Too Much of a Good Thing?
Recently I took my car to the dealership for service. The service was efficient and friendly, which made the pain of the rather expensive bill more bearable. When I'm in situations like this, i.e. watching organizations market to me, I like to detach and observe my own reactions. What do I like? What do I not like? Well, my experience with the dealership was a little surprising as I found that, despite the dealership's best efforts to do a good job for me, I was a little uncomfortable. Now what kind of ungrateful, AARP-card-toting curmudgeon am I to feel this way even when an organization is going out of their way to satisfy me? A crusty curmudgeon, I suppose.
After some pondering and brain-noodling, I decided that what I did not like was their frequent requests for feedback. Are we doing a good job? Are you satisfied with the work? Did we explain what we were doing adequately? Was our service prompt? I got these sorts of questions several times - whenever I interacted with one of their friendly employees - and then when I got home. I received a follow-up phone call the next day and a follow-up mail survey several days later.
Bless this organization for taking customer service so seriously. They really did a fine job. But holy mackerel, any good thing can be overdone. Despite the country song that opines that "there's no such thing as too much fun," take my word for it, there is. I've written many blogs about the importance of making your organization responsive to the customer, learning how to communicate with the customer and understanding the customer's point of view. One of the best uses for a powerful website, in fact, is to enable your organization to provide customer service all the time, everywhere.
But maybe a small flag of caution is in order. Don't let surveying customers about your organization interfere with actually providing your product or service. Surveys are good, but the best survey of all is success.
Guest blogger Dennis Mathis is a long-time resident of the Four Corners who nurtures an interest in writing, marketing, technology, reading and business. About a year ago, he retired from a public relations job and is now formally self-managed. It is a harder job than he imagined it would be. He and his wife, Nancy, live in a log cabin near Lemon Lake decorated with birdhouses, and when the water is calm, they kayak along Lemon's graceful shoreline.
