How well does your business perform?
I have recently returned from several weeks travelling around Spain. Such a beautiful country with so many sights and wonderful places to visit. The thing that struck though, was the poor service levels that we received. I maybe being a bit precious here, but time and again we encountered staff that really didn’t make our experience as good as it should have been. We encountered particularly poor experiences at train stations and bus ports. I can understand that there may be a bit of a cultural thing going on here but the lack of care factor and assistance given was terrible. People were reluctant to engage, they were abrupt, unhelpful and in many cases quite rude. This theme continued in shops, cafes, restaurants and even the level of service in our hotels was not what I am used to.
It really was the only element of our holiday that was a bit of a let down. I’ve spent weeks wanting to have a winge on this post! It made me think of William Martin’s book, Quality Customer Service in which he identifies the four basic needs of customers:
- Need to be understood
- Need to feel welcome
- Need to feel important
- Need to feel comfortable
Now I accept that there was a bit of a language barrier going on, but in most of my interactions I did not feel that any of these basic needs were met. It just got me thinking how important it is to be aware of what our customers are looking for in their interactions with our businesses. Are your team members taking the time to understand the customers’ problem or requirement? Do they smile and treat them in a welcoming manner? Do they direct their attention soley to the customer and not talk to coworkers, take phone calls or each their lunch? Do they give the customer reassurance so that they feel comfortable in the buying experience? If you cannot answer yes to these questions then perhaps some customer service training may be in order.
So what should your customer service protocol be built around? Warren Blanding in his book, Practical Handbook of Customer Service Operations, identified the five top items of importance to customers in their interactions with vendors:
- Reliability – the ability to provide what was promised dependably and accurately.
- Assurance – the knowledge and courtesy of the team and their ability to convey trust and confidence to the customer.
- Tangibles – the physical environment, equipment and the appearance of the team.
- Empathy – the degree of caring and indivual attention paid to customers.
- Responsiveness – the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.
I think that being in tune with customers needs and knowing what is important to them, gives you the foundation for developing an appropriatelty focused customer service strategy. If you can then build these factors into a documented process you will have a team that will perform at a far greater level and as a result, have very happy customers. So my advice to you is to sharpen your service strategy so that the service from your business is not driving your customers crazy. And finally, please do yourself a favour……….go to Spain, it is a wonderful country!
Richard Coumans
e: richard@coumans.com.au
m: 0412 119 232
