Think About Your Friggin’ Customers

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I spent the wee hours of this morning walking down San Bruno road in the dark and the cold, walking over the 101 and into the San Francisco Airport until my father picked me up and took me to the airport monorail. Why, you ask? Well, to be honest, it’s kind of mix of my attempting to be frugal and some of the worst customer care I’ve seen.

I don’t like being a bother during the purchase process. I understand how difficult it is to be the person on the end of the deal, who is just trying to do their job, so I want to get in, get out, get what I paid for, and leave everyone happy. When the other side is down for the same, it’s a big thrill (and a win-win!).

I had the opposite of that experience yesterday while attempting to reach (and attain, and figure out how to return) my rental car. First, their office wasn’t located in the rental center – no big deal. there’s only so much space, and maybe their fleet of cars isn’t big enough to justify the lease. They have a shuttle to the lot. where, you might ask? Down by the “Kiss n’ Go” area, where I had to pick up a phone that I believe carries diseases left over from the Age of Enlightenment (which didn’t work, so I resorted to my cell phone) to call the guy working the office so he could come pick us up. When we got there, I discovered that I could’t drop the car off in time for my 7:40am flight, since they don’t open until 7:30. Their solution? Drop the car off with Ed, who works across the street at the 76 station (and who tried to charge me $10 bucks to keep a key on his counter and a car parked at his station for 90 minutes – nice try, Ed) and then call a cab. I don’t need to tell you how terrible a solution this is, as it absolves the car rental guy from any responsibility for my inconvenience, putting it all squarely on my (and Ed’s) shoulders.

As I walked in the cold, I was thinking about what we can learn from this. Clearly, situations where the customer comes last are not good for business, especially nowadays, where consumer feedback channels give us the power to dent (or ruin) a company’s reputation with the people who listen to our opinions. Maybe it’s time to go back to “the customer is always right” as a dominating philosophy and see how that helps us out – not only because consumers wield a lot of power in the new social landscape, but because it’s the right thing to do. Chris Brogan wrote a great post titled “Does Your Social Media Experience Extend?” where he discusses the need for a company’s social media presence (usually kind and engaging and caring) to extend to the physical experiences we have when dealing with the company. Chris says it really well, so I’m not going to try and duplicate it here, but consider this if you’re a business owner:

• I am not a super-well known guy in this great big world, but I have a lot of communication channels that I use on a regular basis (Facebook, Twitter, my 2 blogs, etc.). Using these channels, I can easily reach a few thousand people, a portion of whom give my feedback some credence.
• If I have a terrible experience with a company, I will not give a negative review. I will actively steer people elsewhere as a service to them because I care about their customer experience more than I think that you do.
• Conversely, if I have a great experience, I become a great champion for your brand.
• There are lot more people like me who hold a great deal more sway and feel the same way I do.

What kind of experience do you want me to have? I want me to have a nice experience (then again, I’m biased), and being on Twitter or having a Facebook fan page isn’t going to help me when I’m standing at your counter unless you have a corporate culture based around communication, openness and a desire to create the best customer experience possible for everyone who walks through your door. If you have that in place, you’re social media presence can become an extension of your corporate culture and create an army of citizen marketers who are spreading the good word instead of the bad.

Do you agree?

Tags: Best Business Practices, Business, Chris Brogan, Customer service, Organizational culture, Professionalism, Social Media