Service. Training. Feedback.

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Does your brand have a customer service conscience?

One of the things I find most irritating in life is being treated rudely while trying to do business. And because it seems that small business people have an even greater “customer service conscience” than large corporations, getting bad treatment by someone in a small business is even more irritating. I walked into a store the other day and approached the counter for assistance. Two employees were engaged in a conversation and chose to ignore me and continue their conversation for nearly a minute before one of them acknowledged me with obvious irritation that I had interrupted them.

It amazes me that some people have to be instructed to be polite, especially when their salary is totally dependent on customers who will simply stop buying there if they're  treated poorly. It is also amazing that so many employees are hired and never trained regarding their responsibilities as goodwill ambassadors for the brand. I have a passion for treating every customer better than any competitor treats them. I also have a responsibility for making certain every one of our franchise owners across the country shares that passion for customer service that our brand stands for.

We receive dozens of packaging, crating and shipping requests for quotes via email every day.  So we have launced an email follow-up program to keep abreast of how we’re treating our customers. Did they receive a quote quickly? Were the people they dealt with friendly, helpful, and courteous? Do they have any suggestions for us on what we could do better? Now, I realize being asked to fill out a survey is an imposition on customers. But then again, I like to think of it as not really an imposition, but rather an example of our customer care, given the fact we care enough to ask them.

The good news is we’ve made it simple enough to reply to us within about 30 seconds. So I hope our customers don’t mind because we very much value how they’re feeling about our brand. In fact, in the end, how they’re feeling is really the only thing that matters.

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