Is your customer service as good as it could be?

By Debra Susca

“It’s important for all businesses to give good customer service, but even more so for small businesses,” says Bob DeLisa, owner of DeLisa Consulting Group in Old Saybrook. “If you’ve only got a few customers, you really feel the impact if you lose even one.” 

Yet, delivering good customer service is becoming harder to do. 

Why? DeLisa cites several factors, including increasing customer expectations, as well as higher levels of stress among both consumers and workers.

DeLisa has consulted with small to midsize companies, offering them help with organizational development, human resources and customer service. His experience shows small businesses face some real obstacles in maintaining high customer service standards nowadays.

“Customers who have received outrageously good customer service have raised the bar on expectations,” DeLisa. says. He points to the total quality management concept that industry has embraced and to retailers like Nordstroms, whose hallmark is exceptional service. |

“Customers have tasted better wine, so to speak, and that’s what they want.”

At the same time, says DeLisa, stress levels have increased, what with two-career families and single-parent households trying to manage in a fast-paced world. “No one has any patience.”

DeLisa says other factors, too, challenge small businesses in their delivery of good customer service. They include:
• Little money budgeted for training, or the perception that there is little. Consequently, employees are not properly trained in the core skills of the job, nor in good customer service behaviors. 
• Lack of qualified job candidates. 
• A booming economy that demands more output, at a time when there aren’t enough workers to handle it all.
• Technology overload. People have little downtime with the advent of technology that keeps them “wired in” to work around the clock. This leaves some employees feeling stressed out and rushed. As a result, they may rush, brush off or be short-tempered with customers.

Given all that, it’s time to “get back to the basics. Everything doesn’t have to be a mad rush,” says Linda Friedman, assistant director of continuing and professional education at the University of Hartford. Her department runs The Center for Customer Service, which offers education and training consultation to businesses. Friedman says, “We’re all so anxious about where we’re trying to get that we’re going full tilt. People don’t concentrate on the ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous.’” 

Or on stress management, negotiation, mediation, partnering/teamwork and diversity, for that matter, she says, all of which are elements of good service.

“How do you deal with the difficult client or customer?” she asks. “How do you handle complaints? How do you treat your employees? Employers need to realize that they must [show they] value their employees before they can expect employees to value the customer.”

That’s a philosophy Mike McAvinue lives by. Since he began managing the 160-store Westfarms Mall after its expansion in 1997, he has worked hard to build a loyal, mutually respectful relationship with the retail tenants he oversees. Says McAvinue: “The best managers and businesses have no problem retaining employees. That’s because they take care of them. They improve their skill level. They look for ways to make their jobs easier, and that translates down to the customer.”

McAvinue has instituted a number of things to retain his customers — both the merchants and shoppers. For example, he has offered a customer service training class to help merchants be more sensitive to older customers and those with disabilities, and provided lunch to all 3,000 mall workers during weekends of the hectic holiday season to ensure they can all eat and still be available to give good service. He also started a Mystery Shopper Program, whereby an outside firm “shops” a store to evaluate its customer service and provides constructive feedback, and stationed Guest Service Ambassadors at all entrances to help shoppers locate stores and get their packages to their cars. In addition, he created a task force of merchants to develop customer service tactics.

“If I can satisfy the people who are on the front lines with the customers — in this case, the merchants — there tends to be a loyalty and a culture that develops,” says McAvinue, “and that translates down to the customer.”

And the bottom line. 

May we help you?

Below are some suggestions for improving your company’s customer service:
• Can’t find good employees? Take care of the ones you have. Work hard to retain them by offering skills training and advancement, better bonuses and compensation. Value them and their contributions. 
• Demonstrate to employees the kinds of customer service behaviors you want to see.
• Never tolerate in your company people who give poor customer service, no matter how bright or technical these people may be. 
• Make sure all employees — new and working — are adequately trained in core job skills and customer service.
• Be aware of technology overload and the stress it can place on employees. 
• Learn to look at every customer as a person who can make or break your business. 
• Offer phone-courtesy training. It’s the first contact many people have with your business.
• Poll customers frequently to get feedback on how you’re doing.
• Actively search for and recruit new employees — before you need them. 
• Offer any kind of support you can to the front-line people to make their jobs easier. If they have what they need, they’ll be happier and that will translate to the customer.
• Set up a customer service task force to develop good customer service tactics.
• Never over-promise and under-deliver. Say “no” before taking on a job or a client you know you can’t accommodate. 

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