Last week was not a good one for me with customer services. I had a problem with valet in two parking, and I had a not so good service in a coffee shop. No need to say that these places won’t see me there soon now. At the end, even if it’s only one person among the other, and it’s not the boss fault, they lost a customer.
When you are working with customers, in a coffee shop, on the phone for tech support or anywhere else, you are representing your company. I should say, you are your company at that time. Each time you talk to someone, each time you gave a good or bad service; you represent your employer. You really have to think about it. In some cases, it won’t hurt the business, like in my three cases this week, where they will only lose one customer, but if it’s a repetitive lack of judgement or lack of good relationship, that will hurt the company for sure.
Most of the time, it’s a detail, but do I need to say that details count? In my case, the first guy in the parking I usually go when I go to the office, yell at me after I asked them to help me find a parking since I didn’t find one. Because I didn’t see him when I entered his floor, he was upset. In was not a case, of “I didn’t see him, so I was near to hurt him with my car”. It was because he wanted to ask me my keys, so he will park my car, because there is no more space available. I was concentrated to find a parking, so I didn’t notice he was trying to speak to me; it’s not a big deal. For me, it was a total lack of respect.
The second situation was in another parking the day after. I needed to try a new place since the first one was on my blacklist. I parked my car somewhere I was sure it was OK: other cars had a lot of places to get out, no no parking sign, and other cars were parked like mine. The guy came to me to tell me, like if I was an idiot, and that I was supposed to know, without any signs, that it was a place to park only cars to wash. Another lack of respect and a customer lost. It’s bad because I was going to park my car there each time I need to be in this area.
I won’t tell you the third story, since you got the point, but in the previous cases, they would have been able to avoid these really bad attitudes. Maybe it was a bad day for them, maybe I was the 10 customers to do the same, maybe… I don’t care. Even if all other employees are the best in town, it wasn’t a way to treat me, to do customer’s service. So think about it when you’ll answer a customer or help them: be sure to give a good service, or you will lose them. Do you find customer service really important? Are you giving your best so your customers have the best service in your industry? Share your thoughts.
