A key to providing exceptional customer service is consistency. It’s not good enough to provide excellent service some of the time – or most of the time – it must be ALL the time. If you’re the kind of business where outstanding service is the norm, it only takes a few mediocre or poor customer experiences to damage your reputation.
We’re talking about the ability to “recover well” from episodes in which we provided less than stellar service. You’ve heard the expression that “it’s better to lose the sale than lose the customer.” I buy into that 100% – because we need to be looking at the long-term value of a customer, not just today’s possible sale.
Here’s a good example: in another life – in another galaxy – I sold an $8,400 job to one of our largest clients. We totally screwed up the job – and chose not to “make it right” with the customer. We replaced only 1/8 of the messed up order. Over the next 3 years we lost over $150,000 with that one client. So, we chose to save about $4,000 of cost and ended up losing $150,000 in revenue. “Making it right” is always the best policy in the long run.
And I still keep seeing this talk about how “the customer is king” and “the customer is always right.” You and I know that isn’t true, don’t we? Sometimes the customer is wrong – and needs to be told so. Sometimes the customer is an arrogant nutcase – we need to happily send them to our competitors – with our blessing. Just let the “customers from hell” take their business elsewhere.
Southwest Airlines tells the story about their CEO, Herb Kelleher, personally contacting a disgruntled customer in San Diego. He’d complained that, on his flight, he noticed that the toilet paper roll in the bathroom was set up so the TP came off the top of the roll, not the bottom. This led him to question whether or not Southwest’s planes were mechanically safe – since they couldn’t even get the TP orientation right. Mr. Kelleher told him 2 things: (1) what the hell was he doing standing upside down in the bathroom?, and (2) he was more than welcome to take his flying business elsewhere. Herb, bless his soul, understood that sometimes it’s better to send clients elsewhere. Smile, shake their hand, wish them well, and say goodbye.
Reading a lot of the alleged “leadership” material, you see that most of it emphasizes the importance of the alleged leader in imparting his vision to the troops. The assumption is that this guy/gal knows what they’re doing – meaning THEY are the ones most capable of developing and communicating the organization’s vision. Hey, they’re getting payed about 160 times the annual pay of most of their troops, so they have to be brilliant, right? This is just too hard to swallow. I’m not overly interested in another person’s view of how they want me to fit into THEIR vision – and why would I be? I’m most interested in my vision, my future, my dreams.
In a stunning development that shocked Washington insiders, 435 owners of small farms across America revolted and took over Congress. The former members of Congress were flown to France – and told to stay there. They were given the option of being held in Oregon and forced to listen to NPR 24 hours a day, but none wanted that option.
I’ve just been blown away recently by the generosity and unselfishness of many of my business cyberworld contacts. It’s made me stop and really take a hard look at why I like social networking, blogging, etc. – and what the real purpose is. I’ve been quick to point out the value of the “pay it forward” way of conducting ourselves – but often I’ve been ignoring my own advice. What an idiot.
Servant Leadership 