Customer Service Matters

I live in a relatively new community that has a property management group to collect dues, send notices, coordinate services and so on.  Over the last quarter, I have had the worse time getting them to reverse two fees that were applied in error. 

I attempted to resolve the matter by working with the representative who is assigned to my community.  After months of hearing the canned robotic response of "those are the fees", I decided to escalate to her VPs (all of them).  Finally, I got a response that made sense-- after about five emails to her VPs (all of them).  And, the fees were reversed.

Because of that experience--how long it took for resolution and escalations--I have lost some confidence in my property management group and would like to explore others that are more responsive.

Customer service always matters.  As a career marketing professional, one of the things that I encourage businesses to do is to look at their back-end processes and company culture to ensure that they are delivering based on the brand promise and the purchase guarantee.

Every customer has expectations when they engage a business.  Those expectations are based on their previous experiences, preferences, your brand, and the purchase.  Failure to delivery leads to bad word of mouth (the most important form of advertising) and churn.

Providing good customer service that meets customer expectations is the easiest thing to do, but many companies, small and large, struggle.  Here are a few tips:

• Practice empathy and stop spitting out scripts and policies. People don't respond well when they feel like you can't help them, have a canned response, or won't remedy their concern.
• Make your customers feel special.  Nordstrom is legendary for having a service culture, and it has served the company well.
• Get to really know your customers and their expectations like Green Hill Farms, so you can meet or exceed them. 
• Make sure your customer service reps are as great as your marketing people, and make sure they are rewarded well because they are equally important.   Customer service is the key to your retention marketing, so don't skimp on them.  The Ritz Carlton is an excellent example of how to promote outstanding organizational service.
• Quickly change policies, procedures and fees that cause problems.  If your customers are constantly complaining about the same thing, FIX IT.

Practicing these tips are sure to help your customer service and retention marketing efforts.