23rd Day of Christmas

Customer Service

Most of my experience is in corporate communications where high value is placed on each relationship, as opposed to selling a low-cost item to the mass market. I build my marketing strategy upon customer perception, so customer service is the cornerstone of my marketing efforts.

Using all of the gifts you have accumulated over the past several days, you should already have an idea of where you stand in terms of customer service. In particular, on day 5 I asked you to shop like your customer. I would be remiss if in these presents I did not address those occasions when things go wrong and your customer is not happy.

I have been helping you discover the weak points in your business so that you can fix them. Still, things will go wrong. Great brands know that and are prepared for emergencies. What makes a brand truly great is that when something does go wrong they don’t smack a bandage on it; they hunt down and fix the root cause.

Consider this scenario: your package did not arrive when you expected. You are now disappointed and upset. You call and get a nice person on the phone. They calm you down because they have been well trained to do just that. You are reassured that your package will arrive tomorrow. They may even give you a coupon to use next time.

Hey, that’s great customer service, right? Maybe, if this is what happens on less than 5 percent of all of your orders. What if it is happening on 20 percent or more? Then the answer is clearly no, this is not good customer service. This is a band aid.

Today’s gift is an emergency triage kit. Use your triage kit to assess the following so that you can find out why and fix it:

• Do people seem interested in buying from you, and then not buy?
• Are people abandoning your site during an online order or registration online?
• Are you being asked the same question over and over again?
• Do you follow up afterwards to see if your customer is happy?

Be proactive with your customer service. Look at where things went wrong and do what you can to improve the situation so it does not happen again. Do you need better signage or better user interface on your web site? Do you need to allow more time for delivery? Do you need to make operational changes?

Make it easy for people to get in touch with you when they have questions. Most complaints can be quickly defused with fast personal interaction. When things go wrong, step up, take responsibility and fix the problem. Use your best judgment to decide: is this someone who complains about everything, or is it a legitimate complaint? If you have customer-facing employees, empower them to make judgment calls.

Listen with an open mind when someone speaks up, for they are the minority. Depending on their frustration level, if they cannot speak to you they will go to social media and blast you. Beware, for the majority will leave without saying a word and not come back. You are not going to let that happen, are you?