مکالمه

BEC : Service -Conversation

AJ: Okay, now it’s time to talk about customer service, which in the United States is not much. It’s an easy one to complain about. Customer service certainly, I’d say, has declined in the United States quite a bit. For most businesses in most cases it’s mediocre at best and bad is probably pretty common as well.

I’m probably spoiled a little bit because I travel a fair amount in Japan and Japan is a country that just has stellar customer service as a general rule across the board. Meaning in many different industries, many different situations, many different businesses, in Japan customer service is seen as something that is just crucial, vital --very important --and in the United States, unfortunately, not the case.

I think American businesses generally are more focused on cost cutting and they just don’t emphasize it, which is bad because this is one of those value added things, which is just huge because companies that truly are stellar at customer service they do charge a premium usually. They do get higher prices and higher profit margins. Starbucks is an example in the United States, Apple. Those are the two companies off the top of my head that I would say in America have really great service. It’s hard for me to think of others.

George: Yeah, there are not a lot of them. Customer service in Untied States companies and industries is kind of a lost art. It’s just dwindled away to where it’s really sad. You mentioned a couple of companies there. I can think of a couple that are on the verge of customer service. I know this one drug store chain that I go into, you walk in the door and whether you see anybody or not immediately you hear good morning.

Welcome to Rite Aid, glad you came down. Another one is the QT (Quick Trip) gasoline and convenience stores, they do the same thing. You walk in the door, hey, how are you today? Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

AJ: That reminds me of Japan. They shout welcome every time you walk in, certainly into a restaurant and lots of stores too.

George: Hey, that’s a customer service thing. It’s a small thing, a very small thing, but you know what? As people come into these establishments on a consistent basis and they hear that they get a feeling that this is a nice place to be.

These people are here to help me find a product or sell me the product that I came in here to get.

By contrast, you go into some of these other stores and you never see anybody until you get up the counter with your money. Then somebody just looks at you like come on, get your debit card out or get your money out.

Here’s the ticket. You see how much it is. There’s no interest, no enthusiasm, nothing that makes you want to come back and I guess that’s really the bottom line. That’s what customer service is. There’s something that that company, that store, that retail outlet, whatever it is, there’s something they do that make people want to come back.

AJ: Yeah, that’s right. It’s all about repeat business and there are different ways to get repeat business, but customer service is really one the big, big, big ones. I think it’s just such a lost opportunity for so many businesses to just improve their customer service and there are lots of different ways to do that.

In some businesses maybe customer service means a fast response.

In other businesses maybe that’s harder to do or it’s expensive to do, but even if you can’t have a fast response you can always be friendly. You can always be human and I am astounded by the lack of humanity in most businesses in the United States.

As you said, the normal thing is they just look at you with no emotion like you’re not even a person. It’s also quite common that they’re actually kind of just nasty almost. If they’re in a bad mood they’ll kind of bark at you and take out their bad mood on you. It’s terrible. What surprises me is not so much that the workers do it. What shocks me is that the management and the leadership of the company just lets it happen and doesn’t do anything about it.

George: Yeah, they allow it to happen.

You mention the grumpy people. I’ve had some clerks in retail organizations I mean literally snarl at you, growl at you. You just want to say gee, I’m sorry I interrupted your very terrible bad day here. I’ll get out of your way as soon as you take my money. Sure, the problem is noticeable with the employees, the ones that the customers face or the salespeople, the clerks, whatever you want to call them, but the real problem is the company.

The company is allowing these people who end up facing the customer on a regular basis to create an image that I’m sure the people in management in the company really would not like to have. What do you do about something like that? Well, it’s really pretty simple. You train your folks. You insist on them doing things. You find somebody snarling at a customer, hey, you’re out of here.

AJ: Yeah, fire them.

George: Fire them. You’re gone.

AJ: No, I agree, absolutely. Yeah, I don’t get it, honestly, but you know the flipside of that is it presents an opportunity because if you have good customer service you can get that repeat business. You can get that word of mouth.

Starbucks, again, is a nice example. You know Starbucks doesn’t have the super amazing coffee that no one else can make. Anyone else can buy coffee beans too, but I will say that as a chain I’m usually happily surprised that the people working there are generally very friendly.

In many places I’ve lived or visited if I go to the same Starbucks several times during a week they’ll memorize my order. So they’ll say oh, do you want a latte again? Sometimes they’ll learn my name. That’s great when it’s a small local business, but for a chain to do it, a big, huge international chain, that’s pretty impressive and it shows that it can be done. It can be done.

Apple Computer, I think of them. They do it too. You go into one of their stores, it’s amazing. They’ve got people everywhere. They’ve got their workers walking around all over the place and they carry these little handheld checkout things so if you want to buy something you don’t have to wait in line. You don’t have to go wait in the cash register line.

If you have a credit card they’ll just say oh, I’ll help you right now. They just slide your card in their hand-held thing and then they put a sticker on what you bought and you’re done. They hire people and they train people who are really excited about their products so that’s also a nice experience and it makes you want to go back. You know that’s that repeat business. And it makes you want to tell other people, which is that word of mouth too.

George: That’s a great idea. I didn’t realize that Apple did that. By contrast, I’ll think of the other end of the spectrum there. Try going into a Verizon store one time.

I’ll have to admit, Verizon has a pretty good phone company, good networks, you don’t lose dropped calls and everything, but you go in and try to buy a phone. You walk in and, of course, the first thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to key in your name into this computer or kiosk.

AJ: Then you’ve got to wait for the guy to come.

George: Then, of course, you look up and oh, there’s my name up on this little screen up above. You’re next or you’re third from now or you’re fourth from now.

Then you just kind of hang around and wander around until finally somebody comes to that kiosk and says ah, Mr. George, you’re next. Then somebody comes out and says yeah, what can I do for you? There’s that lapse, a void, if you will, where you walk in the door and you don’t get to deal with a human being and all you want is a doggone telephone.

AJ: Which blows my mind when you think about it because you’re walking into this store to spend money and they’re making you wait, causing this delay and making the whole experience really frustrating. I know I’ve walked out of those places sometimes because I’m in a hurry and I’m like ah, I don’t have time to be waiting around. You would think that they would be wanting to get your money as quickly as they could instead of making you wait and maybe you’re going to wander down to the next guy.

George: It’s crazy. It’s not like in those Verizon stores the store is like a big department store where you’re going to wander around. If there’s not somebody there to sell you a shirt, well, that’s fine. I’ll just wander around and look at pants or something. These stores aren’t very big and there are not that many different things in there to look at.

So, you’re right. There’s been a lot of stores, unfortunately not the Verizon store, because the only time I went in there was when I needed a phone because I’d soaked mine in water and fried it I guess, but there are some places that I’ve walked out of, same thing. In fact, some retail places where I couldn’t get somebody to help me find the right size or something I just hung the stuff back on the rack and took off.

AJ: Yeah, I’ve done that in restaurants too, where you sit and sit and sit and nobody ever comes to help you. What I love - this would happen in San Francisco a lot - I would go up to like a counter where you order at the counter for food and the guy working there would be washing a dish or doing something and doesn’t turn around, doesn’t say hello. He sees you, but doesn’t acknowledge that you’re there or exists at all.

George: Right.

AJ: I’m just like okay. At first I would stand there a long time being frustrated and finally I’d just turn around and walk out the door and then they sometimes oh, well, come back, come back.

George: Yes, life is too short to put up with that. There are too many places that are willing to take that extra step and provide some customer service. It’s unfortunate, I believe if you look around, particularly at the malls, the strip shopping centers and places like that where you see people going out of business, if you had ever been into one of those you probably know why.

First off, their customer service was terrible. Their products might have been great, but who wants to go in there and put up with that foolishness.

AJ: Exactly.

The End.