Getting it all together

HOW’S YOUR GESTALT?

ge·stalt or Ge·stalt (gə-shtält', -shtôlt', -stält', -stôlt') n. plA physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts.

Your business represents a “gestalt” to your customers. Customers don’t judge you solely based on the rosy descriptions in your advertising (although you probably wish they would). Naturally, they judge you on the value of your product or service. But they also judge you on your billing, your customer service, your distribution, and every other interaction that you have with them. All of these impressions add up to their overall evaluation of your company—it’s “gestalt.”

Your gestalt didn’t used to matter so much. Given the relatively few choices that were generally available, people were more likely to settle for a gestalt that was “OK.” But then along came the internet, and things haven’t been the same since. Now there are dozens (if not thousands) of choices just a click away.

Today every customer interaction matters—because if they’re not happy, they’ll look for “greener pastures” somewhere else. And as they leave, they may “poison the water” by posting an internet comment or evaluation for other potential customers to find.

To quote an old cartoon song, what your customers want is “Happy Happy Joy Joy.” And if you don’t give it to them with every interaction, you’ve probably lost them. There are just too many other choices available [if you don’t believe me, type in a description of your product or service in Google, and see how many links it offers; there are 2,720,000 links for “artificial flowers” for heaven’s sake!].

There’s a tendency for all of us to concentrate on our immediate area of responsibility—outside of that is “someone else’s problem.” But if all of your customer interactions aren’t first rate, then the outcome will be unhappiness for everyone at your company. Because your customers will go away, and not come back. And that means pretty soon your paychecks will do the same thing!

Someone at your company needs to be keeping an eye on how happy your customers are with every aspect of your operation. And you need to take prompt action to fix any aspect that isn’t earning rave reviews.