3 months ago
20
In the past few months, there have been at least six viral videos, racking up hundreds of thousands of views, from social media users complaining bitterly and colourfully about poor customer service in Jamaica.
What is even worse is that under these videos are thousands of comments from other users validating and sympathising with their experiences. In this digital era, where users across the world are connected and plugged in 24/7 to the Internet, every customer interaction can be broadcast to a global audience in seconds with the tap of a screen.
The impact of viral negative publicity can monumentally shake up business fortunes overnight. The stakes for companies have never been higher, and they must prioritise excellence in customer service as a business survival imperative.
How does a small business prioritise excellence in customer service? They can start with the basics of putting the customer and their satisfaction at the centre of the business.
Of note is that the common themes in every viral video I have seen bemoaning poor customer service in Jamaica are unfriendly business operational processes and poor communication. Though separate, they are interconnected and symptomatic of a larger problem of limited customer-centricity.
A customer-centric business designs their business operations, systems, processes, and policies around the needs, experience, and preferences of their customer. It is like being in a one-sided friendship or relationship where one person gets all the attention, all the care, all the affection and good treatment. This is why experts insist that a truly customer-centric business is always striving to develop a deep level of customer intimacy, where they know the customer well enough to create a business architecture that serves them.
Let me put a practical spin by breaking down my own recent example when I patronised a Jamaican restaurant in the United States and bought take-out lunch. Here is what went wrong and how it could have been better.
Failures and fixes
Store design: We joined a line to place our order then had to stand to a corner and wait for an extended period for the food. Occasionally, we would see servers coming from the back with bags and boxes of food.
The extended wait, in a crammed space with no sight of what is happening in the background with our food, is a process and infrastructure failure. Starbucks is a model that the company could take inspiration from. The store is designed with the customer at the centre. You can see your order being made and packaged. The layout, the visual displays all create a better experience for the customer.
Order fulfilment: When we got to our destination a few minutes later and opened the bags, we realised that a beef patty was missing, leaving one person without lunch. This was a process failure. An example of how one company has minimised mistakes is Subway, or take-out Chinese restaurants, where they serve your order in assembly line fashion. This reduces the likelihood of error, and the customer is seeing exactly what they are getting, and has even greater control over their preferences.
Communication: I immediately called the restaurant and explained what happened to the representative who answered the phone. She shared that they had a several trainees working that day, which may have accounted for the mistake.
She asked if I had my receipt on hand. I didn’t, but I reminded her that they process orders by name, and I had just left there, so they could easily pull up my order. She said pulling up the transaction record would be “too difficult” for them to do, and then lectured me that I should know to keep my receipt when I bought something.
There are two major failures here: 1) trainees, especially those in a customer-facing role, need supervision, and there must be safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of business processes; 2) poorly trained staff, who lack empathy, skill, and empowerment to resolve customer complaints.
The representative should have acknowledged the inconvenience the error caused and apologised for the experience. She should have been empowered to resolve the problem and salvage the customer relationship. That means that I could come back for my patty with or without the receipt, and they would offer a free item as a gesture of good faith.
Eventually we found the receipt on the back seat of the car but decided that they could keep the patty they charged us for but didn’t serve. The lecture and lack of empathy from the customer-service representative, after being a victim of their own failed process, made us lose all appetite for their food. I didn’t post details of my experience on my own socials, but I did fill out their online survey, and I posted a short note on the Instagram page.
To date, no one has reached out to me. Which is another communication failure.
A complaint from a customer is a gift. If they are kind enough to post on your page and not broadcast it on theirs, reach out immediately and do all you can to make it right.
One love!
Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA, and a certified trainer in entrepreneurship.yaneek.page@gmail.com
English (US) ·