Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM DECEMBER 2018 64 I hate to keep harping on this point, but if the economy continues to improve, the way we handle our customers could deteriorate. Perhaps you have more business than you've seen in years. That's great news! The question is, how will you manage the new business without degrading your key goal of ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty? Like many, I have repair and service needs almost every day. As a customer who is loyal to companies that have treated me well in the past, I have recently begun to experience some unusual treatment just because, as they put it, "We're very busy right now." Being busy is great, but handling increased volume in a professional manner is a key ingredient to your continued success. So how are you handling the market under the current, hopefully enjoyable circumstances? The first key ingredient is to properly assess each situation and prioritize it. Is this a new account or a long-standing account? This does make a difference, because your existing accounts are very important to your business, as they have certainly been in the past. They are also the customers who might be more amenable to an explanation that a delay in repair time is necessary for some logical, understandable reason. But if they give you extra time to complete their work, don't ask for a second extension, or their cooperation may turn to an "I need it NOW" attitude in this and future situations. Of course, you must evaluate whether this is an emergency repair that requires your immediate attention. Then if you need to handle a critical situation, plan for time in the scheduling process to call any other customers whose schedules might be affected, and explain why. In these situations, prompt communication is a key to keeping everyone happy. It's also important to send qualified people to do the work, and not stretch the skills of an unqualified technician to take care of your customer, especially if they are patiently waiting to have their problem fixed. When you get more business than your staff can handle, sometimes the tendency is to send a technician out on calls they might not be equipped to handle. If they can't address the issue, the customer will have to wait again to have it properly repaired. Remember the compound effect of needing replacement or warranty parts that must be ordered to fix a problem. Now we add the time element of whether the manufacturer who's also "very busy" getting you the needed parts to make the repair and may be too busy to even approve a warranty issue. This situation will also have to be explained to your customer up front so you aren't creating unrealistic expectations. These are just a few of the concerns that can occur when we in the service business get busy. The key person in the customer satisfaction role is, of course, the customer service representative who is probably doing their best to handle each call professionally. They should be realistic with the customer, while doing their best to provide the fastest quality service possible. They must understand the customer's problem and provide the fastest possible response by a technician who has the best chance of fixing the problem the first time. At the same time, it is important that the customer service representative is able to juggle things when unusual situations arise. Remember that we are never so busy that we shouldn't try to handle each customer as professionally as possible so they'll come back again. In both good times and bad, the customer service representative is usually our MVP! WE'RE ALL VERY BUSY! S E R V I C E D E P A R T M E N T Don Pierson, Certified Service Center (CSC) www.certifiedservicecenter.org RO

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