Customer Service: Are You Being Served?

By: Neal Burgis, Ph.D.
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:06:15
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Where has customer service gone? It used to be that if you wanted information about a product or service, you simply contacted the company. Today, contacting a company by phone is more difficult. Sometimes you need to go through a myriad of pushing numbers to get to the department that may be able to help you. Or you get to someone who speaks English with a heavy accent. Some companies do not have telephone contact information at all – you need to try to navigate through their web site to contact them.

Those of you born before the baby boomers and yes, even those of us born in the baby boomer generation, remember the days when customer service actually meant something worthwhile. I realize that times change, but with today’s technology, has customer service become an afterthought? Previously when you called a company, you actually got a real person. Today, you have to listen to a company's entire recorded menu, frustratingly pushing number after number on your phone pad until you narrow things down to the category in which you’re interested. In many cases, these menus do not have a button to match your inquiry.

All you want is to talk to a real person to get help with the question you have about the product or service you are in the process of purchasing. Instead, you get put on hold, or are asked to push buttons that do not give you the specific or similar area or inquiry with which you need help. Some companies give you a runaround and you may talk to three to five “customer service” people before you get to the area you need to be. Then, you get hung up on. That frustrates you more with that company.

Accordingly, Americans have raised customer complaints to a true art form. Consumers hang up way before reaching the department they seek. Shoppers have walked out of stores because of terrible service. And yet store managers and company executives do not understand the reasons their businesses are losing market share. The warning to retailers is that fifth-rate service will continue to drive customers away. Most companies do not track customers’ buying behaviors. They need to identify what influences the customer’s decision to purchase from them or to go elsewhere to shop. It is important to know that word-of mouth by consumers can have a profound effect on a business. People tell their friends about how excellent, good, or poor a store or even a restaurant is. How is your business’ word-of mouth referral? Is it keeping you in business or are customers/patrons going to your competition?

But businesses see things differently from the consumer. Some customers believe they get a dose of good manners when they shop in a few select stores. I have seen some businesses fold after short periods of time because the service is that poor that all I heard have been complaints regarding them.

About 40 percent of customers believe they feel they are treated as a “low life.” As a matter of fact, one particular financial firm lost my business because I came into their office in jeans and no one came over to me. I took my business elsewhere. Years ago, my mother worked at a high-end jewelry store where an older man and his wife dressed in old looking clothes came in. None of the other sales people waited on them because of the way they were dressed. My mother helped them purchase sterling silver items for thousands of dollars. The man was a physician and it was his day off. Every year for the next eight years, this couple twice a year made an appointment to make sure my mother would help them when they came to that store. Who do you think got the commissions on those sales? The person with the best customer service, in this case, my mother.

According to some surveys within the past two years, some 80% of the nation's companies still have not figured out how to do a good job getting customers the assistance they need.

While using the internet, some 35% of all e-mail inquiries to companies are not answered, even within the time period mentioned by the company auto responder e-mails. About 25% never get a response at all.

According to a national phone survey by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting about one in three customers mentioned that they have raised their voices at customer service representatives who they do reach on the phone or find at the store because these individuals either cannot help with the problem/issue and will not get anyone else to help, or because when they repeat back to the caller what the issue is, it is clear that they are not understanding what the caller is asking.

I understand that companies want to stay competitive and reduce their customer service costs by outsourcing, but when companies out-sources services to people who either you can hardly understand or they cannot understand what you are asking them, customer service is null and void. Essentially, the customer service does not exist.

Saying “thank you” or “let me find out for you” is a basic courtesy, and is only the beginning of customer service. Companies need to understand that if you want my business and loyalty, I want customer service. There is a saying: “Treat me the way I want to be treated, not the way you think I should be treated.”

If you who are reading this article and run a business, you should understand the frustration customers have and do something to bring customer service back to where people will rave about what you do for them. And if you reading this article as a consumer, you can let businesses know about the reason(s) customer service was not given to you when you visited or called. Yes, the customer service of yesteryear is gone. But that is no reason that it can’t be replaced with customer service that not only keeps up with the times, but keeps the customer.

Note: While writing this article, some companies who have been losing market share in various business industries, are now considering bringing their customer service call centers back to the United States. Whether or not this will raise their level of customer service remains to be seen.

Article source: Expert Articles