CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS #1

          I guess one of the most important things I learned this week was about customer satisfaction and how to gauge it. I never really considered how important customer surveys or satisfaction cards could be to a businesses bottom line, until this week. While studying in the Harvard Manage Mentor this week, I learned all about focusing on the customer and how important it is to the bottom line. It’s not like I wasn’t already keenly aware of that fact. I mean, I work in a service industry and I am a consumer, so I know both sides of that coin. What I didn’t realize is the importance of actually asking the customer about their experience.

          For me, I get highly irritated by the automated surveys and usually hang-up on them. However, when someone calls and says they have 3 questions to ask me about my recent experience with “XYZ COMPANY” and would I have time to answer them, I am almost always inclined to say “Sure!” As a matter of fact, with these types of “solicitations,” I tend to be much nicer and less frustrated than I am by the automated ones. No one wants to talk to a stupid computer. Another way to make me angry…OUTSOURCE your customer service and survey people. I live in the United States and I want to help our citizens have jobs AND I want to be able to understand them when they call me. If I get a survey call from an obviously foreign person and the call quality is poor or there is a lot of background noise, I am not likely to participate and if I do, it generally results in a not very happy me.

          I want to know my customers are satisfied. I know you can’t please everyone all the time, but when you make that your goal, you will come a lot closer than if you act as if the customer doesn’t matter. Another way to achieve this happiness is to allow your employees some leeway or latitude in their jobs, as well as giving them the ability to actually help their customer without having to go through 3 supervisors to do so. When I call with a complaint, I LOVE when the person I am talking to can fix what the issue is and can also offer to help me with anything else I might need. That is HUGE for me!

          This week, I was reminded that Customer Satisfaction should be the number one priority for all companies. One of the ways to accomplish that is to hire customer service oriented people, from the get go. Zappos offers to pay new hires to leave. That helps weed out those who are in it for the paycheck from those who are in it to actually care and serve the company and its customers. I like that idea. It is always good to weed out the chafe from the wheat!

          For my “Better Than Average” $100 Challenge Business, I have continued to gather together clothing to sell on consignment, but now I am looking for the BEST of the gently-used clothing because I want to ensure that my customers will be 100% satisfied with what they purchase. I don’t want anyone thinking that “Better Than Average” doesn’t care about its customers, because at “Better Than Average,” our customer’s satisfaction is our number one priority!

(B283)