Or else

I had a boss once who would ask "Is this the best you can do?" whenever you handed him some work.  If you answered no, he handed the work back without waiting for excuses.  If you answered yes, you knew that it had better be your best work.  The "or else" was never spoken of, articulated or, honestly, thought a lot about.  He was just the type of guy that you knew there would be an "or else" that you wouldn't like.

Sometimes, when I am experiencing exceptionally bad customer service, I think that the person delivering that service must not be thinking about the "or else."

The "or else's" for bad customer service are many:

• the sale could be lost
• the customer could never come back
• the former customer could tell others about the bad service she got and convince others not to come back
• other employees could see that bad service is tolerated and some of them may start taking the easy way out (good customer service usually takes a little effort and initiative)
• The customers of those employees could stop coming back and stop making purchases
• The business, facing declining sales and lowering public perception, could be forced to cut expenses
• The sales person who started this all could lose their job.
• The company is forced to close because the smaller sales force makes it impossible to be responsive to customer needs
• The industry is struck with rumors of decline, sending stock prices plummeting and closing more businesses
• The economy, facing a sudden and unpredicted business sector collapse goes into a tailspin, and then..
• Well...you get the idea.

I am not seriously suggesting some sort of customer service butterfly effect (where a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world and creates a hurricane elsewhere in the world).  I am proposing that customer service, good and bad, DOES have ripple effects that are difficult to predict.  I am saying that the small gestures, like a smile or a courtesy to a customer, CAN come back to you multiplied many times over.  I am suggesting that we would be a lot better off if we each asked ourselves if this was the best we could do.  

I am also recommending that we consider the "or else."

Related articles

• The Art of Customer Service
• The Many P's of Marketing: People

Press #@&^% for Customer Service

Yesterday, I tried to get a simple question answered about a charge on my credit card.  I called the company issuing the charge with a straightforward request but one that didn't fit neatly into the categories provided on the charging company's voicemail system.

I am typically pretty willing to navigate through a voicemail system to find an answer to my inquiry.  I even find some of the more carefully constructed auto-response systems a pleasure to use as I can get an answer to my question quickly and with machine-like efficiency.

But this system was one of those circular machine hells that kept sending me back to the same place over and over and over and over again.  I tried calling back during normal business hours in the hope that I might be directed to a customer service agent.  No such luck.  I tried the website (as repeatedly suggested) but couldn't access the information I needed because I needed to have information that I could only get from the website in order to get into the website.  Or at least that is how I felt.

Ultimately, what started as a simple request for information about a charge from the issuing company ended up with me reversing the charges with my credit card company.  It also ended with me vowing to think twice or three times before doing business with that company again.

I understand that automated systems can save a company time and money.  I also understand that a poorly designed automated system can a company from having to deal with pesky customer problems and complaints.  But probably not in the way they intended.


The Many P's of Marketing: Pause

Pause:  I have had fun with the Many P's of Marketing and have more P-words to explore the breadth and depth of the world of marketing.  Nevertheless, I think it is a good time to pause this series and write about other things in this blog.  I will come back to it.  I will bring in more guest bloggers.  But for now, I have things to say that don't start with P!