Customer Service – Really?!?

Ah, the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When did that go out of fashion? Unfortunately, I don’t have to go too far afield to find examples of poor customer service. All I have to do is step onto this campus. The back-to-back Tuesday/Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday snowstorms (Spring Semester 2011) that most all here have endured and, according to reliable sources, will continue to endure, have really highlighted the worst the University has to offer to all of its customers when it comes to caring.

I use this acronym in class, borrowed from a former colleague, CARE. Each letter represents several important points. C is for communication, care and concern, which to me are one and the same. Communication is at the core of every relationship. Care and concern are not just a state of mind. They are communicated by actions. A is for attention, attitude or aptitude or any or all three. Paying attention is being vigilant, which is all about wakefulness and watchfulness and demonstrates empathy.

We speak of the value our product or service represents. But, value is a form of respect. I f we value we then, therefore, respect. So then, R is for respect plain and simple. I said earlier that communication is action. The manner in which something is communicated is the manner in which it is executed. Remembering that, E is for execution or more correctly expected execution since specific actions have specific anticipated results.

Universally, customers just want to know you care. Care and concern are central and very important to every relationship. Believe it or not, the University is a community just like any other. While there are those who are labeled as administration or staff or faculty or students or visitors, we are all, within this community, neighbors. More importantly, we’re all each other’s customers. And, specifically it’s students and visitors who are the University’s main customers since they represent the University’s bread and butter. The students represent the current and hopefully repeat customer base. Visitors, represent the customer base of the future, as well as, a good representation of our neighbors.

Getting to the point - in marketing we bandy about the term CRM (Customer Resource Management) as if we really know what it means. It’s simple enough; customers are those who buy. While a resource is replenishable; as a source of material, wealth or supplies that can be accessed or drawn from when needed. Management then is an act of managing which is overseeing, supervising and handling, as well as, controlling, caring and dealing with the resource. In this case, the resource is the representative customer base.

Customers are not a bountiful, infinite or secure resource. “You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time,” said Abraham Lincoln. Customers cannot be counted upon for their money or loyalty they represent from cradle to grave. From their initial purchase, to their anticipated continual and uninterrupted purchases, in order to maintain them as a resource, the seller of goods or services must constantly present and deliver value.

What is value or, what does it represent? Something that can be measured or possesses a quality that renders it desirable or represents “it” as having intrinsic, that is, innate, inherent or inseparable value from itself. It can also be represented as instrumental, or utilitarian such as achieving or possessing the ability to purchase, or be exchanged for, something else. Therefore, the value is in the experience. Good customer experiences are valued and bad or less than expected experiences are not. The old saying still holds true. Burn me once; shame on you. Burn me twice; shame on me. With that in mind, a customer’s potential lifetime value is often referred to as if it were the divine given right of businesses.

Keeping the customer happy is simple enough – make it:

• Easy for customers to get to your place of business or to communicate with you.
• Worth visiting again and again.
• Simple for the customer to find, get or do what they want or need.
• Exciting to look forward to.
• Obvious as the only choice.
• Perfect in every way.
• Beyond their expectation
• Theirs!

Customers may represent a value in potential sales dollars to a company but they in turn need the company to demonstrate a continued unfaltering loyalty to them. Customers need to feel they are in control. They also need to feel appreciated. And, perhaps most importantly, they need to know that they not only belong to the company; they are an integral part of it. They do enjoy doing business in a place similar to the fabled television show Cheers where “everybody knows your name.” So remember, “Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment.” Although the author of that quote is unknown, the advice remains no less valid.