The question for today is, “Are you satisfied with the service you are given?”

Is the businesses that I give my hard earned money to for products worth my patronage? They have been giving me good service for years. Then in the course of a weeks time, I started getting very bad customer service from two different businesses.

In the past week this happened to me. The local drive through coffee shop hired a new employee that after three attempts to get an order for two iced coffees, and a hot chocolate all wrong. We got a black iced coffee, a super sweet iced caramel, and hot chocolate with sour milk. By the time we got less than a mile from the establishment, we all agree never to go back again.

While doing a look at our expenses, I discover the gym I go to has been double charging. I contact the company that automatically takes money out of our bank account, then I contacted the manager of the gym.

A while back I was shown an article from December of 2010 that said, financial institutions across the United States failed 31% of the time to meet the expectations their customers in 2010. It went on to say 35% of those dissatisfied customers never formally complained to their institution.

HospitalityWorldNetwork.com survey that was posted on July 8th of 2010 said, “Although only a little more than a third of Americans (37 percent) believe that companies have increased their focus on providing quality service, 27 percent feel businesses have not changed their attitude toward customer service. Then another 28 percent say that companies are now paying less attention to good service.”

In light of the national average of  75% are very likely to speak positively about a company after a good service experience. 59% are more likely to speak negatively about a company after poor service.

We have seen it over the years that when a business has poor customer service, it will not stay in business for very long. I know for myself, if I get excellent customer service, I will be more willing to pay a little extra for that extra service.

Now my next question to you is; “How do you deal with bad customer service?”

When you get bad customer service, do you just walk out and never go back again? Do you go right to the manager and complain? Or do you talk to the sales person with whom you have gotten the bad customer service?

In closing today, article I thought it would be good to put together some helpful pointers. These are things I have come across that helps get past the injustice and gets your needs met.

Approach with Confidence - Remember you are the customer. It is your money. If a business has to many dissatisfied customers they will eventually go out of business.

Don’t Go Straight to the Manager - Emasculation straight to a manager or corporate headquarters only prolongs getting results. It is best to start with the original sales person. If then there is not reasonable satisfaction then ask for a manager. If you feel the manager is still unreasonable you can go up the chain and even the Better Business The Better Business Bureau.

Be Calm - Screaming and cursing will get you nowhere. A clam tone of voice and professional language will cause the other person to more apt to give you what you want. You would be surprised how the word “please” can affect you response of the person on the other end.

State the Facts and How You Feel -  Facts and how your feel about the situation are very power statements in any form of negotiation. When it comes to getting what you want from a salesperson or manager is actually a negotiation.  It could be anywhere from an apology, to a replacement, or even money back.

Bottom-line: I will you with two stories. They show how getting what you want or is fair is all how you approach the situation.

Our first gentleman comes to us from the deep south where he works hard for his money driving truck. He is away from home for weeks at a time. One time when he comes home he finds that this one place where he stayed, while he was away, had charged him double the room rate, means, and movie rentals.

Since it the hotel was one he visited on a regular basis, the following week he park his big eighteen wheel rig in front of the font door stormed into the lobby area and slammed the bill on the counter demanding a full refund for the second room.

Naturally this caught the attention of everybody in the lobby, the desk clerk and the manager, along with the county sheriff who happen to be eating lunch across the street. To make a long story short, the truck driver ended up in jail for disturbing the peace. The owner of the hotel put a retraining order out on him, so he never stayed at that hotel again.

Our second customer was returning some building supplies he did not use. The clerk at the returns counter in a harsh tone stated the limit of no more than $300 in returns per rolling year.

Our customer politely acknowledged the policy. In addition, he stated that he buys more than $100,000 per year from that store, because he is a contractor.

The clerk came back that he had reached his limit and there would be no more returns accepted. At this point the customer requested to see the manager. The returns clerk, stated that he was to busy to deal with him.

As the customer, who was a contractor was walking out he saw this one employee with a name tag reading manager under his name. The customer walked up to him and politely stated because of the policy on returns he was going to take his business elsewhere.

The manager remembered seeing our customer in the store several times a week buying almost if not more than a $1,000 at a time. He asked the customer to wait. He was going to make it right.

From that point on that customer who was a contractor, and any other contractors were giving a limit of 25% of purchased goods allowed to be returned with no questions asked.

Bottom-line: I don’t want to let you think I am all negative. I want to tell you about what also happened to me this week.

The bearings on the back wheel of my bicycle gave out. I took it into the local bike shop, I go to all the time. I explain what happen, and what I wanted done. The sales person told me it would be done by 7 pm, when they closed. That was at 2 pm.

Shortly after 5 pm, I had receive a phone call that the repair had been complete for the agreed upon amount, and I could come by and pick it up.

So what kind of customer service are you getting?

2. Advertised items are not always the best deals

3. Shopping in crowds, after work, on paydays, and holidays will have you spending more.

4. Buy items before you run out of them. You can tell when you are about to run out of toilet paper. There is no need to make an early morning run to the store just for toilet paper.

5. If something is on sale, doesn’t mean it is a good deal. If it is some you don’t normally have you may not need it.

6. Shopping is an emotional experience be careful for the “I deserve it” thoughts.

7. Shop alone. If you are shopping with family and friends you will convince to buying some you really don’t need.

Bottom-line: Do you have a Fudge Factor built into your budget? If so how do you figure it? Is it a set dollar amount or it is percentage of your overall budget?

Leave a comment I want to hear from you.