Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Opportunity Cost - How much does bad service cost?


Every decision you make has a cost associated with it.

When you choose to do one thing, you can't do something else in its place. Otherwise you would have chosen the other thing.

The same can be said for good customer service. If you choose to only offer excellent service, you can't do bad service in its place.

Most businesses don't realize they have a choice. But they constantly make the wrong choice by putting the wrong person in place to represent their company.

You want an example? A customer came in yesterday talking about her bank. She had faxed them some documentation and didn't hear a response. When she called them, they told her we didn't receive your information. She told them she had the fax confirmation showing when it was received. The person she spoke with changed her story and said they get so many faxes they don't know if they are legit so most of them get shredded. WHAT? This bank is actually paying someone to say something so ridiculous to their customer.

Today this customer came by just to tell me she closed her account with that bank.

I have no affiliation with that bank. But this customer felt compelled to tell me the story of her bad experience. Think she'll tell more people?

I wonder how much this will cost them? I wonder how they will justify their decision?

6 comments:

  1. Excellent story. Yep, I bet she tells a lot of people. The sad part is that the people that need to know, will probably never hear.

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  2. Sad is right, Donna. By the time she got to the third person at the bank, the person told her it should have been handled by the first person.

    I hope they have a process in place to review this issue by the right people and they have the authority to make changes. Knowing the background of this situation as told to me by my customer, I am confident hers is not an isolated situation.

    Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.

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  3. Sounds like the Bank Leader has set the tone. A tone that she or he has no clue about.

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  4. And who will be the one to clue them in? Should we leave it up to someone else and have the "not me" attitude?

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  5. I would be one of the ones to make my voice heard loud and clear with the customer service people.

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  6. No business is perfect. But a business should be in a position to celebrate customer feedback. It should be something that is welcomed not dreaded.

    Thanks, Helen, for chiming in. Have a great Thanksgiving! Hope the weather in Chicago doesn't ruin any plans.

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