The importance of Customer Service

While out and about this week I treated myself to a cup of coffee.  I ordered a large, skinny coffee but, had I not intervened, I would have been given a medium, full fat coffee.  The problem was that the barista was rather more interested in gossiping with her colleague than she was about making the cup of coffee that I had asked and paid for.  To be fair, the gossip was probably more interesting, but it did not feature on my list of priorities.

I left the coffee shop a disgruntled customer.  Although I had a perfectly good cup of coffee (made to my reiterated specifications) for which I had paid a reasonable price, I had not had a good experience.

I'm sure I read somewhere that a happy customer will tell 2-3 people while an unhappy customer will tell 8-10.  Well in this social networking society, those numbers increase substantially - I only need update my Facebook status and I've told hundreds of people about my grievance with minimal effort, a couple of likes or comments from friends and the number increase exponentially.

Now, with word of mouth being such an effective marketing tool, the value of customer experience is ignored by any business at their peril, see Ryanair's recent headlines if you're not convinced.  And in fact it is true to say that there are many circumstances where a business can charge a premium if they have a reputation for good customer service.

With apparent customer loyalty from discounted prices lasting only as long as the discount, which is usually unsustainable, investment in customer service can offer a low cost and effective way for a small business to really shine.  And as the small business proprietor is so close to the customers, customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shoppers aren't necessarily a requirement.

So what's the down side?  Choosing to invest in customer service may be the long game as results (in terms of increased customers) will not be instant.  But if you are in business for the long term, then surely the long game is the game to be playing.

So, what about the coffee shop?  I would love to be able to tell you that I won't be giving them any repeat custom, but the truth is that there isn't a convenient alternative.  So, due to lack of competition (see last week's blog), I will be back there again playing coffee roulette!