Customer Service: Is it Dead?
Crappy Service - An Epidemic
Last week I walked into a sandwich shop and the woman at the counter, without even making eye contact, asked “What are you havin’?” in the most uninterested way possible. It took me a second to respond because I was so taken aback. I thought “If I’m going to be treated like this, maybe I should take my money to the restaurant next door.” What’s really sad though is that most people don’t even think twice when they are treated this way as customers. Is anyone else bothered by this?
The Cost of Poor Service
Do companies realize how detrimental poor service can be to their bottom line? Consider these statistics:
- Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers.
- A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.
- The average company loses 10% of its customers each year
- 68% of lost customers are turned away by the negative attitude or indifference of a service provider.
- Source - Survey conducted by the American Society for Quality
Can your business afford to lose 10% of its customers every year? How can you keep even your most demanding customers satisfied?
Forget About Satisfying Your Customers
Several years ago my company decided to forget about satisfying our customers. You heard me. We decided that any business could satisfy their customers. Customer expectations are so low these days that as long as they get what they came for without being verbally abused, they’ll be satisfied. What we wanted were Raving Fans. (Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book… It’s a quick read and it’ll totally change the way you approach your business).
How do you get raving fans? I remember a conversation i had with Michael Giarrizzo Sr. on my very first business trip. His family has virtually owned the collision repair market in Ohio for decades. Their company, DCR Systems, routinely receives 100% Customer Satisfaction ratings because they believe in creating raving fans. Michael told us about a customer who left his garage door opener in his car, when he was supposed to put it in his rental. Giarrizzo called him, asked for his work address, and delivered the door opener to the man at his office. The customer didn’t have to ask, didn’t have to pick it up, and wasn’t inconvenienced by not having the door opener that night when he got home. With that simple action, Giarrizzo earned a customer for life.
Creating “Wow” Moments
The Ritz-Carlton is well known for their exceptional customer service. Bellmen are trained to look for name tags on luggage as guests arrive. They then use hidden radios to inform the desk clerks of the guests’ names, and the guests are then mysteriously addressed by name. Wow!
It’s a simple concept: if your service makes a customer stop and say “Wow!”, they’re going to come back the next time they need your product or service. They’re going to tell friends and family about their experience and recommend you to everyone they know. Examples are everywhere…
Stephen from Freakonomics writes about his Wow moment with Zappos, a popular shoe retailer:
My wife had ordered a pair of sandals from Zappos. When they arrived, she found that they didn’t fit. She tried to order the right size, but Zappos was sold out of her size. So here’s what the company offered: she could return the sandals (for free), Zappos would refund the purchase price and they’d send her a $25 coupon toward her next purchase.
But wait — there’s more! Zappos also offered to try to locate a pair of the sandals in her size from another vendor. (Hah! Sure, they will!) Fifteen minutes later, the company called my wife and told her they’d found her sandals, in her size, at another online merchant — “and,” the Zappos clerk told her, “they’re even cheaper at this other site!”
Another blogger, Zaz LaMar, wrote a post called “I Heart Zappos” after a particularly heartwarming encounter with the company.
Just search Google for “blog great customer service” and you’ll find countless links to happy bloggers telling the world about the experiences they’ve had with companies that made them say “Wow!” These raving fans are providing businesses with free advertising and testimonials simply because they were so impressed. What could be better??
How do you wow your customers? How do you keep them from taking their business elsewhere? As a consumer, have you ever had a “Wow” Moment? Tell us about it!
What an inspiration! Go Kyle Go! Buckets and buckets of blessings on your...
I have come to almost expect poor to neutral customer service at best. It seems that companies don’t bother to train on how to take good care of the customer. A simple smile or “thank you” stands out these days.
My company trains our people to make eye contact, to smile, and to say “thank you”. And when someone says “Thank you” to us, we have told our people that the proper response is always “You’re welcome” or “Our pleasure”.
It drives me crazy when I say “thank you” to a clerk and they say “No problem”. Of course it’s not a problem! It’s your job to serve me!
In addition to your recommendation of Raving Fans, I’d like to suggest a book by Carl Sewell entitled Customers For Life. Sewell owns several auto dealerships in the Dallas area, doing over a billion dollars in sales. Talk about doing exceptional things to earn customer loyalty! General Motors tried to get Sewell to change the way he was doing things to conform to the GM model. But when they did an analysis of what Sewell’s people were doing and the outstanding scores they were receiving on their customer satisfaction surveys, GM changed their model. Powerful stuff. Check out this book.
It doesn’t take a whole lot to stand out these days with good customer service. It does take some effort, strategies and employee empowerment to provide exceptional service. Sewell was very scientific about it. He asked customers what they wanted and gave it to them, and then some. And he measures everything…
March 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
A stellar experience my husb found interesting enough to read aloud from a happy customer blog like the ones you mentioned:
The fellow bought pricey (I think Lutron) light dimmers for every switch in his large, new house…something like 35 dimmers. He sent 3 or 4 of them back when they failed, looking for replacements.
He noted that he bought dozens more dimmers that were working fine. Their response was a phone call (a real, actual, authentic, human phone call!) from one of the engineers (not a customer service tech with a scripted response!) who APOLOGIZED for the trouble, and said replacements were on the way.
They sent him enough dimmers to replace all 35 that he bought, not the few he sent in…just in case. JUST IN CASE!
Now we’re BFF with Lutron, and we haven’t even directly dealt with them lol
Best,
Crystal
March 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
[…] Customer Service: Is it Dead? […]
March 18th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Crystal,
Wow. If I’m ever in the market for light dimmers I know who to go to. Some businesses look at the cost of doing something like that and rule it out for budgetary reasons. They say it’s an unnecessary expense. But, as in the example you gave, the positive reputation generated and the lifetime of repeat business usually more than offsets the cost of such quality service.
Another great example: my brother manages a coffee shop out in Ocean City, MD. He strikes up conversations with his customers and gets to know them really well. After the second or third time he meets someone, he knows what car they drive. When he sees that car pull up, he makes their favorite drink and it’s waiting for them at the counter, where he greets them by name with a smile. How’s that for customer service?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:21 am
Hi Kyle,
Having a long view about customer service can end up cost effective. That fellow’s glowing recommendation will be on the Web for ages. It cost less to make him a raving fan than to post an ad.
And your brother has got it right! My friend Lee has that kind of relationship with folks at her local coffee shop, and says it’s a great way to start the day—among friends. Like at your brother’s place, her order is ready before she reaches the counter. She jokes that if she wants something other than “the usual”, she has to go to a different coffee shop.
This is something missing from my world. I’m surrounded by franchise restaurants that can’t retain staff. How can I become an established “regular” if the staff changes every season?
March 27th, 2008 at 6:12 am
[…] my client data in my phone so when a client calls, I greet them by name. Little things like this make people feel important. Take the time to get to know your clients. Treat them like people rather than numbers. In an […]
April 8th, 2008 at 7:19 am