Free Advice

This month’s topic is customer service. Do yourself and your customers a favor and make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software operating and all security precautions from your e-mail program’s provider. There are over 50,000 viruses out there and it seems like a weekly event that I get an infected e-mail attachment.

Where is all the customers service?

How do your customers help you build value in your company? By being so loyal and ecstatic they tell others about you.

Customers are tough to get and easy to lose. You’d think businesses, especially large firms, would realize this and make an effort to treat people with respect. Instead, they do things like create even more endless phone mail systems that make it almost impossible to figure out who you’re supposed to talk to much less get the right person on the line. The latest twist is to announce, “Our options have changed so please listen…”

Small businesses have an advantage over big business in this area. You and your employees can actually take responsibility for your actions. A consultant I know promises to return all calls (made during the business day) within 90 minutes. I see more and more brochures that proclaim a call will be answered by a live person.

Airports and airlines are always a great source for examples and humor. They also are a great place to witness customer service opportunities. The proliferation of new airlines is because the big ones aren’t cutting it. Examples include

• Horizon Air serving Starbucks coffee in their gate areas, Starbucks coffee, Northwest microbrews and wines on their flights (complimentary).

• Midwest Air serving real meals, using real silverware and glass wine glasses.

• JetBlue offers new airplanes, leather seats and satellite television. And, as a low cost airline, they encourage passengers to bring their own meals on board.

The news is filled with airport rage, much of precipitated by airline policies and a record number of travelers. However, let’s not put all the blame on the companies. Part of the problem lies with the customers. Here’s something I recently witnessed. You judge where the lowest common denominator is.

I get in line at an e-ticket kiosk for automatic check-in. In front of me are two guys. They’re having no success checking in (by entering their 6 character confirmation code). The computer won’t take their information and issue a boarding pass.

As I lean over to see what’s going on I notice they don’t have e-tickets, they have paper tickets. I tell them the kiosk won’t work because it’s for e-tickets only. They nod okay and one of them says, “Let’s try it one more time,” and starts to enter his (long) ticket number. I tell them again it won’t work. When it doesn’t work, and as they walk away, one of them tells the other, “I guess that machine just isn’t working today.” I walk up and in one minute have my boarding pass.

The real question is, how would you handle a customer like these two guys, who are probably going to be aggravated because of their experience? The difference may be a long-term customer versus never seeing them again.

So what can you do to improve customer service, besides return calls, smile, be nice, etc.

• Take care of your customers. If you can’t provide what they want, refer them to someone who can help.

• If you can help them, make them feel special. Not like one of many.

• Only make promises you can keep.

• Don’t let obnoxious customers ruin your day. You or your employees should smile at them, be silent or maybe ask them why they’ve chosen to dump on you that way.

A final question, if we did a customer satisfaction survey for you, would your customers give you a 9 or 10 (on a 0-10 scale) in every category? If not, there’s some work to do.

© John Martinka 2001. All rights reserved.