Hi All
I am not asking who gives good service, as some Australian companies do, although we all may have differing opinions, on individual companies. There are astro stores that I used to support, but no longer. My loyalty wasn't respected, but I won't delve too far into that.
Some companies have given me great service on occasions too, but have managed to disrespect me and when it was pointed out that they have done so, they weren't honest enough with themselves to recognise that they had. "You're not important in the grand scheme of things, we have customers who spend far more that you", type of thing. Not the exact words, but the meaning was clear.
But, what they failed to realise is that if you have a 1000 customers who spend a $1000 each.....well, you do the math, and with this particular store, it wasn't hard to spend a $1,000 in each transaction. As it was, I had spent over $10,000 with this company, and some of that was when things were really bad, as it didn't stop my spending, just meant that I had to save a bit longer. "Don't they want my future business?" This was the question that I asked myself, particularly since I was really p***ed off about it, and still am, despite it happening six months ago. Since then, they have lost about $3 or 4K of business. And it wasn't like I was being difficult or anything, more like I just wasn't one of their "buddies", so I didn't really matter! They have simply forgotten that EVERY customer is the lifeblood of their business. Or, are they doing so well that they can afford to alienate a customer? Unfortunately, many businesses are doing so, and when you consider that I have a high discretionary spend every month, you would think they they would want me to spend it in their stores, but now, I look for the cheapest price, wherever that may be, onshore or offshore, as I simply am not treated with respect, on an ongoing basis.
So, I am not asking for individual examples of good or great service, or bad for that matter, as these examples only reflect a certain point in time, or a certain set of circumstances. Consistently good service is another matter, as I eluded to above.
I am wondering if I am expecting more than I get. Although, to be fair, I only expect what I gave to my customers, when I was a technical sales engineer with a large agricultural company, many years ago, but things appear to be changing in that regard.
So, what I am asking is this, "overall, what do you think represents good service?" Or, to put it another way, "what does a company have to do to retain your loyalty?".
Cheers Pete