Full service?

Our daughter, Renae, recently graduated from NMC and traveled to Texas to spend the summer with family. This is her first time in seven years that she has been back to the U.S., and one of the things that surprised her is how friendly the employees are at the stores. We told her that what she had experienced is something called “customer service.”

When we first arrived on island, customer service was glaringly a problem; so many of the 150 business articles we have written were aimed at helping businesses improve their service. After several years, we believe the service has improved slightly, but one of the reasons is because tougher economic times has increased competition. Nevertheless, there is still a long ways to go for most businesses. After becoming accustomed to the casual service that permeates the island’s stores, it took our daughter’s comment to awaken us to the reality of our situation.

Here’s a good example. All of the gas stations offer two choices—self-service and full-service—yet, there is practically no difference in service at either one. Although one pays more than 10 cents more per gallon or about two dollars more to fill up an empty tank at the full-serve side, most of the time the attendant will only pump the gas and take the money.

Several times we have pulled into the full-service side of the pump and the attendant told us to go to the self-service side because the gas was cheaper. We stayed on the full-service side in hopes of prompt, attentive service, and received no better service than vehicles paying less on the self-service side. Very rarely will one of the attendants offer to clean the windshield or check under the hood, and when it does happen we have noticed that the additional service is received about equally at the self-service side.

So why are we paying the extra money for full service if we do not get full service?

This problem is not isolated to the gas stations. Our refrigerator was not getting as cold as it should so we called a well-established company early one morning to have a service rep check the problem. It was late afternoon, and still no sign of the rep. It took another call before the refrigeration company felt we were really serious.

Finally, the rep showed up and looked at the fridge and told us he would need to take it into the shop overnight (this ended up taking two days). No replacement or loaner was offered. Maybe the rep didn’t know that food spoils when it is out of the freezer for a couple of days. Well, we got the fridge back and we put a lot less food into it than we took out a couple of days earlier.

Going back to when the rep was first in the house, we told him our oven was not heating properly and asked if he could look at it. After taking the back off and doing some checks, he said it needed a new thermostat. He had no idea how much it would cost and said he would have to look up the part when he got back to the store. Several calls were made to follow up on the thermostat, and a few weeks later we still have not heard from the business that obviously does not need our business.

What baffles us is that the rep knows we have an oven that needs to be fixed; yet he and the store are making it as difficult as possible to get information and service. It’s basically money in their pocket, yet they are comatose to our needs. Rather than being a full-service store, they are demonstrating a self-service mentality too familiar among local businesses.

If you have had your vehicle repaired at one of the backyard shops prevalent around the island, it is not uncommon for the mechanic to tell you the problem and then ask you to go to a parts store to purchase the part so he can put it on the vehicle. These “self-service” mechanics do not realize that most people would gladly pay a little extra to have them get the right part.

Well, we’re sure you could add plenty of your own “self-service” stories, but the point we are making is that there are people who are hungry for a full-service business to take care of their wants and needs—and those people are willing to pay the extra amount to get the service.

If you are a business owner and decide to offer full service, don’t be surprised at the surprised looks on people’s faces after you serve them. Strive to become the store that customers remember as the place with the friendly, helpful people. The bottom line is that if you’re nice to people, the people will be nice to your bottom line.

(Rik is a business instructor at NMC and Janel is the owner of Positively Outrageous Results. They have consulted with over 400 businesses in 40 different industries. For better business results go to BizResults.biz to read previous articles.)