If you have read my mini rant from last week on LinkedIn, (if not, enjoy it here), you’ll not be surprised to know the importance I place on Customer Service. Yes, it’s written with capital letters for a reason; It needs to be given that much focus.

Customer Service doesn’t just extend to existing customers but to all contact you make with someone who has approached you, with an interest the product or service that you offer. In this case I was a very keen prospect but still not at the point of parting with my hard earned cash. That still needed work some work on their part which sadly, they didn’t appear interested enough to put in.

Great Customer Service is not hard to give but it does require some thought and the willingness of your team to deliver it, every single time. Here are a few principles that I have collected from my experience but also from the experience of others.

Empathy.

The definition of empathy in the Miriam-Webster dictionary is ‘the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner’.

Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author takes this a step further. He identifies three types of empathy, important for all leaders to have in their armoury:

Cognitive Empathy: the ability to understand another's perspective.
I was expecting a test drive at 9am, the slot I had taken the time to book.
Emotional Empathy: the ability to physically feel what another person feels.
I was feeling excitement at getting behind the wheel and putting the car through its paces.
Empathic Concern: the ability to sense what another needs from you.
I wanted someone to take me out for a test drive, at the appointed time.

Proactivity (a little more than just initiative).

According to dictionary.com, this is ‘the act, characteristic, or habit of thinking and acting so as to prepare for, intervene in, or control expected events, especially negative or challenging ones.'

When you are proactive, you start anticipating problems that may occur before they are encountered.
In this case, having only one salesman who could take us for a test drive, even though there were others available shows a complete lack of foresight on the team’s part.

Decency

From Oxford Leaner’s Dictionary, this is ‘honest, polite behaviour that follows accepted moral standards and shows respect for others.’

I had taken the time to book an appointment and I was there on time. Waiting five minutes for a conversation to be wound up is fine but twenty minutes? Really?

Just being left to wander around for twenty minutes is not the ‘decent’ thing to do, especially when a potential new customer is champing at the bit to drive the damned car and be seduced from excited mode into potential purchase mode.

So I walked out, not only never to return there again but also with the unlikelihood to think about purchasing anything from Ford for a number of years.

I am a business advisor with a large connection of people, so they have not only lost my custom but could potentially be losing a lot more, as people get to hear of my experience.

It’s that unknown and immeasurable of potential lost revenue that can have a far reaching affect on any business.

Losing trust and reputation is very quick and easy road to take. The journey back to regaining both of those is a very long and winding road.

Mark and Julia/December 2022

The Long and Winding Road.