What is Good Customer Service?
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back, about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others. It is the livelihood of all businesses.
Good customer service must be provided to customers before, during and after a purchase or service. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.
I recently watched an episode of Undercover Boss Australia where I saw what I believe to be one of the best examples of good customer service. I enjoy watching this program, as I like to observe the different operational and management styles of the companies and executives featured. Each week a different high-flying executive leaves the comfort of their office to take up a highly pressured job at the forefront of their businesses. Completely immersed in their undercover role, these bosses must relinquish control, buckle down to follow orders, and prepare to hear some home truths about their head office strategies and plans and to also see how these strategies and plans are being implemented. Working alongside their employees, they see the effects their decisions have on others, where problems lie within their organisation, plus get the chance to discover the “unsung heroes”, who ultimately make their company a success.
The featured executive who went out to work in some of her brand’s franchises in disguise, was Pippa Hallas, CEO of Ella Baché Australia. Ella Baché was Pippa’s great aunt who originally founded the company in Paris in 1930.
One “unsung hero” featured in this episode was the manager of the Ella Baché Salon in Carindale, which is one of Ella Baché’s top performing salons in Australia. I was very impressed with the operational and management style of this lady, and it was easy to see how the salon achieved this status. Personal grooming and presentation of the therapists was of the utmost importance. The hygiene standards and cleanliness of the salon was second to none. Even the topic of conversation with the client was under scrutiny as Pippa soon discovered what was appropriate and what wasn’t, as the conversation lead to Pippa asking if all four of the clients grandparents were still alive. The manager suggested to always steer away from personal questions, as in this instance, you don’t know whether one of the grandparents may have just passed away the day before, and you don’t want to upset them as they have not come to the salon to get upset. The conversation should always be kept on a professional level, and should centre around the services or products. The overall salon etiquette and professionalism was of the highest standard and all procedures were followed “by the book”. Nothing was left to chance. The client was the main focus of attention from the moment they stepped into the salon to the moment they left. The client is never left unattended. They are personally greeted by the therapist in the waiting room on arrival, then, at the end of their appointment, they are accompanied by the therapist back to the reception area and introduced to the receptionist, who then takes over to check the client out.
You may watch this 11 minute segment of the episode via this Undercover Boss Australia link by selecting the yellow taxi one.
Have you observed an example of good customer service recently?
Yours in Good Customer Service
Angie Rapisarda
