Need Supporters for a Customer Service Renaissance

What happened to the concept of customer service? Huh?

You’d think in this economy every business would be drilling its employees on the importance of pleasing the customer. Money is tight for most families and good jobs are hard to come by, yet I find front line workers every day who treat customers like we should be grateful that they chose to come to work. It’s the other way around, for crying out loud!

What I always believed to be the minimum standard for customer service has greatly diminished or been lost altogether, even here in the South, where it should thrive if nowhere else.

Here are three examples from the past 24 hours:

1.     Yesterday was on a conference call with a client and another third party. A representative from the third party said to my client, “There’s absolutely no way we are meeting that deadline. Sorry.” What? After an awkward pause the client – who pays the bill of this vendor – had to initiate the conversation about what other arrangements could be made and coax the third party vendor to commit to some reasonable plan. Never in my career would I handle a situation like that. Maybe it was my upbringing. Maybe it was my professional training. At any rate, I am proud to carry a work ethic that is about doing whatever it takes to make my customers happy.

2.     Went to Subway for lunch today. I go to this same spot at least once a week. It’s three blocks from my office. I know the woman at the register recognizes me. Yet as we complete the transaction I don’t get a “Thank you,” “Enjoy your lunch,” “Have a nice day,” or any other simple courtesy I should expect after handing over my money. In fact, I often find that I am the one saying “Thank you” – even though I paid you!

3.     On the way home from work we stopped to get the car from our local gas station service center. We trust these folks with all our auto maintenance and repairs, and they are typically polite. Today after I settled the bill, the manager asked one of the mechanics to pull the car around to the front door. He did, and as I walked around the front of the car, he got out, shut the door and walked the other way without so much as glancing at me, the guy who just paid the bill. I stood there for a second, shook my head, then drove away, re-evaluating the whole relationship. There are lots of mechanics in town, and plenty who I’m sure would love to earn our business.

So, from this point forward, I am launching a Customer Service Renaissance. What does this Renaissance entail, you ask? I won’t deny that there will likely be some indefinite boycotts, as I am known to practice. But the bigger issue here is choice.  

I will choose to do business only with companies that train their employees to treat customers the way we expect to be treated.

Give me less attitude and more gratitude.

Give me the bubbly 16-year-old at Chick-fil-A. Give me Publix, where shopping really is a pleasure. Give me Disney World, where employees in the Magic Kingdom made my little girl’s dreams come true.

I will not conform to anything less.

The Customer Service Renaissance has begun. Who's with me?