If Customers Aren’t Happy, What Business Do You Have?

Customer service is talked about every single day.  Every company talks about how they put their customers first and their customers are who they are in business for.  There are companies out there that are doing it right and do whatever it takes to satisfy their customer needs.  Even if it means taking a loss on that particular order or customer service issue.  What is the cost of saving a customer compared to the cost of losing a customer?  This is a very tough question for many companies to decipher.  The cost of losing one customer can turn into losing 10-15 even more potential customers because of how quickly the bad experience can spread through the internet now.

Let’s take a simple example here.  Company Z sells widgets.  The first customer calls in and orders a widget and everything is perfect.  The next customer calls in and orders a widget and the delivery ends up being 5 days late.  Obviously this customer is not happy so they call in to complain.  Let’s say this customer feels that they are entitled to a full refund for this product because of the late delivery.  If this is a replenishable item then without a doubt as a company you should eat this loss and know that with this customer service deed they will be a customer for life.  Even if it is not a replenishable item, how much does this item cost you?  Is it worth this customer going onto their blog and Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and letting everybody in the world know how much your customer service sucks?

I don’t think that this one widget is worth all of that.  So if you are going to say that you are a customer service driven company, then act like it.  Not just some of the times, but all of the times.  Take losses on one or two orders in order to save 10-15 orders.  We all know that you are here to make money and you can’t just refund money to every single person that asks to be refunded, but if it’s your fault for the unhappiness, don’t you have the responsibility to make sure your customer is happy?

I managed a customer service staff as well as an automatic re-ordering program for some time and in the back of my mind, I wanted these customers to be happy because I knew they would come back.  If you needed free shipping to be happy, great, no problem.  Upgrade to overnight shipping, easy, got it.  When a customer calls in looking for a solution or looking for help, don’t turn them away and hang up from them until they are satisfied.  I know you can’t satisfy everybody, but you can sure try to.  This all starts with you company mentality.  If you don’t bring in customer oriented people and don’t give them the proper training, then they will never know what to do.  Don’t assume that your employee will know how to handle it.  Test them, give them a training session that will demo a live situation.  Continue to train.  When a situation occurs with one employee, use that as a training course for the rest of the team.

Customers are who pay your bills and feed your family.  If they are not happy, what business do you have?