This Blog is for those interested in customer service in general or – in particular – for businesses interested in customer service.
We want to help businesses improve their customer service, and we believe there’s a major benefit for organizations that do so – financial success! There is a business impact from better customer service.
But we also feel there’s a societal impact from better customer service. So many interactions that we have nowadays are with businesses – the cable company, the hospital, the government, where we get our car worked on, the phone company, the restaurant, the schools our children attend, even the arena of our local sports team.
There are billions of interactions which occur on a daily basis in the world of business either on the phone, face-to-face, via e-mail, or on the web. These interactions create a tone of conversation among us such that the better we’re served and the more effective the service, the more positive our daily outlook might become. Similarly, the more employees are trained on how to communicate well, how to deliver phenomenal service, then the more positive and respectful they’ll be in their personal lives as well.
Customer service – it can impact your organization’s performance, your corporate culture, and the fabric of your community.
And this is a Blog written by customer service consultants, trainers, and researchers also looking to help make customer service a positive attribute again in our society.
October 6, 2009 at 5:28 pm |
My name is larry Shank. I live in Manhattan (NYC) I am in the process of opening a Personal Chef/Hospitality Business. One of the services that I will be offering is Professional Customer Service Training Classes & Seminars to local businesses. I have found that in the past years (especially in urban cities) that Customer Service has sunk to an all time low. It seems that in rural areas you tend to get better service (In most cases). I think this is most likely because in smaller areas/towns business owners have much more of a personal connection with their customers. In many instances they may know the customers family, (or a particular family member)or their spouse/significant other, neighbor, boss etc. In situations where this is true, there is a common ground between business Owner and Client. I think we can all agree that it is much more difficult to give poor service to somebody that we share a common ground with. (Somebody we know.) Also in smaller towns the general population are much more likely to know each other. And like I said prior, even if they don’t actually know each other, there is a good chance that they all at least know many of the same people. Needless to say, in this type of enviroment, “WORD OF MOUTH” travels quite quickly. A couple of disgruntled Customers can turn into many literally in a day or so.
Now in an urban City, this is not so. Most Customers an employee comes in contact with are complete strangers. Many of whom they will never see again. this is not to say that Cities are not broken down in Neighborhoods and there are not Businesses that have at least a partial regular customer base. Also in the city, there are so many people to contend with. This of course means that there are many many Good, Sweet Souls; then again this (Unfortunately) also means that there are also many many Not So Good (or simply stated “Undesireables”! In this situation, Business Owners/Managers find themselves over-worked and often overwhelmed! There then after a while becomes this feeling that “Oh well, sorry we couldn’t please them. But, it’s not the end of the world. there are so many people around that for every customer we loose, we gain two!”
Bad bad Bad.
It is so easy in the City for an employee to talk their way out of trouble when being confronted with a Customers negative feed back about them. It is so easy to say that “They Cursed at me” or They were harrassing the other Customers…or “I caught them stealing!” AND: In the city these types of encounters actually do happen so often that it is not easy for Managers to believe the employee! This seems to be the biggest problem! then the managers let the employee of the hook. (Also remember …”For every customer we couldn’t please…….”…..)On top of this there is often no managerial system in place to deal with this situation. Customer Complaints/Comments need to be taken very seriously! EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!! ALWAYS!! That is why a good System for Managers to use is to have a “Customer/Employee Logbook” In this book, each and every single customer complaint/ feedback about an employee should be precisely documented! When this is done, Managers can go back and see how many complaints of a similar nature etc they recieved in the past and then from there they can effectively work on the solution!! You cant fix something if you don’t know it’s broken!
I have decided that instead of getting angry or frustrated with the lack of customer service skills from so many Manhattan Employees, that I will extend my business to include this service. I will try to be part of the solution as well!!