It seems that fewer companies are training employees to deliver consistent customer experiences; instead, they seem just to be hoping that the people they hire will know what they are doing. While training anyone who deals with customers on the “company way” is not the only tool for attaining happy customers, it certainly seems to be on the decline. A trend that I am personally experiencing more often is poor and/or inconsistent customer service.
Most likely, this has happened to everyone at least once. On one trip, the service you receive is excellent; on another trip, it is not great or downright bad. But what really is the difference? Not the product, because it stays the same. The difference is that the people providing the service are doing it inconsistently.
In my opinion, one experience is professional and the other is not. So who is at fault? Is the problem the employee who was not the best representative for the company and made the bad impression? Maybe in the specific instance, but the problem has a deeper cause than that. The bottom line is that management and supervision are to blame. They have left their customer experience to chance, hoping that the service providers know what they are doing.
When a service is done and paid for, management’s concern should be if I will choose to do business with them again. Probably not, if I can find an alternative, as I don’t know what to expect next time. I will seek out a place with consistently good service. Not every visit has to be perfect, just consistently good.
Product and service quality should be consistent every time. When that doesn’t happen, training says that someone should step in to ensure customer satisfaction. Keeping customers happy, however, takes consistent training at all levels. That is not an easy solution, but neither is quality control in the plant. Both are key elements that define your customer’s experience and likelihood of doing business with you again.
You may want to look at your program—and if you don’t have one, get one. Teach everyone who interacts with customers on your company way. Don’t leave it to chance or the sole discretion of the person providing the service, set specific standards of service and train everyone to meet or exceed your standards. Just as quality of product can make or break your business, so can the people who provide that product or service to your customers. The answer you want from every customer who does business with your company is, “Yes, I will be back!”
Next Month:
Setting Standards of Performance. You can’t manage what you can’t measure!