Loyal customers - the lifeblood of your business

It's a cliche - so it must be true.  A loyal customer is worth more to you than several new ones.  Get it right and they cost less to service so are more profitable, and through referrals and testimonials they can even contribute to you finding and winning new business.  So it stands to reason that all businesses would prioritise customer service, right?  Wrong! Businesses that mess up on customer service don't just lose one customer, they lose numerous customers.  You know how we all like a good moan - unfortunately in marketing this aspect of human nature can seriously count against you.

I can share a personal experience with you to illustrate this.  I dropped my iphone and cracked the screen.  It still worked but had to be fixed so, like so many others, I searched on the internet.  I compared the companies that came up top in the search and, based on the service promise and the price, selected the company I was going to use (www.i-phone-repairs.co.uk ).  I bought and paid for the repair and received excellent instructions on how to send the phone to them, and a fast and efficient acknowledgement of receipt, clearly setting out what would happen next.

Of course my first mistake was not reading the independent review sites - but when I look at those now it seems that I came off lightly!

In the email it stated that the target to repair and return the phone was 24 hours - but this could occasionally take longer. Fair enough.  However this was Wednesday.  By Friday I was getting twitchy but decided to leave it the weekend and so I rang, using the thoughtfully provided 0800 number on Monday.  Tom from customer service told me there was 'obviously' a backlog but he would look into it.  And he did return my call as promised to inform me they had new screens arriving the next day so it could be repaired on Wednesday.  A whole week later than the 24 hours quoted.  On Thursday I had to chase again and, after making a bit of a fuss, received a guarantee from Tom that I would have my phone back by the weekend.

By this time I was feeling pretty let down by this service so decided to take up the option offered in the email to leave feedback on their FaceBook page.  I was polite but expressed my dissatisfaction - along with hopes for the safe return of my phone by Saturday as promised.  Interestly the next time I looked at the Facebook page my comment was deleted.

The phone did arrive on Saturday and the repair seemed perfect.  But I would not use them again and I would not recommend them to anyone else.  Having done so many things right (promotion, positioning, website, etc.), why did this company end up in this situation?  Yes they are busy right now and may not have an eye on the long term future of their company, but it is a competitive field and customers will soon find other suppliers who can meet their needs.  Even if they are victims of their own success there are things they could have done to manage the situation and keep me on their side:

• The minute they knew they were not going to meet the 24 repair time they should have given me an update with a sensible forecast of when I could expect my phone returned.  Managing expections is the number one rule - and I should think would have saved them lots of time dealing with phone calls.
• Their price and service promise was way ahead of the competition and was, perhaps, never sustainable.  If they were in touch with the market they would know this and could introduce alternative service and price packages.  I would have paid extra for a GUARANTEED 24 hours repair.
• The Facebook page was promoted in all their emails but poorly used.  People posting questions and comments rarely got a response.  Even when someone complains, as I did, the better way of dealing with this is to apologise and explain.  Social Networking is about engaging with customers not ignoring or filtering comments.  Incidentally even my, slightly backhanded, comment about the final repair being good has now been removed!

The website now has a single line on the home page stating that Due to an influx of repairs we are currently working outside of our 24 hour schedule - better but not enough!

As mentioned, if I had read the review sites it would have been obvious to me that this company has problems.  I don't think it is a scam as some claim (I received a good repair) but it surely is not a good way of building business for the long term. When you're thinking about your products, your portfolio and your marketing do not neglect to pay full attention to the customer experience you are delivering. Otherwise all your best efforts as promotion and selling can go to waste!