A full installation service is not that full This summer my husband was determined to change our 20-years old washing machine. We visited a big store and on the advice of the salesman, we bought also the luxury of a full installation service which cost 1/3 of the appliance’s value. I was impatient to enjoy the comfort of doing nothing on myself and the new washing machine would be ready to work. Well, this was the way I interpreted the full installation service.
When the time came the installer saw that the pipe on the wall didn’t fit the size of the flexible tube of the washing machine. We needed an adapter which was in the store and cost 6€. Amazing for me, the installer couldn’t get it. “The full service doesn’t include the material,” he said “so I cannot order it for you even if you pay. You have to go and buy it for yourself and then we’ll arrange another appointment next week.” I was shocked. Alone the name “Full-installation” brings me a feeling of satisfaction. I think they care about my comfort. Unfortunately for me, customer satisfaction was not the focus of the installer.
Would you order ice cream in a pub?
When speaking about customer sastisfaction I cannot help myself thinking of the following story. Once we’ve spent the summer vacations in a small fisher village in Greece. One evening we went to a pub. One of our friends wished to order ice cream, ice cream in a pub. Everybody thought “are you crazy?” but the waiter said in a cool voice “no problem”. He went to the cafe next to the pub and brought the catalog. Here we are, 7 beers and special ice cream. Guess if we were satisfied.
A happy customer is not my job or is it?
Everyone has experienced one or the other situation. Sometimes as a service provider sometimes as consumers. What can we do in order to be happy as providers and make satisfied customers?
Let’s see what is the difference between the waiter and the installer. Why the waiter didn’t say “we don’t serve ice cream”? Here are my assumptions:
The pub was a family business. The waiter was probably a member of the family. If his customers were satisfied he would have a direct profit. He had also the allowance to take decisions and finally, he wanted that we’ll be happy at his pub.
On the other hand, I assume the installer was an employee of the installing department with targets to install 20 appliances per day. If he reaches the goal he would have a bonus, otherwise not. Who cares about the adapter of the customer under these circumstances. It’s not his job to care about the customer. His job is to install appliances.
A vision is not a puzzle
Have you realized what is going on here? The small pub had a customer service vision, even if they didn’t know it, “happy people in the pub”. The big store even if it had a customer service vision it hadn’t brought it further to the employees standing beside the customer. In spite of that, it had probably split the vision to goals and handed out each piece to a different department. The hope behind this is: “if every department reaches its goals we have the customer vision”. The pitfall though is that the single goal becomes the vision of the department and finally nobody remembers anymore what the vision of the company was. A customer service vision it’s not a puzzle. You have to hand it out as a whole from the CEO to the installer.
Live your vision
How? How to deliver the customer service vision throughout the whole big company, so that everybody understands what they need to do in order to come closer to it? Well, our parents have done this and we do this as parents without realizing it. My mom had bought crystal glasses, porcelain dishes and silver cutlery which we were not allowed to use. Only when we had guests they came out on the table. She still had an extra living room with beautiful couches for the guests. Her unspoken vision had been hardcoded in my heart “visitors first”. Whatever your vision is, you get it further only if you live it yourself.
Personalize the word customer
What does it mean for the company to live its customer service vision? First of all the company has to give a face to the abstract word ‘customer’. We usually say ‘our customers’ without knowing who is the person really working with our product and how they use it. While I was working in Vodafone in Greece one of our big customers was the public telecom company. Our departmental manager was arranging twice a year lunch with all of us supporting telecom together with the people of the customer’s peer group. We were about 30 persons. As a technician I discovered the human nature of the other side “the customer”. I knew who receives my services and what they need from it. The abstract customer was now a person, John. My work was now a personal business.
It starts with the managers
Furthermore, for a vision to become vivid the managers need to show us how important it is to provide appropriate solutions to customer problems. The same way my mum did with the “guests-service”. In one of the companies I’ve worked on, we had once escalating complaints from the main customer. The CTO said we have to leave everything else aside and work for this escalation. Afterward, no one from the senior management has appeared in our meetings, no question about the progress, no contact with the customer. This didn’t give me the impression of importance.
Storytelling
A customer service vision is just a statement that means blah, blah, blah, big words. Make it something real, something very close to us by telling stories. Stories from colleagues who really helped the customers. Tell stories formal in departmental meetings, or informal in cafe corners. Stories remain in our brains.
Award out of the box behavior
Praise or award colleagues who overcame the processes when they prevented them to achieve the customer vision. Award colleagues with extraordinary customer-oriented behavior every month, at the Christmas party or in the company’s general assembly. The message will go through.
Pay to suffer? For how long?
In the end under the word customer hides a person who trusts in your service. If they suffer from it they won’t stay for long. If they’re happy they’ll stay forever. No matter if you are a big company or a small family pub, the choice is yours.