To Fix Customer Service Issues, It’s About Time and Respect

Martin Lewis wants to make retail and service organizations responsible for customer wait times. He’s a consumer advocate in the U.K., and he’s launching a campaign called Stand and Deliver.

It’s great that people are standing up and demanding a real improvement in customer service. Mr. Lewis proposes giving fines or paying bonuses according to service providers’ performance. From my point of view – it’s a short term solution to a much deeper-seated challenge to delivering timely, quality service.

TOA has done a lot of research into what people care about regarding a service that’s being delivered, and I can say that people are not really interested in getting a bonus or receiving compensation when service is not delivered in a timely manner, because for most people, what it  really comes down to is respect – respect for commitments made and respect for the value of someone’s time. If it seems simple – it is. It’s why when we go to our customers and prospects, we make sure that they know it’s not just about maximizing and optimizing their field force ability to do work on any given day or how many truck rolls they can eliminate –  it’s about time and the customer experience.

There will always be an element of holding businesses accountable for the service they provide to customers. But the more that service organizations can open up to their customers and just say, company to person, person to person, “this is when your appointment will start and end” without making them play a frustrating waiting game, that’s where the trust and long-term value based relationship is built.

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