Thought Leadership: You Betta Work!

Good Customer Service = Winning

For decades, “The customer is always right” or "der Kunde ist König" (the customer is king) has been the core value for business - be it big or small enterprises. It is the fundamental of every business to exhort service staffs into giving customer satisfaction a higher priority.

Staying on top of what customers want and what they’re getting is easy for a start-up with few employees and few customers. But as the number of customers and employees increases, the potential for poor services also increases. That's why creating a customer service policy and adhering to it is so important.

Customer service is crucial to ensure the success of a business, particularly for SMEs. That was why Brand Laureate approached Orchan’s Managing Director, Craig J. Selby a couple of years back to give his insight on the topic.

SME’s – Customer Service Impacts Your Brand - Deal With It!

Craig J Selby

For all businesses, regardless of size, the interface with the customer is of utmost importance. For SME’s, even more so, as you have fewer staff, and these are the team that represent your brand. They live it, breathe it, at least while they are at work, therefore, it is so important, especially for smaller operations, that your team live up to and exceed customer expectations.

I’m an outsider here, but one of the first things I noticed about Malaysia when I arrived almost ten years ago, was the overtly relaxed attitude businesses have towards customers. An almost “I don’t care” attitude – if you don’t like our products, go elsewhere. So, I did! I went to shops, restaurants, service providers that gave good service, and I keep coming back, time and time again. And, I tell my friends of places that had poor service. As for those places, well … good luck to them.

Research from the States in the 1980s (okay, a little dated, but still relevant) suggested that for every unhappy customer, they tell 13 people of their experience. For every happy customer, they tell 8. So, to break even, every time you disappoint a customer with poor service, you have to excel and make two customers happy, just to balance it out. Now, all of that was before we had Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The spiral is unimaginable now.

But that’s not the message – customer service should always be top notch, regardless of your business. It should represent your brand in a positive way, and it should reflect the passion your brand has for its products and services. Anything less; it does put off customers.

I ask my Malaysian friends why they put up with poor service. I get a very “blur” answer. “it’s just how it is” they say – well, that’s because no one really takes the effort to provide constructive feedback, no one cares to raise the bar, and businesses are reluctant to invest in training. This has to change. In the world of social media, more Malaysians are making negative comments about their retail experiences, and they are not afraid to say exactly what they think. More people are taking notice of this, and commenting, and more people are being influenced by social media comments on whether or not they should visit a particular store based on others comments. I for one, check out Four Square and other social media apps before heading to a restaurant, and if ‘service’ is an issue, I simply don’t go there.

Fact – whether you think it or not, poor service is costing SME’s big bucks every year – as it is now emerging as a priority for customers. This tidal wave of change will hit businesses by surprise, but it is never too late to do something about it. “Better late than never” as they say, and customers will appreciate that you have finally ‘seen the light’ and taken steps to grow positively. They will, slowly, come back, once you prove this change is for real.

Rewind, and back to branding. We make great effort to craft a niche for our brand, spend thousands and thousands on branding, signage, beautiful stores, and the like; but, do we spend enough on training our staff how to represent the brand. “Live the brand” should be the tagline for every team member, as they strive to present the brand they work for in the best possible light.

It can be as simple as a smile. Non-verbal communication accounts for over 50% of any message. We do not need to speak the same language, but a smile, or a simple hand gesture of welcome go a huge way to making a customer feel welcome and wanted. I’ve been to many a place where the team member and I cannot communicate in the same language, but I have felt welcome and assisted simply through positive and friendly body language. Look around, how many unhappy, sour-faced shop assistants, ticket sellers, or waiters do you see? Lots, right.

With good service, small mistakes are easy to forgive. With poor service, no mistakes are easy to forgive. A simple concept to keep in mind.

Most SME operators would have started their business with themselves at the frontline – remember the passion you had for your brand; that first sale, the business development meetings, talking to customers for ages sharing information. Does your team have the same enthusiasm? If not, then something has failed.

It’s time for a change. Invest a little time in your team. Invest in showing them how to support the brand, how to interact with customers, and how to respond to customers when there are issues. This is not brain surgery, but basic business sense.

Let’s consider a couple of scenarios (both personally experienced in the last six months in Malaysia):

• Waiter to me: “Sorry Sir, there will be a twenty minute wait on your main course as the cooking time for your dish is a little long, could I offer you a complimentary glass of wine while you want” (small restaurant in metropolitan KL)

And:

• Hotel Staff to me: “It’s not my job. Not my problem. I don’t do that. You have to wait till the morning to complain. I don’t have the managers number” (rather large branded hotel in a popular beach in Langkawi).

I hate waiting, but before I even asked, the waiter offered me a temporary solution. I am now a regular. As for the second, next day I spoke to the manager, who was equally as “blaze” in her response (“let me talk to him”) and rescheduled my holiday to be far away from that particular resort. I also told everyone who would listen about my poor experience, and several friends who had stayed there previously vowed never to return.

But lets take point one, a simple gesture goes a long way. I'm not saying you must give away free things, but forward thinking staff leave an amazing impression.

Sometimes, staff don’t have the answer, and that’s okay! But a willingness to admit that to the customer, and to ask for assistance from other colleagues is also very positive. Show that you care about your customer, and you will win them over.

Okay, so I don’t want to sound like a preachy “sales training kinda guy”, but I want to emphasise the importance of a well-rounded brand protection campaign, and this involves customer service. No one expects perfect, but increasingly so, we expect positive effort.

Now, that’s not too much to ask for is it?

For those of you on a tight staffing budget, or in a fast-turnover (staff-wise) industry, a few simple things that can be done: invest time, not money, in showing your staff how to deal well with customers. Train them personally, or get trusted team members to do so. Monitor their progress, help them out, and most importantly, empower them to make decisions to help customers. The impact this will have on your brand will be extremely powerful, and you will soon reap the rewards. It will also help with staff retention, as they will feel ‘more part’ of the business, and will reflect this in their work ethic and actions.

As I said earlier, it’s not about achieving perfection (that would be great, but then again, no one is perfect), it is about getting your team on the right journey to reflect your brand image, and to ensure that the effort and investment you have put into creating your brand is supported from all angles, including your team members.