My Rant on Poor Customer Service - Ed Dancel

"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came."

Do you remember those lyrics from the hit TV show "Cheers"? As a customer, that's certainly where I'd like to go and do business. I'd certainly want to go where I felt comfortable, welcomed and appreciated. I'd certainly want to go where people are in good moods, enthusiastic, energetic, happy and smiling all the time just like our greeter Heather in this picture on the left.

Well,today I was reminded of how crucial good customer service is to our business when I received a very poor one going into my local bank branch. I felt like the teller assisting me did not care about me at all. She kept pointing out the reasons why she couldn't do my transaction but did not provide me with any solutions on how I can make it happen. I walked out of that bank frustrated and irritated. I wanted to strangle her.

I've been with this bank for several years now, going to that same branch, doing that same transaction over and over again. I've gotten to know most of the tellers there. Normally they're all really nice and very accommodating to me and we'd joke around and laugh through the whole transaction. I really felt comfortable doing business there but today, I was ready to take my money out of there and start a new account with another bank. I spent my whole lunch hour locating another branch and at this other location, my transaction was handled with no problem. You see, there really wasn't an issue with my transaction. The issue was with the person who was assisting me.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back and about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better now. Please feel free to comment below.

- Ed Dancel is a sales consultant at Southfield Chrysler 248-354-2950