Success is a by-product of good service

I was lucky enough to visit New York just before Christmas and we flew with Virgin Atlantic – it was faultless. God only knows where the Cabin Crew get their energy from but the service was flawless, despite them being three team members down…imagine what they’d be like with a full complement!

We got back to the inevitable pile of bills and one of these was from Scottish & Southern Electric. The cost was much higher than usual so I queried it with SSE and they went into communication overdrive. It was a very impressive double act from two guys called Ian and Richard who updated me every day until the point of resolution a week later….which was enough to avert my gaze from the U-Switch website!!

There must have been something in the air because even the bin men neatly stacked the recycling boxes - despite the snow – instead of leaving the usual obstacle course for passing traffic. Call me a cynic but I suspect that was something to do with tips, or maybe they were contractors?

Don’t get me wrong, service levels are still shocking from some organisations, not least Nat West Bank where I made the mistake of calling to ask why their dollar exchange rate was so bad before the US trip. I’m still waiting for a reasonable explanation, despite an e-mail to the CEO, Stephen Hester. They’ll learn when their customers start disappearing – I’m seriously considering First Direct who top the customer satisfaction tables.

And then there’s the unions, with their outdated left wing views, who might be hell bent on dragging institutions like the Post Office, BA and BT to their knees but who is this helping?...certainly not the customer! Does Brendan Barber of the TUC think he’s currying favour with the UK public by predicting widespread strike disruption throughout 2011? Get a grip and start working with these companies for everyone’s benefit before the people you represent put their employers out of business.

Anyway, enough self indulgence, my point is this. As the economy continues to recover (and it will) we all need to make sure that we keep our customers happy. In my own experience many small and medium sized businesses talk a good service game but not all of them walk the talk.

It can be very difficult to differentiate your business, product or service during the sales process for this very reason – everyone claims their after sales care is the best – but can they demonstrate this? Where is the evidence?

Customer testimonial has to be the best way of doing this, either through your website, written material or even just word of mouth. In some industries it’s also a good idea to ‘prep’ happy customers by asking if they would be prepared to take a call from your prospective customers. They’ll be more than happy to spread the word if you’ve done a good job for them.

I also think issue resolution is a brilliant opportunity to deliver excellent service, yet so many businesses handle disputes poorly. Things go wrong from time to time, it’s a fact, but how you respond and what you do can help build the strongest of relationships moving forward – and as Principal make a point of speaking to the customer yourself.

Some of our best customers have experienced major issues at some point or another, but if you react quickly with an effective resolution plan and communicate it to the customer they will usually appreciate it. In actual fact we worry about the customers where everything goes too smoothly – these are the ones that occasionally leave not realising what value we’ve added!

I think 2011 is going to be a good year for businesses, large or small, that do things well and look after their customers…but hopefully without some of the artificial ‘lip’ service we encountered in New York!

Have a nice day and missing you already, Brendon

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