“As a business leader you have to ask yourself, “Am I creating a consumer environment that is conducive to loyalty?” If the answer is no, FIX IT!”
― Steve Maraboli
Years ago I was the kind of consumer that based my decisions more on price than anything else. What I learned from doing this was price does not always equal quality in the products and services we obtain for ourselves.
As a consumer in today’s highly complicated and competitive product landscape, I can now tell you with great certainty that a company’s customer service is more important to me than just about anything else.
Companies would be remiss if they haven’t yet figured out that brand loyalty is built not only from product offerings, but perhaps more importantly on the level of customer service they provide to those who allow their business to, well, stay in business.
Lately I’ve developed a bit of a reputation as being a consumer advocate amongst family, friends and even colleagues.
Now I’m not carrying signs outside company headquarters, or stalking their social media platforms in an effort to deface them. I’m talking about expressing my sincere disappointment over a product I’ve purchased, which does not meet the promised expectation or malfunctions all together.
Some think I enjoy the back and form communication with an organizations customer service department, but I don’t. However I feel like the consumer has been battered enough with poorly manufactured and overpriced products and deserves much better.
We all work hard for the money we make and when we finally decide to part with it, we expect to be reasonably satisfied. But far too often we’re not. Instead we live with the disappointment – having wasted our money on a product that doesn’t perform as we hoped.
The question is, why should we have to?
Customer service departments are in place for a reason and we’re not doing our part to help organizations better develop their product portfolio if they’re given no feedback on poor offerings.
Unfortunately, so many of the products in today’s marketplace are, to put it bluntly, crap. The fact that we the consumer have to go round and round with an organization to get what should have been delivered in the first place shows the deterioration of the manufacturing process on a global scale. Sad really.
