About two weeks ago, I walked into a popular cake shop in Nairobi to place an order. There were 3 ladies at reception chatting but it took them almost 3 minutes to ask me ‘what I wanted’ without even greeting me or welcoming me to their shop.
As I placed my order, I could not help but listen to their conversation. They were talking about their colleague in another branch who offers bad service to clients; they were also saying that the new shop opening would be a total fail because the colleague in question was going to head that branch.
Listening to that conversation changed my perspective of that brand.
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| Image from dinedelish.com |
The reason I still went ahead to place my order was that I was short of time and they make very delicious cakes. Business owners should not just be happy when they have customers who are with them for lack of better alternatives: rather they should be happy because their customers are with them because of the great experiences they have with the business.
Customers who are only there for lack of a better option could only be good in the short-term, as soon as they find better services or have good experiences with brands that may not necessarily have the best products, they move. It is cheaper to maintain customers that it is to acquire new ones. More often than not, happy and loyal customers will share their good experiences with anyone who is willing to listen. Having delightful and memorable customer interactions is ultimately the best form of advertising for any business.
My customer experience would have been different if:
- The shop attendants welcomed me to their shop.
- Made me feel important by reducing the wait time before interacting with me.
- Paused their story till after I’d left. I found it inappropriate for them to continue with that kind of discussion in my presence.
- Converse with me and even give me options; what I had was more of a one-sided conversation.
- Thanked me for stopping by.
It is the little things that always count. Customer service and customer experience should not be a department but rather an organisation’s culture.
5 comments
well articulated
Very true. I just happened to have a very similar experience recently in a bus. But in my case the first Office I came in contact with had good customer care, but the bus conductor and the attendants at the destination town ruined my first experience completely. Unfortunately for me they're kinda a monopoly in service for the towns I was traveling to and fro. So I had to board a bus from same company in the way back. I cared to walk to the first Office and rant my dissatisfaction about the company in general but praise that very attendant for a better play on his part.
Thank you.
I am sorry about your experience Clarence. I hope they noted your concern and actually addressed the issue to avoid a repeat of the same.
You phrased it right. Many businesses go down havinv been caused by that sort of employees.