Poor customer service destroys brand reputation.
In the old days there was the “suggestion box”. You can still find them in some stores and businesses, where customers can offer suggestions, point out problems and make requests. I have seen first hand the responses to these suggestions from store managers. They range from “Yeah, right!” as it drops into the waste basket, to sincere concern resulting in a plan of action to resolve the issue or improve service.
Guess which businesses are more successful? Today there are a myriad of ways for customers to share their frustrations with products and services. There are blogs, forums, review sites, communities, tweets and so on.
Companies who care to keep customer loyalty would do well to keep an eye on these and have an easy way to contact the company. Many times I have called for support only to get sent and back and forth from one useless “representative” to another, folks who have no real knowledge or power to deal with the issues.
Nothing takes the shine off a recent purchase like finding out that once a problem arises you are on your own. Not spending the time and money to resolve customer issues is extremely costly. Goodwill is a critical factor in making purchases and when we don’t see any coming our way we are not only going to stop buying their products, we will likely tell a number of people, who tell more people, the ripple of bad will eventually becomes a wide and deep river. Most of us understand that lemons happen, defects happen, etc. When the company “owns” their part of the goodwill contract and does everything in their power to resolve it, I become more likely to be impressed with their commitment to make it right, than to focus l on the original problem. How about you?
Years ago, I worked in a fine Italian Restaurant in San Francisco. An older, single woman with blue hair and a thick Southern drawl ordered the Mixed Greens with Gorgonzola which she pronounced “Gore Gone zula” When I returned with her salad, she looked frightened, I asked what was wrong. She asked what the moldy cheese was doin’ on her salad? I explained that it was the “Gore Gone zula” and if she liked I would be happy to get her a salad without it “Could you?” She sighed in relief and a little embarrassment. I assured her it was no problem and commended her for trying something she was not familiar with. I then explained to her the different items on the menu in detail, for her for future reference and to make sure she would be happy with her second course.
She came back the next day for lunch with 4 other blue haired Southern Belles in tow and told me they were supposed to have gone somewhere else, but had found the service there too “snooty”. They asked for my table. I gave them a crash course on Northern Italian Cuisine, (made sure no one got any “Gore Gone Zula”). They had a great time, asked me to take a picture with all of them and had a memorable experience.
It all started when she ordered something she thought she wanted, that turned out to be something else. I did not do anything wrong, it was really her mistake. But, like the old saying goes “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy” or in this case, do you want your customer to be happy? It was well worth the cost of tossing the “gore gone zula” salad and spending some extra time to help her and her subsequent guests the next day to explain the menu to make sure they were happy with their meal.
Many of you have heard of Dell Hell. Dell, once the darling of the industry, had so many unhappy customers who created such a roar on the internet, that it’s fall from grace could only be stopped by heroic measures.
Dell weathered the storm because Michael Dell has been personally involved in Dell’s efforts to listen to its customers. One of those moves was to create a dedicated corporate blogger. Dell tapped Lionel Menchaca, an employee of 14 years. Menchaca, as blogger Jarvis, himself, said on The Buzz Machine, speaks to people "honestly and directly" (April 3, 2007). In blogs, Jarvis related, Menchaca "admitted the company’s problems. But he also answered back … . He immediately earned the respect of me and many other bloggers. According to Jarvis, Manchaca gave the company "a human voice." In return, Jarvis said, Manchaca gave customer respect and "got respect in return. It works." For his part, Menchaca credits Bob Pearson, Dell’s vice president of Corporate Communications, for changing how the company adapts to the world of the Internet.
Customer Service: The New Marketing? In a troubled economy such as we are currently experiencing, those who survive will be the ones who are proactive, who are not just waiting for the calls to come in to customer or tech support, but are “out there” wherever their customers hang out on the internet- looking, listening, hearing and acting on what they find.
So when you reach out to that kvetching blogger you found online, you’re engaged in customer service as well as PR, market research, marketing, sales, and product development. You are reinventing your company—and, if you get there before your competitors, your industry. That is why you shouldn’t relegate this vital task to one department or some interns or consultants. You should reorganize the company around this new relationship with your customer, finally putting that customer at the center of everything you do because—thanks to the Web—you can. If you don’t, well, someone will you say you "suck."
So what have we learned here? If you are a consumer, take advantage of the multitude of venues to share your opinions, experiences, complaints and suggestions. If you are a provider of products or services, keep your eyes and ears peeled for what your customers are saying about you. The likelihood is, that the more you do this, the more positive posts will outweigh the negative ones.
I started sailing about 20 years ago to escape the stresses of the technology business and to pickup a new hobby. Little did I know how technological and stressful the addiction to sailing would make my life! It all started rather innocently during a short Canadian summer, with learning a completely new and weird language of marine terminology, practicing sail trim and basic boat handling techniques in the warm, light breezes of Lake Ontario. However within a few weeks my colleagues could not find me at the office anymore and the cellular technology of the time could not extend too far outside of the shorelines, which was perfectly OK with me, but did not please my customers very much. I started to feel that work interfered with my sailing too much, and decided to quit working. Plus, the winters became much longer and more miserable since I started on this path, so I moved to California where I could sail all year round and didn’t have these annoying land masses to deal with.
A blog about experiences, curiosity and the never-ending search for ways to do better things better
