt posted, something shouldve been made known to the customers of the early closing time of the ATM. A phone call could have been made to all of their customers to tell them the closing time. The ATM is normally a 24 hour ATM, so how would the customers know that anything had changed if nothing was said to them

McCutchen 5 in the slightest way? A business needs to acknowledge what the customers need to be aware of to make sure unexpected accidents do not happen. Lastly, another way to improve communication between a business and its customers is to send out surveys, or personal responses as to how they were treated and their opinions on different matters. When this is done it allows the customer to feel connected with the business and have their opinion known about situations. If customers write their opinions down, it gives room for improvement in certain areas of a business if it is needed. Many businesses and jobs are beginning to do this. In an article named Relationship Management of Health Care: a study of hospitals in Thailand, a study was made with 500 Thai outpatients to see how well the customers were satisfied with their service. After many surveys were done, they made a conclusion. The findings indicate that the four perceived service quality dimensions on corporate image significantly affect corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.(1) Many factors are accountable for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and it all goes back to communication between the business and their customers. Customers will not be satisfied if they are locked in a bank all night which may cause the business to lose their business with a very valuable customer. It is important to satisfy the customer and make their opinions matte which in the long run, may prevent accidents. Others may oppose to this argument and say that James should have been aware of the closing time of the Bank. But, how could he have been aware if nothing was said any different to him, as he customer? James didnt think anything by going to the ATM because it is normally a 24 hour ATM. There was no sign posted or a phone call made for James to know that the bank was locking its doors one minute after he gets in there. The only sign that was posted was tips

McCutchen 6 for using the ATM. It is the banks responsibility to assure proper communication between its customers. If the bank was locking its doors early on Thanksgiving night, then there shouldnt have been accident. Communication skills should have been practiced and customers should have been made known of the change in time. Business communication mishaps happen quite frequently in todays world and this was just one example of one. Better communication skills will help prevent accidents like, James being locked in the ATM on Thanksgiving night, from happening all the time. If communication skills begin to be taken more seriously there will be an improvement in accidents. There are many different examples of improving communication listed in this research paper. If those are taken into consideration, communication will be improved and negative effects will decrease. Businesses need to begin communicating more thoroughly with their customers to assure that accidents do not result in the loss of a customer.

McCutchen 7 Works Cited

Bunthuwun Laohasirichaikul, Sirion Chaipoopirutana, Howard Combs. Effective Customer Relationship Management of Health Care: a study of hospitals in Thailand. Business. EJournals. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

Business Communication: Listening. Listening with Half an Ear. Films Media Group, 1996. Films on Demand. Web. 04 November 2013. <http://storm.hgtc.edu:2048/login? url=http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=3503&xtid=11269>

Corporate Communication and Customer Satisfaction. Caldwell Corpo rate Business Development, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.

John, Thill and Courtland L. Bovee. Excellence in Business Communication 9th ed. New Jersey, 2011. Print.

Wellington, Patricia. Effective Customer Care. In Creating Success. London: Kogan page. 2010. eBook Collection(EBSCOhost). EBSCO. Web. 1 November 2013.

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