The State of Customer Service in this Country

My personal opinion about customer service in this country is that it has been going downhill for years.   This past weekend was no exception.  My husband I decided to take our kids to the movie theatre.  We very rarely go to the theatre since it’s a little pricey for all 5 of us to go regularly.  Anyhow, I was flabbergasted at the complete lack of service, in fact lack of respect for the customers.  With this kind of service, I don’t plan on going back anytime soon.  In fact, According to American Express, 85% of customers have decided to never do business with a company because of poor customer service in the past.  That’s a lot of people!! 

Now of course when you go anywhere on a weekend, it’s going to be busy and you’re going to encounter teenage sales associates.  I get that.  After all, I was a manager for 10 years and some of my best employees were my students.  However, when we got to the movie theatre, there was line up a mile long.  We got in line, but the line didn’t seem to be moving very quickly.  After standing there for a very long time, the line suddenly split off.  I guess they had decided to open another cash window.  Maybe it’s just me, but really… on a weekend matinee with 5 movies playing that everyone wants to see, you’re only going to open one cash window with a slow moving teenager??  By the time we got to the cash, the teenager did not even look at us, he just told us the total and that was it.  No apology for the wait, no “Thank you for coming”, no acknowledgement what so ever.  Next we headed to the lineup for the popcorn.  Once again we stood there forever.  Once we got to the front, the teenager working this cash was taking his sweet old time, oblivious to the fact that there were 50 people still standing behind me.  Once again, no acknowledgement what so ever.  He just took our order, proceeded to have a conversation with another teenager working the counter, took my money and that was it. 

Now I’m not bashing teenagers (I have a 15 year old son), but what is with the level of customer service lately?  I’m not blaming the teenagers.  After all it’s likely their first job, so they have never had any training on how to be courteous.  (Don’t get me wrong, some of that is common sense and should have been instilled in them at home by now)  When I was a manager, the absolute number one priority in my store was customer service.  The stores I managed were number one in the district and the company for a reason… because we had repeat customers who wouldn’t think to shop anywhere else.

So, how have things changed in terms of customer service training?  Do you have a thorough training plan in place?  Do you have high expectations for your staff (teenagers or not)?  Remember, 85% of your customers won’t come back because of poor service.  Taking the time to adequately train your staff, follow up regularly with them and instill a sense of pride to be working for your company is well worth the time it takes to do that.  Remember that customer retention is so much easier and cheaper than customer acquisition. 

What's in it for me?

As I said in my previous blog, listening to your customers is an extremely important step to customer retention, but there is no way you’re going to remember everything about every customer especially what they’ve all purchased, how often and how much they spend.  That’s why having an accurate, detailed database is vital.  But, database marketing only works to build retention if the customer benefits from the retention strategies.  Which means that you can have all the information possible about your customer but if your marketing retention strategy doesn’t interest them, there’s no point in doing it.  So, really pay very close attention to the information you have and strategically design your marketing strategies from the customer’s point of view. 

So, what kinds of strategies work?  Well, that depends on your industry and your clients’ preferences, but here are some commonly used things that work well.

·         Membership cards

·         Welcome and thank you communications

·         Satisfaction surveys

·         Enhanced technical support with follow up satisfaction calls

·         Frequent Buyer Programs

Most importantly, as I’ve said before, listen to what the customers want.  Do they want free stuff?  A Frequent Buyer Program might be a great option.  Do they want to share their input on your products, services and company?  Having their voices heard might mean they’d take the time to complete a satisfaction survey.  But, get creative.  Personally, I use a referral program.  When one of my clients refers another client to me, the referring client gets 15% off their next purchase.  As most of my clients are owners of very small businesses, they are more than happy to save some money on professional services.

The key to customer retention is to ensure that you have developed a very comprehensive Integrated Marketing Communications plan aimed specifically at your existing customers, designed to build loyalty.  Have fun with it.  Get creative.  Better yet, ask your customers what they want and give them exactly that.