Living in Washington, DC after having lived in NYC for about 10 years, you are taken pretty quickly with the lack of services and the lower quality of customer service at many establishments.
Having spent a lot of my career in entertainment and hospitality, in some manner or the other, I wasn’t always aware of good or bad service because I just sort of existed in a world where service was a top of mind issue and something that I would readily address.
Now as more of an outsider, I see customer service from a different POV.
Which brings me to the big disrupter in customer service, social media.
Social media gives us all the capability to let bad service be known pretty quickly.
As I look at the Internet, I notice that a big topic on social media and the Internet is how you can use social media to drive your customer service.
But here is the thing, that kind of rationale is a step behind the curve.
The truth is that good customer service and a good customer experience isn’t optional any longer.
If you take your customers for granted, at all, you are going to lose them immediately.
Now, customer experience and customer service are essential aspects of your business’s ability to compete.
Think about your most treasured experiences at hotels, sporting events, or local businesses. Now tell me are they different because of any one factor that doesn’t begin or end with the experience or service?