I have had the good fortune to develop and grow a small service team in the past. I focused on ensuring that all customer service reps and field personal understood that the customer is the most important part of the business, and that they pay our salaries. As a small early stage organization, our reputation in the industry was paramount – we could not afford to provide bad service. The community was relativity small and word could spread fast, both good and bad. The cost to lose a customer and try to regain that one back is 12x the cost of acquiring a new customer, and that can kill an early stage company.
The cost to regain a lost customer is 12x the cost of acquiring a new one. That can kill an early stage company.
Customer service starts at the front line with the salesperson and continues with internal order management personal and the last touch is normally the field delivery or install. If a customer has received great customer service and interactions for the last 10 interactions, but the last one is poor, they tend to remember the last interaction or touch – it is always the last impression we are left with, it is our human nature. It is imperative that the customer is always treated with respect and cordially. The definition of a customer is straight-forward – they are the one with the money, they are buying from your organization and paying you and your employees. A business needs to provide great customer service by educating and training their employees on customer management. As I said that the customer is paying, the most important are your employees – if you treat your employees with respect, they will do the same for your customer. You need to invest into your employees by providing training and education – customers may not realize the investment, but they will feel the investment.
So, why I am writing a small article on customer service – simple, I have experience very bad customer service, by Sears Canada. I recently purchased appliances (range, dishwasher and fridge) from Sears, the in-store customer service was excellent (and of course, they want my money). But, the salesperson was knowledgeable, courteous and best of all gave me a good price with great service. Unfortunately, that’s where good service ended… Sears delivery service is far from great or good or even bad… they are as low as you can get. They have pretty much damaged everything that was delivered – note that I am still waiting from my replacement dishwasher and my fridge is in parts in my garage. They apparently need a special delivery team to take the fridge up the stairs and want me to sign a waiver, just in case they damage my house… great. Sears has taken a clear stand – Let’s put the burden of damage on the customer and not the out-sourced delivery service. Yes, Sears has out-sourced (ok, not to India) their in-home delivery. So, remember the point above – the last customer touch is the one the customer remembers, Sears has made the wise move of making the last customer touch, not Sears. I’m sure that Sears looked at costs and not customers – like many companies do. To be clear, the cost that they think they saved with my delivery will be all lost in customer loyalty and good will. The great customer service I received in store has been flushed down the toilet and already floating in the open sea.
So, the simple lesson here – all customer touch points are equally important, from the initially sales call to the product not working, especially when are starting a business.