If you?ve been following along the last month or two, you know I?m doing some renovations on my house. And it?s had its fair share of ups and downs, but that?s to be expected of a project of any magnitude. But one particular experience put me on my heels a bit, and has me contemplating once again the way we approach taking care of our customers.
I try really hard to be the ?cool customer?. The one that?s not pushy, that isn?t demanding and bitchy, the one that doesn?t dicker over nickels and dimes and rolls with the punches when little things go awry, like schedules or backordered parts. I try really hard to be friendly, to be easy to work with, to be flexible and adaptable. After all, I?m both a customer, and someone who works on the business side and knows the value a customer that?s great to work with.
So why should I be penalized for that? But penalized I?ve been. Let me explain.
I ordered a custom vanity to be installed in my bathroom. Roundabout the last week in July, I placed my order; a vanity, a side cabinet, and a small countertop. Compared to some of the big, fancy orders they get for massive kitchens and palatial bathrooms, my order was really straightforward. The time I was quoted was about four weeks. Longer than I really wanted, but hey, it?s not buying stock stuff, so I?d wait.
Here, 7.5 weeks later, they showed up to install my vanity. a full three and a half weeks after they told me. No apologies, no explanations, no nothing. And I had to get pissed before they promised me a date, then they blew that date again by almost a week.
Why do we do this?
The more I interrogated my contractor and the cabinet folks, one thing became clear: The problem? I wasn?t a squeaky wheel. I didn?t bitch and complain after the first delay, or even after the second. I didn?t call every day and throw attitude around. And what they didn?t come out and say but that was definitely implied in our conversations? Other people made more noise.
They pushed and demanded tighter deadlines with more complex orders, and leaned hard on the company to deliver. They got cranky, and were difficult to deal with, so the cabinet guys wanted them done with sooner. And guess who paid the price? Me, the one who had tried to be easygoing. I was easy to delay, because I never made a fuss. Perhaps they figured I never would.
I?m drawing from this personal example because it illustrates something really upside down about the way we treat most customers.
We chase new customers with attractive acquisition offers and discounts rather than figuring out how to better reward our existing customers. Our customer service is built to be triage first, because the squeaky wheels get the grease, and they make the most noise to their friends (which means they have the potential to do more damage). And we wonder why people go running to the amplifier of social media when they need their problem solved? We?re reinforcing the behavior we don?t want by rewarding it with priority.
I know this isn?t an easy answer, because fixing mistakes usually needs to be the first order of business, and I?m all about owning it when you screw up. But I can?t help but wonder if we don?t create more ?mistakes? for ourselves by simply neglecting the people that are easy to do business with because they?re easy. I wonder how many customer service and satisfaction issues like mine could be avoided, or at least reduced, if we put more effort toward taking care of the customers that are great to work with.
I don?t have the answer to this puzzler. With all things I?m sure there?s a balance. In my case, I?m sure I could have been more assertive about my needs and my displeasure at continually being pushed to the back of the line. Maybe I was too friendly and nice. I think that customers have a responsibility, too.
But are we spending so much time dodging bullets that we don?t have any resources leftover to serve the customers that make it a pleasure to come to work each day? Do loyalty and ?preferred customer? programs get the job done, or are they tokens that don?t really mean much? Is the ?squeaky wheel gets the grease? philosophy one we just have to accept as a part of doing business, either as companies or as customers? Do we value mitigating risk more than we do investing in the people that really power what we do?
What do you think? Is our customer service approach upside down? Do we need better balance, or is this the way it should be?
Can?t wait to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, I?ll be finding a new?company to tackle my kitchen renovation?
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photo credit:?Andres Rueda
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Source: http://www.brasstackthinking.com/2011/09/consider-this-upside-down-customer-service/
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