Is it just me, or are all of you becoming increasingly annoyed, upset or just bloody mad by poor customer service in Canada? When you experience poor service and you leave an establishment or get off the telephone, do you silently say, “Thank God that experience is over!” Is it just me? I don’t think so! You phone or visit a business to buy and (if you can actually speak to a live person) you hear: “The person who takes care of that isn’t in today” … “I’m sorry, that’s the best we can do” … “Our policy says” … or the absolute worst … “That’s not my job.”
Clients regularly call or email me saying how great our staff was during their dealings with KKP. Why? We smile and we treat all customers and suppliers as our best friends. We strive to answer our telephone before the second ring (most often on the first ring) with a friendly voice and a smile – no voicemail, no recorded messages and no pushing buttons.
If they need help at night or over the weekend, they have my home phone and cell number. Why? Because they need help! Can your clients get a hold of someone in your company at night or over the weekend? If not, why not? They’re calling because they need help and they want to do business with you.
It’s apparent to me today that employees of companies that deal with the public are bad and getting worse. Have you tried recently to reach a live person at almost any company? I’m convinced they don’t want their clients to bother them. When was the last time you phoned any company and a pleasant voice answered, “Good morning (ABC company). I’m Mary. How may I help you?”
The golden rule of customer service should be: if you wouldn’t want it done to you, then don’t do it to someone else. A customer only wants two things from you: to show them you care about them as a client and to tell them what you’re going to do for them – now!
Any computer that answers the phone, anyone unfriendly, anyone passing the buck, anyone giving an excuse, and anyone arguing is saying “Go away, we don’t want your business.” When you call a company, don’t you love it when you do get a live person? Try it in your company.
Let me define your customer: overbearing, past due, back-stabbing, demanding, cheap, wolf-crying and never satisfied. But one more thing: they are your paycheque!
Have you ever noticed the bigger the company, the worse the service?
Employees of large companies, with rare exceptions, tend to be non-caring, butt-covering, work 9 to 5 “it’s not my job” kind of people. And worse, their vice president in charge of dumb moves has decided to completely eliminate human beings from answering the telephone. Automated voice attendants are the scourge of Canadian business.
People don’t stop doing business; they just stop doing business with YOU. Each of us has lost a customer or ten. We all know what to do to keep them. The problem is, we just don’t do it on a consistent basis. Companies come up with lots of excuses. How many times have you heard “It’s our policy.” Your customers didn’t call to get a lesson in your corporate policy. They called to get help. And if you don’t give it to them, they’ll give their business to your competitor.
The only policy you should have is to exceed your clients’ expectations at all times. The real reward for problem solving is a customer who may tell someone else. The risk of not resolving the problem is a customer who will tell everyone else. Here are my two golden rules of customer service:
1. The customer is always right.
2. Even when you know the customer is absolutely, positively, 100% dead wrong, simply refer back to rule number 1.
(With thanks to my two great customer service mentors: my father, George Bower and Jeffrey Gitomer, the king of sales and service).