Care About Your Customers
Think your age-old customer service program is good enough? Think again. Show your customers how much you care—or you might be shown the door.
If your customer service program has been in place for years and it seems to be working great, it may be time to take a new look at it, notes John Sarantakos, of the University of Oklahoma.
"Don't you sometimes wonder what those FM [facility management] groups think about your established and unchanging customer service philosophies? Well, they love them! They have found a crack in your armor," he says.
Your practices may be great, and your customers may love you, but you must remember, it doesn't take much for the FM boys to slip in and chat with your CEO or vice president. Then, all of a sudden, questions are asked, and maybe they decide they ought to take a look at your operation.
We must remember that those individuals that we report to may not really know what we do and provide to our organizations. They may think, "What the heck? Why not take a little look-see and maybe save the company some money? What do I have to lose?"
We all know what they have to lose: dedication and loyalty to the company/organization; consistent pricing; guaranteed delivery on the president's last-minute holiday cards. If we are lucky, we have the ear of upper management and have their support. They recognize the FM infiltration and dismiss it for what it is. Pity to the poor departments that aren't so lucky.
Well, then, why all the commotion about improving customer service? If you think about it, customer service is pretty straightforward. It is as easy as understanding what people really want from you. What might that be, you ask? All that customers want is to know that you care about them and their job orders. Big jobs or small jobs, large customers or once-a-year users—all they want is for you to care.
