How many times have you had a bad customer service experience? More than 50% of the time? I will bet that you think that it’s much higher than that even. Most of us tend to remember poor customer service experiences than good ones. It’s easier to gripe and complain about someone NOT doing something to your satisfaction than it is to praise those who DO do something good that makes you happy. The old saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” normally holds true from a Customer perspective; from a Customer Service perspective, you must listen for the squeak.
In this day and age of tight budgets, your brand is even more vulnerable than before. People expect compensation, free trials, and superhuman efforts to resolve issues of a product or service. But even that sometimes is not enough. Paying for something now means that it must last longer or perform better than in the past, or at least that is the perception. I would dare say that if you purchased the same product 10 years ago as you did now, people now expect it to be better, stronger and not break down compared to before. Our value perception has changed because we expect our money last, regardless of whether the product has changed or not.
To that end, Customer Service is now a critical component to a brand. When you buy a product, you expect someone to be there backing it up with help and support. Buying a product or service now without good Customer
Service is foolish at best. The sale does not end with the purchase, it must be bolstered and enhanced with Customer Service. Many companies are opting now to provide paid-for support and shying away from free support. This does work provided that the price point is reasonable and if there is some level of support or service provided for free. But, simply paying for service is not going to guarantee you quality service. There are some companies that pride themselves on their Customer Service, but they set that high benchmark as part of what you purchase with the product (e.g., Apple). On the flipside, there are companies that seem to just do Customer Service simply because they are required to and do the bare minimum at best.
We have all had positive and negative Customer Service experiences. A while back I wrote about my experience with Tivo and how hard it was for me to cancel my account. I also wrote about some interactions I had with repairing a PowerBook with Apple. I must say, however, my Apple support experiences have always been more positive than negative. But do these experiences represent ALL Customer Support experiences with a company? Many times, the positive ones are due to interacting with a star, someone who is truly great at their job. But, there aren’t many stars out there, unless the company they work for has taken time to create and nurture an environment for them to thrive and shine.
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