When Friendly Customer Service Doesn’t Make You Customer-Friendly

Do you think your business is customer-friendly? “Sure!” most people will say. “We treat our customers with respect and genuinely care about taking care of them. Our customer service reps frequently get compliments.”

Well, that may not be enough. We are now going to examine a fascinating case study on buyer loyalty and the customer-friendly business: I call it, “How I Bought Christmas Photo Cards”.

Last year we got our first digital camera and got all set up for a Christmas card photo session. A few bribes and threats later we had a decent picture of the kids, and I was ready to order the cards from an online photo developer we’d used before for regular prints. Wait – small problem. Their web site said cards were available, but the software they provided to upload and order pictures didn’t have a photo card option. But with a couple of phone calls/emails with a very pleasant and helpful customer service person, I was instructed how to do it : An ugly procedure where I upload a picture and then email them a freehand text description of what I want, including the quantity and message to be placed on the photo card, and then nervously wait for the cards to come in to see if they got it right. No second chances here – I insist on being a “Christmas season doesn’t start till after Thanksgiving” family and so our first shoot date was too late for a second try. But, the cards came in as ordered and I hailed the transaction as successful. Successful, but not easy and leaving something to be desired.

Fast forward to this year. Same camera, same kids, but different online photo developer. During the year I had been wooed away from my previous developer by flashy ads and a nicer web site. Again, I’d ordered regular prints a couple of times from this site, but not photo greeting cards yet. But, not only was “Photo Cards” easily found as just another option in their order menu, I got to see a preview of what my card would look like, complete with my picture and the message I typed displayed in the actual font of the card! Based on last year’s Stone-Age experience, this “what you see is what you get” feature was definitely a jaw-dropper. Not because the technology blew me away so much – if I sit and think about it is probably not all that much of technological feat – but the fact that an online photo store actually took the trouble to implement it was completely overwhelming. This was not really a sales tool either, because it wasn’t advertised on the site (although it should have been) – you wouldn’t even know about it until after you’ve made the decision to buy the cards in the first place.

So which of the two companies was more customer-friendly? I never talked to anybody at the second, but how they did business proved that they cared about their customers and were willing to spend money to keep them. I was completely convinced I would receive my cards exactly as ordered (because of the Preview feature). Also, the experience has made such a strong impression that it will be very tough for any competitor to steal my business. With the first company, they not only lost my photo card business, they lost all my business, despite the helpfulness of their customer service.

So being customer-friendly, or shall we say, customer-centric, is more than just customer service reps saying all the right things. It is a fundamental attitude of the company toward the customer that should be reflected in every way there is interaction between the two. A web site, a customer service rep, an ordering/invoicing procedure, or anything at all that touches the customer has the opportunity to either raise or lower customer opinion about a company. If that feeling of customer-centricity is felt at every touch-point, the payoff can be a loyal customer for life.