How many of you have had the experience of receiving exceptional customer service?
The type of customer service that anticipates your questions, needs and expectations even before you can ask them?
The type of service, that after the interaction, you walk away from the interaction with a sense of awe.
How did that person anticipate my every need, and better yet, they delivered on those needs?
I’ve been on the receiving end of such service, and it’s amazing! I want to tell everyone about that experience, and it makes a lasting impression.
Sadly, I haven’t had that experience in the recent past, have you?
A recent experience that I’ve had is replacing my furnace.
No small expenditure – upwards of $10,000.
I’ll make a long story short; excluding the details, frustration and time involved with follow up calls etc.
I had to call three different companies to get this done.
I had quotes that were promised, and not delivered; even after calling the sales person and asking for the follow up.
If a customer contacted me to bid on a $10,000 project, I can guarantee you that I would follow up and deliver the bid. Most business owners I would think, would do the same.
Company #3 was selected. We got to the point where the follow up portion was done, and the installation date set.
Installation day comes and goes fairly smoothly. The installers show up on time, and are friendly, look professional, and work hard to remove the old system and get the new one installed.
The new system gets installed, and there’s a glitch.
They do some troubleshooting and determine it might be a bad thermostat. They call their office and the sales rep who came to my home and estimated the project was called to run out the new thermostat, which I really appreciated. The rep comes to my house, and talks to the installers briefly outside, and then leaves.
My expectation was that he would ring my doorbell, talk with me briefly, and assure me that things were getting fixed, and maybe even apologize for the inconvenience.
I’m in the repair business, I know things happen – and they do. It would have taken him about 5 minutes to converse with me, and that would have made a lasting impression with me.
Instead, the lasting impression was that he didn’t even attempt that. That I wasn’t worth the few minutes of explanation, apology, or a “thank you for your patience, while we work this out” conversation.
As it turned out, it wasn’t the thermostat at all, but another detail that was overlooked and easily fixed.
That was over 2 months ago.
My $10,000+ system is working fine. Thankfully.
My impression is that the sales rep, or anyone from the business cares because I did not receive a thank you note, a follow up call, email, or any other acknowledgement.
I am thankful that it’s working fine, because I can tell you my comfort level of calling them to perform a service call isn’t extremely high based on my past experience and first impression.
That’s the thing – you have one shot at making a good first impression, and with a business it is your customer service.
Perhaps my expectations are too high? Maybe being thankful for a person’s business is old fashioned and a thing of the past?
As consumers, don’t we deserve more?
As business owners, don’t we need to deliver more?
As a business owner, I would want to know these things, so on all three occasions, I did call the owner and share with them my experience. I have no idea what, if anything, came from that feedback.
Customer service isn’t a department, it’s an attitude.
It doesn’t matter the dollar value of the purchase; what matters is the value of the service behind it.
Do you show up, follow up, deliver, and give a genuine thank you for the business?
No business is perfect, but if you can make the customer service magic happen, when there is a glitch, I can almost guarantee you that the road will be less bumpy.
I believe customer service is the new marketing, and my goal as a business owner is to make the magic happen.
I'd love to hear your customer service experiences (both good and bad) in the comments below - no company names, just the experience.
