REAL Customer Service

Happy Monday all!  Hope your weekend was great!

In today's day and age, how many times have you witnessed or been a part of a truly good customer service scenario?  I can certainly say I've been in some good examples of BAD customer service!  How bout you?

For example, I was in Home Depot in Pueblo, CO just over a year ago looking for about 50 sheets of 1/2" 4'X8' sheet rock to finish my garage.  Had done some calling around and online shopping and found the best price to be at Home Depot.  Hooked up to my trailer, and headed over.  When I arrived, I found the sheet rock easily enough, and made several requests for some help in loading such a large amount.  After about the 6th or 7th request with nobody showing up, I finally caught a gentleman wearing the usual Home Depot vest, and asked him if I could get some help in loading 50 sheets of sheet rock.  His response?  And no, I'm not lying:  "Do it yourself."  I drove over to Lowe's, they matched the price and  loaded my trailer for me.  I've been back to that Home Depot store exactly ZERO times since then. 

Good customer service has become a lost art.  Many companies talk the talk, but don't even make an effort to walk the walk.  What constitutes a good effort?  Is it just showing up and nodding your head that you are sorry about the problem?  Perhaps sometimes.  Or is it going out of your way to keep a customer happy, regardless of the situation you've had tossed in your lap?  In my mind, in this day and age of real-time social media outlets such as twitter, facebook, and perhaps even this blog, poor customer service can become a knife-wound on the future of one's business.  All it takes is one or two poor or lackadaisical efforts and your company's name can be damaged beyond repair.  What do I mean by this?

Let's say back to my Home Depot example above that I had Tweeted how pathetic the customer service was at Home Depot in Pueblo, CO.  A good company understands that a real-time online presence is important and is constantly monitoring the web for 'mentions', both good and bad.  In that case, either the coroporate home office, or even the local office, is aware, generally within minutes, of the comment and it is classified as either positive or negative.  Negative comments are acted upon swiftly, and handled with diligence.  This allows the company instant damage control.  In the Home Depot example, I didn't Tweet, I just left appalled and disgusted at their careless reaction to a $400.00 sale.  Yet, if they had their company set up online where they were made aware of my negative response, for example, a manager could have walked out on the sales floor over to the sheetrock and attempted to find out who just Tweeted the negative message and made a swift effort to resolve the situation immediately.  This would have turned the experience into a positive, as I would have quite likely been impressed at how they had found out what I had said so quickly, and cared enough to come take care of me as a customer. 

If, in this example, they had no online monitoring system in place, and I had Tweeted at that moment as I left the store, and several other times after that experience to all my friends, family and followers on Twitter as well as Facebook, several people would be instantly, or at least quickly aware of my negative experience, and probably most of them would be influenced in their decision making as to whether or not to do business with Home Depot themselves.  And they would have heard about my positive experience in direct comparison over at Lowe's where they were instantly and happily available to not only help, but to load the entire amount themselves to save me the trouble!. 

Now imagine that several of those people Tweeted and/or commented on THEIR Facebook or other Social Media outlets about my experience to all their friends.  This negative experience would have had the potential to bloom to over a thousand different people within 24 to 48 hours.  How would that have affected Home Depot's sales in the long term?

Now I really don't intend to harp on Home Depot.  Look past that at the example.  Sure, they failed miserably in their customer service in that instance.  But the example is the point.  In this day and age, do you want to take a chance on an unhappy customer utilizing social media to slam your company, and the word multiplying rampantly and rapidly over the web to the point that it stifles potential sales and damages the ever-important bottom line? No way.  These instances have to be acted upon swiftly and ACCURATELY.

Accurately in this case means you have ONE CHANCE to turn this unhappy customer into a very satisfied customer and correct the situation into a positive experience.  One chance at damage control.  You do it wrong and you are probably, or at least possibly going to come out of it even worse.  Do it right, and with any luck, that once unhappy customer is Tweeting about how you care about your company, or how your company handles good customer service, and how your company walks the walk.  In today's world, this puts your company 'one up' on all your competition, and in a short time, can be the difference maker in your company growing and shining, or simply slipping away into oblivion.

See my next post about a company that not only talks the talk, but truly walks the walk.