By Cheryl Higley
Good customer service can be hard to find. From my experience, whether it’s at a restaurant or a store or a company I do business with, I often find a lack of balance in customer service. There is either too much (I can’t stand people who hover or ask over and over again how things are going), none at all (no contact at all or are unresponsive or ambivalent to concerns) and very little in-between.
Where does your company fall in the expanse of customer service? Too much, too little or not at all? Relying on the premise of “no news is good news” to guide your customer service is faulty … and lazy. Studies have shown that a large number of people who are dissatisfied don’t complain—so if you’re not asking the questions (or the right questions), you may never know that your customer is unhappy, has different needs from when you first spoke with them, etc.
What’s your customer service plan? Who is responsible for implementing and then following up to resolve issues? How often do you reach out? After every storm? At the end of the season (too late if you’ve got problems or the customer feels you’re not attentive to their business)?
Am I wrong that there is such a thing as too much customer service? Share your best customer service ideas in the comments below or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
PS … Snow Business is reaching out to its customers (the readers) to see how we’re doing. Our readership survey is online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P9GF8FW. With approximately 30,000 readers, it’s our most efficient way of finding out what you like, don’t like and want more of from the most comprehensive print resource for snow and ice management professionals in the industry. I hope you’ll take 5 minutes to share your thoughts.
