As founder of a marketing agency in Phoenix, I ask the rhetorical question, is excellent customer service becoming something of a rare commodity, or have I just been getting unlucky lately?
For more than 33 years, our Arizona marketing agency has preached the gospel of excellent customer service, yet just this past week, I have experienced three separate incidents in which the customer service I received was, to put it mildly, deficient. Two of these times involved auto repair situations (when it rains, it pours!), one at a highline dealership that speaks with a decidedly Teutonic accent and one that involved my (heretofore) trusty 2004 Hyundai. One encounter was characterized by seeming indifference seasoned with a pinch of arrogance and the other featured a frustrating blend of incompetence and undependability (I’ll let you guess which dealership was which, though I suppose that is immaterial).
One case involved a repair bill just north of $1200.00 and the other – though it has yet to be estimated six days later! – will (just a guess) probably come in closer to $3,000.00. The latter will be entirely covered by a warranty, but, silly me, it seems expenditures on this scale (and the fact my P______ died in the middle of a busy intersection) merit just a little bit of TLC.
Yet another incident involved a purported “help desk” attendant at a well known, maybe “not so super” market chain, who for several minutes ignored me, then snapped at me when I asked politely if anyone was on duty there.
The lesson
The point to all of this, as I’m confident any advertising or public relations professional would agree, is: If major (or, even, minor) marketing budgets are not complemented by good and caring customer service does marketing serve its purpose? Or, to put it more succinctly, if a company makes a brand promise to attract customers, shouldn’t that promise be kept?
The Hyundai case in point has caused me to strongly consider taking my future business – which may even involve a new car purchase – to a dealer 12 miles away, rather than this one, conveniently located only two miles away. And, rest assured, I am doing this neither out of spite nor as a demonstration of masochistic tendencies. It’s just that I need to be able to count on a vendor, and trust their word.
Granted, these may be isolated incidents, but when three crop up in a matter of three consecutive days, it feels more like a trend. Well, now that I’ve vented, please heed the lesson imbedded within these stories. It is this: Treat customers like precious possessions, ones that once lost may never return.
Not only will this leverage your marketing expenditures, it likely will convert them to lasting relationships and that most valuable of all results – good word of mouth advertising.
Marketing Partners of Arizona (MPA) was founded in 1976 by Allan Starr, and serves a local, regional and national clientele with diverse services including strategic marketing, advertising, public relations, sponsorship procurement, e mail marketing and online initiatives. Starr is former governor of the Southwest District of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), two term president of The Arizona Small Business Assn. and is serving a sixth term on the board of directors of The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.
Author Resource:
Allan Starr founded Marketing Partners in 1976. The Phoenix-based firm provides local, regional, national and international strategic marketing, advertising, public relations and sales promotion services for a diverse client list. http://www.markpart.com
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