Tonight was a reminder of how important good customer service is. How we treat our prospects and customers is so important when it comes to relationship building. Last year for Christmas, I purchased an HP photo printer for my wife. With a baby on the way, I thought it would be a great gift, which it was. However, there has been an issue with the printer losing connection with the PC, often requiring a reinstall of the software. I’ve only had to do a reinstall a few times in the course of 12 months, so it hasn’t been a major headache. Today, however, after reinstalling, the pictures were printing washed out in blue. My first instinct was that the ink cartridge was going out, so I replaced it with a new one. The problem continued. I decided to call customer service which was surprisingly a toll-free number with 24 hour support. What wasn’t surprising was I had to wade through the call prompt system, which seemed painful. I finally reached a technical support representative who seemed eager to help. After several minutes of him telling me he couldn’t find us in the system, he finally was ready to address the issue. After explaining the problem, he asked if he could put me on hold so he could research it. I asked that he call me if we got cut off. Sure enough… After waiting for 10 minutes, I hear ‘click’ and the phone went dead. Do you think he called back? Sadly, no. I decided to call back, and after going through a similar process I reached someone else who seemed to have more answers (despite a slight language barrier). Just as I was feeling like I was getting taken care of, he asked if he could put me on hold to go to his test machine. I asked that he call me back if we got cut off, explaining my frustration from the first call. Sure enough, 5 minutes on hold and ‘click.’

I tend to be very brand loyal when I feel I’m treated right and have a product I can trust and rely on. However, as a consumer, I find it harder to find experiences that warrant a feeling of loyalty. The two gentlemen I spoke to were just doing their job, but they weren’t serving me. Are you serving your customers? Are you taking their thoughts and needs into consideration? Business today seems very self-serving and many firms have lost sight of going the extra mile. When you go beyond expectation to care for someone, they might just be a customer for life. If you’re just doing the bare minimum or ‘just doing your job,’ loyalty may quickly become an issue. What are you doing to create loyalty? Do your clients feel like you’d do anything for them? There was a time when people lived by the phrase, “the customer is always right.” Have we lost sight of that? I know that customers aren’t always right, but it used to be common practice to make them feel like they were.

I talk a lot about differentiation. Want to stand out? Don’t tell people you are great, show them. And, if you’re lucky, you might just get one of your loyal customers to share their experience. Treat your clients like they are your most important customers and you’ll reap rewards. If not, don’t be surprised if you hear a ‘click’ on your phone. What are you doing to avoid that sound?

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