Customer Service Has Gone the Way Of The Typewriter---Or Has It?

Remember the good’ol typewriter? Bulky but functional, it got the job done until Wang introduced the Word Processor. Market leader Smith-Corona responded with an electronic typewriter. In 1985, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Change is incessant (not just a campaign theme), and smart businesses and individuals need to scan the horizon for what is next. What’s the next big idea? What products and services that are dominant today will be replaced by technology tomorrow?

While the average person may not be able to predict future technological breakthroughs, I believe that a revolution in CUSTOMER SERVICE may be the next big competitive advantage. Since the customer is always a human being (and not likely to be replaced by a machine), why is it that so many companies have chosen to automate their interaction with the customer?

Websites are one thing. Allowing the public to access information instantly with little trouble is a good thing. Having a MACHINE answer your business line is another. Here at 94.9 WHOM, we often must put the Listener Lines to voicemail (since the DJ is on the air), BUT we answer ALL questions where a return phone number is left. Requests are also given due consideration.

Everyone has a horror story of being on infinite “HOLD”, being passed from one person to another (complete with goony music in between) and generally being treated like a pile of garbage. Promises broken, rude behavior and indifference to the customer is rotten now—and on the rise.

Customer service is not a lost art everywhere. Watch the short video—and entertaining story about a cab driver in Dallas who went above and beyond to make one customer happy-a practice that he clearly repeats with every single rider:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG48U5iPESA


Companies and individuals that become an example by TREASURING the customer and making that ideal a reality by their actions—will prosper in the years to come!

If I ever go back to Dallas, I hope that I am fortunate enough to get THAT cab driver—and regardless, he is an inspiration to everyone, no matter what their career. If a “lowly” taxi driver (and I say that only because no doubt many of their “important” businessmen and women view the job as such) can deliver that kind of customer service, all of us no have a bar to reach.

If you’d like my blog in your weekday box, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com