Get serious about customer service!

by Christine Corelli

Who am I? Permit me, please, to describe myself...

I'm better educated, more individualistic, and more discriminating than my predecessors. I expect a lot more than they ever did too. For example, if I call you on the phone to make any type of inquiry whatsoever, I expect you to be able to give me an answer in 10 seconds. I expect you to be easily available for me at any time, and I want a speedy response and efficiency.

I expect you and everyone who works in your company to be friendly — remarkably more friendly than your competitors, highly competent, and knowledgeable about your product line. And, I expect all of you to stand on your heads for me when necessary. I even expect you to anticipate my needs even before I become aware of any I may desire. If you know how, you'll be in a better position to keep me.

I expect you to not only know what I want, but I expect you to know what I’m willing to pay for it. And, if you cannot deliver what I want, when I want it, how I want it, and at the price I'm willing to pay for it, I'll go to one of your competitors who are working hard to entice me to give my business to them. Or, I'll find another source on the Internet.

Selling to me is more difficult than ever. That's because I’m more cynical and skeptical than ever. You might say it’s a fact that I’ve become highly suspicious as to whether you are giving me a really fair price, and whether you're going to deliver what you say you're going to deliver, when you say you're going to deliver it, and not give me some excuse when you call to disappoint me. Besides, I thought your advertising said, "Five star service guaranteed."

Yes, I'm tough. I remember when your salesperson delivered a sales presentation at my office. The person you sent was obviously well trained on sales presentation skills. But when he boasted, "We have very high levels of customer satisfaction and are known for it throughout this industry," my response was, "Who cares?! Show me your numbers for customer retention, customer loyalty and customer advocacy! If you can boast high numbers, then I'll be impressed! Business is tough. Real tough. If you have an abundance of loyal customers, then you must be doing something right.

I gave him a tough time, but he asked me all the right questions, provided all the right answers and showed me he cared about ME more than writing up my first order. So, I gave it to him, but keep this in mind. He was lucky enough to have won me over, but you and everyone in your company better remember that I'm very demanding. I demand courtesy and respect. I want to be treated like a Stradivarius violin — precious, valuable and irreplaceable.

If I’m wrong or mistaken about something (how could I be, I'm always right, remember?) you'd be wise to simply say, “perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding.”

By the way, if my origin is from a country other than this great USA, I expect you to be able to communicate with me and understand that although my culture may be different from yours, my hard-earned money is still green, and I wanted to be treated with the same importance as others.

If I become yours, I never want to have to worry about anything. I have enough worries with my business already. I'm impatient, too. Fair warning, as much as you want and need me, I can be dangerous to you. If my buying experience and every interaction with you isn’t positive, I can become your strongest critic. I think of myself as your judge and the jury. And remember — I can be your executioner too. If my experience with you is not positive in every aspect of the buying experience, I'll tell everyone about it.

On the positive side, if you do well by me, I can be your ambassador: I'll tell other buyers about you. Just remember, I want a flawless customer experience. That requires you to have what I call a "Sales-Service Excellence Culture" where everyone recognizes that they, too, impact your bottom line. Speaking of ambassadors, everyone in your company should think and act as your ambassadors, and do all they can to support you, and your sales team. "Sales-Service Excellence” is not optional, it is critical to your success.

Am I being too hard on you? I don’t think so. I believe I’m doing you a favor by being blunt with you. Why? Because I rule. I'm the customer! So get serious about me.

My advice to you is to take a good hard look at how I've come to you and where we are today. You captured my attention with your smart marketing and advertising strategy, your sales rep earned my trust through professionalism, consultative selling and relationship building and I am ordering from you. Now, you need to keep me. I hope everyone in your company realizes that without me, no one gets a paycheck. Not to be redundant, but they'd better think and act as your brand ambassadors and treat me exceptionally well. If they do, you'll earn my loyalty and advocacy and I'll send other buyers to you as well.

Look at your product or service, your systems and procedures, and most important – every person in your distributor organization – and get serious about customer service! Then, determine the answer to answer to this pressing question: Would you buy from YOU?

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