Here’s something I read in the paper, sort of ‘a thing I learned while searching for the box scores.‘
Russian bureaucrats are mandating an improvement in customer service! A Siberian oil town mayor has banned the use of defeatist phrases by government employees. More than 2 dozen phrases, including "It’s not my job," and "I don’t know" are not to be uttered to citizens seeking service.
This is pretty amazing when you think about it, even if it’s only being pushed in one city. Russian customer service has always been viewed as lacking. Click over to this tongue-in-cheek offering.
But we’ve all had bad experiences that have affected our decisions to patronize a store, business, restaurant, school or non-profit organization. Bad customer service hurts your brand. Maybe it’s the cashier who continues talking on the phone with a friend, while you’re trying to check out. Or the waiter who never seems to be available for a coffee refill. My wife’s organization recently had some updates done to their website by a firm that specializes in convention and visitors bureau websites. To their horror (and after nearly a year in the works) they found that some of the content on their site included links to other CVBs in the Chicago area. Apparently the vendor told my wife’s firm that he would "fix it when he had a chance."
Two things here: First, the site should have been reviewed in a testbed. The updates should never have been published before the revisions were approved. Second, the appropriate response should have been, "Gadzooks! We’re sorry about that. We’ll have that fixed by the close of business TODAY."
Many people, me included, think that simple courtesies and decent customer service are going the way of the pet rock or 45 RPM records. But good customer service is essential to winning over your prospect, not only for the first sale, engagement or donation, but for future transactions.
Besides, it’ll make you feel good inside.
— Kurt