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If I was to ask for a quick show of hands for those who go to the same hair salon or the same dentist again and again, for years, I am very sure I would see at least 70-80% of hands in the air. But have we ever asked ourselves why? Well, you might say it is because you felt comfortable with the service provider, you have grown accustomed to them and their service over the years and you trust them to deliver what is best for you. But the bottom line is that they know you and they understand your needs. So much so, you would not even settle for another hairstylist in the same salon or another dentist in the same clinic. You just want the very same person (note I wrote person) to deliver the service because only he or she knew what you like and want. This typical human behavior is no state secret but the simple truth behind it still somehow managed to elude many organizations when it comes to retaining their customers. Gone were the days when we walked into a store and the storekeeper addressed us by name and immediately went about to prepare what we wanted, without us having to bat an eyelid. Or we walked into a café and the café owner and staff instantly welcomed us and sat us at our favorite table or served us our favorite drink. Now, service has become at best, nameless and faceless, lacking that personal touch or in some situations, even a human touch. Just recently, a friend of mine posted multiple complains and gripes of frustration on Facebook while waiting in a major local bank. Apparently, he had been waiting in queue for more than two hours, albeit seated, just for simple service to get his savings passbook changed. He also noticed many customers were closed for reasons unknown. When he approached the bank staff to inquire about the long wait, all he got was an “automated” excuse from an expressionless face. He swore (and he posted this on Facebook too) that he would close his account and move his money to the bank next door. Another time, I personally encountered a most baffling situation. I wanted to subscribe to an additional package for my cable TV. As I found it a hassle of having to go all the way to the sales office, I applied for the new account online service since they have this option available on their website. Days after the online application and not getting a call or even an automated email reply, I decided to call the sales office. Someone responded and said that a sales representative will be calling me back to attend to my request. Again days went by without a call back. Several calls, emails and faxes later from me to the service provider, my additional cable TV package was finally activated after a period of (you may find this unbelievable) one month! What baffled me this time was I had to literally “follow up” on a service provider so I can give them more money! Somehow this way of “servicing” customers are more apparent the bigger these service providers are and especially when they appear to be the monopolies in the market. I am sure many of us have gone through the automated phone replies that drove us crazy or those that put us on hold on the phone for ions, after many attempts of trying to get through. It has come to a point that going through such treatment is as daunting as waiting in the hospital ward for a surgery to be performed on us. So it baffled me even more when I noticed these service providers spending lots of effort on customer loyalty programs or splurging huge advertisement dollars touting new services or products, expecting the customers to buy in. Some even invested in expensive customer relationship (CRM) software programs to help them track customer behavior and gather customer data. I am not saying it is wrong to spend on loyalty programs and advertisements or invest in intelligent software. By all means, these should continue but I believe some effort and money have to be put into the basic stuff as well. These could be on ensuring better training for the service staff, having more people (instead of machines) man the phone lines or service counters, putting in place incentive programs for good service staff, or rewarding customers for their loyalty by giving them a bit of a “royalty” treatment for example. Ultimately, knowing what customers really want is not all science. Sometimes all it takes is just earning their trust and giving them a little personalized human touch. Trust may a lifetime to build but can be destroyed in a second. Earning a customer’s trust could not simply be achieved by offering the latest products or fancy advertisements. Once you have gained your customer’s trust, stick to your brand promises and they will stick to you. Looking for something to surprise you in a hot summer? visit zebra bikini
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customer service, customer trust, loyalty program,
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