It never ceases to amazing me when I see businesses doing the basics so poorly! Why is it so hard to get the simple things right. You’d kind of think that because they are the fundamental pillars on which a sound business is built that they would be understood, measured and replicable for ’structural integrity’ - but noooo!

Take poor customer service for example which is a common complaint from many customers. My Sister has just returned from a week’s vacation with her husband and three kids. The day she got back she realized that she had left her mobile phone charger in the hotel room. Well, thinking it would be simple to have the (small and light), charger sent the hundred or so miles back to her, a phone call to the hotel owner left her scratching her head.

Now, my Sis had just spent quite a few hundred dollars on accommodation and food and stayed at the hotel the previous year so was a returning customer (a nice type of customer to have). Yet, in response to her inquiry on how best to have the charger returned to her the response was "we don’t have any envelopes". Being nice, my Sister offered to send a postage-paid envelope to which the hotel owner eagerly agreed as a great idea.

The result, my Sister needs to limit her use of the phone to preserve the battery, go-out and buy a postage-paid envelope ($4), address & send it in another envelope, hope that it doesn’t take too long for her envelope to arrive at the hotel and for the hotel’s owner or staff to mail the charger back to her, and then hope that the charger she receives is actually the correct phone charger! All in all a messy, time wasting and needlessly painful process due to a business owner that didn’t do the basics right and will be punished by a good customer never returning or passing along a positive story.

The money needlessly lost by business owners and their staff/workers not doing the basics right must run into many billions of dollars. Yet, with clear, understood and sound systems, processes and procedures in place in a business you can rely on the stability that comes with solid business foundations.  Business owners can then reap the rewards of happy customers who are happy to pay - again and again!

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment on your customer service experience whether good or bad.

Jason

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