First, let’s start with a positivity quote:
”A positive attitude
may not solve all of your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it
worth the effort.”
Last week, Sheri and I witnessed a situation that caused me
to think about great customer service. This is a practice that I am personally passionate
about and when I don’t receive great customer service, it irritates me.
One of the most important things that I have learned, practiced
and trained others during my career was the art of great customer service.
After all, customers are the ones that are spending their money with a company,
and they provide the funding for the existence and the survival of that
company. Apparently, many people at many establishments have forgotten about this
important rule and where their paychecks come from.
Back to my example of a bad service, as I said, I was with
Sheri taking care of some errands last week. She needed to return a small
paintbrush (for her Art Studio) and buy some additional art supplies at a local
large chain store who shall stay unnamed. We went to the “Customer Service”
desk to make the return and then go on with the rest of her shopping. The
paintbrush she was returning was only $1.95 but was the wrong kind. The person
at the register took the item and the receipt and made the return in the cash
register. Then, she got on the overhead pager and paged the manager for
approval!!!
Are you kidding me?!!!
Do you really need to call a manager to return $1.95 to a
person who shops there a lot and has her receipt with her?!!!
Do you really need to keep me waiting at the desk while the
manager gets there to approve this $1.95 return?!!!
Furthermore, once the manager arrived, he didn't check
anything other than typing his password in the computer system. Total waste of
our time, the clerk’s time and the manager’s time.
In this case, the person behind the desk is not at fault. It
is the store policy that prevents customers from receiving good service. It is
the store that has not given their employees proper training and don’t have the
trust in them to handle a $1.95 return. Just imagine, how many times similar
incidents happen in a day, a week or a month. How much time is wasted by everyone
for such a small transaction approval and how much a company adds to their
costs for this wasted time. I understand the need for approval process and I don’t
have a problem with managers approving much larger amounts but please make it
reasonable and not for every single transaction.
I have witnessed many similar situations and I believe all
of them relate to the company’s lack of understanding of a great customer
experience. Many companies put more emphasis on their internal processes and
procedures than providing great customer service. In today’s economy, companies
must put the emphasis on the customer and not on the internal processes;
otherwise competition will take them over. Technology has been a great tool in
solving many of the internal processes so customer service can become even
better. Furthermore, good enough is not good enough. Excellence separates a
great business from an ordinary business. When you find these great companies
you know it and I’ll bet you will go back to that place of business again and
again.
We all have various types of customers in life. When our
spouse needs something from us, she becomes our customer. When someone in the
community depends on our services, they become our customers. And we are
familiar with the customers we have at work. Let’s make sure we are all doing
our best to provide excellence and WOW our customers. It makes our spouses
happy, our community happy and our business customers happy. Not only it does
make these customers feel good about you, it makes you feel good about yourself
and that is a positive living.
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