GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE CREATES WIN-WIN OUTCOMES

When good customer service is provided, customers benefit, businesses benefit and business suppliers benefit. It's a win-win situation all around. When customers get poor service, everybody loses. Some of the obstacles to Good Customer Service include an absence of reliability, information, the correct 'mindset,' a conviction that your customers keep you competitive or successful and absence of knowledge of your customers' needs.
As a result, disgruntled consumers turn to the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) to assist them in remedying the situation by providing them with advice and/or speaking on their behalf with the vendor who were unresponsive to their complaints.
In the majority of cases, the number one complaint of the disgruntled consumer, is that the employee or management at the business was 'rude.' They then outline how badly they felt, how disappointed they were, how much their expectation were not realised and that it would not have been this bad if only the person had been nice, apologised, understood, been kind, sensitive, willing to listen and had not lied or ill-treated them ... if they cared!

One almost gets the impression that it was because the 'ill-treatment' was worse than the issue that resulted in the phone call to our office. In 2002-2003, the CAC intervened and successfully negotiated resolutions worth in excess of J$6M. In 85 percent of these cases, the consumer first sought and failed to get redress from the vendor. This J$6M represents only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the millions of lost revenue and potential business due to the multiplier effect of every customer's best friend who is told by word-of-mouth, click of the mouse, internet chatrooms, radio talk shows or letter to the editor.

Good customer service is: knowing what you are about; knowing what service you are providing; knowing what services you are capable of providing and knowing what is expected of you. It is about having and implementing the right attitude and, above all, it is about taking the 'cus' out of customer service!