Consider How You Are Treating Your Customers

By Chris Crum - Wed, 04/16/2008 - 11:15am.

They might be worth more than $5.

I read an article today by Mike Moran talking about an unpleasant customer service encounter he experienced at a furniture store.

To make a long story short, he basically spent over $700 there and the furniture he bought required 3 small bags of hinges retailing at $5 a piece. Somehow by the time he unloaded his purchase into his vehicle, one of the three bags came up missing, at which point he had to fight with the customer service department to get another one (which they wouldn't give him). Read his version for the entire story.

Cutomer Loyalty

His point, which I think is a very valid one, is that they are risking losing any future business from him by treating him in a rude manner over $5, even though he just spent over $700.

Annoyed Customers This is customer annoyance (one of my favorite phrases) at its finest. He was clearly not there to rip them off, and because the store's customer service department was so stubborn over something so insignificant, there is no telling how much money they will be missing out on when he never goes back.

This is basically saying that customer loyalty is worth about $5 to this store. But that's only one aspect in which this store could be hurt from this ordeal. Mike was so peeved about this incident that he wrote a lengthy blog post about it.

A Damaged Reputation

Now I don't know much about the number of readers Mike has, but I would wager that he has a pretty good following. There is no telling how many people read this story and will continue to read it as it remains on the Internet and finish with a bad taste in their mouth toward the furniture store.

There is also no telling how many people will refer to the article and/or link to it such as I am doing right now. I am choosing to leave the company's name out of it since the beef isn't mine, but others may not be so courteous.

The moral of the story is: if you are going to treat customers poorly, you better have a good reason for doing so, and get more out of it than saving $5, which you possibly might not have even lost in the first place. Don't annoy your customers!

News Tags: customer loyalty, Reputation, customers, customer service, online reputation

About the author:
Chris is a content coordinator and staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz and the iEntry Network. Subscribe to SmallBusinessNewz RSS Feeds.

Comments

By Nickolove Lovemore (SBN reader) - Fri, 04/18/2008 - 3:40am.

Customer Service

I am simply appalled with the standard of customer service I receive sometimes and it often results in my deciding not to do business with a particular company even if their product or service is good.

However, this $5 story reminded me of one of my own £5 story. While the item I purchased was not valued at $700 the implications I think you'll agree were priceless.

I once bought a loaf of bread and then noticed a strange object imbedded in it. It was copper wire. I attached the metal to a letter which I sent to the producers.

I received a letter back from the company but the tone of the letter bothered me. They said:

"How surprised you must have been..."

You may wonder what was wrong with that but I think that they should have been expressing their horror about the incident. I could have eaten the bread containing the wire.

There was a £5 voucher attached to the bread but seeing as the bread cost in excess of a pound plus the potential harm to self I thought that the £5 just added insult to injury.

I discarded it and have never bought bread from this company since.

By Chris Crum - Fri, 04/18/2008 - 7:34am.

RE: customer service

I think finding the wire in the first place would be more of a reason for me to not buy their brand again, but they probably could've acted a little more concerned and perhaps assured that quality control would be inspected.

By Ken McCormick (SBN reader) - Tue, 06/17/2008 - 10:11am.

Customers are #1

Customers are # 1, without them we are out of business. We all make mistakes, it's human. When a business owner makes a mistake and irritates a customer it's time to swallow your pride and make things better, not matter what. Why would you not? If you don't, you might lose money. I heard a story about a business owner who made a mistake and then went to such lengths to correct it and "make it up to" the customer, that the customer told everyone about it. Almost like it was a heroic act. Customer service will either drive profits or losses, the result is up to you. www.kgc1.com/services.html

By Chris Crum - Tue, 06/17/2008 - 10:20am.

RE: customers are #1

That's just the thing. You can turn mistakes around to work in your favor. If you show a customer that you care that much, often times they'll still reflect upon the situation as a positive experience and spread the word about you. Customers appreciate it when you help them, even if mistakes were made to begin with. This might be a side effect of having been treated poorly by so many other companies, but it just makes your look that much better.

SmallBusinessNewz