Customer service issues

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A Look at Customer Service

We hear the term “Customer Service” all the time. We think we know what it means. We think we even practice it well in our businesses. Let’s step back a minute and look at the different ways companies view the concept of customer service and the different ways they put it into play. This may help you see a little more clearly how you use customer service strategies…and how you don’t.

Here are the major ways that I see companies using “customer service”.

1- as sales support

2- as customer advocacy

3- to create add-on and up-selling opportunities

4- for customer retention

5- to determine customer habits and preferences

6- to run interference for “Gotcha” tactics

Sales Support:

Most businesses have someone helping to get new customers through the initial phases of the business relationship to ensure that the sale happens and the order is fulfilled. I ordered a new postage meter for our business the other day from the local sales rep and the next day I got a call from the customer service center. The customer service rep asked me a few questions, confirmed some details of the order and thanked me for doing business with Pitney–Bowes.

The whole process of “checking in” a new renter is full of opportunities to help the renter feel good about his or her decision. The process of educating someone how to use your complex and the services you offer can make a big difference. I don’t know if anyone has ever done the study, but I’d bet you could increase your average length of stay by many months, just by giving a thorough and friendly “check in” experience to each new renter.

Customer Advocacy:

Hopefully your business takes up for your customers when they have been done wrong by your system. Hey, stuff happens. The most common example of this type of approach has happened to all of us. We order a meal at a restaurant and when our plate arrives, we take a taste and go “Yuck”. We call the waiter over and before you even ask for a remedy, you have a different dish served to you on the house with a free dessert. Any good waiter is going to fight for your right to have a great dinning experience.

Who sticks up for your customers when they feel like they have gotten poor service? Does your company have a mechanism for making sure that the mistake your system made to disappoint the customer doesn’t happen again?

There have been plenty of studies that show customers who had a problem which the supplier solved have a greater frequency of repeat business than all other customer type categories, including “happy” customers who had no service issues.

There are some businesses that intentionally create service issues in order to show a swift and caring response. I’m not suggesting you lock your customers out of the gate, just so your manager can pop up out of nowhere to save the day by getting the gate open. But maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Add-ons and Up-selling:

Many times a new credit card has to be activated. In order to activate the card, you, as the new cardholder, have to call a toll free customer service line. What you find out is that the purpose of making this call was so the rep on the other end of the phone could offer you credit protection, a special rate on balance transfers and an interest paying checking account. These strategies must be quite effective, or the credit card companies could never afford to keep as many reps on the phone as they do.

What sort of add-ons and up-selling do you do? Cable tv, internet access and tenant insurance should be staples in our industry. What other related services would work for you?

Customer retention:

I used to manage a Culligan bottled water dealership. We ran routes delivering five gallon bottles of water to homes and businesses. We learned that if a customer forgot to set the empty bottles out for us to swap for full bottles three route days in a row, that customer had a 70% probability of quitting our service. They learned to live without us. So we looked for the early warning signs. Anyone who did not set bottles out on their route day got a phone call the night before the next route day to be sure they’d set their bottles out. This was expensive and time consuming, but proved to be very effective in decreasing the customer turnover rates.

What plans do you have to help customers stay? Offering auto-pay options such as checking account electronic fund withdrawals and automatic credit card charges make it easy to pay. This alone, probably increases your average length. Attractive landscaping and a clean property also make it hard to leave. Your tenants can’t use the excuse that the place isn’t clean and nice.

Determining customer habits:

If we knew the five things people did before they move their home, we’d know how to maximize our marketing dollars in the storage business. Someone discovered not too many years ago that people bought boxes before going to rent a storage unit. So now how many storage stores do not carry boxes? Many businesses track buyers’ habits to find more ways of providing services. How many times have you been asked to take a survey or fill out a comment card? You probably have some sort of any exit survey you do with your customers.

Does your exit survey tell you about their behaviors before renting? Ask what five places your renter shopped at before coming to your complex. Maybe a co-promotion with the local paint store will put your name in front of people who are getting ready to make a decision about an apartment?

What about the habits of customers who are getting ready to move out? If you knew the warning sings that told you a renter was about to move, couldn’t you step in with an offer or additional service add-on that might help that renter?

Running interference for Gotcha tactics:

We all know the importance of reading the fine print. This is why we usually have several places for new renters to initial and sign on self-storage leases. Most people in our industry have reasonable late fees and penalties built in. Businesses that have unreasonable and unconscionable policies have banks of phone reps whose job it is to wear out the complaining caller so the caller gives up the complaint and settles for the “Gotcha” tactic.

I wouldn’t call a ten-dollar late fee a “Gotcha” tactic. Most leases have a place for new renters to initial the late fee paragraph. The actual costs of getting a late payer caught up are probably higher than the late fees. However, I’m sure that at least one of your renters has thought the late fee was a “Gotcha” tactic and you had to find a way to hold the line. It may be that showing the renter where he or she had initialed the late fee paragraph might be all you need to do? You might want to take away the ability of late payers to complain, or you might prefer that your clients see your store manager as a “nice” guy, so your policy is to waive the late fee the first time and apply it strictly after that.

I’ll tell you what I think a “Gotcha” tactic is. This fall I spent quite a bit of time travelling. I stayed a night at a Days Inn, because it was central to the little “route” of client visits and conferences I had planned. I had made a reservation to return to this Days Inn two days later after my initial stay.

The first night was miserable. Normally a Days Inn is not a bad value. Like most small businessmen, I try to protect my PL by trying to save some money on the road. The heater in this room was as noisy as a freight train. The room smelled bad. The housekeeping crew did not clean the bathroom very well at all.

I had arrived after midnight and the last thing I wanted to do was spend another hour awake fussing at the night clerk and changing rooms. When I went to check out in the morning there was no one at the front desk. I had done the video checkout, so I just left. I called the customer service line later that morning to complain about the room and cancel my reservation for the day after the next. The first thing I was

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