Here's a great story about customer service.
San Francisco - 1980's
Nordstrom, even then was setting the standard for customer service. A customer has just purchased a shirt in The Emporium, a rival store to Nordstrom.
The Emporium salesman stops the customer, calling out "Wait! Stop!"
The Emporium salesman walks over to the customer, grabs the shopping bag, fishes the receipt out of the shopping bag, scribbles the words "Thank you," on the receipt, puts the receipt back in the bag, hands the bag back to the customer and says with a sigh,
"Ever since Nordstrom came to San Francisco, we have to do this."
This Is Not Customer Service
I have to smile at this. It's plain to see that just scribbling thank you on the receipt is not customer service. Admitting that he is doing it because he has to, is hardly going to help build a customer relationship.
If anything, this customer was more likely to head straight to Nordstrom to compare.
Personal Thank You
The personal touch in saying thank you is very important, whether it is saying thank you in person or with a handwritten note.
Real Customer Service vs Going Throught The Motions
However, the customer must feel that it is sincere, and not of the automatically mouthed "Thank you for shopping at Store XYZ" variety. There's a big difference between real customer service and going through the motions.
Over To You
How do you "hardwire" a sincere thank you into your business customer service ethic? Can this be learned? What do you think?
I think genuine service and thanks are hard to generate in staff - particularly if they're rushed, overworked or otherwise stressed. Receiving genuine service is rare enough to be noticed and commented on ...
Over the last two days, on three separate occasions a member of staff of large companies has said something negative about their company to me, the customer. In each case, this too has come as a big surprise!
Posted by: Lucy | January 4, 2008 7:21 AM | Permalink to Comment