Learning from a Customer

I found a customer service blog post that is quite interesting. The writer-- Bill Hogg-- was seeking to have some exterior painting done on his house. He called 2 of the student painting outfits. (I'm not going to comment on that part of the story.)

Company A provided an estimate quickly and with no hassle. Company B waited a week to return the original phone call. When they did return the call, Company B insisted that both the wife and husband be present when they inspected the job.

Mr. Hogg recognized what was going to happen-- high pressure, coupled with an incentive to sign on the spot. He cancelled the appointment.

"The lessons here are many, but the big one was they were in business for themselves -- not their customer," Hogg writes. "Their entire process and all the resultant issues that arose were because they were not thinking about my needs -- the definition of a customer-focused business."

Too many painting contractors project their desires, wants, and needs upon their customers. These contractors think that their values are more important that the values desired by customers. When a contractor starts thinking this way, he is headed towards problems.

Such thinking justifies being late for appointments-- it's only a few minutes. It justifies cutting corners-- nobody will ever know. It justifies one-way communications-- I'm the expert and the customer should listen to me. It justifies all sorts of attitudes that ignore the customer.

Customer service means servicing the customer. To do that, we must understand what they want, need, and desire. And that means focusing on the customer.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008