Customer service: a lost art

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Sal Valeo
  • 514th Force Support Squadron
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Many of the interactions we have with others in our hectic lives center around the simple but often underused skill of customer service.

Recently I began a long-awaited weekend only to find a 3-inch bolt in the rear tire of my vehicle. Although annoyed by the fact, I quickly replaced the tire with a spare and headed to the local tire repair center.

Upon walking into the office of the repair center, I noticed a few seated customers in a lounge and a service manager standing at the service desk. Although my entrance broke what appeared to be a deafening silence, my presence resulted in no reaction from the service desk. Patiently waiting to attract some attention I noticed that the manager appeared to be oblivious to the fact that a customer had entered.

Have you ever expressed a variation of this scene in your own interactions? It could just as well have occurred at the deli counter, the dry cleaner or the local department store. These experiences highlight the downfall of customer service in our fast paced, smart-phone driven, technology-filled lives.

Reaching into the past, I recalled memories of having groceries delivered to our home with a smile, fresh milk and eggs delivered to the now extinct milk box on our front door. Who can recall pulling into a gas station and having your oil checked and windows cleaned while filling your tank?

I may be dating myself but I learned the value of good customer service from many work experiences in various industries throughout my years. I was fortunate to be mentored by a wise employer who explained the SWAF theory of customer service to me. Simply explained, every interaction we have with our customers should contain four basic elements: smile, welcome, attention and follow-up.

Outstanding customer service involves smiling when a customer enters, supplemented by standing if we are seated, welcoming the customer as if they were a long lost friend, paying close attention to their questions or requests and following up immediately if possible or assuring them that you will notify them upon a resolution.

Yes, this takes a lot of work but the prize is satisfied customer. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, "a dissatisfied customer will tell between nine and 15 people about their experience and around 13 percent of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. On the other hand happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about four to six people about their experience."

Based on these facts, every organization should investigate how they are being perceived by their own clientele. An examination of customer feedback or complaints can easily uncover a short fall in customer service.

If you are a leader or supervisor and are fortunate enough to receive a customer complaint (yes, I said fortunate), then you have an advantage. Unhappy customers will not only recount their unpleasant experience to everyone they know, but also have access to hundreds of ways to take their complaint viral. And quite often, a customer who receives bad customer service will not file a formal complaint but will probably never return.

As an office staffer, begin by analyzing any complaints received immediately and then begin incorporating the SWAF philosophy into your daily routine. Once the SWAF approach becomes a habit, you may also find there are added benefits.

The first result is that you will begin to feel better about your contributions to your own organization. Multiplying the feel-good attitude by the number of members of your department will bring unfound benefits not only to the workplace climate but also to the pride of an organization. Examine your approach to your customers - and we all have customers. Ask yourself how many of the SWAF elements do you use in every interaction?

Excellent customer service benefits the customers, the staffers and contributes to the organization's future. Feeling good about customer service interactions is contagious. If you are fortunate to experience that extra effort, notice how your mood is altered. As a staffer, notice how your own mood is altered by your positive and honest interest in providing excellent customer service.

Additionally, excellent customer service is not limited to face-to-face interactions. Phone calls should be answered within four rings, and e-mail customer service questions responded to within 24 to 48 hours. And if you let voicemail answer your calls, a prompt return call should occur within the same time span. Each office should establish acceptable customer service levels, and leadership should ensure those levels are met.

At first, you may dismiss this theory as not being worth the effort. Yes there will always be the one percent of your customers who do not acknowledge your extra effort, but I can assure you that the remaining 99 percent will. As Airmen, we must always attribute this extra effort to the third element of our core values - excellence in all we do.

Transforming troubled work centers and deteriorating attitudes can begin with these small steps. Why not give it a try? The results may exceed your expectations.

To quote business expert Dale Carnegie, "Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."