Well, Christmas is over. Hope you had a good one with people you enjoy spending time with and if you did eat and drink too much, the effects have worn off. *Smile*
We’re in that interesting period between Christmas and New Year, a dead zone for many businesses (unless you’re running post-Christmas sales) and a great time to reflect on what the year’s been like and what you want to achieve next year.
Anyway, you’ve probably got tons of emails from people telling you, you need to plan etc., so I’m not going to add to the clutter, but thought I’d continue with some stories of what we’ve been experiencing here in Switzerland with regard to service.
One thing that really stands out is how polite people are in shops. No matter what the size – be it a small retailer or a big chain, as you walk in and around, EVERY shop assistant will greet you and acknowledge your presence. And you can actually find someone to help you within 30 seconds. Try doing that in your average Target or Myer store!
However, not everything is rosy. Believe it not, a lot of major services and many small shops close over lunch so people can go home to eat.
So you can’t go to your local bank branch, post office or government utility during lunchtime! Takes a bit of getting used to if you’re not from here. In a way it’s like Australia was 30-40 years ago before we had 7 day a week shopping and the shops closed at 12pm on Saturdays – with a mad rush to get your grocery shopping done.
Had a good reminder of how an otherwise excellent business can be let down by one department the other night.
Barbara’s Mom took us to another well-known local restaurant for my Birthday. The restaurant is part of one of the oldest hotels here in Interlaken, still run by the third generation of the family (something that’s becoming rarer and rarer as children no longer want to take over from their parents).
Renowned for its Kitchen, the food was excellent. However they were let down by the service. It’s not as if the service was bad. Nothing that really stood out that you could put a finger on. It just didn’t match the food. And it detracted from the “experience”.
Which just lends credence to the fact you need to make sure every aspect of your business performs to the same level and that you’re not being let down by one area which detracts from the whole.
When asked if we enjoyed the evening and everything was fine, Barbara did mention a couple of the glitches, which they apologised for and explained they’d had a couple of issues in the kitchen.
But how many times have we been somewhere and when asked, don’t say anything and just leave, never to come back?
Which is what most people do. We know things that could be improved, but we don’t say anything. Often because we feel the other party doesn’t want to know or would get defensive. And often the timing and appropriateness of giving feedback doesn’t feel right.
Every business has blind spots. Stuff that could be improved if only you knew there was a problem. Stuff that detracts from the excellent experience you want to give your clients.
The question is, are you courageous enough to take steps to find out? After all you might find some unpalatable truths.
If you are, there are a couple of ways to go about it.
One is commission a customer survey from us where we talk to some of your customers and find out the good, the bad and the ugly. You’ll get a great deal of feedback and ways to improve.
The other is to use a “blind shopper”. No, not literally! A blind shopper acts like a customer and gives you a report on the whole experience from go to woe. And yes, it is something we can arrange for you. Give me a call on (02) 9499-7958 and we can get started.
Finally, have a wonderful end of year celebration and Barbara and I wish you the very best for 2012.
Rashid.
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