The View From Here: The customer is always right
Depending upon one’s vantage point, the powers that be have been working diligently on making this a better place to live and people are starting to notice. There a number of notable parks and recreation improvements, like the Barren Fork Greenway and the pool, as well as what the city is spearheading downtown.
Often misunderstood as solely a beautification effort, city officials have made much of the description related to downtown revitalization. References to it now specifically reflect the economic development label.
While the jury is still out on whether it’s going to work, and if it does, it will likely create more retail positions downtown instead of the more lucrative factory jobs, I have some thoughts on some grass roots economic development that can happen tomorrow.
I would humbly offer there are a number of businesses who could stand to take stock of where employees’ customer service skills stand in light of this particular economic development effort.
It used to be that one couldn’t walk into a store without being bombarded by sales staff. Now, you might be lucky enough to find a clerk willing to help only after you stand there long enough someone to notice your frustration.
I’ve been in places where it has taken several minutes for anyone to acknowledge a customer’s existence. Once, I was even greeted by a charging, snarling dog. This should not be.
It doesn’t take long to recall another instance of poor customer service. A few weeks ago, I attempted to order a manual for my son’s motorcycle. The salesman was sure I had the model information wrong and said he would order it after “double checking” the make and model and told me it would be about a week before it arrived. When my husband went to pick up and pay for the manual a week later, he denied knowing what he was talking about.
After we got that straightened out, and only because our son produced a business card with his name on it, the salesman informed my husband it would be two to four weeks before the manual arrived. I’m not a motorcycle mechanic, but I can read numbers and letters off a handle bar, for one, and I’m pretty sure I know why the manual never got ordered. Needless to say, we found one on Ebay for half the price that arrived in two days and no hassle.
I mean no disrespect to those who do make an effort. I have worked in a variety of hard, low paying, dead end jobs and I know sales clerks work hard for less than average pay.
But make no mistake about it: It is bad business to exasperate customers, make them wait extraordinary amounts of time to get served or to make judgments about them.
Customer service truths like politeness, admitting mistakes and correcting them, doing what you say you will do and making people feel good about spending their money with the business, were all paramount in the old days. I think people miss that in today’s fast-paced society, at least I do.
Yes, the “economic development” improvements matter, but I would argue the people at the registers, working the front desk or who are in charge of the deals matter more.
The way you treat customers the first time around weighs heavily on whether they will return. And I’m sure I won’t be returning to the places where people not only didn’t help me, but were openly hostile.
With almost 3 percent of our sales taxes going to local governments, with about half of that to schools, shopping locally matters. Consider the impact to your own bottom line in more ways than one if you ignore customer service.
(Amy Satterwhite is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)