“Quality is Job 1” was the slogan for a car company that was proud of producing quality cars. I don’t remember much about the car company or the ad, I just remembered the tag line. It really showed the marketing team was onto and idea. They just didn’t fully execute to the point where I’d buy the product. In fact, I was in the market for a car at the time. I didn’t buy from that car company. In stead I bought from a luxury car company that gave excellent customer service. I feel quality is important but customer service is crucial to good business.
Customer service quality would have sold me on the product. Geico prides itself on #1 customer service in the Washington metro area. I’m fairly certain that they are #1 in a few regions and not just the Washington metro area. They have quirky funny commercials, but the points are:
- Their services are easy to use
- Customer service is important to them
From the lizard to the cave man commercials, the ease of service and customer service are their key points. I personally use them for my homes both cars. I can vouch for the fact that the service is easy and that they have good customer service. Even when you have been in an accident they are easy to work with throughout the process.
I’m reminded of a firm I worked for whose marketing team worked overtime on the “I Care” initiative. “I Care” was the slogan some marketing Guru creates. This company executive was suppose to be the company savior and when he came up with “I Care” all of management was sold on what he had to say. Employees on the other hand saw it as dumb. The “I Care” initiative came with and “I Care” pin that was given to every employee. The “I Care” pins were given for each employee to wear. However, nobody gave any details about what this “I Care” pin was. Most employees not have cared less about the “I Care” pin or the “I Care” initiative. In fact it became a running joke that nobody cared about the “I Care” campaign.
Similar to the “Quality is Job 1” slogan, this “I Care” initiative left too much to the imagination. As I look at the pin that I still have, and started to think about ways customers service helps build big businesses. Geico is a prime example of a company with good customer service getting huge because of it. I see 5 customer service items that help big business get bigger:
5) Deliver as promised: All the customer service help in the world can not make an unhappy customer happy if you didn’t deliver as promised. If you go to the local pizza joint. Order a pizza to go and pay your money. Only after waiting about an hour does pimples faced kid come out and say “We are done making pizzas for the night, can we give this to you tomorrow.” Would any amount of customer service at this point make you happy or even more would you go back to the pizza joint. Some business, have sale people that over promise. Only to have those that make the pizza tell them we are not doing that or can’t do that. When you deliver as promised, you are not only likely to have a happy customer who raved about your customer service. But you are likely to have a repeat customer that could be used as a good business reference.
4) Follow-up and follow through: Ironically most people do not go to customer service unless there is a problem. Realistically with most good business customer service is everything before the customer received the product up to and including the sale. Some people call it the customer experience, the term customer service works well for me. Recently, I have had issues with my ISP Comcast. My issues were on going and they were constant for about 6 months. I was a constantly angry customer because their service just would not work right. Throughout the process, they had exceptional customer service. Everyone from the employees that came to my home, to the staff that personally gave follow-up calls focused on keeping me happy. Eventually they gave me credits toward my bill and gave a new connection directly piping broadband for my business. One thing that surprised me was how often they followed up to make certain I was happy and to see what could be done to help. I literally considered switching to a new ISP but stopped because of the follow-up and follow through which to me translated in good customer service.
3) Genuine interest in customer: I’ve been doing a lot of shopping lately. Not just because it’s Christmas, but because I have to shop for product for my business. My family recently made a good amount of purchase from Macy’s. We spend a pretty penny with their store and wanted our products delivered ASAP. Their customer service had been exceptional throughout the process. I admired how quickly they set up the delivery and work with us on our challenges. This was even more so exemplified the day of the delivery. I was scheduled to receive the products between 2PM and 4PM. I was out of town at that time and rushing back into town to make and effort to make it. At 1:45 I was still about an hour away from my home. I called their customer service and informed them that I needed to have them deliver as late as possible since I was not in the area. In calling I found out that they have moved my scheduled deliver time up initially to 1:45 PM. I express to their customer service department that that time would certainly not happen. The customer service representative genuinely expressed interest in my issue and informed the dispatch and the delivery company that I would be delayed. I finally made it home about 3 PM at which time the truck had arrived. We purchased and entire living room set and it looked fantastic in the room. One issue they had was a missing set of legs for the recliner. The deliver person called it in to inform him dispatcher and gave me a new customer service number to call. Normally, I would have been upset by them not every everything we for which we paid. However I was so happy with their customer service, I called and expressed gratitude for them working with me worked with them to get my missing items.
2) Ease of reaching customer service: I recently worked with local bank on a few issues. They have always seemed to have great customer service in the branches. On this one occasion I had an issue that required me to call the customer service department. I also went online to follow-up with my issue. I received an online response quickly, and was able to resolve me issue over the phone with ease. In both cases I was surprised how quickly I reached a live person. In both cases, I felt that the bank understood it was good business not to keep customers waiting. Their customer service translated exactly from the retail branch to the phone system to the online business unit.
1)Employees buy into the vision: I worked with a few companies where the employees did not buy into the company’s business vision. Good business included employees believing you can do what you say you will do. In the “I Care” initiatives case, we realized the company was understaffed. As employees, we understood that the customer were important. However, most of the staff really didn’t care. To ware and “I Care” pin when you really didn’t care was a slap in the face. Most didn’t buy in and it showed over the phone or in conversations with clients that realized they were not getting good customer service. Another case was one where, the company didn’t return phone calls. Not returning phone calls is the worst possible customer service. I worked clean up for a company that was in customer service and didn’t return phone calls on a regular basis. When we met with the customers to address the issues, the first thing out of their mouth was “why doesn’t your company return phone calls”. I could only reply that company policy was to address every issue as quickly as possible and in the order it was received. Quite honestly, I was shocked customer service was not returning phone calls. It made me as an employee no longer buy into the vision of the company. In cases where the company vision is bought into, employees make it their business to return customer calls. Employees buy in results in good customer service and good business.
