It’s a secret

An organization providing health and wellness services believed that their customers were idiots, but the business routinely refused to communicate with their customers leaving them in the dark regarding changes.  If you don’t tell them, they won’t know, so don’t act surprised when they don’t do what you think they should. 

No one is a mind reader, least of all your customers.  They have other things going on in their lives.  They aren’t as focused on your business as you are.  They can’t be and they shouldn’t be.  Unless they work for you.  But regardless, they won’t know what you don’t tell them.

If they aren’t following some procedure that you didn’t tell them about, it isn’t that they don’t follow directions – you never told them what you wanted them to do – and it isn’t that they are purposely trying to annoy you.  They truly don’t know what you want you want from them.

One local business owner would send passive aggressive emails to customers after their first visit stating the rules for the establishment.  If she had sent the rules before the visit (which was by appointment only), she could have saved herself some trouble.  Customers would either have no problem following whatever rules she constructed, or they would find another business to visit.  Not a big deal.  But the business owner seemed to want to be annoyed.  She must have wanted to be angry and frustrated because why else would she state the rules after the fact?  No one could have possibly known and followed all her rules without knowing them beforehand.  She set herself up to be angry at her customers.

She also set her customers up to be punching bags.  Most customers though, in this type of situation, will realize that it isn’t worth the effort.  That no matter how great the product may be, it isn’t worth it to be yelled at after each visit.  Customers always have options.  Don’t give them unnecessary reasons to find them.