Yesterday, I heard an advertisement on NPR for a local realtor. The ad promised "exceptional customer service." I couldn't tell you the name of the company or what other things they might have offered, because I was so instantly caught up in that phrase.
It's something I see and hear in a lot of ads these days, this promise to be nice to customers, to be helpful and knowledgable and to, generally, not suck.
It floors me.
Exceptional customer service is something that should be understood. A business shouldn't have to promise that they'll do these things; they should just do them. Every person who walks through your door should be treated with respect. You go above and beyond for every. single. customer, whether they're buying $500 worth of merchandise or spending fifty cents on a newspaper.
Does that mean falling all over yourself and fawning on the customers? No, of course not. Then you're being disingenuous.
But a smile and a hello go a long way, as does knowing when to offer help and when to let the person browse in peace.
I can't wrap my head around why so many businesses these days toot their own horns about how great they are to their customers. Some of it, perhaps, is to suggest that the competition falls flat in that area. But it also sounds a bit like maybe that particular company wasn't doing so well on the service side before and has refocused. It serves to make me less confident about doing business with them, rather than more.
Should a commitment to great service be part of a company's mission statement? Certainly. However, it's an internal thing. Trumpeting the fact that you're good to your customers to the public sounds the same to me as the supermarket promising it will carry food.
Exceptional customer service should be a given. If you have to tell people you're going to provide it, you're doing it wrong. Shut up and do it. Let your actions speak for themselves.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment