Superior customer service isn’t rocket science. Seriously.
Nor does it necessarily require throwing money at it. Sometimes it just takes an understanding and appreciation of the customer experience.
To do that requires stepping outside of your own bubble, particularly in a retail environment. Seeing things through the customer lens goes a long way toward understanding what frustrates customers – no matter how trivial the matter may seem to you.
For example, I stopped in a Target store a few days ago to buy a single item. The store was nearly empty except for what seemed like a dozen employees within my sight and two people in line ahead of me. The customer at the counter had an overflowing shopping cart.
As the line grew behind me, the cashier focused on the many items. She didn’t look up, nor did a passing employee or the worker at the nearby (empty) customer service counter. Finally, just as the multi-item customer pulled out her credit card, the customer service worker invited over the shopper in line ahead of me.
My wait probably came to eight or nine minutes – not a lot of time in the general scheme of things but enough to have me tapping my toes in boredom. Those in line behind me were doing the same.
Would Target care? I emailed a polite comment and within an hour received a response from Glenn in Target Guest Relations thanking me for taking the time to share my experience. He promised to share my feedback with the leadership team at the store.
Kudos to Target for a quick response. I give it an “A" for that, a “B" for a message that seemed to care about my experience, and a “C” for sincerity because the email was addressed “Dear Paul Simon” and contained language indicating Glenn had pulled out one of several form letters. That’s OK, I suppose – as long as I don’t know it.
Coincidentally, I later came across an online article observing a change in the value of great customer service in the post-recession economy. The point was that with geographical advantage largely obliterated in today’s world, customer service has become the “only sustainable competitive advantage. It is the only proven way to ensure long term profitability for your business.”
As a Baby Boomer, I’d give the article title ("Why Gen Y-ers are Better at Customer Service”) a “C” for generalizing about the generations but an “A” for grasping what superior customer service is all about.
