From Amazing to Miserable Customer Service

Hi and welcome to the start of the week. If you're here in Australia or if you're joining this stream from the US I hope that your weekend, your Thanksgiving weekend has been a great one and that you're getting set to get into the week that is ahead. I'm Jason S. Bradshaw. This is the live edition of Talking Points with Jason. You can subscribe to my fortnightly newsletter and@jason s.bradshaw.com or on LinkedIn. And of course, you can contact me on all social channels at Jason S. Bradshaw. Now, today, the title of this live is From Amazing to Miserable Customer Service. And it comes from personal experience, literally in the last 24 hours. So as many of you know, I have recently purchased a new house and we're still settling in and making some changes. And I've been very frustrated by the ability to get trades people to come and do some jobs. And in some respects, I understand it, the jobs aren't necessarily big and they're busy. So I decided this weekend, my husband's traveling that it would be great for me to get out and do the. Some of the work that I wanted done. And in this particular case, I. I wanted to change the pavers to our front entry door. I liked the pavers that were there, but they were just too far apace, too far apart. And how hard could it be? Well, let me tell you, if you're thinking of doing a paving job at home, give it some serious thought because I'm still going. But we're not here for a do it yourself building story. We're here to talk about how customer service went from amazing to miserable in less than 24 hours. So as you would expect, as you would expect, I had to go and buy things. Pavers, paving sand, all sorts of things. And so I went to my local Bunnings. Now, Bunnings is a little bit like Home Depot in America. I always actually say it's a bit like if Home Depot and Ace Hardware got together, you'd come up with Bunnings. It's got that community feel about it. They do a lot in the community, but it is a big box retailer, right? And so they have policies and procedures in place. Anyway, I don't have a ute or a pickup, so I did four or five trips to Bunnings. Buy a couple of these big heavy pavers, maybe wouldn't be heavy if I get to the gym occasionally, but these big heavy pavers and some other supplies and I'd drive home, I'd unload them and I'd Repeat. And as you'd expect, you know, the second time the cash register operator and the team member at the front door recognized me, had a little joke that, you know, you're back. And then the third time and the fourth time and the fifth time was an unscheduled but necessary return. You see, in the process of laying some of these big pavers, one of them split in half. Now, I did nothing different with this paver than. Than I'd done with any of the others, but this one split in half. So I had to go and get another paver. Now, I didn't take the one that split in half with me because I just didn't expect that they would refund me the money for it. It's a concrete paver. It broke. Move on. So anyway, I went back, got another paver, and this lovely team member said, oh, what are you doing back here? Thought you were done for the day. And I said, oh, one of the pavers broke in half. And so hence I'm just getting one more. And without me asking, she said, we'll bring it back and we'll. We'll refund you the money. And I have to say, I was a little bit taken back. I thought, this is phenomenal. I didn't, didn't expect this. This is great. And I even said, are you sure? And she said, absolutely. You've been in and out of here all day long buying stuff from us. The paper broke in half. Bring it back, we'll replace it. And I said, well, I'm not going to come back again today. It's getting late. I'll come back tomorrow. So less than 24 hours later, I go back with the said broken paver. I get to the front door and get ignored by two team members that were busy chatting at the custom entry. I finally got their attention, and I said, should I just leave this over here at the returns desk? Because it was also busy. I. And I'll go and get my new paver. And they're like, sure, whatever, and brush me off. So I went and got the new paver, went back to the returns desk. By this stage, there was no one waiting. And the gentleman said to me, how can I help? And I'm like, I'm just returning that. And for this, it's a like, for, like, product. He said, oh, that's broken. We're not going to return it. And I said, I said, oh, well, I'm sorry. I spoke to someone yesterday and she said that I was more than welcome to bring it back. And that it would be replaced free of charge. And he said, do you have her name now? I didn't have her name, but I. I explained to this individual and bear with me, the story is coming to its learning point in a moment. But I explained to this individual the time of day, what she looked like and what task she was performing. When we had this conversation, the task she was performing was still greeter. You know, they stand at the entryway, they greet you as you're coming, and they greet you as you're leaving. They also perform some tasks to minimize loss prevention and stuff. I'd also explained that I'd spoken to her a number of times during the day, just in conversation. And she each of the points where that happened. So not surprising, she went from store greeter to store greeter at different entry points. Then the one of the team members that ignored me when I first turned up to the store came over and said, we will not be refunding this. It is not how it left the store. To which I replied with, I understand that it's broken, but your colleague said I could return it. And she said, well, no, that's just not going to happen. So I simply paid for the paver and here we are. So where are the lessons here? Well, first and foremost, yesterday afternoon after I had that conversation with that team member, I was singing their praises. How about this remarkable customer focus, this remarkable customer Service? And within 24 hours, another team member completely turned that around. I did a survey that said, no, I would not recommend that individual store to friends and family. They have a competitor literally three minutes down the road. I can go there and get some pass service from there. Why keep going back? So the first takeaway is that if you don't believe that your employees have an ability to impact your brand and ability to impact the likelihood of a customer coming back, well, think again. Because in under 24 hours, two different team members created two very different experiences. The second thing to think of here is what is the real cost of honoring the situation? Now that $30 product will have a markup. I am a member of bunning, so a trade member of Bunning, so I spend a reasonable amount of money with them. And. And on that day alone, they could see how much I spent yesterday with them. Let's just assume they have 100% markup. It cost them $15. I walk out continuing to sing their praises as opposed to telling a few thousand people here and potentially in a book or on a stage that they just don't get it right. And that when they had an opportunity to make it right, they didn't. And that brings me to the third point. What is my worth to them as a customer? What is my lifetime value as a customer? Now they have all that data because like I said, I'm a member. Now, am I their biggest customer? Absolutely not. Am I their smallest customer? Probably not. But am I a repeat customer? Am I someone that keeps coming back? That in itself is of value because the more I keep coming back, the more my lifetime value goes up. So team members have the ability to influence the perception of your company in good and bad ways. Empower them to get it right. Now, the ladies and gentlemen, the Ritz Carlton, for example, all have approval to spend. I think it's $2,000 from the top of my memory to solve a customer, or in their words, a guest issue. Now, you can be the janitor, you can be the CEO, you can be the pool boy. If there's a customer issue, they have $2,000 that they can spend without needing to get approval. So when I say spend a $2,000 credit on their account or to give them some $2,000 worth of free food or whatever, and the number doesn't really matter. What matters is that every single team member is empowered to make it right for their customers because they know that things go wrong at times. Now they also train their team members on how not to give away that money. Right? That I just. The number of times I actually give away money to guests to resolve a problem is extremely small. So take the scenario that I had with Australia's largest, and perhaps this is part of the problem, but Australia's largest home hardware store. If every team member there was empowered to make it right and had, say, a $50 discretionary budget, they could have turned that situation around in the moment. Because I don't know whether the team member yesterday was wrong or the team members today were wrong. But what I do know is that I shouldn't be the one dealing with the problem. So my challenge to you today is how can you find a way to empower your team members to build loyalty, build positive word of mouth when something goes wrong with your customers? I'm Jason S. Bradshaw, and if there is anything I can do to help you and your business have breakthrough success, please feel free to reach out. One of those ways that I can help you is through my coaching program, Business Breakthrough Coaching Net. Now, I only work with 50 individual one on one clients at any one time. There are some spots now open again, so I am taking applications if you go to Business Breakthrough. Sorry. If you go to business breakthrough coaching.net you'll be able to apply. It costs nothing to apply. See if we're going to be a great fit and we can go from there. I wish you success in the rest of your day and I'll speak to you again soon. Take care.