Creating an Excellent First Impression

... And I am One of The 82%

People really don’t realise the importance of customer service within the purchase experience. I was once told that I was neurotic by a former colleague when making the point that I refused to return to an organisation after poor customer service. 

Why do people decide to move their custom elsewhere? It’s a pain and time consuming, so for someone to do this, it is a big deal. 

But people do it for a smooth purchase process and good value for money. I moved both my car insurance and home insurance to new suppliers in the last month. I was not getting value for money and each time when I rang up to give the current provider the option to try and match the ‘confused’ price, they always said they could reduce it but not match it. I always reply that I am not one of those people who blindly continue with the same car insurance each year, because I want to get value for money (and I am Scottish). I add that I will not accept the renewal quote because I cannot be bothered to spend 10 minutes of my life updating my details and getting a new quote. So many people do it and continue paying higher fees because people are time poor.

So the second reason is a smooth purchase process. People are time poor (as we have discovered from above) and they want their purchases to be easy and smooth and take up as little time and energy as possible. Insurers could better their retention levels if they looked to increase their price by a small amount year on year meaning they could retain loyal customers and reducing the need to find new ones and gain more money each year at the same time. 

A smooth transaction looks like this: greeting the customer on entry and smiling, offering them help a little while on and then when the customer does ask for help, listen closely and act on exactly what the customer has said to ensure a speedy close to the purchase for the customer. A post purchase follow up would be nice also. (People do not see the importance of follow up especially if a person is buying a non-luxury product. Follow up during and after the purchase process says ‘we value you and your custom and want your business.’) Loyal customers like incentives to stay (not over 150% hikes in the price of insurance!). It is why I have never understand banks’ fascination with focusing incentives on the new customers all the time and forgetting their current customers. Look after the ones you have before trying to get others. 

Finally, this statistic shows that one of my favourite customer service training engagement slides is absolutely right. The slide asks the audience, which is the biggest single reason a business loses customers. The possible answers are a) competition b) indifference of one employee c) word of mouth and d) dissatisfaction with the product and the answer is always ‘b’ and every one is always shocked. But it’s true! I won't return to a certain hotel in Edinburgh, a local campsite, a Lake's cafe, an online shop and many others because the service I received did not equal the money I gave for the product as an exchange. Money is also hard won/ earned by the customer and the customer can go to another shop to purchase the same item in many cases, so customer service and shop service needs to take account of this.

In the end, customer service wins the deal. How can you not afford to invest in customer service for your staff and organisation? How can you not afford to ensure loyal customer tactics to support the customer experience, when it is more costly to gain new customers than it is to keep them? You cannot in this age, when customers are smart and savvy and want an experience. Millennials now dominate the market place, so ensure your experience meets their expectations!