A cup of coffee arrives and you grab and go as you zoom through the drive-thru on your way to a meeting, work or an appointment. You take a drink and spit it out, because the coffee is not the order you gave for your drink. Angrily you toss the cup out at the next opportunity and mutter something about horrible service and do nothing more. You buy a new cell phone, and find the phone does not work, so you take the phone back and nothing more. You go to a health spa, receive poor service, and mutter something about not returning and find another spa.
Too many people have accepted poor quality and customer service is a normal practice, but people should not become complacent. People have a reasonable quality expectation on their dollars spent, and to receive poor quality should not be acceptable. No one should leave a from a business or have a purchase that failed to meet expectations.
You as a customer are important to all business establishments. Your opinions, experiences and suggestions are an important cornerstone to improvements, corrections and continued satisfactory quality. Sales indicators, profits and losses are not the only tools a company uses to measure quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. When you take the time to share your thoughts and feelings you provide valuable insights to companies.
Every service and product has an important process used. When a poor product or service is delivered, there is a break somewhere. Does not matter whether the break occurs occasionally or with every product or service, a break has occurred. That break occurred with you. You are important. You can share your frustrations and experiences and create change.
Your concern or complaint does not always end with a new product, a refund or a heartfelt apology. Some companies will conduct a follow-up to explain changes and again apologize. People are often surprised and delighted by this extra step taken.
Loyal customers are important to all businesses. Loyal customers expect good service and quality. In many sectors, competition is aggressive and it is often a high-quality product or service that allows a business to shine just a bit brighter. Perhaps a bad experience is not discussed with the responsible business, but many people not associated with the business will hear what happened.
Some businesses do care about your experiences and opinions. Starbucks, HEB and Nordstrom’s illustrate how they strive to give you good customer service and quality products. These three companies realize the value of customers and work to keep their customers loyal.
Starbucks, for example uses customer feedback. If that cup of coffee was bought at a Starbucks, an e-mail or a quick call to the company will be given prompt attention, and the process will be studied to understand what could have occurred to prevent recurrence. So many improvements in service which may be minute to the majority of people are actions Starbucks felt important to the continued high quality of their products and service.
HEB in Texas is one of the largest independent grocery chains in the industry. HEB has the motto of “Your HEB,” because they believe getting customer involvement is the key to customer satisfaction. They encourage suggestions, are involved in many community projects and genuinely care what their customer’s experience. You, as an unsatisfied customer have a voice and are heard. Every concern is heard and refunds cheerfully given, often with a heartfelt apology.
Nordstrom’s is dedicated to provide customers with a pleasant shopping experience. From the moment you step in the department store until you leave, Nordstrom members strive to meet all your expectations. They are warm, empathetic and cheerfully strive to provide you help in selection and purchase of goods and services.
Make a commitment to not accept poor service or quality, speak out. The Internet will help you locate the contact information for companies. Many companies offer customer service telephone numbers or e-mail addresses specifically for customer service. Companies offer fax numbers and encourage you to contact them. With many tools available to contact businesses, you have the ability and the right to speak out to improve quality.
