Survival Through Service

Hey! All you service businesses out there! Listen up! Are you and your employees providing thankful service to your customers, accompanied by a smile, or resentful service with a scowl? Are you bending over backward to please your customers, or are you making them feel frustrated and disappointed? And are your employees focusing on your customers as if they are the lifeblood of your company, or taking customers for granted?

You should know the answers to these questions because, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re operating in a new world order and the same old lousy, careless attitude toward customers won’t work anymore. During the past century or so, our economy has evolved from being agriculturally based to being manufacturing centered to being technology driven. Now service is the name of the game. Based on my experiences and those of many others, if service is what we’re trading on in today’s global economy, then we’re in deep trouble.

You see, consumers represent about 70 percent of our nation’s purchasing power, and in this recession customers who have fewer dollars to spend exercise their choices more carefully. They will reject companies that don’t provide value or make them feel appreciated. Just look around you at the number of name-brand stores, auto dealerships, and businesses that have gone out of business or are filing for bankruptcy. While big department stores are experiencing declining sales, for example, Wal-Mart’s sales are increasing. Why? Because customers perceive that Wal-Mart provides more value. Wal-Mart’s combination of low prices, wide selection, branded names, and courteous service leaves its customers with a good experience.

Consumers are voting with their pocketbooks. They’re saying, “You’ve been taking too much of my money for too long without delivering a reliable, fair-priced product or service. I’ll spend my money with someone who appreciates my business, who makes me feel important (not like a pain in the butt), and who provides me with a good experience and more value.”

To illustrate my point, let me share a few examples of my recent customer service experiences.

Crappy Service

Two years ago, I purchased a printer for my home office from a company with a well-known name and a reputation for reliability (supposedly). This printer served me well until recently, when it developed a problem. I read through the manual and tried to fix it, but to no avail. I followed all the troubleshooting actions given by the software programs, but I still had a dead printer. Finally, I called the customer service number.