Connecting: Customer service always worth additional effort

Marlene Chism, president of ICARE Presentations in Springfield, works with companies that want to build strong business relationships and with individuals who want to be better communicators.

Good customer service is dependant upon relationship-building activities, or "RB" for short. For example, when you speak to me politely when I call your business, and you are able to answer my questions or direct me to the proper authority, that is an RB activity. When you solve my problem; that also is an RB activity. When you notice I need help finding an item and you actually walk me there instead of giving me a list of directions and a map, that also qualifies as an RB activity.

In contrast, ignorance, assumptions and failure to notice, are all behaviors and attitudes that work against building relationships for customer service.

Ignorance

Ignorance is not a relationship-building activity. As a potential customer when you call a place of business and you get an answer like, "I have no idea, I just answer the phone," you will think about doing business elsewhere.

The effect of ignorance is customer dissatisfaction.

For example: As a frequent customer, if you have to educate the checker at your grocery store on the difference between romaine and red-leaf lettuce and you have to wait while she finds the code for broccoli, you will feel some irritation which translates as customer dissatisfaction.

The bottom line is this: When doing business with a particular company becomes unpleasant, frustrating or tedious, and the customer has another choice, she won't be back.

The solution is to make sure your employees are educated, efficient and knowledgeable about their jobs. Do a sneak preview every now and then. Send in a secret customer to check out their competency. What you don't know about your employees is also a source of ignorance. Notice their competency.

Not noticing

You may not notice your own customer service faux pas, but your customers do. For example, you pride yourself on great service for those who walk through your front door, but what about a supplier interrupting your day with an annoying phone call? If you were crabby on the phone because you were focusing on great customer service at your front door, then you failed to notice that suppliers are also potential customers.

And speaking about the phone, did you put your customer on hold too long because it made your life more convenient than calling him back? Notice how convenient or inconvenient you make your customer's life.

Notice the things that are of concern to your customer. (Talking about your date for the weekend and how tired you are while your customer's $10 T-bone steak is bouncing and bobbing against a moving belt is a prime example of not noticing what concerns your customer.)

One particular cosmetologist never noticed the fact that when she gave me a shampoo, my back was sopping wet and there was water in my ears. Hinting about needing a towel and cotton didn't help her to notice. Eventually, the price simply wasn't worth the value I was receiving. Not noticing lost her a customer and several referrals.

The solution? Put yourself in your customer's shoes. When in doubt, ask yourself this question: "What is the value versus the price?" Not noticing destroys relationships both personally and professionally.

Assumptions

Assumptions can be even more dangerous. At the same grocery store the sacker assumes you want plastic instead of paper. That is because he is not concerned with your desires, but is concerned with making his day a little easier. (As I understand it, it is easier to sack in plastic.)

It is also easier for that sacker to assume that you don't want help out, therefore he doesn't ask. (In fact if it looks like you are going to ask, he makes another assumption.) He assumes you are an idiot as he pretends he just got paged and rushes toward some mysterious signal that only he can hear.

The solution: ask instead of assume. Ask your patron if there is any way to improve upon your shampoo. Ask your client if you can make his life more convenient. Ask your customer about the paper vs. plastic preference. And while that customer may not really want your help out, you will create the perception that you cared enough to ask. And by the way, don't pout when she requests paper.