Customer Service Part II

As I am growing the business, I am constantly learning and seeing how all the theory and books are falling into place. In any business there are a number of stakeholders that you need to build and foster relationships with.  For me, two of the most important groups are the people you work with to deliver a product or service, your employees; and the people you work for, your clients. Today, I’m going to continue on from last week's theme of customer service.

We hear to infinitum the importance of customer service. We all know that it is important, but surprisingly, or should I rather say, sadly, too many companies (not only the automotive industry - see last week's post) are forgetting about the importance of their clients. The acquisition fee to get new clients is so much more than keeping current clients happy.

A couple of months ago, I had two situations where the blatant “couldn’t-care-less-about-you-as-our-client-of-many-years” attitude stunned me.

The first is a media monitoring news clipping service – we had invested hundreds of thousands of Rands for their service over the last eight years. For various reasons, we gave notice, I only received an email asking for the reason; pretty much to tick-a-checklist exercise. At minimum a phone call and some attempt to try and find out why and to try and change my mind to remain a customer would have meant something. Clearly my support over the years meant nothing. I am pretty sure that that the Managing Director of this company has firstly no clue who their clients are, and secondly there are clear issues if I look at their incredible staff turnover, especially of late. There was never a proper handover given to their new recruits, so each time we had to form a new relationship and brief the account manager from scratch.  Interestingly I got a mail from this company yesterday letting me know that they have launched a new product. They did not show any appreciation for our service; or remotely interested to keep us as a customer - so what is the likelihood that I will now even consider giving that mail or company a second thought? 

The second was an online flower and gift ordering service, manned by the ever flamboyant "Harold". Another company we have invested a substantial amount in for various special occasions. Recently I ordered my Mom some flowers when the sub-standard bunch arrived, there were dead flowers in the bouquet! How embarrassing! When I saw the replacement bouquet the next day, my blood pressure revved into scarlet - the tiny bouquet of white lilies, gip (a bigger version of 'Baby's breath' and a hit in the '80's), one chrysanthemum and two pink roses left me aghast, and hugely worried as to what quality our other clients had been receiving in the past. When I phoned, the operator indicated in a "well-it-has-been-replaced-what-is-your-problem?" attitude. I reminded them to look on the system to see that we are not a once-off client, and the investment from our side would be drying up. I was promised a phone call from the manager...still waiting for this call. 

Customer service is really important to us on all levels and making sure that we listen to what our clients say. It really is about the detail, and the small things that make a difference - wouldn't you agree?