Can't Tell Good Without Bad

In order for you to claim to be "better" you have had to experience something worse. Without the comparison point, the exercise is futile.

But unfortunately, the vast majority of organizations who claim to have better service have never really put themselves in the customer's shoes. They have never really actually experienced their own service. The vast majority of companies have never really taken the time to individually assess the service model of their competitors. They think, in their mind, that they know the service model their competitors are using but they really don't. So they believe that a few minor tweaks and adjustments on their own service will allow them to claim "better service."

Recently, I had a face-to-face heated discussion with a hardware store manager. After being under-serviced by many of his staff I took my complaint directly to his office. He jumped out from behind his desk and began running all over the store as though he was my trained servant. This is not what I wanted. I simply wanted to be served well by the people who stand in the aisles of the hardware store and whose job it is to serve people.

When I arrived at the front checkout counter, I was asked by the cashier, "did you find everything you were looking for?"

I did not find everything I was looking for. I was looking for service. But by the time I get to the front counter, it's too late to address that issue.

I'm sure that in the manager's mind his own store service was adequate. But from my perspective, the service was mediocre. It was ordinary. It was average. Maybe even below-average.

Attitude Adjustment: If you, as a manager, have to jump out from behind your desk and run all over the store to serve the customer that your customer service people should have already served, then you have a service problem. And this doesn't just apply to retail locations. If the customers are asking for a manager or supervisor, then your customer service reps are not doing it right. If your clients are asking for a manager to intervene in sales, you're not doing it right.

You are creating a "bad service" experience for your customers. These are exactly the kinds of stories your customers take to your competitors. In fact, your competitors will probably build a customer service model based on that experience and claim that their service is "better." And they would be right.