As you can imagine I have a passion for good customer service. I enjoy going into stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc.. where I am treated very well. I also find it fascinating to be treated very poorly. Not that I like it, because I don't, but I find it interesting to analyze why my experience was so poor. Most often it is one of two reasons: the employee not caring about the customer experience, or the owner not providing proper training and/or oversight in order to insure the customer experience was a good one.
When you go to Nordstrom's or Disney their incredible customer service is no accident. It is no wonder they have such great customer service because they provide their employees great customer service training and they hire people that care about the customer experience. If you have a bad service experience at Nordstrom's or Disney, it gains attention very quickly from management and the customer is generally catered to until their problem is resolved. Does that mean if you do not like a price or you cannot get a last minute dinner reservation on one of the Disney Cruise ships they will lower your price or get you the dinner reservation? Well no, but what it does mean is that if you cannot find a pair of shoes, or slacks they will look in all their stores for that specific item and ship it to you at no additional cost. If you go buy a shirt and notice a stain on it after you arrive home they will exchange it no questions asked. When you get off the plane in Orlando their is a Disney person waiting with a sign directing you to the Disney bus to transport you to the Port Canaveral Disney cruise ship terminal. They understand the process you are going through and work hard to make it as simple or painless as possible.
Both organizations treat the customer as king. They go above and beyond. They care about your customer experience and try to make it pleasant. They do this with enormous attention to detail. They try to remove barriers and the the unpleasant side of the customer experience. This starts with their personnel and the training they receive. It has been incredibly effective and certainly has had an endearing impact on me. Good customer service always ends with a good customer experience. Too many service providers forget they are in the business of providing customer service.
When people make purchasing choices, they do so because whatever they are buying meets a need. Whether it is emotional or financial, there obviously are many reasons why people buy something. I like to explore the buying experience and how people impact the experience. I will discuss why people make the choices they make. I hope you enjoy my posts and join the discussion.
