It’s your service.
I felt compelled to write about an experience I had the other day at one of the largest regional grocery store chains in the northeast. It cemented my already lukewarm opinion of the chain, but it also made me think about how important it is pay attention to customer service, even as we trim payrolls.
There’s no need to describe what happened to me, because it has happened to you, in the supermarket, electronics store, hardware store, you name it: You need help with something, you see an employee, your expression says “help me,” you’re pretty sure they see that…and nothing happens. Not even any eye contact, let alone a smile. Or if someone does help you, it seems to be an inconvenience for them.
If you’re the business owner (or manager) this should be a real concern for you. Your customers may be having similar experiences and, chances are they are not telling you. Instead they’re telling everyone using a variety of social media outlets and tools. Guess what: everyone is listening.
The next step, of course, is they will leave you for your competition.
We know that despite the beginnings of a recovery in the economy, the job market is lagging. Companies are still being forced to reduce employee hours or even lay people off. Given that companies need your business more than ever, I’m amazed that they feel they can allow employees to treat customers poorly. What is one to think, other than that they don’t care about their customers? It’s not as if bad service is merely a byproduct of overworked, underpaid employees. It goes deeper than that: it has been problem far longer than the last 18 months.
Don’t believe me? Do one of (or all of) the following:
- Call the “customer service” number on the back of any of your credit cards. If you speak with a human in less than three minutes, I’d like to know the name of the bank.
- Call your cable company to ask a question about why you were billed twice. Be patient – you’ll probably have to do that twice, too.
- Pick an appliance in the house, send e-mail to the manufacturer – How many days is too long to get a response? (HINT: the correct answer is in hours not days)
It doesn’t cost much more to serve customers better. A recent white paper by Rogers and Peppers entitled Winning on Service in an Uncertain Economy concluded that competition for customers always exists, but in tough economic times a focus on servicing existing customers provides the best “cheap growth” and requires only incremental investment.
If there was ever a perfect time to start providing great service – it would be right now.
Tags: customer satisfaction, customer service, customer support, inconvenience, shopping
