It was the French writer, Victor Hugo, who said, “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come”.
There is an idea whose time came…left…and has come again.
This idea left in a sly manner – like a bored party guest hovering on the perimeter of a room, slipping out when no one was paying attention.
It has returned because today’s retailers know it is the essence of survival in a demanding marketplace.
This idea is – genuine customer service.
I say ‘genuine’ because there are many counterfeits out there, masquerading as the real thing.
A façade of customer service has been the norm for many years in business… but the future of 21st century business rests on this idea of genuine customer service.
Businesses in general and retailers in particular, have been counterfeiters. Counterfeiters by design…because sometimes it’s easier to put forth a semblance of customer service instead of doing the hard work real customer service demands. Counterfeiters unknowingly…because sub-standard customer service has become the norm…and many companies have maintained this level thinking it was the higher level.
Today, consumers have unlimited choice, and in exercising their right to choose, they have put the onus on retailers to perform to their expectations. They do not want to be promised one thing and be given something else.
The comedian, Steven Wright, illustrated it well when he described a customer waiting in front of a locked store. He tries the door one more time to be certain it’s locked then starts to walk away. The owner approaches at that moment…pulls out a key, and unlocks the door…The exasperated customer says to the owner,” I thought you were open 24 hours”, to which the owner replies, “yeah, but not in a row.”
Businesses cannot promise one thing and do something else…they have to walk the walk, as the saying goes, not just talk the talk.
In business, customers expect courteous, friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable staff. Every customer that enters a store wants to be treated as if they are that milestone millionth customer who is showered with attention and rewards. This is an extreme analogy but at its heart a true one.
Customers want to be thought of as special.
If retailers do not make them feel that way…out of a genuine concern for them and their needs…not a superficial flirtation with them…they will go elsewhere…if not immediately…eventually.
Something happened to the notion of true customer service during the booming 1980’s, when all a retailer had to do was throw up four walls and some shelving and blow product out the door.
Customers began to be taken for granted.
Yes, this was not unique to the ‘80’s, other times had their share of malaise in customer service…it’s just that this decade made it easier to slack off on the service end and devote the energy to the marketing/merchandising equation.
Many retailers have been guilty of this. As sales soared and firms expanded they became growth oriented…and complacent.
The feeling that ‘our customers will always be there’ has permeated the business mindset even though those words have never spoken outright.
From a young age we have all heard, maybe so often that they are just empty words: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you…
…but it is a retailers job to breathe new life into them.
It may sound old-fashioned, it may sound Pollyanna, it may sound like a Sunday school lesson, but it also sounds like the truth
It’s simple really…every customer who walks through a company’s doors needs to be treated like the sales clerk would want to be treated when they shop.
It’s an idea whose time has come again: genuine customer service. If retailers begin, and continue, to practice this principle …no army will stop them.
