Why do we put up with lousy customer service?

Driving back from the bush last weekend, I had a few hours to think about business transformation issues that seem to have unjustifiable low priorities.

The issue of lousy customer service in this country kept on coming to mind.

At retail level, how often have you heard the one-liner from salespeople...."are you right?"

Tempted not to reply..."most of the time!", we are kind enough in Australia to forgive businesses the cardinal sin of not training their front-line staff at professional service standards.

This is not just true of retail, but relevant also in b-to-b enterprises...which allow their reputations to be diluted through inadequate customer service skilling.

It's a fact that when you come across an outfit that has invested in people who are representing them professionally, that they stand out in your mind...relative to others in the same space.

If it was rocket science, I could understand the difficulty in the challenge...but it's not difficult to be better and different when customer service training is pretty straightforward.

I suspect that part of the answer lies in whether or not organisations understand that a successful CRM process first starts with professionally trained teams who have better skills than their competitors.

Some operators encourage their senior staff to get in the front line with customers regularly to review systems and processes. That's impressive. Buying from competitors makes sense too so that one can assess their practices and skills.

Others don't let new staff face customers without thorough induction, training, interim supervision and mentoring. That's equally sensible.

So, apologies for the rant...but I never want to hear..."are you right?" again.

I want to hear my voice responding to a series of questions from a skilled representative that solves my needs.

Don't we all?

Check out http://www.strategicmarketing.com.au

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