Sunday, September 11, 2011

Customer service and what they are saying

Today's Business Lessons



 
Customer service and what they are saying
 
By Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star) 

According to business gurus, customer service is not anymore enough today. People have got to deliver customer satisfaction. But Tom Peters says throw them all worthless clichés away, because today it’s all about “Customer Success”!

We live in the day of the “Never-satisfied Customer”. Most, if not all, have been at the receiving end of lousy customer service. In fact, many of us may have yet to experience genuinely-superb customer service.

How to know if excellent customer service is being extended: you got to read between the lines! Because, most of the time, there are volumes between the spiels service providers say. 

One obviously-fed-up customer, know this and wrote the supposedly real meaning behind customer service spiels:

1. “Can I help you get a size?”
What they’re really saying: “Don’t touch that! I just spent an hour folding it, and I don’t need your hands messing it up again!

2. “Do you need help with anything?”
What they’re really saying: “Quick! My manager is coming around the corner and I need to look busy.

3. “Welcome to (So and So Store)”
What they’re really saying: “Good, another customer to mess up my entire store just to buy a pair of socks.

4. “Have a nice day!”
What they’re really saying: “Now that you’ve ruined mine!”

5. “Thank you for shopping at (So and So Store)!”
What they’re really saying, “Thanks for emptying your wallet with us!”

6. “Do you need a shopping cart to help you carry your items?”
What they’re really saying: “The more you can carry, the more you’ll buy!”

This is actually true. When you free the arms of your customers, they get to buy more. But when their arms are already full, they’ll stop buying.

7. “I love your shirt! Where did you get it?”
What they’re really saying: Your shirt is much nicer than the clothes we sell here. (Why are you even shopping here?)

8. “Can I help you get something down?”
What they’re really saying: “I’ll get a ladder and put it up for you, since this other nice customer put in it in an absolutely wrong place.”

9. “Don’t worry about folding it, I can do it.”
What they’re really saying: “You would just mess it up again if you folded it.”

10. “No, we don’t have any more in the back.”
What they’re really saying: “I just don’t want to check.”

Maybe you’ve experienced being told one of these cheery spiels but feeling otherwise. I surely have. But having worked in retail for a good many years enables me to look at this customer service issue objectively.

Let me tell you something.

Sales people are not allowed to sit during store hours. They stand the whole day. In many establishments, they’re not allowed to use the toilets customers use. They need to walk a long way and use the employees’ facilities. By 5 o’clock they’re pretty tired but that’s usually when sales begin to peak.

Maybe sales people aren’t really rude. Maybe, they’re just plain tired. So you and I ought to try to be patient with them.

Try this one for a change: smile at them and say a good word or two. It’s not a guarantee that their services would improve immediately, but it sure can ease up a lot of weariness they may be experiencing at that moment. Plus, it won’t hurt, anyway, right?

One businessman related, “Late one evening, I decided to pick up some items at the convenience store. Uncertain that it would still be open, I called out to the woman at the shop, 
“What time do you close?”

There was a moment’s hesitation. Then the woman answered, “Ten o’clock. But we start giving dirty looks at 9:45.”

There are business establishments who would never invest on customer services training for their personnel. So don’t expect excellent service from people who don’t know what it is. And please don’t get mad at their staff – just shop somewhere else. That’s the best form of customer revenge!

One thing’s for sure, they don’t know the Bible Rule. “Do unto others what you would want others to do unto you,” the Good Book teaches.

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