112 - Customer Relations - Finding a Positive Balance

Audio Transcript – Customer Relations, Finding a Positive Balance Episode 112

*SOME VARIATION MAY OCCUR FROM RECORDING TO TEXT. 

 Hi everyone.  It’s Lindy here, and I’m absolutely delighted to be back in the podcast chair. My voice is a little bit off this morning, it’s pollen season right now and I’m noticing I’m on my puffer a little bit more these days, so bear with me if I have a little bit of a husky voice, this is not a whisky voice, this is a springtime voice, there you go (laugh) anyway, … I hope you had a great weekend.  I sure did, and it sure went by fast.  The sun was shining this past weekend, and it was so beautiful here in the Comox Valley, yeah I’m right here on Vancouver Island, and it was absolutely gorgeous out. I even got up at 5 am doing laundry on Sunday because I knew it was going to be a good day for drying clothes on the line outside.  I love the smell of towels and pillowcases when they have dried outside in the fresh air, it’s just so nice, so so so nice.  I really don’t like it when wasps and spiders try to catch a ride and come inside, but I’ve become smarter and put the clothes in the dryer on cold air for 5 minutes before I put them away.  That’s pretty helpful…It usually gets ride of any critters that might try to catch a ride into the house. There you go…anyway, I’m sure you weren’t listening to my podcast to hear me airing my dirty laundry, and you weren’t actually listening to hear about my clean laundry either. 

Today I’m going to talk a bit about customer service, and just a mild touch on it and how people respond differently in different situation.  I put some polls on this past week on my Lindy’s Audio Café Podcast page on Facebook.   I was asking a variety of questions to see how people would respond to different customer service-related situations.  Usually when I put a poll out on my group page, it’s because I have a topic lingering in the back of my mind, and I know it will end up as a podcast.

The first question I asked was about a vehicle service.  I gave a scenario where you take your vehicle into a dealership at 7:30 in the morning for an oil change, hand over the keys to someone at the counter, and head to the waiting room.  2 hours later your vehicle has not even gone in the shop yet, and when you ask about it, the dealership tells you they tried to reach you on your cell phone to see where you were.  You had your appointment booked for 7:30, it’s now 9:30, your vehicle has not been in, yet it has been sitting there in the parking lot the whole time. OK, so this was a screw up, plain and simple. Someone took the keys and forgot to pass it on the right person.  I asked how people would respond is this happened.  26% of respondents said walk out and take your business elsewhere., 12% said stay longer until the service is completed, 25% said walk out and let the manager know you are not happy, and 25% said to smile and know that it’s two hours wasted but humans make mistakes and just hope the dealership will compensate you for your screw up.   What does that tell me?  First of all, mistakes happen.  2nd of all, people respond with different expectations when an issue has occurred.  Some would be more angry and others would be more forgiving.  What none of us know in this situation is how the dealership responded in their efforts to correct it, or what was going on in the day of the person who had just lost 2 hours of valuable time while they sat in that waiting room.   All we know from the outside in, is that it wasn’t a good day for a few people that day and probably some people were more unhappy than others. Oh dear.

Anyway, another question I asked was relating to when a famous movie star attends a beauty salon, such as hair or esthetics.  I wanted to know if people thought it was ok for staff members to share with other clients that they had provided services to that movie star in the morning.  Okay, so this was interesting, 1% said Absolutely, How exciting to have that opportunity to provide services to a movie star.  33% said nope, this is a privacy breach for the movie star.  50% said well it depended on if the star came through a public entrance or asked for privacy.  One person added it was ok to discuss it, but no photos.  So that is interesting also.  I can’ t comment on privacy laws, but I have been places where people have discussed who has sat in their chair, or what family members accompanied the star to the visit.  Myself, personally, I wouldn’t disclose it to another client but that also comes me  from working in environments where you were not permitted to disclose who customers are. My brain likely works that way still because my first office job was in a law office at the age of 19 years old, and it was mandatory that we didn’t ’t even acknowledge where we know a client if we run into them in a grocery store or something.  It was the same when I worked in a medical environment. We just didn’t disclose if we know somebody from them coming in.  I also get it that if the star is in the store or lobby paying a bill, anybody that’s there can see who was there.  Myself, I probably wouldn’t disclose it to another clients but that’s just me. 

Another scenario I gave was how would you respond in a clothing shop if a customer asked you to produce two new designs so they could choose which one to pick from.  You have pair of purple pants on the racks, they want blue ones, just whip up a couple so designs and I’ll pick from there.   55% said they say they’d be happy do that, but with a fee for custom design work.  Only 1% said they’d be happy to give a ½ hr of their time with no guarantee of purchase.  44% said they’d be happy to do that for a fee, but would waive the design fee if the customer buys 6 or more.  So,I found that interesting.  I think I agreed with all but 1% but that doesn’t mean I’m right they they are wrong, it just means we have different opionions.  It’s always great to donate a half hour of your time, hoping a customer will appreciate it, but then it can become expected, or you simply can’t give away free time all day.  I found myself in that situation in my first year with my little book business.  In an effort to always be helpful and be kind, I was feeling like I couldn’t charge for my time.  Then it became a pattern where people would just ask me for “can you whip this up” or “just give me a few samples and then I’ll decide” and I learned really quickly that it was easy to ask when it is on my time and my dime.  I’ve had people send me all kinds of ideas for “hey you could create this or you should create that” and in many cases it’s well meaning, but again, my time, my dime and my risk.  It brought me back to a post I had read online last winter from a well-known television host who talked about the cost of always working for free.  It’s a fine line between being helpful and running in circles for free, and I think in this case most people who responded understood the value of time. The other was likely looking at it from a different angle, and that’s ok too.

My last question was about a dental office.  How would you respond if you had a new retainer made, which involved going in for mold in the morning, and coming back in the afternoon at a scheduled time to pick it up, and the staff sent you to the patient’s bathroom to try it on?  0% said they would agree to do that.  0% said they would offer to try it on at home.  100% said they would ask to do this in a place other than the patient bathroom and would request a clean and sanitized areaNo one said they would find another dental office and never go back.   So this was interesting, because in this case everyone agreed they should be offered a clean and sanitized environment for trying on a dental appliance, and they all offered the opportunity for the office do what should have happened in the first place.   Of course I look at it, and think with all the flu bugs and crap going around, why would a place that is supposed to have high standards of sanitization send anyone to a bathroom to try on a dental appliance?  Even if you wash your hands in the bathroom, it’s still a bathroom, and not just yours.  

Going through life, we are going to run into different situations.  What is acceptable for one person, may not be acceptable for another.  How one person responds can be very different from how another person responds, and it doesn’t make anyone a good or a bad person.  It means we have different ways of dealing with things, different coping mechanisms and each person has a varied level of tolerance.  

Mistakes and poor judgment can happen in the workplace.  People are human, and mistakes happen.  If someone in the workplace has a screw up, most people are pretty good when the staff member comes out and apologies, makes  an effort to rectify the issue or provide fair compensation.  

If it was me, and someone forgot to record I brought my car in, and I had been sitting for 2 hours waiting for what should be like no more than 30 minute job, I would frustrated but I would respond well if they staff realized the errors, apologized and offered to make good.  If the staff came out blaming me because I didn’t hear my cell phone, that would not be ok, after all you would think someone would notice a client had sat in the waiting area for 2 hours.  Again, we all respond differently, and presentation from both ends can sometimes make a difference in the final outcome.

As far as creations, well,  I always try to remember that not everyone thinks about the time factor in digital creations. In my particular case that is.  They assume because it is not printed that there is no cost, but reality is time is money.  It’s one thing do so something out of the kindness of your heart, another thing to be asked to work for free. It happens to contractors all the time.   “Well you’re here, can you just fix that door, or can you just pain that wall”, but thinking that it could be done at no extra charge.  Again, if someone offers to do it for free, good on them, but to expect it is not ok.

Last but not least, the dental office scenario.  Should you have to ask for a clean environment to wash your hands and touch your mouth with a dental appliance or shouldn’t that just be a given?  After all, you aren’t in a grocery store picking up a retainer on aisle 5, you’re in a dentist office.  

Ok, I’ve screwed up in jobs before. I’m human. Oh I had some bloopers, but who hasn’t?  Tell me one person who has never screwed something up in their life.   Again, if you are the one who screwed up, it’s how you respond and what you offer to do about it that can make a difference in keeping the customer relationship.  

No matter what, we are all in this world together and finding ways to work through things can be so much easier than having flare ups.  Often it takes two sides.  Are you willing to be the side that tries work together or are you likely to get picked off and walk away before a wrong can be made right?  Are you willing to eat a piece of humble pie and say sorry, maybe go the extra mile to correct that mistake?

Last year I did a two part series on customer services, and the second part was so helpful.  If you haven’t had a chance to listen, I recommend going back to that episode. I’ll put a link in the show notes.  
 
 In the meantime, let’s call it a day and focus on positives.  If you go into a business today and someone has a little oops, try to be forgiving if they are willing to make it right.  If they have an oops and refuse to make it right unless you squawk, well, you know where the door is and time to find another than opens.  

Before I head out, a quick reminder that you can join the Lindy’s Audio Café Podcast group to stay on top of future episodes and be part of this fun community.  This is a hobby podcast, and my goal is to keep this positive and thought-provoking.  This little podcast is created at a home-based studio right here in the beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.   If you enjoyed the episode, please be sure to click like and share on your own social platforms.  Positive reviews are always welcome on whatever app you are using to listen.  

Have a great week everyone and remember what I always say…smiles come in all languages and in all colors.

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