Customer Service – When you see it, you will know it
Over the years I’ve witnessed many changes in our society. As each generation matures, ideas and values that were once cherished are now thought archaic. I’ve seen the boundaries of what is considered acceptable behavior expand while the line between right and wrong has all but disappeared. Nowhere is this more evident than in the relationship between consumer and business.
If you’re a young adult you may not believe this but there was a time when computers did not exist. Doing business online was a fantasy. The consumer had a couple of choices. You either went to the retailer’s store or you ordered from a catalogue. But no matter which way you chose to do business with a company, large retailers such as Sears and Montgomery Ward considered the customer their largest asset and treated them as such by offering the lowest prices on quality products.
The small local business competed by being part of the community. More often than not the business owner knew you by name and while the prices were a bit higher, the personal touch added by the local business often times made up for the lower pricing you could get from the larger retailer. But in both situations customer service was top priority. Any complaint issues were handled and resolved by real people who worked for the company. Back then businesses big and small understood that good customer service, aside from being courteous, also meant customer loyalty and repeat business.
Today customer service bears little relation to those days. It is an array of voice recordings where the consumer can get lost in a maze, trying to select the most appropriate button to push, only to hear another recording about the solution. If you’re lucky enough to connect with a human being, you invariably find yourself talking to some individual in another country that can hardly speak your language, much less understand the product or problem.
Despite being the lifeblood of a company, customers nowadays don’t have that same sense that they or their concerns matter much to businesses anymore.
Thankfully, there are exceptions. There are still businessmen who do business the way it should be done. While it isn’t the norm any longer it’s a breath of fresh air to discover these men still exist and when you meet one you will know it. I had the occasion to meet one of these dinosaurs this week. I use the word dinosaur as it relates to a time gone by in customer service of course and not the age of the man. His name is Jacob Minett and he owns a small company called MyNetLLC in Arkansas which does its business online.
I won’t bore you with the details of the product I was purchasing nor make this an advertisement for this company. What I want to do is use this experience to demonstrate the difference and value in approaching customer relations from a perspective that once was commonplace, compared to what is the norm today. In this case two companies were actually involved in the transaction, MyNetLLC and a larger company.
I placed an order with Jacob Minett’s company for a product I was very interested in receiving. However shortly after the order I discovered some information that I had not known prior to ordering and decided to cancel my order. In this instance once my order was placed then I no longer dealt with Mr. Minett’s company but the larger company.
In my attempts to deal with the larger company I quickly became just another dissatisfied customer. My emails to them were not answered but my credit card continued to be charged even after my telling them they were not authorized to do so. After a two week battle with them via the Better Business Bureau I finally had my money returned with a half ass apology.
During this process I discovered that Mr Minett owned the company that I had originally placed my order with. An attempt to contact him directly failed due to an inaccurate email address I used. Still, at some point he discovered the problem I was having through one of his employees. Within a couple of days of my trying to contact him I received an email from Mr Minett with a refund of my money and a sincere apology for my frustrations in dealing with the larger company.
And as simple as that in the blink of an eye and the miracle of an email, I got to experience something that is rare in this day of retail and ecommerce. A return to yesterday. A return to a time when the customer concern was a priority to the business. Those days when there was no shrugging off of responsibility, no avoidance of resolution, no wriggling around to get out of the complaint and certainly no seeing the customer as the enemy. Back then a customer complaint wasn’t a thorn in your side but an opportunity to learn and improve your business. A miracle indeed was unfolding right here in my inbox.
Mr. Minett went above and beyond the call of duty in his first email to me. He did not ask any questions at all. He simply stated that the handling of my situation was not the norm for his company and offered his apology for my inconvenience. By the end of our communications I was actually sorry I would not be doing business with this man because of his affiliation with the larger company.
I don’t expect young people today will get to experience many Jacob Minett’s in their business dealings. Mr Minett displayed qualities that are more and more uncommon now in business: integrity, professionalism and a genuine concern about my complaint. But there was a time when the respect I was shown by Mr Minett was the norm. It was called “Customer Service” and when you see it, you will know it.
Mike is the Co-owner and Editor of The Cuckleburr Times. He and his lovely wife Kay Elizabeth were drawn to each other through their shared passion for the internet and writing. Together they have built and run numerous websites and never tire of the web
If you liked this article, you may enjoy Kay’s two part piece, Handling the Customer From Hell. Part one is here and Part II is here.
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Posted on May 24, 2009
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The Japanese have a saying in business: “Okyaku-sama wa kami-sama”, which means “Customer is God”. I’ve not done business in Japan on any level, but I bet they’ll give me more than a friendly smile and an “Arigato gozaimasu, Okyaku-sama” when I need to make a purchase. Shame that people in America can’t realize that going above and beyond like that is little cost to them, a good thing for the customer, and word will get around even easier.
A pat on the back to Mr. Minnet. These so-called “old fashioned” values are disregarded now and it’s crazy! Knowing the latest business trends and buzzwords doesn’t make you a good businessman. Having high standards does. Yet so many forget that and look only at the spreadsheets.
You need targets, goals and deadlines, sure. I’ve written on these subjects myself before and believe you cannot run a business without knowing where you stand today and are aiming for in the future. But these are just tools to keep you on track.
Any businessman who feels it’s more cost effective to pay attention to the profit margin and graphs than the customer behind that is courting failure. It’s so simple it’s almost funny: Look after your customers and your business success will follow. That’s it in a nutshell. All the buzzwords and trend tracking in the world can’t compete with following that philosophy.
This will all eventually come full circle and customer service will be king again. Perhaps with a new name, perhaps not. In twenty years of working in sales and customer service before going freelance, I saw it happen often. Good business practices never truly die – they just get renamed.
The business that’s already offering good customer service consistently before it becomes trendy again will be the winner. Because practice makes perfect.
I totally agree with this article. Being one of the aging baby boomers I too remember the day when customer service was high priority. We had Otasco , a Montgomery Wards and of course several small independents. Even our banks were locally owned and operated and there too you saw a huge difference in the treatment of customers. Opening an account use to be met with gifts such as a toaster, a set of dishes or some other nice item as a way of saying “thank you”. Now days no one even knows your name in most cases.
K. Crenshaw
This article hits the nail on the head. Most companies now act like they are doing you a favor by selling you something. Have a problem with them or the product? FORGET IT. They will completely ignore you. Nice to see that there are some who remember the customer is #1. Especially when dealing online.
Thanks for the great article!