WE ALL HAVE EXPERIENCED POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND KNOW HOW IRRITATING IT CAN BE. SOMEHOW AIRLINE, CABLE, AND OTHER COMPANIES WITH FEW COMPETITORS STILL MANAGE TO DO JUST FINE REGARDLESS. HOWEVER, MOST COMPANIES, INCLUDING THOSE IN THE JUVENILE PRODUCT INDUSTRY, NEED TO TREAT CONSUMERS WELL JUST TO SURVIVE. BUT, IF YOU'RE WILLING TO GO ONE STEP FURTHER AND REALLY DO IT RIGHT, YOU AN ACTUALLY CONVERT CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM BEING A COSTLY NECESSITY TO A POWERFUL PROFIT DRIVER. 

What Causes Poor Customer Service?

Business experts and instructors have been preaching for years that success in business depends on understanding your customers and satisfying their needs. So, why is poor customer service still so widespread?

The Negative and Potential Positive Effects are Not Recognized

To start with, the harm done by poor customer service is not easily measurable. How do you measure how much business you would have had that was erased by disgruntled customers bad-mouthing their mistreatment to others? Since most companies are data-driven, senior managers often don't even know they have a problem. Conversely, they have just as much trouble realizing the potential sales that could come from complainers who could be converted into brand advocates.

Staffing Challenges

Because the impact of poor customer service is under-appreciated, it often doesn't get the company attention it deserves regarding hiring, training, and funding. And, that leads to under-staffing, hiring the wrong kind of people, high turnover, and shoddy performance. 

The Untapped Potential

There are some surprising and rich benefits to be gained by taking full advantage of what customer service done well can provide your company.

The Amazon Example

22 years ago, Jeff Bezos in a 1999 interview talked about the key to what he felt would be the then young company's competitive advantage. In his words it was "obsessive attention to the end-to-end customer experience." By end-to-end he meant from the first time a customer becomes aware of Amazon until they are totally satisfied with their purchase. There's no doubt that making it extremely easy for customers to do business with them, including painlessly resolving complaints, has paid off. 

Positive Word of Mouth

We all know that moms trust other moms most when it comes to advice about what to buy for their baby. In the "old" days before Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, this dialogue was typically limited to friends and family members. But in this age of super-powered communication, accounts of good and especially bad experiences with products and companies can spread coast to coast in an instant. All the more reason to remedy customer problems quickly to minimize negative comments online about your brand. 

A Marketing Tool

When someone identifies themselves as one of your consumers, even a disgruntled one, it's a golden opportunity to both learn more about customer purchasing behavior and possibly even transform them into a raving fan. Don't pass up the opportunity. 

Early Problem Identification

If one customer has a problem with a product, you can assume that there are many other customers with the same problem who remain silent. Reacting immediately and fixing the problem can limit the damage.

How to Get the Most Benefit from Customer Service

It doesn't take massive amounts of time or money to make your consumer customers happy or even thrilled with your brand. In fact, you can actually reduce costs while increasing sales. 

Prevent Problems You Can Prevent

Ideally you wouldn't have any customer dissatisfaction at all but that's not reality. Obviously, you want to minimize it by doing things like:

- Anticipating and preventing in-use product defects within your product development process.

- Making any accompanying product instruction super easy to follow for anyone.

- Selecting high quality suppliers.

- Implementing adequate quality controls.

Make it Easy Complain

When a customer does have does have a problem, they need action fast. And you'd rather have them come to you than rant about you online:

- Include clear and simple contact information on packages and product inserts.

- Design your web site to provide solutions to common problems but also make it easy to contact a real person conveniently when appropriate.

- Offer as extended customer service hours as possible. Parenting is a 24/7 job.

- Don't feel you'll be flooded with frivolous complaints. At my old company, we used to say on the back of every package, "If at any time for any reason you are not completely satisfied with this product, simply return it to use and we will replace it free of charge." Rarely did customers abuse this.

Show That You Really Care

Complaints give you an opportunity to show that you really understand what parents are going through and you genuinely care. This is more important in the JP industry than most others. If a product you bought for your own personal use is defective, you're the only one to suffer. But if it's a product for your baby, the level of outrage and indignation is octaves higher. Teach your staff to be empathetic, and go beyond solving the problem by sending something of extra value like coupons or small gifts. 

Gather as Much Market Research Information as You Can

After you've taken care of their problem - not before, in addition to capturing their contact information find out how they heard about your brand, where they bought the product, what other products of yours they have, and so on.

Convert Every Complainer into a Brand Advocate

Here's the piece de resistance of great customer service. What we did at my company was tell the people who contacted us with problems that they obviously were parents very interested in product quality and safety. We'd then invite them to join our online Parents Council to participate in the development of future products. They loved it, and it gave us a way to maintain the size of our national focus group. 

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business and life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Zoom, Skype, or Face Time session with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Adler at radler@jpma.org.

Ron Sidman was the founder and CEO of The First Years, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of the JPMA Board of Directors. He is currently a business consulting resource for JPMA members and serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Entrepreneurship at Florida Gulf Coast University where he also mentors students. Ron is the founder and CEO of Evolutionary Success, LLC, a life and business coaching company.