By Daniel Bobinski
Commerce is not just the buying and selling of goods and services. Our friends at Merriam-Webster tell us that commerce is also the “exchange of ideas, opinions or sentiments.” Everything listed above is required in society, and whether we’re the provider or consumer of any of it, commerce is always better when it’s conducted with respect.
Imagine you’re in need of a service, and two businesses near you provide that service. One has a reputation for showing respect to everyone who comes in, while the other is more matter of fact. It’s not that the second company is disrespectful, they just don’t create a welcoming atmosphere.
All other things being equal (price, quality of result, etc.,) which business would you choose?
Statistics show that after only two negative incidents at any place of business, customers are likely to shop elsewhere. That’s not a lot of wiggle room. Think of it as “two strikes and you’re out.”
Do you ever wonder how many customers your business may have lost due to customer service blunders? In a survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the U.S and the U.K., nearly half of the respondents said that poor customer service led them to switch to a different service provider in the past year.
Worse yet, the people who switch rarely tell you why.
Consider the following examples of poor customer service:
- A customer service rep on the telephone saying, “I’m sorry, there is no supervisor for you to talk to.”
- A company not responding to a letter outlining a bad experience.
- An employee listening to a person’s concerns but acting like those concerns are not important.
Think about it. If these things happened to you, how long would it be before you stopped patronizing the business?
Results from another survey, this one polling 1,000 U.S. consumers about shopping experiences in a wide variety of industries, indicate that consumers are tired of receiving poor service.
- More than 75 percent said they would hang up after waiting on hold for longer than five minutes.
- More than 80 percent would rather visit the dentist, pay their taxes or sit in a traffic jam than deal with an unhelpful representative.
- 75 percent said that they tell friends and family about their negative experiences.
- 85 percent reported that negative customer service experiences drive them to switch providers.
With statistics like this, it’s fairly obvious that anyone having direct contact with customers should be trained on how to express concern to others, and how to meet their needs, wants or desires. Add bonus points for showing an attitude of gracious appreciation.
The current world environment is even more reason for going over and above in this arena. In fact, research appearing in the California Management Review indicates that treating customers “adequately” is not enough to keep them anymore. Amazingly, satisfied customers will return to do business with you 28 percent of the time, but delighted customers will return 85 percent of the time. That’s HUGE. With those statistics, it only makes sense to provide outstanding customer service.
But let’s not restrict this idea only to paying customers. Let’s expand our application to different departments within a larger organization. It’s never healthy to think of different departments as “us vs. them.” Everyone in an organization is on the same team, and treating co-workers as customers has been shown to increase morale and make a positive impact on the bottom line.
Helpful Hints
What follows are five helpful hints that can be adapted by any organization to help improve customer service.
Hint #1: Whenever possible, learn the names of your customers and/or coworkers and use their names when talking with them. This holds true even across departments in large companies.
Hint #2: Be cheerful. If someone is conducting a standard transaction with you, be glad to see them and/or hear from them and thank them wholeheartedly for bringing you their business.
If someone is bringing you a complaint, indicate that you take the issue seriously and that you’ll strive to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Be sure to apologize!
Hint #3: Be prompt in all matters. In today’s world, even microwave ovens and 5G smartphones can be considered slow. Amazingly, slow service or response is one of the biggest complaints in the customer service realm, and yet it’s one of the easiest problems to resolve. Therefore, get on every service opportunity as fast as possible.
Hint #4: Get specific by asking, “How can I help you?” This helps the customer (or co-worker) pinpoint his/her need so you know exactly where to focus your service. Remember that your customer may not know exactly what your action should be, but they know what results they want. It’s your job to ascertain what results they’re looking for and then determine which actions are required of you to create those results.
Hint #5: When possible, compensate for confusion and mistakes. One example of this is restaurants not charging for an error or offering special coupons for future visits. If a home improvement store messes up an order on an appliance, they might offer free delivery or free installation of the appliance as a way to say, “We’re sorry.” Service industries can discount the fee charged for a service.
With so many ratings and reviews available on the Internet, consumers can shop and compare more today than any other time in history. That means outstanding customer satisfaction is an absolute must just to keep customers coming back.
Granted, every organization will have hiccups from time to time, and customers won’t get the service they deserve. And yes, those situations may result in lost business. But the more you emphasize the service part of customer service, the more likely it is that your customers will hang around and speak well about your organization.
In today’s economy, that can make all the difference.
Daniel Bobinski, M.Ed. is a best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. For more than 30 years he’s been working with teams and individuals (1:1 coaching) to help them achieve excellence. He was also teaching Emotional Intelligence since before it was a thing. Reach Daniel on his office phone, 208-375-7606, or through his website, www.MyWorkplaceExcellence.com.
