Research Articles

The Mark of Quality: A Personal Lesson in Customer Service

Rebecca Westphal
Communiation and Curriculum Manager
HRworkbench Pty Ltd


Every now and then you experience customer service that causes you to walk away from the situation with a smile on your face. I was fortunate enough to experience such customer service this month - and the impact it left on my impression of the company was strong enough that it made me want to share it with others. It also reminded me of a couple of notable lessons that I'd like to keep in mind when I'm in a service situation, and from which we can all benefit.

Five days earlier than my experience, my parents, Lyn and Bill Hennessy, had been visiting from their home in Old Bar, approximately two hours away from Newcastle. Living in a small beach town, they took advantage of their visit to our semi-city, and went shopping at some of the larger stores that they don't have access to at home. While shopping at one of these stores, they came across an outdoor furniture setting that happened to be on sale for 15% off the regular price.

The outdoor furniture met their basic needs in that it would:

  • Replace their old setting which had rotted through
  • Be available for seating the extended family at Christmas (six seats)
  • Be long lasting - the table was glass rather than wooden so would be better able to bear the weather
  • Look pleasing to them
  • Save them time and hassle because they wouldn't have to travel two hours to Newcastle to look for furniture at another date

However, it was slightly more expensive than they had been planning. Also, living two hours away from the store, they would have to add on the cost of delivery. Only with the 15% discount did the furniture look like meeting their monetary needs.

Because the setting met so many of their other needs, they decided to speak to a shop assistant about it anyway, and enquire about the logistics of delivery.

The shop assistant they spoke to explained that as they did not have a store in Lyn and Bill's area, they could not easily deliver the setting to them, but that they could have the setting delivered to their store in Newcastle where Lyn and Bill could either pick it up themselves or organise their own deliverer to pick it up and transport it to Old Bar.

This meant extra delivery costs, and also started to impinge their need for "hassle free". It was a big decision. So, they decided that they would have to think on the issue before making a final decision. Before they left, the customer service officer offered them a store convenience card, claiming that it would reduce the cost of the furniture even further. A look through the brochure quickly showed Lyn and Bill that the card would not actually save them money, as it relied on your ability to spend consistently at the store throughout the year. It also revealed that the customer service officer who made the sign up for the card received a commission.

A couple of hours later, they traveled back to Old Bar, still undecided about the furniture setting.

However, after a day or two of deliberations, a decision was reached, and I was asked to go to the store on their behalf to order the furniture setting and find out the logistics of organising our own deliverer. That week, I marched myself into the store, only to discover that the sale that had been available a few days earlier, had ended. Instead, a new promotion had been organised where anyone who bought the outdoor furniture setting could receive a gift voucher to spend at the store, for 15% of the value of the setting. This meant that rather than getting 15% deducted from the price of the setting, my parents would now have that money to spend.

I went in search of a shop assistant, feeling a little nervous about what I should do next. Because it met so many of the other needs of my parents, I had been given permission to purchase the furniture, even if the sale had ended. However, I knew this wasn't an ideal situation.

It took me a while, but soon I found Sam, a different shop assistant than we had been served by on the weekend. I asked him to explain the new promotion to me fully. He did, and it was as I had suspected. I frowned and explained that my parents had been in on the weekend but hadn't been able to make up their mind about the furniture in the time they were here. Immediately Sam said, "The sale was still available on Sunday. They would have been expecting to be able to get the 15% off, wouldn't they?"

I agreed they had, but told Sam that they were happy to buy the furniture anyway, if that's what they had to do. I had already come to the foregone conclusion that this was the case. But Sam surprised me.

"If they're not from Newcastle, they can hardly get here easily to spend their voucher, can they?"

"No," I said, "Not easily."

"Well," said Sam, "I'm sure there's something we can do about this. Would you prefer to receive the discount if that was possible?"

"Absolutely," I said.

And with that, Sam started the ball rolling to make it happen. He had to make a phone call to have his decision approved. But while this happened, he organised for me to start filling in the necessary paperwork.

"I'm sure there won't be a problem, so we'll fill in everything but the price until the last second," he said.

Once he'd confirmed that we could purchase the furniture for a discounted price, we started on delivery.

"My parents said they're happy to organise a deliverer," I said.

"Where do they live?" asked Sam.

When I told him, he said that he thought he could organise their store carriers to have it delivered to the neighbouring town, 15 minutes away from my parent's house.

"They're shut tonight, so I can't organise this now, but how about I ring your parents tomorrow and get it sorted?"

"That," I said, "would be wonderful."

By this stage, I was already smiling, but before I folded up my paperwork and put it in my handbag, Sam said,

"Let me write down the name of the furniture manufacturer on your papers for you. I know they operate throughout Australia so you can easily contact them if anything goes wrong before the warranty runs out, or if you decide you want a couple more seats or anything like that."

"Thank you, Sam," I said. "You've been so helpful."

"You're welcome. I'm happy to help," he said.

The next day, Sam rang my parents to organise delivery, and two days later the outdoor setting arrived - delivered to their door for no extra charge. And the store had three happy customers.

Sam reminded me of some important lessons I had learnt as a student of "the Bench" Product, Quality Customer Relationships".

The first, and most important, was that you need to pay attention and identify your customer's personal needs. The 15% gift voucher may have suited some customers perfectly, who would have been happy to have the extra money spend. But Sam was able to recognise that this promotion would not suit Lyn and Bill's needs. Not only would it not meet their monetary needs, it would definitely cause them hassle's in trying to use the gift voucher within a specified time frame, and probably result in them traveling to Newcastle again. Sam also recognised that having to organise their own deliverer would add to the hassle for Lyn and Bill, so he went to the extra effort of enquiring about this on their behalf.

These were important needs to recognise because while the outdoor setting met Lyn and Bill's other needs (it looked pleasing to them, would replace their old one, and would be long lasting), these were needs that could probably be met elsewhere, by another piece of furniture.

And what did the store have to lose by offering Lyn and Bill the old sale price, rather than the new promotion? Nothing. Either way, they would be losing 15% of the value of the furniture, whether off the furniture itself, or through another product at a later date. On the other hand, what did they have to gain? A pleased customer who would share their experience with others, and be more likely to consider the store as their first port of call next time they had a need.

This stands in great contrast to the original customer service officer we encountered. While she knew that delivery was one of Lyn and Bill's needs, she didn't recognise its importance, or make any attempts to meet this need. Also, although she realised that Lyn and Bill lived a long distance away, she tried to on-sell them a deal (the convenience card) that was clearly unrealistic for them, simply because it benefited her own needs.

The second lesson I learnt was about asking questions. Sam was able to identify my parent's needs, not only by listening carefully to what I had to say, but also by asking me questions about their situation - asking if they would have difficulty using the gift voucher, clarifying my preferred option etc.

Again, this contrasted to our first experience at the store. The first customer service officer didn't remember to ask important questions about what we needed, so missed out on the opportunity to probe deeper into how she could satisfy those needs, and make a sale.

The third lesson I learnt was about the language used in customer service. Sam encouraged an open relationship that made me feel secure in the knowledge that he would do whatever was possible to make things work. I had complete confidence that Sam knew what he was doing and that whatever he organised would be the best option available.

How did he achieve this?

"I'm sure there's something we can do about this."

". there won't be a problem."

"I'll. get it sorted."

"I'm happy to help."

Almost every statement from Sam was a positive one that showed that he was taking personal responsibility for the situation. He was in control - and he let me know it.

The first shop assistant, on the other hand, used language such, "we can't, but", "you could.", putting responsibility for the purchase solely on the client.

Finally, there were the little touches. First, by asking me to fill in my details whilst he made a phone call, Sam kept me occupied while he made his enquires. This meant that I was more tolerant of the extra time taken in the transaction. Secondly, he provided me with the product manufacturing details so that my parents could easily chase up any enquiries of their own about the furniture. This didn't provide him with any extra benefit as it would not result in my parents coming back to the store for these enquires. However, it did something more important. It built a relationship of trust between us, which made me want to experience his service again.

I believe that we could all learn something from Sam. Think of the benefits if you were able to learn strategies for identifying your customer's human resource needs; if instead of trying to force a product to fit their situation, you found a solution to their problems.

Similarly, think of the extra business your clients could achieve if each of their employees knew how to use the language of customer service to build confidence in the company name, or how to extend the tolerance of a waiting client on a busy day.

The blended learning program, Quality Customer Relationships has won awards for its ability to develop behaviour change in a customer service environment. Rather than being process driven (do this, then say that - "have a nice day"), Quality Customer Relationships teaches techniques and appropriate behaviours for customer service situations. The training covers areas such as: solving your customers problems, using assertive customer service language that shows a "can do" attitude, extending the limits of customer tolerance, and dealing with difficult customers.

Sam knew many of the lessons of Quality Customer Relationships. Imagine what you could achieve if you could apply those lessons, plus more, in a strategic way. I don't know about you, but that's a goal for which I want to aim.

Follow this link for more information about Quality Customer Relationship" or any of our other blended learning programs.