Phil Lauterjung

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In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that customer service is a pet peeve of mine.  Let me clarify, I expect excellent customer service from myself, where I work, and where I do business.  This subject has come up lately because of comments my wife has made about some episodes of not-so-great customer service where she works.

Now, I should also mention that my wife and I have very different tolerance levels for shoddy customer service.  If a store has a great deal on something that she wants, it really doesn’t matter how good (or bad) the customer service is.  Me? – I’m ready to bolt out the door unless someone (anyone) makes it very clear that they want our business.  Which probably explains why my wife stopped taking me shopping with her a number of years ago.

Recently, I have heard a few people that I really respect stating that customer service is a given for most forward-thinking companies.  I know what they mean to say is that great customer service shouldn’t need to be discussed – it should be a part of company culture.  But, I wonder if that doesn’t foster an attitude leading to once stellar customer service starting to slip.

A few months ago we were vacationing and saw an example of this.  While on vacation we celebrated our wedding anniversary, and went to a Four Seasons hotel for one of my wife’s favorite things – a breakfast buffet overlooking the ocean.  Of course I like it too!  As soon as we entered the hotel property we were treated like royalty, which is not unusual for a Four Seasons.  And, that treatment didn’t stop until we left.  Everyone, and I mean everyone – from housekeepers to guys cleaning the pool to the staff in the restaurant – treated us like long lost friends.  It was a totally delightful experience, and one that we talked about for the rest of the trip.

Now, contrast that with a visit to the local Wal-Mart the next day.  I am old enough to remember when Sam Walton was still alive and insisted on high levels of customer service.  They seemed to have lost their way, especially in this store.  We picked up a few items and looked for a check out line.  We spotted the 10 items or less line and it was empty – what luck!  The cashier looked at us like we were an intrusion on her terribly boring day – ugh, more tourists to bother me.  We greeted her cheerfully to try and get a smile, but no go.  She never greeted us or said thank you for shopping with them.  It was a totally different experience from the Four Seasons.  Now I know that Wal-Mart is a low-cost discount operation and the Four Seasons is a high-end hotel; but, both can, and should, have high standards of customer service.

I suspect that if you looked deeper into the management focus of both locations you would find that one is relentless about customer service – they don’t take it as a given.  The other probably talks about it, and maybe has it written down in a values statement; but, are they relentless about it?  Are there consequences for those that don’t practice it faithfully?

What do think about this topic?  How should we handle customer service in our own businesses?

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