You ever see that Jonathan guy – you know the one on TV touting very reasonably priced life insurance for older people, telling all who would listen that it’s about the price. Well, I’m thinking it’s all about customer service.
I haven’t checked in on the life insurance company that Jonathan represents, so I don’t know how they do with customer service. But I have had a couple of incidents recently that underscore how far we are removed from placing customer service first.
I spent a decade as editor of a business publication, and often wrote and talked about the need for good customer service. I remember years ago when a big box store was proposed for Westerly (and eventually built) and the uproar among small businesses warned that the big box store could not, would not provide the same customer service as the mom-and-pop store that consumers had been frequenting for years.
Now, we talk of artificial intelligence, technology, all things replacing those humans that once provided good customer service – if trained properly. Even if you deal with a real person, there’s no guarantee they’ll get it right.
In this digital age, is good customer service still important? Is it still possible? Forbes Magazine says that on a scale of 1 to 10, customer service is 11.
The article, by Mike Kappel, CEO of Patriot Software, says customer service is “more important than ever. And I’m not going on a limb when I say that—83% of consumers agree that good customer service will turn them from one-time shoppers into lifers… customer service and business success are intrinsically linked. That’s why I’m here to talk about why it’s important and how to give it the TLC it so desperately deserves. After all, who doesn’t want loyal and happy customers?”
His advice to businesses, big and small: “If you’ve been prioritizing other things and putting customer service on the backburner in your business, this is a friendly warning to reassess. Ninety percent of customers base brand loyalty on the quality of customer service. The other 10%? Well, maybe they’ve never had a bad enough experience that makes them want to run for the hills. As for the majority, maybe they’ll let one bad experience slide. But when a business is guilty of two negative experiences, 76% of customers are done. That right there is why customer service is so important, and why the pressure’s on to do what you can to prevent customer service-related attrition.”
So, I’m guilty, I’ve given institutions with which I’ve done business for years more than a reasonable number of customer service transgressions, well beyond two.
One ongoing delivery fiasco has resulted in broken promises, and difficulty speaking to a real person — on one day making more than 20 calls without being able to talk to a live human being.. The other to a large Rhode Island bank that apparently lost important documents related to a safe deposit box (not the contents).
I’ll spare you the details of both, but what they point out is exactly what Kappel writes about. Somewhere too many businesses are forgetting that people, even in this digital age, want customer service that provides transparency, honesty, and treats the customer with dignity.
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I’m concerned that a bank can flippantly deal with lost information, when that information contains sensitive personal material. So, my message is to every single business that relies upon customers (can’t think of a business that doesn’t), and it’s what Kappel said: “If you’ve been prioritizing other things and putting customer service on the backburner in your business, this is a friendly warning to reassess.”
