civility, maybe it was the irony of a CSR for a bankrupted airline telling a passenger (read, revenue) to take his business elsewhere if he expected service, but something about this exchange left me woeful over the state of America’s customer service industry.

 

If my story was an isolated incident, this vignette would not matter.  But this is not an isolated matter…and it does matter.

 

In my travels for business, it is unusual to return from a trip without similar stories.  There was the hotel desk clerk last week and the credit card CSR last month and the bank officer before that.  And I am not the only one.  When I tell people I advise companies about customer service issues, they open up with their own stories like fireworks on the Fourth of July.  For many service workers, dealing with customers seems as if it is a most distasteful part of the job. The sad thing is that it does not have to be this way.

 

Somewhere along the line, we have lost focus on business’ most essential asset—customers.

 

Growing up in the 1970s in Southern Indiana, I learned this lesson in my father’s shoe store.   For Dad—and for everyone who worked with him—the customer was King (or Queen.).  Whether you were a factory laborer looking for work boots or a Country Club wife in search of stiletto heels, you were the most important person in the world when you walked into Dad’s store.  A particular shoe may bring customers in once, Dad often reminded me, but it was service and relationships that kept them coming back.

 

That is why Dad kept a card file with each customer’s name and each pair of shoes they had every bought.  That is why he sometimes drove 20 miles or more to deliver a pair of new slippers to a hospitalized customer.  That is why he often gave full refunds for shoes that had been worn for months, but returned because “they don’t fit right.”  That is why each customer received a heartfelt, “thank you,” whether they bought or not.  Dad did not only sell shoes, he sold a feeling.

 

Dad made you feel like your new pair of shoes was the most important thing in his world.   It was.  It was personal. He understood then what we seem to have forgotten today.  Good business starts with good customer service.

 

Imagine that today in today’s retail market.  For too many companies, customer service is a lost art.  It is a “marketing strategy” to be deployed if all else fails.  (“Gee, our product is inferior and our price is too high, let’s talk about service!”)

 

But good customer service isn’t something to be turned on and off with a whim; it is the product of a business culture that must start at the top and be expected from there on down.  It is culture that must start from the customer’s perspective and then go beyond that.  How do I expect to be treated? Okay, now what would top that?  In a word, what makes the customer say, “wow?”

 

Dad understood that, as did many others in his generation.  I am not sure that we have gotten the message today.  Certainly, the legions of travelers who share their personal horror stories with me would agree.  Consumers are crying for quality customer service, and ready to reward those companies that heed the call.  For those companies that rediscover this notion, good fortune awaits.

 

Robert K. Johnson is a Greenwood attorney and consumer advocate who practices in technology and communications law.