During a session with a client of mine I was genuinely struck by his own natural reaction to how he viewed customer service. It was an instinctive response. It’s foundations were not in any textbooks but in the 30 years his business has been rooted in it’s local community. In the 30 years serving his clients.
He simply stated that customer service is all about the interaction, not the transaction.
How simple and yet how true. How powerful too.
Isn’t it a sorry affair when in times where most businesses have been hit by the recession, that their response has been to reduce staff levels and customer service levels.
This is not a rant based on isolated experience but based on my daily experiences.
Recently I brought my two sons to buy a new fish tank. My budget was €200. We went to the “premier” garden centre in my area where we have been going for years. Over the last year in particular what has been strikingly obvious is that they have no floor staff.
We waited as we have done many times, but this time it was for 15 minutes and this despite asking for help.
I gave up and left. Before I left I asked to speak to the manager. She informed me that they had made staff redundant and hadn’t enough to serve customers. In other words the customer actually doesn’t count!. This garden centre is literally sabotaging it’s business, and ignoring the value of true customer interactions. True service. In doing so they are leaving money on the table in lost sales.
For most service businesses their business is all about the interaction with their clients. Lot’s of them make trite statements on their websites about valuing customers but in truth they only value the transaction, the sale. They never value the effect a really positive interaction for a customer has with them, on their longterm success and profitability.
How many service businesses switch to an answering machine at 5pm? How is this possible if they say they are “service oriented”.
How many service businesses still using the standard answering machines during office hours and give you innumerable options to connect to accounts, operations, sales etc, but you just want to talk to someone who can help you?
How may of the service industry’s staff will greet you this morning with a smile? Too many will rarely look at you when they are serving you, let alone acknowledge your presence.
The shame about all of this is that so many of these businesses are leaving their profits behind them. Far too focused on making the sale happen i.e. the transaction rather than their customers real needs, the interaction.
Action Point
Take some time out today and just observe your customer service staff. Survey your clients and ask them what service means to them, not you. Train your staff to be focused on the quality of the interactions with your customers. Recapture the essence of true commerce which is the interaction between buyer and seller, a truly special thing.
Best of luck, Ronan
Ronan Kilroy Certified FocalPoint Business Coach
Profitability, Productivity, Possibility.
