Back in March of 2008, I wrote an article for Alive entitled Whatever Happened to Customer Service? After years of dealing with rude, arrogant, selfish, distracted and hopelessly ambivalent front line employees, I decided to voice my displeasure to corporate America. Like many of my friends, I was so tired of feeling unimportant, unappreciated and invisible to those who were taking my money that I spoke out for the masses. The masses may be a bit of an overstatement; maybe just a few friends, my sister, and a second cousin on my dad’s side.
As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of “Customer Service,” I am constantly rating my “CS” experiences at restaurants, financial institutions and retail stores. My wife and kids will tell you that I’ve been known to rate the customer service I get from our spa service technician, my dentist and the people who work at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum/Arena. Just for the record, I love my dentist! (A big shout-out to Melanie Koehler, DDS, and her staff, in Danville.) I’m also known to regularly assess the service I get from the various airlines, rent-a-car agencies and hotels when I travel.I’m one of those old school guys (because I’m old) who believes if I’m spending my hard earned money to pay for a good, service or experience, then I should be treated well by the employees working for my business, unless I’m being a tool, which I try not to be, for whatever that’s worth. However, that brings up a good point. Let’s face it, the customer is not always right. There are more than a fair share of malcontents, scammers and “Grifters” out there trying to get over on unsuspecting businesses. Additionally, we live in a very litigious society. Therefore, while there should always be a high priority placed on customer service, I’ll understand if there’s a “once burned twice shy” underlying edict at work. I would just hate to see anything undermine a company’s CS based corporate culture.
While I was beginning to feel that customer service was becoming a lost art when my original article came out nine years ago, I’m here to tell you that I’m encouraged by the resurgence in customer care and the fine art of servicing your customers with respect and appreciation. Somewhere (Alive Magazine – March 2008), the word got out that the buying public was sick of being ignored, shunned and minimalized and the time was right to turn that ship around. In this Millennial “Me Generation” it’s good to see the more sophisticated executive management teams from a good number of companies are prioritizing customer service again.
Customer Service is something that I feel should be addressed at every level of an organization. If I ran a company such as Copeland Tech, Copeland’s Pet Emporium or McCopeland’s Irish Pub, once I hired a new employee I would enroll him or her in our Customer Service University (Go CSU). Before they could interact with my customers, they would have to complete their degree. Promotions would require an advanced degree. On day one, phrases such as “Hello, we’ll be with you in just a minute,” “Thank you for waiting,” “We appreciate your business,” and, “Please come again’” would be built into the culture. We would likely also add, “If you like us on FB or post a positive review on YELP you’ll receive a discount coupon for your next visit.”
I would periodically send in shills to rate their customer experience so that I could weed out the flunkies. Every organization has its share of flunkies or non conformers and they need to be purged. Not from the planet, just from a front line position of working with customers.
“Ownership encourages us to think of our customers as guests. Our goal is to ensure our guests are treated like family. At the start of every season, part of our staff development is to instill trust in each other and trust from our guests.” Johanna Wilson, Guest Relations Director – Bridge Bay at Shasta Lake
In my original article, being so much younger and impetuous, I had no reservations about throwing a company under the bus if their employees displayed poor or non- existent customer service habits. That included Circuit City, AT&T, Abercrombie & Fitch and American Express. While some of those companies are still in business, other’s that disappointed me, such as Sports Authority, Washington Mutual Bank, Macaroni Grill and Radio Shack seem to have had trouble surviving. Is there any direct correlation? Me doeth think so. Don’t even get me started on the DMV or US Postal Service.
In that article, I also complimented numerous large companies that had placed an emphasis on training their employees to treat the customer with respect and gratitude. That included Safeway, Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, San Francisco Giants/AT&T Park and Wells Fargo Bank. This was obviously before Wells opened millions of fake accounts for their unsuspecting customers. That’s “No Bueno” in the customer service world.
Needless to say, an emphasis on serving the customer starts at the top. Every successful CEO knows the importance of maintaining customer loyalty through exemplary customer service. Titans of industry such as Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Tim Cook may not have returned any of my calls for this article, but that doesn’t mean they don’t recognize that need for their front-line employees to be nice to me and make me feel appreciated and smart and special. Virgin, Tesla and Apple all do a wonderful job of training their personnel and my experiences have been great with these companies, although to date all I’ve done at Tesla is waste their sales peoples time, but (fingers crossed) one of these days I’ll be an actual buyer.
Recognition goes out to the following local companies/people who make customer service a priority everyday. Greg Meier of Diablo Motors and his staff go out of the way to make a prospective car buyer feel important and appreciated. Kurt Chambliss at TMC Financing and Matt Cheeseman at City National Bank should both win awards for how well they interface withclientsand how they lead by example with their respective teams.Both Greg Vella at Alpine Awards and Karen Cordeiro of Danville Bakery are to be commended for their willingness to go above and beyond at every turn and their commitment to the community. Finally, Jennifer Burton at Interior Motions(a workplace workspace company) could teach a graduate class in customer service at CS University. She may be the best I’ve ever seen at showing appreciation and taking care of her clients. Finally, Gotta Eat a Pita, AutoTech and Dublin Jewelers have all shown that they know the meaning of good customer service.
If we go with the basic definition of customer service, that being that it is the art of taking care of the customer’s needs by providing and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and assistance before, during, and after the customer’s requirements are met, then I’m happy to report that apparently it’s an additional core value that’s been added to a lot more company’s mission statements and that makes this customer feels like he was heard, “way back when.”
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