How to Stay Competitive

Don’t Shake the Tree

Considerable emphasis is put on providing great customer service these days and for good reason. More often than not, poor customer service results in lost business.

However, I believe it is shortsighted not to focus on the overall customer experience. No matter how pleasant, courteous and professional the associate, other service-related deficiencies within an organization can affect your bottom line.

So many companies brag about their customer service, but that amounts to nothing more than lip service if the overall customer experience is not good.

Consider the following examples:

“For Billing, please PRESS 6… I’m sorry, no one is available to take your call…”

“I’m sorry, that offer applies to the first year only” even though we failed to mention that at time of order.

“We are diligently working to resolve your issue” for the 4th day in a row.

“We apologize for not letting you know in advance” so that you could plan accordingly.

While eloquently stated messages, the underlying problems were not the agent’s fault, but rather a failure of management to recognize service-related deficiencies within the organization. For example, while an associate apologized for your service being unavailable for several days, there was obviously an underlying technical problem and, perhaps, insufficient effort put forth to resolve the problem at hand.

These are real problems. They are at the root of what creates a bad customer experience. So, if you’re organization conducts business this way (e.g. unreachable agents, misleading offers, inability to resolve technical problems in a timely manner, etc.) you are “shaking the tree”. And, if you think you’re providing great customer service you’re paying lip service to your customers as well as yourself.

Here are some less facetiously-sounding examples:

• Antiquated systems
• Long hold times
• Unannounced call transfers
• Rude employees

Don’t expect customers to pay for an antiquated product, endure long hold times, have their call transferred repeatedly, require them to repeat their request to a rude employee — and be shocked when they stop doing business with you. Such an organization might get by with an antiquated product, but the “lackluster” service is an invitation to stop doing business with you altogether.

Every opportunity that your company has to make an impression on a customer is a moment of truth. In the restaurant business, for example, that could be a well-lighted parking lot, to maintaining reservations as promised, to pleasant staff, to efficient service, to quality of food, to restroom cleanliness, etc-etc.

Rudy Peterson, President of Scandinavian (SAS) Airlines noted that, “When companies maximize their moments of truth, they multiply their happy, satisfied customers and, thereby, secure an important competitive advantage.” Start focusing more on how your company can make better impressions on customers and maximize your moments of truth.

By the way, “the tree” represents your business and every leaf on the tree, a customer. Keep shaking the tree and eventually you’ll be looking at a barren tree.

Stay tuned for more discussion on how to identify and address serious service-related deficiences within your organization.

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