Whatever Happened To "Customer is King"?
I have a few pet peeves, and one of them, is lack of or terribly miserable customer service, customer experience, client relations, consumer service, call it what you will! I always feel that if I am paying for a product or service, I need to be treated with respect and decency from the retailer/service provider.
My career has exclusively been in customer based industries, providing services for face to face interactions. In other words, industries that required human communication. It has been an absolute pleasure seeing happy return clientele and at times challenging "please never come back" clientele. The one commonality in both, is us, as service providers needed to remain fair, courteous, helpful, and non-judgemental in either case. It is not up to us, to treat the difficult less satisfied guest any differently.
Studying the exceptional, the mediocre, the awful, and the down darn atrocious customer experience has been a secret hobby of mine. Yes, I worked in such jobs, but I have also been on the receiving end as a client. I have come to one simple conclusion; giving exceptional service is just a willingness to be of assistance, to want to help.
Lately, incidents of complete customer service break down have happened with me. The sad truth is that these large world renowned companies, had no interest in placating me nor even showed any remorse at losing me as a client.
One incident, with a very well known international bank, had me wondering what planet these people come from. I have had a 23 year relationship with said bank, and I have been jumping through hoops to get them to cancel a credit card. I have made too many phone calls to count, been to their branch, spoken to dozens of people in positions of authority, and 10 days later I have yet to cancel that credit card.
Their call center is in another country, their branch does not handle all aspects of banking, their internal departments do not speak to each other! After hearing complete frustration in my voice, after telling anyone that would listen about my terrible experience with their bank, not one employee took ownership of my case! I have not had an apology and of course I am still waiting for a call back to tell me how once and for all, I can cease to be their client. I will give you an update if I ever resolve this issue.
In my simple and humble opinion, "too many cooks ruin the broth". These globalized entities attempt to cut cost and remove humans on the ground, with devastating results. You, the customer, become a faceless, nameless being that they cannot connect with. A number to be managed. They neither want to know how to serve you better nor how to retain you as a client. They are following a script given to them by a large organization, probably based on another continent. Each department of said company is located in another location, they communicate via internet and the turn-around time and the lack of urgency to keep the client happy is disgraceful.
I personally have faced these issues with banks, insurance companies, online shopping, airlines etc... I am not against growth and globalization. I am against the lack of personal contact and genuine care, for the people that ultimately keep a business in business.
Bring back the conversation at the store, knowing your grocer for a lifetime. Bring back the banker that genuinely wants to maintain a relationship with his customer and does not want to rob you blind. Bring back the retailer that remembers your likes and dislikes in person, and not as a client survey statistic. Bring back the personal touch at a hotel, wherein you are made to feel special and important, even when you are a first time guest. Bring back "the customer is king" and not "the policies and procedures" far outweigh customer satisfaction.
Many a survey has been done to reflect, that a large percentage of customers believe that customer service is a representation of how a business values them. As a customer, if you do not value my patronage, I will use my wallet to show you I do not value your product/service, and go somewhere else.
As you can deduce, I am a super frustrated client right now. Yet, in all fairness, I have recently been amazed by two homegrown companies that have showed me a surprising amount of care. Does that mean they are not too large yet and are able to maintain a personalized sense of customer care? I do not have the answer to that, all I know is I will be going back to them for the outstanding service they offered.
Here is what I have learned: Keeping a customer happy takes little effort, all you need to do is truly listen. People and companies will mess up, how you handle that mess is what makes the difference. Meeting your customers expectations every time should be a basic requirement of any business. Humans are running businesses and humans are using these products/services; talk to each other. Personalized and attentive human interaction is so needed in today's world! Utilize new technology to enhance what you do, but do not eliminate the natural connection that makes us human.
In my simple and humble opinion, "too many cooks ruin the broth". These globalized entities attempt to cut cost and remove humans on the ground, with devastating results. You, the customer, become a faceless, nameless being that they cannot connect with. A number to be managed. They neither want to know how to serve you better nor how to retain you as a client. They are following a script given to them by a large organization, probably based on another continent. Each department of said company is located in another location, they communicate via internet and the turn-around time and the lack of urgency to keep the client happy is disgraceful.
I personally have faced these issues with banks, insurance companies, online shopping, airlines etc... I am not against growth and globalization. I am against the lack of personal contact and genuine care, for the people that ultimately keep a business in business.
Bring back the conversation at the store, knowing your grocer for a lifetime. Bring back the banker that genuinely wants to maintain a relationship with his customer and does not want to rob you blind. Bring back the retailer that remembers your likes and dislikes in person, and not as a client survey statistic. Bring back the personal touch at a hotel, wherein you are made to feel special and important, even when you are a first time guest. Bring back "the customer is king" and not "the policies and procedures" far outweigh customer satisfaction.
Many a survey has been done to reflect, that a large percentage of customers believe that customer service is a representation of how a business values them. As a customer, if you do not value my patronage, I will use my wallet to show you I do not value your product/service, and go somewhere else.
As you can deduce, I am a super frustrated client right now. Yet, in all fairness, I have recently been amazed by two homegrown companies that have showed me a surprising amount of care. Does that mean they are not too large yet and are able to maintain a personalized sense of customer care? I do not have the answer to that, all I know is I will be going back to them for the outstanding service they offered.
Here is what I have learned: Keeping a customer happy takes little effort, all you need to do is truly listen. People and companies will mess up, how you handle that mess is what makes the difference. Meeting your customers expectations every time should be a basic requirement of any business. Humans are running businesses and humans are using these products/services; talk to each other. Personalized and attentive human interaction is so needed in today's world! Utilize new technology to enhance what you do, but do not eliminate the natural connection that makes us human.
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