Is the Customer Still Always Right?

For the past several years, people have been barraged with messages about the economic downturn its toll on large and small businesses. Companies find themselves forced to cut back on everything from staff to office supplies just to stay open for business. Combined with the onslaught of information and heartbreaking stories of countrywide layoffs, most people are justifiably nervous – if not just plain old stressed out! As the business world decisions begin to impact employees lives, people worry about their next paycheck become understandably distracted by personal concerns. What is the final product of all this stress? Sometimes it leads to a less than perfect experience for customers.

After considering the immense everyday stress of business owners and employees, it might be easy to believe that the mediocre customer experience you had with the telephone company was caused by the increased pressures of the business world. People are, after all, only human, right? True, but...

In spite of all these possible explanations for bad customer service, delivering it to your customers could be the thing that puts your company in the red. As both companies and people look to cut expenses, they tend to search for only for the “best deal” and forget that sometimes “you get what you pay for”. The modern customer expects the best price delivered with excellent customer service. Ignoring this new reality is akin to business suicide.

Armed with this knowledge I took on the task of deciding how best to “beef up” our customer service while wearing multiple hats at the office. After reading a stack of articles discussing everything from trends to attitudes, here is what I boiled it down to.

Smile! We all know that interactions with customers should be delivered with a smile – even when they are via telephone – but also consider applying this to your coworkers. If I allow myself to wallow in the stress of the workday and justify snapping at my coworkers because “they should understand”, it is very likely that this same attitude will filter into the next conversation I have with a customer. In the end, we are all human and in spite of our best efforts to “put on a happy face” it’s difficult to make the mark if you are trying to go from grumpy to thrilled in 0 to 60 seconds!

Refrain from assumptions about your customer’s intelligence level. I am quite certain that everyone has at least one story of customer interaction that left you wondering about a few things. As tempting as it is to simply assume a person is on the lower end of the intelligence spectrum take a few minutes to breath because your assumption is most likely wrong. During a recent training class the instructor was speaking to this point and suggested that whenever someone’s behavior frustrates or upsets you try to think of 7 reasons that could have caused their behavior. If you can’t come up with 7 then, by all means, relegate them to the “no diving” end of the intelligence pool. However, odds are that you can come up with a few reasons and this alone should help keep you - and your customers - smiling.

Keep it personal. With the popularity of the Social Media realm and digital marketing, customers receive a constant avalanche of information. Most information currently circulated talks about keeping up with trends, interacting with customers at places they like to visit (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and keeping your message content relevant to customer interests.

While I agree with the above points whole-heartedly, I think the most important suggestion is that of personalization. On a purely human level, ask yourself if you are more likely to read a message directed at you and specific to your needs/interests, or listen to one that is fun to look at with content that is only partially relevant to you? Please correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect most people would be more inclined to give their attention to the personalized message and, hopefully, that offers the sender much better ROI.

So, back to the initial question – is the customer still always right?

I think – Yes! If you consider the volume of purchasing options made available between traditional brick and mortar along with the bevy of ecommerce sites, the option pool for consumers has only gotten larger. Combine the increased options with the need to be budget conscious and customers are now on the hunt for the “perfect experience” – low cost AND great customer service. Unique products will attract a customer’s initial attention (and purchase), but without great customer service you may never see them again and this is quite certain to take a toll on your bottom line.

Please share your thoughts by adding a comment below!