Are your customers loyal or lazy?

By Dawn Roberts, Sales Expert

No, I’m not talking about my customers or even yours. I’m talking about you and me.

I want you to take off your business hat, put on your customer hat, and look at service through those eyes.

As buyers, we receive poor service all the time. We expect and accept shoddy service and broken promises as standard. We are amazed and surprised when we get the rare glimpse of terrific service. 

So why doesn’t it get any better? Because as buyers we don’t always demand it and vote with our feet anymore, unless you are a shop or a restaurant.

When I stress to companies how important spectacular customer service is, they often tell me they are not really losing many customers to competitors, so they don’t see the need and they are right, they probably don’t. That’s not because their customers are satisfied with them, it’s because changing suppliers is such a hassle and we often can’t be bothered. That doesn’t mean it’s ok to give less than excellent service. That's because these customers will not only make your life hard with their constant complaints and lack of faith in you, they will also become assassins of your brand.

For example, I have been a customer of my bank since I was 16. Over the years they have made many mistakes and, more recently, their service has at times been appalling!  So have I switched banks?....No, I can’t be bothered, and I don’t want to waste my valuable time with such hassle.  I have, however told everyone that will listen that they are rubbish and suggested they bank elsewhere. I am a brand assassin!

Many companies I work with would much rather invest their energy and even their training budget in sales and marketing training, because that’s where they believe they see the real return. They are right to focus on sales as this is important, but it is equally important to sort service out too.  Customers are either assassins or advocates or don’t care either way. There are some companies that are getting it right and they are reaping the rewards. Every customer has a breaking point, and if the competition is giving consistent spectacular service and they make it easy to switch, then they could be tempted!

3 reasons to sort out your service

1. Getting service right is a simple way to cut costs. Making customers happy means retention and advocacy. Finding new customers is expensive and happy customers will spread the word and do that for you
2. Brand damage is hard to reverse
3. No-one wants to work for a company where the customers are always complaining, and the company has a bad reputation. Eventually you will lose your good people as they feel increasingly more frustrated.

Make customer service a priority in your business and reap the rewards.

I’m off to compare banks!

Dawn