Customer service is such an important part of our businesses and we all know it. But when you think about it, do you think about the big interactions or all the interactions? If there’s a big problem and you remedy it, you are generally in good shape. But what happens when there’s a little problem. One of those run-of-the-mill, these-things-happen issues?
I have a vendor who works for me (rather than a client). They switched computer systems which caused a glitch in my billing. While it was a minor issue, it took a couple hours on my part to get it resolved and I had to involved multiple people. I was not happy. But it got solved and the people were nice so I let it go. Then, that same switch caused a second issue. Again, not earth-shattering and something that if I put 30 minutes in I could fix. But now I really resent having to put in the 30 minutes. So when a sales rep reached out to try to sell me additional services and called a different number than I specified as being the contact number? I’m now pissed enough to explore other options. Isn’t that sad?
In a company the size of my vendor, my business won’t be noticed when it is gone. I don’t expect anyone to call or follow up or even notice. And I know enough people at the vendor that it is an awkward thing for me to change. But change I am because these little issues are adding up to a big headache I don’t need.
During all of this, I walked into a meeting with a client where her customer service manager mentioned the loss of a client. Of course my client asked why and when the customer service manager detailed a recent issue, the team decided it wasn’t a big enough deal she should have left. But I pushed – who else was involved in her account? Doing a little investigating we discovered multiple people had touched this account and had little issues. Nothing serious or even worth reporting but still there. All the little things added up.
Do you have processes in your business that could cause the same kinds of issues? Do you have a way to look at customer activity throughout your company to know if they have an issue in multiple areas? Don’t lose a customer and their business to a series of little things.
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