There’s a lot of great advice on Spin Sucks about effective marketing and public relations techniques, designed to draw customers into your store or to visit your website.
But getting them there is only part of the battle.
What happens during their initial experience—or with any experience along the path toward purchasing your product or service—makes all the difference between a possible brand ambassador, and a person whose face (and money) you’ll likely never see again.
Given this incontestable law of the jungle, I’m always amazed when I (or many people I know) experience poor customer service.
With all the things a small business owner can’t control— where customers choose to shop, when they feel like doing so, how much money they’re willing to spend—it seems more attention should be paid to those situations and experiences where their employee (or business processes) can set the tone for a happy customer encounter, rather than a maddeningly frustrating one.
Brand Ambassadors or Enemies for Life?
Raise your hands if you’ve experienced any of the following:
- When asked about a product in a large chain store, an employee shrugs and says, “I don’t work in that area,” or “This is my first week on the job and I’m still learning.”
- You dial a call-in center and wait as precious minutes of your life pass by in an infinite loop of “Flight of the Bumblebee” interrupted at regular intervals by “We’ll be right with you” voicemail recordings.
- While you wait to pay for an item, the cashier answers a telephone and begins a 10-minute conversation (personal or work-related, doesn’t matter) with someone other than you, a paying customer.
A 2012 Accenture Global Consumer Survey garnered online responses about customer service from more than 12,000 customers in 32 countries. The results offered further proof of widespread consumer dissatisfaction with providers in ten different industries, including travel and tourism, consumer goods retailers, consumer electronics, cable/satellite companies and wireless phone companies:
- One out of five consumers switched providers in 2012.
- Most of the consumers surveyed (85 percent) said they might not have switched if their service provider had done something differently.
- Among those who say they would have stayed, 67 percent described a customer service issue during their first contact as a deciding factor.
As if that isn’t bad enough from a business perspective, Peter Coffee, a vice president at Salesforce.com featured in Fast Company, points out this little tidbit, “The typical customer tells an average of 16 other people about a poor service experience, but only tells nine about the good ones.”
You Had Me at Hello
Also, it’s estimated the cost of getting new customers is six to seven times as much as keeping the customers you have.
I’m no math whiz, but these are enough statistics to persuade me that many businesses lose a lot of money by failing to recognize one iron-clad rule of customer service: We buy things from businesses that treat us well, and boycott those that don’t.
Here’s an example a friend shared of a favorable experience that’s made him a brand ambassador for his local plumbing service:
The two guys who came to my house did a great job, charged a very fair price, showed up early within the typical three-hour window, and were very polite and professional. I sent the company an email commending them for a good job, which made me feel good. I’d chosen this particular plumbing company because a couple of weeks ago, we experienced a similar plumbing problem just before we were due to leave for the airport. Obviously, it was too late for them to come over and fix the problem. But the owner gave us some very good advice, free of charge, and I said when we returned I’d have them fix the problem, which I did.
Again, Peter Coffee makes a great point, “Incumbent market leaders must therefore get out of their comfort zone, and rise above costly mass-media marketing that maintains brand awareness but does not continually refresh customer delight … When people feel they have less time and money to spare, superior service has an increasing effect on where they spend both.”
So while you’re advising your clients on the latest public relations or social media marketing techniques, remind them from time to time to make sure their front-line staff perform the most critically important PR function of all—giving both new and loyal customers an outstanding experience when they purchase your product or service.
What’s your favorite horror story and/or example of great service?