Positive Proprietor: How’s Your Customer Service?

I recently went through a situation where I had several questions of a service provider. The service provider would answer one question, then act like everything else was fixed. I’d ask the unanswered questions…finally I just got the brush off. Now, I paid a few hundred dollars for this service this year; I expect better customer service. Are you treating your customers like this?

There are customers who will cost you more in support cost than they buy from you. That’s the way it goes. And sometimes these customers are simply testing you. One of the best ways to “test drive” a new-to-you company is to contact their customer service with an obvious question. If they give you a “well duh” kind of answer, then you know they don’t treat their paying customers any better. Or ask something that’s relatively complex. Again, how they treat you is indicative of how they treat paying customers. (Or not, because the company that bends over backwards to get your money and then ignores you is no better.)

Such an experience, where it’s like pulling teeth to get customer service questions answers, will not leave the customer, or potential customer feeling good about your brand. Sure, they might still use your services if they feel they have no other choice, but they’ll be looking around for new service providers very quickly.

So think about this the next time you get one of those “eye rolling” questions. The kind that make you go “can’t you read?” or the customer comes back with yet another question. Because your customer service has a bigger impact than you know.