The Cost of Customer Service

As a business owner I know that providing the right level of customer service takes quite a bit of effort and sometimes a lot of money.  You have to make sure the correct systems are in place and more importantly the correct people are in place to service your customers the way you, the owner, want them serviced.

So what happens if it isn't the staff who are providing less than ideal customer service, but the manager or owner who is?  Do you tell them how much they are costing themselves?

At a recent business function I initiated a conversation with a fellow business owner I hadn't met before.  Something I do often and is usually easy as other business owners are just as curious as myself.  I also knew we had two things in common, one we were both business owners and second we had both been on the same plane earlier that day.

So you can imagine my surprise when after reluctantly telling me their business name and my commenting that I knew of their business and had indeed sampled their products, the owner abruptly turned around and stopped the conversation there.

Here I was telling them I was a customer and they weren't the slightest bit interested.  I wasn't even asked if I had enjoyed the product.  Talk about poor customer service!

The cost of poor customer service reaches far and wide that not only have they lost me as a client, but I won't recommend their products in the future either. 

And how easily does the cost of poor customer service increase?  This business owner is in a complimentary industry to Boutique Money Management and I don't recommend businesses or products with poor customer service attached.  The cost could add up quickly indeed!