The other day I went to my favorite Safeway and bought some carrots. A few hours later, upon opening the package, I discovered that they were soggy, squishy, and unappealing! I went back to Safeway. And yet again, I experienced a successful service interaction!
- The customer service representative apologized. I was heard and felt appreciated as a customer.
- She also offered to go with me to the produce department and personally let the produce person know about the bad carrots
- She gave me a choice – getting a replacement or money back
- The produce department representative asked me “how else may I help you?” with other items on my list
- I was helped by several people in the store – as they personally walked with me to find the items I was looking for. Indeed, one sales man came up to me while I was checking out and asked if I found the item I asked him about – and he apologized when he had said the wrong aisle number!
This experience gave me “food” for thought – what are our “bad carrots” opportunities? What are our opportunities? When a customer comes to us with a problem –how do we react? Here are additional questions we can ask ourselves:
- How can we do just a little bit more than is expected to ensure the customer is satisfied?
- How can we make sure to train our staff to continually communicate to the right people when problems occur?
- How can we create an environment where every person is communicating the same message – a message that says “we care about our customers?”
- How can we turn “bad carrots” into delicious and memorable morsels of customer service?!
This title is from the popular Elton John song but it sure is what is ringing in my ears as I think about measuring service. What are your customers feeling about their experience with your organization? Do you know what delights them? Do you know what interactions drive them crazy? Or what about your employees. They certainly are an important part of your customer base. How are your staff members feeling about working in your company?
Some say that customer service isn’t what it used to be and that technology is replacing human to human contact. My Mom had an experience that reminded me again that even in today’s world, relationships matter. Recovering from knee replacement surgery, she has been in a rehab facility where she is gaining confidence and strength in walking again. Who should walk in to the rehab room but her knee surgeon, checking up with her! Her knee surgeon looked at her knee, gave her encouragement, and brightened her day and week! The rehab therapists and nurses all said “This is not usual – rarely do surgeons pay their patients a visit – you must be a VIP!”
Each year on the third Monday of January, we pay our respects and honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who fought for freedom, equality, respect, and dignity for all races and for all people. Best remembered for his “I have a Dream” speech that he delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington DC to civil rights marchers at the Lincoln memorial, Martin Luther King Jr’, also epitomized a life of service – service to his fellow man, service to his congregation, service to future generations – even at great personal risk to himself.
We had planned for months for our honeymoon and eagerly stepped into the lobby of a well known hotel in Kauaii, Hawaii. Much to our surprise, the reservation was all incorrect – they had us coming in the next day and in fact, it showed that we were coming back in a month! They were able to provide us a room (facing the lagoon) at no cost for that night and promised to get us into the room that we had originally reserved the next day. However, because of the way we were treated, we decided to give some ”feedback” to the manager.