Why Customer Service is Key

In this day and age Customer Service has to rank as the leader of importance to retaining clients. How many times have you had a poor experience with a product or service only to have their representative go above and beyond to encourage you to return. Even more so when the service is exemplary how do we react or is it just expected of everyone today?

Working in the retail service industry for my entire career I was trained and measured on results. For me it was my livelihood so I believed in the constant state of improvement. When I left the industry and venturing out on a new path I noticed that people are getting to the point of not caring anymore. Whether it be the person or the company my question is why? Is it financially based, do they believe they are not getting paid enough for the job? Is the employer not providing enough training? Why is it happening? Do they not realize it summarizes their product/service. It gives us a reason to talk about and refer them others in our peer groups. Remember a bad experience is reported 10x over a good one.

In last three weeks I have seen the best and the worst in customer service. Both in the same industry, 24 hours apart. One was amazing and one was horrific. Guess which one I tell most; the worst experience. It’s unfortunate but we all expect to have a reasonable expectation of service and when it doesn't happen and if we complain we expect it to be dealt with in a professional and courteous manner. When that happens we rarely promote it but we definitely take it into consideration when choosing again.

The truth of the matter is... Treat everyone as you would expect to be treated yourself, be reasonable, should their expectations not be met, explain and hope for a resolution. Remembering taking the right steps will ensure that customer is one for life.