Customer Service - you may unsell your business

[The Saint]

I just came from a service quality seminar from Guthrie-Jensen. The most intriguing lesson in business. Beware the quiet customer who does not complain, he may never come back and will tell other people how bad your company is.

On the other hand, a ferocious customer complaining is actually saying this, "I'm angry coz I still want to avail of your services, I'm giving you a chance to improve your services to me!"

Speaking of customer service, I have a friend who bought a Nokia 6150 at Rockfire Int'l Trading. She noticed after 1 day that the screen was defective but returned the phone after two days due to office. Instead of being accomodated, the owner shouted at her saying she destroyed the phone and now she is returning it. The owner said she is a liar like most customers...yet its so funny how many more are still buying from them. Well, not me...ain't trying my luck in there.

[Ada]

Hi The Saint!

One of the things I've learned is that your customer can make or break you. If a customer is satisfied, he'll tell one, maybe even two people, but if he's dissatisfied, he'll tell everyone he knows, even the stranger sitting beside him on the bus. ;)

I went to an entrepreneurship seminar a few years back where the owner of French Baker was one of the guest speakers. He told us of this incident where a customer purchased bread which was already stale. Obviously, the customer was quite miffed. Good thing the owner of F.B. was there to personally apologize. He even went as far as asking for the address of the customer, and then a few days later sent her a card apologizing once more, and that he hoped that she would continue to patronize French Baker despite the "unfortunate" incident. Now, how's that for customer service? http://www.roo.com/ubb/smile.gif

What happened to your friend's cellphone? Was it replaced with a new unit?

Guthrie-Jensen gives great seminars dontchathink? I think our company has them on retainer. ;)

[This message has been edited by Ada (edited 08-08-1999).]

[nix]

Customer service here in the Philippines is severely undeveloped. I think a lot of this has to do with our culture of distrust, where we always feel that our neighbor is trying to put one over us. Each time a customer comes back, claiming that a product is defective, we think that they are the ones responsible for the breakdown, and thus no refund. In several establishments, we see the guard countercheck the package purchased with the attached receipt. Now that's distrust!

But there should be a better way. My one suggestion is to train the employees to the point where they can think for themselves. We always have the mentality that we pay for the employees' hands and arms, when we can actually get their minds for free. If shopkeepers gave their staff a greater degree of freedom, and get rid of the minimum wage contractual mentality, then maybe we can hope for much better customer service.

[webpinoys]

Philippine businesses have still a lot to learn about customer service especially on the retail level (which most businesses are in the Philippines).

You'd expect that since Filipino hospitality is world reknowned, customer service in the business world should just be a natural extension of the Filipino character.

[lupuS]

Here is living proof of how lousy service can ruin your sales...
http://www.pinoyexchange.com/Forum9/HTML/000313.html

[zimdude]

Making customer service more efficient and effective at our company is one of my concerns now.

BTW, I also have just returned from a Guthrie-Jensen workshop on Team Building.

[zimdude]

Originally posted by nix
If shopkeepers gave their staff a greater degree of freedom, and get rid of the minimum wage contractual mentality, then maybe we can hope for much better customer service.

I think it is common practice is to hire contractual workers for customer service - how is it in Call Centers and the like? Do you think this is a sense of false economy since these lead to lost customers?

[Krakista]

Customer Service should an Enterprise-wide function and not just of the Customer Service Department, not just of those in the frontlines.

[Leigh]

I believe McDonalds even has a school to train all the managers, and crew of their franchises, they have to pass the Hamburger College...:)

training is the key, like what big companies do with their employees. Same goes with Good management, they are the ones who are being looked up by people, and consistency is also important.

[aticus]

I believe customer service starts at the top. If the owner/manager/CEO is a nice person, and takes the time to train his/her employees and set a good example with how he/she represents the business, then the people will follow.

If, however, the bosses don't know about, don't care about, or don't understand how to improve customer service, then no one in the organization will give a damn as well.

There's a prominent RP company, for instance, among the top 3 in the country in its industry in fact, with absolutely AWFUL service. I truly hate dealing with them, but since they're so big I sometimes have no choice. I think the problem with that organization is that the bosses are so busy managing the organization, they don't have time to interact with their employees and set a positive example.

Some successful US companies, however, actually make it a point to have their managers interact better with their employees, sometimes even sponsoring annual family days for all employees to get to meet the President and the different managers. When they see their bosses being friendly and respectful of others, it sets a positive tone for everyone else in the organization. And if a company refuses to tolerate employees with inferior customer service skills, then THAT also sends a message. Look at the example of Southwest Airlines. Their President is an absolute delight of a manager, always smiling, encouraging all employees to be nicer and more caring of their customers. He doesn't care for bureacracy, always tries to know employees by name, and strives to create a work atmosphere that's dynamic and fun (he regularly wears bermuda shirts and the like to work, and doesn't mind if others do too.) It works so well, Southwest is one of the most admired companies in the US, and people regularly join up even at lesser pay compared to other airlines, just because they feel so much happier there. The employees then treat their customers better, because they smile a lot more and are more genuinely into customer care and making customers happy.

But when even the owner (as in the example in the one of the posts above) is himself/herself rude to the customer, EVERYONE ELSE follows in those footsteps.

My rule for dealing with groups, then, is to see how the higher ups deal with their customers. If the company President takes the time to answer even the most common questions from even the most irritating customer, with a smile, then I know that company will have good customer service. :)

[Mymnosene]

Talagang cs can make or break a business. We have a laundry, and we make sure that every single person is served to the max...as in the customer is always right...even when you want to strangle them. :lol:

we deliver and pick-up, and replace (or pay for) whatever clothes are damaged. Kaya lang, may bad experience kami sa isang customer. He said that we had lost his original Levis pants, when all our people said that there were no pants to begin with. My uncle said that we should pay him back, but before we could, he was kicked out of where he was living kasi con artist pala. :rotflmao:

[zimdude]

One school of thought says that before you can have good customer service, you have to serve your team member/fellow worker first!

There is also customer sensitivity training which deals with seeing things from the customer's point of view.

[twentysix]

I think a lot of businesses here in the country do not recognize fully the importance of customer service. Now that almost all of the products are generic, it is essential that businesses should be able to augment their product and not only delivering what is expected of the product/service. It is one way of creating a strategic difference, thus gaining competitive advantage. There are some lousy customer service, which we may not want to call exaclty as such that un-sell a product/service. Though on the other hand, some businesses in the country don't offer customer support because Filipinos can be abusive. Furthermore, we don't have solid laws that can back up all these.