What makes good customer service

[orion_joel]

Dan, this is how i think any one man/small business should work on customer service. Where i think customer service mainly fails is where the company gets bigger and expectations are not properly communicated to all levels of staff, in a way that they understand it properly. For example i by default took my outlook on customer service because i had come from my own business that i knew what i needed to do to ensure the customer was happy. But a lot of retail sales people do not have this grounding and just think they have to make sales for as many dollars as they can, which often ends up back firing on them.

[orion_joel]

Hmm, this was the last thread i posted on and was sitting on the screen still and when i read back over it i just thought of a really good example of customer service, that one of my previous manager's told me and i am guessing a lot of other people.

There was this guy who owned a coffee shop, and had one customer, an older gentleman that came in every day, and ordered just the daily special, for about $5. One day the owner was in the shop, and saw one of the new staff, get this customer to wait while he serviced a group of people who was waiting behind this customer, who had a full meal and drinks. The owner quickly went and attended to this regular customer, so he did not have to wait. Later on the new employee asked why this customer was so special that he cared more about him then the group that had spent a lot more. The answer was to the effect that this gentlemen comes in every day, while the group of people he had never seen before, so in the last year this regular customer had in fact spent much more then the group who came in once.

The whole point though was not to discount the value of service to anyone customer over over another, but to emphasize the point of consistent, customer service. So if a regular customer has to wait because someone else was actually in front of them, they can understand it, but if they are caused to wait because an employee thinks someone else is more important because they are spending more, then they may not be so regular for so long.

[KristineS]

I like that story. I think it also illustrates the value of getting to know your customers. I have a grocery store in town that I'm very loyal to because I've gotten to know a lot of the staff. It's just in a casual sort of way, but the cashiers always say hi and we chat for a minute when I go in to make a purchase. I feel welcome and acknowledged when I go there.

I've now moved across town, but I'll still drive the extra few minutes to shop at that store.

[Leatherneck]

Nice story Joel, and I agree with you Kristine. I grew up in a real rural town many years ago when most businesses seemed to make service there number one priority, and you could tell for the most part they where sincere about it.

It is harder too find that same feeling today with most businesses, so when I do it makes me feel good to know there are still some of us left that sincerly care about our customers.

[KristineS]

We consistently go above and beyond for our embroidery supplies company, and I can't tell you how many people are impressed when we do the simplest things. Even something as simple as responding promptly to a question. That's a basic of good customer service. How sad that some companies don't even bother to do that anymore.

[orion_joel]

I think so much of customer service comes back to more then how the company as a whole handles it but down to the level of the employee. This as i said is where i think so much of the systems that are put into place fall down.

Now i have never personally been to a Walmart store, because i live in Australia, where there is none. However from what i have read, the customer service in store seems to be fairly poor. While i am sure that they probably do have a full policy which out lines how their employees should handle customer service. I can definitely understand how it may be difficult to motivate someone to follow these sort of procedures when they are being paid minimum wage. At the same time, i think it tends to fall more to the point that the level of service is what people tend to expect, and could not be bothered to complain, because they do not expect that it would help.

I have found the level of service has been really dropping more and more all the time over the last few years. For example just yesterday i was in three different stores looking at laptop computers. It really is time that i look at upgrading the one that i have as i am finding the battery just does not last as long as i would like. I spent about 10 minutes looking at the different models in each store, and did not have one of the staff in any store come up and ask if they could help me.

Store one - had 2 staff, 1 of which walked straight past me to a customer who had come in after me.
Store two - had about half a dozen sales people in the area, 1 was with a customer 2 were straightening shelves, and the rest were having a chat about the weekend.
Store three - had two sales people who were just wandering around, taking no interest in customers.

Now i do not know how they are training people in retail these days but when i started in retail my first assumption was that you greet every customer and ask if you can help. Which i did, unless i was already with another customer, i would often break a conversation with another employee just to ask a customer if i could help them, and to me this conversation could always be picked up at any point in the future where a customer was only in the store for a limited time.

[KristineS]

I've had that happen too Joel. Or worse, been in a store looking for something and can't find an employee anywhere.

I think in the minds of a lot of people lower prices = less customer service. I know that's the case with Wal-Mart. You don't go there expecting a great shopping experience and knowledgeable staff, you go there because it's cheap.

Plus, as you said, I think a lot of people have just given up. They don't expect that complaining will get anything fixed, so they don't bother to complain. It's really kind of sad.

[myemployee]

One of the techniques I employ in customer service are the ones outlined in the book: Secret Service by John R. DiJulius. It's a great material.

[KristineS]

I've never heard of that book. I'll have to check it out.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[BillR]

I do consulting as many of you know...

What I actually do though is help set up IT Service Management software for large corporations. For example right now I am in San Fran doing work at a bank.

Customer service is composed of several things. I would suggest they include the following:

1.) MOST IMPORTANT THING - Setting and agreeing on expectations. I am out in SF right now because I am fixing a project that got off track. Why did it get off track? Expectations got out of skew. What the customers wanted delivered was not what we were expecting to deliver. I am fixing that.

2.) Knowing your customer - This works differently for different businesses but I will bet a zillion dollars that every business is more successful when it knows it's customers and has repeat business. And by "know your customers" I mean you want to know LITERALLY every single thing about them. I worked with a sales guru once who gave us a sheet of 50 questions. He said that if you want to know your customer you needed to know everything on this list. He also said he expected his sales guys to get the information from new customers with the first week. It was stuff like this:

1.) Customer's full name
2.) Name of spouse
3.) Name/Ages/gender of kids
4.) Birthdates of all of the above
5.) Pets
6.) Sports teams they like
7.) Where did they live?

...and so on. You get the idea.

Now - how do you get that information? Not by calling the person up and grilling them - but instead by taking them out to dinner. It's really not that bad. You get a new customer or prospect and tell them you really like to get to know your customers and want to take them out to dinner/golf/whatever. Tell them you take lots of notes - ask them questions -and the shut the hell up. People LOVE to talk about themselves. It is their favorite topic.

Now, obviously, you have to scale this up and down according to your business. If you have a coffee shop this is not realistic for you. But you get the idea....

3.) Admit failure of service and explain your plan to fix it - No business delivers 100% of the time. When you fail call your customer ASAP and tell them the problem. Also tell them your proposed solution (and make damn sure you have one ready) along with any compensation you are offering. Some may get mad and leave. That's life. Most will be impressed because you are a) accountable, b) responsible, and c) responsive.

I prefer working with people who admit their failings and try to fix stuff ASAP.

4.) Service your target market - don't chase every lead. If you have a coffee shop and someone walks in and asks for a bottle of water you might just start carrying that. But what if they want a beer? That's clearly a totally different road to head down and it makes little sense to go that way.

Same goes for any business - find the market you can serve well. Don't chase customers that are not a good match. And NEVER appear desperate - it drives people away crazy fast.

Also, sometimes customers are more trouble then they are worth. Be objective. If one of your people is spending 50% of his time servicing one customer at the expense of others you need to do a cost/benefit analysis for that customer and see if it's worth it. Did they buy 50% of the stuff from your guy? Good - carry on. Did they only buy 2%? Well then...might be time to go separate ways.