In almost every company I have worked for, I have fought to get pay rises for the Customer Service team as they are so critical to operations. In every single company, it was a long, drawn out battle and never a given. When you train and retain the best, you get passionate customers. The best products in the world are easily undermined by a bad customer experience, so if you aren't the best you REALLY can't afford to disregard your customers.
@sapadian Brand loyalty is a function of service received. Provide great service alongside great products and you will get loyal customers. Great products and service are a function of great employees given the free reign to do great work, so you are correct in that you need to treat your employees well. They are not your employees, you are but stewards of their careers and the question is whether or not those careers improved under your guidance. Great leaders understand this instinctively.
@soaklord OMG SO MUCH THIS!!!
@soaklord sadly most people now expect garbage customer service and care more about cost/convenience than good aftercare.
Plus there's rarely an option that provides truly good customer service. It's largely a myth.
Plus plus, more and more of these jobs are being automated and paying less. It's now a race to the bottom.
@TimeSnow While cost/convenience do play a role in the overall consideration, I will say that good aftercare is still important in the minds of consumers. Android outsells Apple as a whole, however, the combined majority of smartphone handsets come from the two higher end manufacturers, Apple and Samsung. Apple's products come with years of aftercare in terms of software upgrades despite their refusal to race to the bottom and they are the most profitable of phone makers.
@soaklord I think you've proven my point. Apple and Samsung sell the same amount, Android sells more than Apple many months. People obviously aren't buying based on customer service. At least a majority aren't. Most phones anyway are serviced by the retail outlets e g. Service providers.
Look at top food chains. No customer service. Top airlines. No difference. Etc. Etc.
It's just not a thing anyone does very well, or well enough to drive customers in meaningful numbers.
@soaklord at least that's my opinion. I wish btw that it was true, that treating people well me them more likely to spend money with you, but... There's scant evidence it is.
@TimeSnow I think you'll find this article makes your point quite well. And yet, I still hold out hope for the Richard Bransons of the world disrupting businesses by actually taking care of customers.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/07/customer_satisfaction_is_our_highest_priority_ok_maybe_secondhighest_or_third/
@soaklord that article was great! 👍
I'm actually a relatively optimistic person, but not about businesses thinking spending more on it will increase their profits.
I'm glad you're trying to push it though!
@soaklord @wogan and I had a similar conversation about this. The problem is no brand loyalty anymore, and companies either put no effort into their products or the people who make the product and the company great, including all of the support staff. If you want to make a difference do it with your wallet and refuse to buy products from companies who mistreat their employees! #business