Sustaining Business Newsletter

Do You See What They See?
By Rhett Hendrickson

Publication Date: October, 2010

It seems that every customer I meet has a horror story about the poor customer service they’ve received – not just an “it happened several years ago” story, but one from the past few days.  Conversely, I have yet to ever hear a business owner or manager say anything like, “Gee, we sure have horrible customer service around here.”

The discrepancy boils down to this:  Customers have the perception that business treats them poorly.  Business seems to think they’re treating their customers well.  One of them must be wrong and, to use the old phrase, the customer is always right.  The problem (besides the obvious one) with this incongruity is that customers have lowered their expectations to match what the businesses are providing.  This, in turn, provides no impetus for the business to improve their customer service because the customers aren’t motivated enough to give any feedback on their experience.  Really, who among you has ever complained to the manager that an employee didn’t say, “Thank you?”

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that they wonder what has happened to X’s customer service.  He was only on hold for a few seconds; the employee he spoke with was knowledgeable, capable, and helpful; and they solved the issue to my friend’s satisfaction with zero hassle.  My friend goes on to remark, “This is not the company I signed up with.”  His amazement struck a chord with me.  We have lowered our customer service expectations to the point at which we are truly dumbfounded when dealing with someone who may be merely competent.

On the other hand, another friend of mine enjoys spending the better part of a day at a spa at Lake of the Ozarks.  I’m not much of a spa connoisseur, but I have to agree:  Their customer service is outstanding.  It’s appropriate, sincere, and never overdone.  One genuinely feels that there is nothing more important and satisfying to these employees than to provide excellent customer service.  Their spa services are also outstanding, but it’s the customer service that brings them such praise that the business has won nearly every award for which they’ve been nominated.

My point is this:  All of us love to receive excellent customer service yet many of us aren’t providing it to our customers.  The only way to gauge your own company’s customer service level is to get your customers to provide honest qualitative feedback on their own experience as a customer.  You’ll never catch your employees doing their worst because they (hopefully!) try to do their best while you’re watching.  Engaging in mystery shopping is the only sure way to get a grip on the customer experience but don’t try mystery shopping your own business.  The Groucho Marx glasses give you away every time.

With the results of your mystery shopping in hand, you may wonder what the next steps are.  Do you remove your rude employees from customer contact?  Do you let your customers know right up front that they should expect what you’re providing and let them shop at their own risk?  If you’re shaking your head at the impossibility of these suggestions, read on.

Your employees aren’t incapable of good customer service, they may just be products of this poor customer service environment.  They don’t see good customer service enough to know how to provide it.  The good news is that they’re all trainable.  All of them.  And we can train them.  Hendrickson Business Advisors can tailor a customer service training program for your employees that will exceed your expectations.  After our training, your employees will have the skills they need to make your customers want to return.  Even better, your customers may not want to leave.