How many times have you been dissatisfied with a product, service or interaction you’ve had, and you scratch your head thinking that customer service is just, well, gone? I’m truly amazed sometimes at the lack of customer service we receive nowadays. In fact, it’s downright disappointing.
Last week, The DAVIS Companies held a two-day Sales and Management Summit workshop. Here we brainstormed as a group on how we could provide the best customer service possible to our clients, our candidates and our internal staff members. It was quite an enriching experience to hear ideas from all different disciplines within our organization. The result was an array of excellent ideas that we are rapidly implementing to create a legendary customer service experience for everyone.
During our brainstorming session, we talked about customer service experiences that we personally had that were sub-par, to say the least. I had a pretty rough customer service experience in the last week that I wanted to share.
My husband and I were in the market for a new bed and mattress recently. We went to several area furniture stores and found the set we liked the most. As recruiters, negotiation is in our blood, so we got a deal that we couldn’t refuse in terms of price. All was well and good until delivery day, when the delivery guys came to assemble the bed. We had ordered pillows with our new bed; they were omitted from the delivery, and the delivery guys had no idea we had even ordered them. Then we noticed that the bed we ordered – which was supposed to include storage drawers on both sides – only had drawers on one side. This was absolutely not what we had ordered, and when I called the salesperson to confront him, he said we had agreed on the one sided drawers. Except for the fact that this was exactly what we didn’t agree on.
To make matters worse, the sales person told me that the pillows we ordered would be available the next day for pickup at the local store closest to our home. He said he would call the store and let them know I was coming to pick them up. As you can imagine, that didn’t happen, and the in-store sales person had no idea who I was or what I was there for. And so I had to take ten minutes of my time to explain the whole situation all over again. Not exactly the best customer service.
The moral of the story – I won’t ever go back to that chain again. And I actually won’t even write them a bad review because I don’t think that solves anything. Companies should listen to that silence though – that’s something we learned last week in the summit. Silence is not always golden, and this is a perfect example. I felt that I had been cheated and that the customer service I received was, in fact, terrible.
With that being said, customer service is the backbone to a great business. If you treat your customers poorly, how will you ever gain new ones? If your internal employees aren’t happy, how will you ever recruit more to work there? Make sure you provide the best customer service possible to everyone around you. It’s the best way to build and retain good business, and your customers and employees will thank you for it! Have you ever had any exceptionally bad or good customer service experiences?
