closing time…

I feel like it is a rare treat to have a great customer service experience anymore. Very few people seem to take it on themselves to go above and beyond the call to just meet our demands or answer our questions. Our culture is making a huge shift out of the former “customer service” era to a “do it yourself” era. But with this shift, we are forgetting what it was like to have a great experience, as a customer, outside of the product but in terms of the service. I am quickly reminded of this every time I go into a grocery store or order food, outside of Chick-fil-a, where everyday is a great day(actually what they say every time I go there). Employees seem to focus less on the individual experience and more on meeting the request based on performance standards that measure workflow efficiencies and rarely focus on customer satisfaction. Customer service use to be defined by the quality in the experience but now it is defined by the quality of the answer or of the product. And where a business previously defined success by their clients, they now define success around a product. Now this obviously isn’t true across the board and probably is a very pessimistic view of the customer service world but I am speaking from a few observations. 

I was reaffirmed of this theory the other day when I was tracking down some cold medicine for a terrible cold. It was almost 10:00 pm and I was out seeking freedom from the exhausting symptoms of the cold. I located a CVS and proceeded to pull in to buy some relief and walked into the store at 9:57 pm. Now I did notice on the sign that they closed at 10:00 pm , but I thought I had plenty of time. But as the door opened and I walked in the store, the cashier looked at me and said, “we close in 2 minutes.” She then proceeded to just look at me as I stood there. It could have been the cold in me, but I was shocked by her comment and how she just continued to take her name-tag/shirt combo off and close her register. I stood there trying to decide what she meant by her comment as she walked away. Was she telling me that she wouldn’t check me out? Was she just being helpful and reminding me of her work schedule? I settled on the idea that CVS did not want to provide a great, high-quality customer experience (when one was really needed). So I left frustrated and confused about the current state of our culture. What sacrifice would it take to ask what I needed and to help me through my purchase like we were in the normal business hours of the day (which we were!)? This employee could have created a great experience for me and then I would be writing about how there is hope in the world based on a great experience I had at CVS. I would be telling you about the relief found in CVS through the help and sacrifice of one employee . It doesn’t take much to provide true quality within our shopping experience and the reward is overwhelming. Hopefully one day some company will get this and, when they do, get the business.  We like the speed and the flexibility to “do it ourselves” but we also desire the added value found in pleasant interactions with employees. 

Now I will continue to shop at CVS when I need something from their store because they still provide a product that adds value to my life (cold medicine). But I will not shop there to find high-quality interactions with their employees or service. So they will still get some of my business but not all of if or anything in addition to my needs for their product. With each business, they provide value in both, product and service.  The business that will get my attention and the attention of others will provide great products and a great service (as defined by customer service). 

If you want to read about some great examples of exceptional customer service, read The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. It will help provide a good picture of the value found within a great experience for the customer.