Standards in areas of customer service and customer property-safety set great businesses apart from the pack. We all do business in a consumer-centric society, and there can be no better business trait than clients feeling your organization takes personal care to their needs and desires.
I’d like to share two polarizing experiences I’ve had where customer service and property safety played a key role in my future dealings with two separate organizations.
I have used airport valet parking at a regional airport for the last several years. In fact, I have seen the service as extremely valuable when having to quickly transition from one event to the next.
A number of weeks ago, while picking up my car, I was shocked to see the car had been damaged while under the company’s valet service’s care. The front bumper, air dam and driver’s side quarter panel had been severally dented in some places and cracked in others — repairs and replacements necessary.
I had numerous conversations with a manager of the local service, who had been cordial; however, initially unresponsive to sending in an insurance claim. After a few weeks of discussions/e-mails, he sent me a claim form, which noted the “attendant who received the vehicle had marked that section of your car for existing damage.” Interesting risk-management procedures.
This could not be the case. I am the only driver of my car and it had no damage when I gave it over to the valet. I understand it is crucial to have procedures for risk-management. –
Of course in business, it’s usually not the problem — but how you resolve it.
Going through a pain-staking process to even be heard and then being given back auto-generated responses, even from the company’s CEO that made me chose between spending my time fighting with a face-less, non-caring corporation versus moving on at my own expense.
Leaders in business must understand that their customers need to be heard and care must be given to the property entrusted with them. It is not enough to make the customers initially feel valued if your core value proposition conflicts with your being a steward of your customers.
On the flipside, an organization’s unwavering support to see my company meet its targeted objective resonates highly with me. It was our fault. Plainly, we had an important industry show that fellow executives and I were attending. The well-intentioned marketing assistant had shipped the entire contents of our tradeshow booth, including flat-screen monitors with an expected delivery date of a day after the actual show began.
We scrambled, attempting to get the equipment there sooner, but with no guarantee. After arriving in Washington, D.C we realized we were going to have to find our equipment within the FedEx national equipment info structure.
After a few minutes with their customer service representatives, we were given the local shipment hub’s contact information, which fortunately was only 90 minutes from the airport. As it turned out, two of our three packages had made it to the hub, with the third being MIA.
Fortunately for our trip, my business and this blog, the night shift supervisor at the Virginia FedEx hub not only helped us track down the third package, but also spent the better part of two hours ensuring that we could pick up our precious cargo with the newly rented maximum-sized SUV.
We ended up loading the last of the packages at midnight, well after this woman’s shift was supposed to be over.
The moral of these stories: Our business value propositions must match our level of customer care. Anything else calls into question both our business model and our competitive edge’s sustainability.
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