The Customer: A Guest in Your Home
Recently while I was standing in line to check out my groceries, the cashier called another
employee to come help. Two minutes later, he arrived, obviously annoyed. Sighing, he
said in a loud voice, "All right, all right! I said I was coming!"
By reacting with impatience, the cashier broke an important rule of customer service:
employees don't represent only themselves, they represent the entire organization. The
cashier's lack of courtesy towards his co-worker demoted the business in the customers'
eyes.
What do customers want? Obviously, whatever they came for: to buy the groceries, see
the doctor, get the brakes fixed. But they want more. In the customer-service trainings I
conduct, I liken customers to guests. When customers visit an office or store, they want to
be treated with the same dignity they'd expect if they were invited to someone's home.
Specifically, they want:
Attention
A waitress once told me that as long as she made sure her customers had a glass of
water and a menu, it was OK if she was busy and couldn't get back to them right away.
We all want to be noticed.
Priority
My pet peeve is when a customer's phone call takes precedence over those being served
in person. After all, we took the trouble to get there!
Warmth
Recently, my husband had lunch in a nearby restaurant. The waiter was so brusque, it
ruined his meal. No matter how good the clam chowder was, it didn't make up for the
waiter's unpleasantness. My husband wasn't just buying food, but an experience.
Professionalism
Customers don't want to see an employee smacking gum, scarfing down a burrito, or
putting lipstick on. They don't want to peer down her cleavage or see her belly button.
And unless they're in a tattoo shop, they don't care to see tattoos emblazoned all over
the body.
Responsibility
When customers have a problem, they're not interested in listening to excuses or
complaints about the management. They don't want to hear another department blamed
for the situation. They simply want the employee to take ownership.
Action
Even if the resolution of a problem takes several steps, there's all the difference in the
world between an empty apology ("Sorry, I can't help you"), and any action, however
limited ("I'll leave a note for her and make sure she gets it when she comes back from
lunch").
These six areas are not complicated or subtle. They don't require a masters' degree. Yet
I'm surprised by how often one or more of them are missing. When they are, the business
may have no idea how much it is losing. Research shows that 68% of customers don't
come back not because of product dissatisfaction, but because someone in the business
was rude or indifferent to them.
It takes considerably more time, energy and marketing dollar to win a new customer than
it does to keep an old one. Quality customer service is a small investment with
disproportionately big rewards. The bottom line is, customer loyalty translates into higher
prosperity and profits. In these days of economic uncertainty, that means a lot.