Kneale Mann writes about a recent lunch meeting with his friend Sandro Panetta, owner of Ottawa’s International Musicland, a record store in Ottawa that will shortly celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Kneale defines the customer service experience that transforms prospects into leads into sales into friends.
Too often the cynicism we feel toward companies stems from the words they use to describe us – consumers, viewers, users or listeners. Sandro calls anyone who comes in to his store a customer – whether they buy something or not.
If we are customers, then aren’t we the impetus for customer service as a direct causation from the goods we purchase?
Whether I’m interacting with an agent over the telephone, across an electronic mail exchange, via a website transaction, or in-person at a bricks and mortar store, I’m contributing to the customer service relationship experience. If I buy from a competitor, I bring the customer service experience with me.
Wikipedia defines customer service as the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase. If the rationale for my purchase from you is intrinsic to me, then please explain how the company is providing a service. When I tell my friends about the product I bought, I’m providing customer service. When I blog or tweet about the company, I’m providing customer service. The company is not capable of providing my services.
Supposing you agree, as Steve Rubel suggests, that customer service and public relations are merging, doesn’t it carry through in the quickly-changing social media world that the role of the CSR is adrift?
Valeria Maltoni provides excellent tips for companies to improve customer service by invoking the core social media tenets of listening, processing, deciding, and sharing to achieve transparency and adaptability. Like Kneale, though, she uses a passe term.
As airport manager of conscious perceptions Machacek Ziamaljelito R. insists, it is important to “properly follow proper protocols.”
His title got me thinking about changing customer service into perception relations. If I blog about a company, then shouldn’t the company’s “customer service” be a response to any perceptions about it, not an internal need to satisfy its customers?
Photo credit: striatic
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ari,
First of all, I am honored that you quoted me in your post. Thanks! I think that we are on the cusp of a honesty revolution. We want our messages to be taken as they are intended, we are bombarded with tricksters and scammers (another recent post), but there is a deep human need for us to find honest people who want to help us, sell us quality goods and services, and we want to do the same.
Or perhaps I’ve been listening to John Lennon lately, and I too am a dreamer?
Kneale Mann´s last blog post..Does Size Matter?
Laughed out loud at the coffee shop. Specially since my wonderful eyesight confused the onion logo with CNN…
I like the thought here. Customer Service is another concept that suffered from becoming a department within an organization rather than a way of life for everyone. This is one reason why I like the way the tech industry tends to call after the sale help support rather than customer service.
Fred H Schlegel´s last blog post..Good Taste In Advertising? Quiznos Tests Taste.
As someone who works in retail, I spend a lot of time providing and thinking about customer service.
Re-naming “customer service” to “perception relations” sounds an awful lot like the goal of the company in interacting with customers is managing its image (aiming to be perceived positively by the customer.) That’s a fine goal, but it’s not one that sounds customer-centric. It’s “we want you to like us” rather than “we want to help you.” If a customer is treated right, shouldn’t that lead to a positive perception anyway?
I got an email recently from a Pandora.com representative that to me, epitomized great customer service. I wrote to them stating that I love the site, but wish they offered a certain benefit to paid users. I got a response a few hours later (on a Sunday!) from an individual, not a bot, that thanked me, addressed my concerns, explained ways I could use existing features to improve my experience, assured me that my request would be considered, and offered further assistance. I was impressed. I didn’t feel like they were just trying to make themselves look good.
As a customer, I want a company to ancticipate my needs, enable me to ask questions and provide feedback, assist me efficiently and courteously, and to be accountable if they screw up. Do that, and I’ll think well of you!
Before I write more, I just want to point out that I’m not a social media or PR pro like many of you…Please correct me if I’m out of my depth or bringing down the discourse!
Ari, you wrote, “If the rationale for my purchase from you is intrinsic to me, then please explain how the company is providing a service. When I tell my friends about the product I bought, I’m providing customer service. When I blog or tweet about the company, I’m providing customer service.”
I still don’t see how publicity is the same as customer service. Take my pandora story above: maybe it will help out a reader, but that would be accidental. If I wrote something negative or innacurate about the company that didn’t help anyone, it would still be publicity, but I don’t see how it would be customer service.
“The company is not capable of providing my services.”
Unless they hired you (or someone else) to do just that…unless you mean that company x can’t provide your perpective as an unbiased customer. Although some companies do hire shills who pretend to do just that.
Good customer service not only makes the client happy but pushes him to bring in more new clients next time.
New from Ricky@ Retail Industry in India: Retail Industry in India
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