BAD SERVICE NO longer stays between the customer and the business.
Today, a dirty switch, remote control, missing coat hangers, or one careless detail can quickly become a public complaint.
The number of customer complaints on websites is astonishingly high.
There are even international websites where complaints about bad service, false promises and substandard products are posted for all and sundry across the world to view. Better-known ones include Bitter Business Bureau, Ripoff Report, Planet Feedback and Pissed Consumer.
Larger firms tend to have helplines where customers can log complaints about sub-optimal service and faulty products.
In Namibia, dissatisfied customers often vent on social media and via SMSes to The Namibian for publishing in the daily newspaper.
Our work with entrepreneurs requires extensive travel across the country and stays at a variety of accommodation establishments.
After checking in and on entering the bedroom, small but telling bugbears begin to matter.
Foremost is the absence of coat hangers. A question that begs for an answer is: Why provide cupboards for guests, but not the means to hang up clothing?
Nine out of 10 times, after checking in one must return to the establishment’s reception to ask for coat hangers.
Next there are those dirty light switches, the television remote control and on further inspection a shower that is not in an acceptable state.
These are all strong indicators of a lack of supervision and managerial control.
Inevitably, after checking in and entering the room, one must first spend time doing an inspection, followed by a cleaning job.
It was Harry Selfridge who first coined the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ way back in 1909.
More than a century later, its core reminder remains useful: Customers notice the small things, and those trivial things shape whether they return. More so travellers, guests and foreign tourists.
Business success starts with the customer, and customer care lies at the heart of all successful businesses – irrespective of the size, location, and sector in which the enterprise operates.
Yes, to be successful one must make money, return a profit, and provide for a need in terms of goods or services.
The owner must be customer-centric, focused, manage risks, work hard and smart, make personal sacrifices, and comply with the laws, rules, and regulations of the land.
All good and well, but why does a customer choose one business in preference to another?
Often it comes down to service, care, and the feeling that someone has thought about the customer’s comfort before the customer had to complain.
When it comes to accommodation establishments, a good starting point is for owners to periodically stay in their own rooms.
By doing so they will discover first-hand what is wrong, notice what begs for improvement, then fix the trivial things before they become the reason a customer goes elsewhere.
The customer is king means business owners must prioritise customer satisfaction above all else.
Failure to listen to customers and responding or striving to exceed expectations will become the pathway to business failure.
– Danny Meyer is reachable at danny@smecompete.com
