We all have ran into poor customer service at one point or another. Whether it has been a clerk that didn’t say thank you to the rep on the phone that you can tell doesn’t care what you’re complaint is. However, what surprises me most are the businesses that are quickly losing market share but continue on the downward spiral of the most basic thing they can do to keep customers in their stores.
I was recently in a national video rental chain and had a small problem. To put in in perspective it was all of 99 cents. When I called the clerk’s attention to it I was simply told that the wrong sticker was on the game and they took the game from me and walked off to replace the sticker. This was innocent enough but this was the second of three problems I had with this store from three different clerks in a five day time span.
It is common knowledge that it is easier and more cost effective to keep a current customer than to try to gain a new one. In this case, brick and mortar rental businesses are losing rapidly to online rentals, streaming, and kiosk services. Why go to the store and pay $1.99 for one night when I can go to iTunes and pay $2.99 and not have to get into my car? Valid question. The reason we do it is for selection, price, and for the family to get out of the house a little bit. Often we need to pick up one or two grocery items which are also convenient to this particular place.
Of all three issues I had in the last few days two could have been fixed with “I’m sorry.” This would have cost the company nothing, I would have been satisfied with that response, and we all would have moved on. Now because of the workers at this location not being trained in proper customer care I had a decision to make. And my decision was to not go back to any of their retail stores. I would much prefer to pay a little more at a small businesses in the area or rent online than to deal with people who are not there to care for their customers.
The bottom line in this whole thing is “I’m Sorry” would have went a long way and kept me as a weekly customer. It would have cost the company nothing – no free rental, no refund, no cash. I would have felt that I had received service from the clerk.
When you have a customer who has a problem what can you do to make sure they are satisfied?
