Comments
People Are Used To Bad Service
The other week I sat and waited over an hour for a doctors appointment. No one came to explain the situation, no apology was offered when I politely enquired as to why I was still waiting, no discount was given. I was largely ignored.
I had a good while to think, while sitting in a waiting room, sparsly furnished with magazines and a newspaper that looked tied down, lest one of us customers steal it. Here I am, customer advocate, promoter of good customer service, and sitting politely in a waiting room, wasting valuable time with absolutely no complaint. What was I going to do? Find another doctor? Isn't an on-time doctor's appoinment virtually an oxymoron?
I expect bad service.
Reading this post from Emergence Marketing, of a similar, yet more horrific story hit a button. It's simply not hard to be better. Imagine a doctors surgery who notices they're getting an hour behind and rings to notify customers, or one who notices a customer sitting in a waiting room for an hour and offers them a cup of tea… Imagine a doctors surgery who even NOTICES a customer sitting in a waiting room for an hour.
The same goes for airlines (which I have another recent horror story about – as patriotic as I am, please don't fly Air New Zealand, having food thrown at you by an air hostess is not pretty), or virtually any other industry I can think of. You'd certainly secure me as a customer evangalist if you could simply show me that YOU CARE.
People have low expectations. We're easy to please. Give it some thought.
Hello, my name is Natalie, I have a business called 
June 27th, 2006 at 10:02 am
When clients come to us looking to develop a tone of voice for their brand, we spend a lot of time telling them how important it is to back this up with good customer service. Without this, most other work on the brand is wasted.
June 27th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Matt, you make a great point. I think this might be because people still think branding is making up a good story that will convince others. Rather than living a great story each and every day.
Good conversation, good people – thanks for extending it all the way to Des Moines, Iowa!
June 27th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
For lack of a better description, I call it the 'honest brand'. It starts with what you're company really is and involves every aspect of your company. I think this is often a big advantage small companies have. We can't afford to spin our way out of every disaster, so we actually have to be the brand.
June 29th, 2006 at 6:06 am
Good customer service is a basis of success.
Unfortunately, not every person understands that or just have no time or desire to understand.
When I work with my cusatomers I always try to follow up with the processes that are going on. In cases when there are difficulties we try to make everything we can for the customer. Things do happen but we should face the problems with dignity and customer care strategy.
In a real life I often see situations when the customers are ignored (me also). This happens in shops and hospitals (especially). I try to avoid such places. the reason is that when you do your best for your customers at work, you expect the same attitude to you when you’re having a rest :)
June 29th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Interesting about the shopping. One thing I CAN'T STAND is over attentive sales people in shops – the kind who leap on you as soon as you walk through the door, follow you to the changing room etc. My sister worked in retail a while ago and I (probably illegally) browsed through their 'customer service' learning material – a big eye opener! There is definately a fine balance between ignoring a customer and annoying them :)
July 2nd, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Show me you care or at the
Show me you care or at the very least treat me as a human being with
some intelligence :)
It is ridiculous how low the bar to impress customers has
become…thanks for linking to the story…Francois Gossieaux
http://www.emergencemarketing.com
August 4th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I definitely agree, as a consumer we are more often then not used to lousy service and therefore not all that hard to impress. I recently read the book Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard, it’s an awesome little short story that really opens your eyes on this exact issue. I don’t mean to plug a book in the comments but if your looking for something to read about this subject I highly recommend it.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
[...] wrote a while back about how rude doctors are to keep people waiting. My dentist was about 20 minutes late but the difference was that the entire time the receptionist [...]