Flannigan Consulting

Which recently surveyed 124 towns and regions in the UK and the Northwest of London came out the worst for retail customer service. So it was little surprise when Sathnam Sanghera, The Times witty and lively business columnist, reported that the shopping retail park adjacent to junction 1 of the M1 was “as cheerful as gout”. There his experiences of awful service from JJB and Woolworths led him to ponder that since both companies have question marks over their direction, it might be the case that the malaise at the top could be seeping down to the tills.

Well Sathnam, I’ve news for you…that malaise is bound to be coming downward, probably from the board and certainly from the executive and operating leadership. Its roots may have a number of tangled weaves, however the absence of purpose is (always) at the nub of it. Take a mirror to the top of a company, what you see there is what you get. It will be reflected and acted out in the people. Good, bad or middling.

In terms of service, consider Tony Ryan of Ryanair. If his public persona is anything to go by, then I can’t imagine that “delighting the customer” features much in boardroom meetings. Ryanair’s service persona…non existent (at best). If you, like Sathnam, are thinking that budget MUST mean low service expectation, then how is it that South West Airlines, the exemplar of budget airlines, emulated by many, has been voted year after year as the service leader in customer surveys of airlines in the US? Start your answer with Herb Kelleher (past founder and CEO of SWA), a service nut who loves his people and doesn’t take himself seriously (Nuts, the story of South West which is an inspiring and humourous book), then add in their values and people focus. They don’t have an HR department (hurrah) they have a people department and believe in it. This would tend to refute Sathnam’s 4th Secret of Crap Customer Service…

Sathnam’s Four Secrets of Crap Customer Service

1.Don’t operate at the very bottom of the market because customers are actually prepared to tolerate quite a lot if the price is low enough.

2.Focus on the budget end of the market. See above

3.Pay no attention to the look and feel of the retail space.

4.Bad service tends to lead to bad sales results. So here are a few of my “secrets” of better sales via service…

1. Become a zealot for improvement in the customer experience. Concentrate the minds of others to improving what gets delivered – the effectiveness of communications in and out to the customer, and the attitude and behaviour towards customers.
2. Don’t be vague about attitude and behaviour – define them in exact terms and everyday language. A handful of key behaviours is more than enough to focus on.
3. Get management to speak to customers often and clearly about their experiences of your service and act on their observations. Then make sure it is part of the regular management data.
4. Ask if you have done a good job for the customer – and then ask the customer if there is anything else you could do for him or her. How many times might your people be missing out simply because they didn’t ask?
5. Lastly, if you can’t smile, don’t open a shop.