Rethinking the Customer Service Model

I wrote a while ago--while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life, incidentally--about customer service and how important it is to any company who manufactures or sells a product. I'm content at this point to say that I have found my niche professionally because there's such a dire need for good people to provide customer service, and those people have to have someone at the helm to show them the way.

Economics have made for a tough market when it comes to buying/selling luxury goods, including custom computers. These days, the customer service that a retailer or manufacturer provides has become secondary to how much of a hit the consumer's wallet can take. The choice between a $2000 custom rig and a $400 big box manufacturer's package from WallyWorld comes down to how much disposable income you have, and if you choose the cheaper of the two, you cross your fingers and just hope that nothing breaks. Computers have become disposable to many people because you can get inferior systems for less than the price of a warranty on the expensive ones.

All of these factors could mean hard times for small computer builders--certainly the rest of the company is straining to make it through what some people call a mini-recession. Down the street, I have seen five or six car dealerships fold up. Craigslist is inundated, pawn shops are overflowing...everyone's taking their heirlooms and selling them to pay for the price of gas. You'd think that we'd be losing boutique system manufacturers left and right.

Surprisingly enough, the custom computer market is still relatively strong. People are still saving up to buy high-end custom systems, but they're being more cautious, slower to decide. It's become more of a big deal to the consumer than it may have been a year ago; customers are taking longer to choose, doing more research about the products, posting on more forums, asking more questions. People are still buying, but they're doing their homework first. Once they have their choices down to two or three competitors, then they look at the post-sales details. Warranty, technical support, upgrade policies...they all go under the microscope.

It's not a bad trend.

Using customer support services as a tiebreaker between company A and company B forces both companies to come to the table with their very best. Who has the better warranty? The best support hours for where I live? What about onsite? What about RMA procedures? All of a sudden, we all have to look at what we offer for support and ask ourselves if we're competitive with other companies in the same sector. We have to reassess, improve, innovate--not just with the product, which has been the usual hotbed for recreating a company's image, but with the after-sale services we provide.

Harsh competition, in my opinion, brings out the best and the worst in any small niche market. A mentor of mine once brought a book to a corporate retreat called Blue Ocean Strategy, and I borrowed it (and never returned it, sorry Chip). It was an eye-opening way to approach business...don't worry about out-performing your competition, instead create your own market space and make your competition irrelevant.

The book was referring to entire business models, but I see no reason in the world why you can't do it with specific business groups. Everyone follows the same basic structure, with varying degrees of success, but what if we (as in the manufacturer, or the head of support) shake it up, turn it on its head, do something new? The idea is to make the customer thrilled with the whole experience, including support, so that it comes full circle and produces more sales. Happy customers are the best marketing tool we have in a slow economy, and many companies are just doing the same old things and allowing their base to stagnate. Nay, say I! It's the equivalent of committing business suicide.

If there's a point to this rant, I suppose it's to reiterate out that good customer service isn't something you can learn in school, it's something that you learn from your customers. They'll tell you (and everyone else) what you've done wrong. Now what are YOU going to do about it?