Customer Service

3rd September 2012

Author: MIGAS
Categories: News & Blogs Staff Blog

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Customer service – Why great customer service is important for your business

Customer service is so important.  Recently I went on a four day motorcycle ride with two other couples.  The first place we were going to stay was a little motel in a central Queensland town called Gayndah.  When we arrived at the motel late in the day the two owners couldn’t have been more helpful.  They didn’t ask us to book in but said, “go and have a shower, unpack, get comfortable, have a beer and then we will sort out the registrations.”  While sorting out the registrations they asked us what we were doing for dinner, which we hadn’t even thought about.  They suggested they would set up a long table, and anything we ordered off their room service menu (they did not have a restaurant) they would serve at the table under one of the carports – which was a great idea.  When we came out for dinner the table was set with a table cloth, knives and forks and everything you could have wanted for the meal.  And not only that, the food was great.  Next morning, breakfast was served in the same cheerful and fun manner that dinner was served with.  Will we go back?  You bet, and to top it off everyone in the group who was on Facebook gave the motel a big rap.  By the way, the motel was called Gayndah A Motel if you are out that way.

Contrast that experience to what happened when we arrived at Hervey Bay on the same trip.  Just out of town we got caught in a tropical downpour which thoroughly drenched the six of us.  When we arrived at the motel we looked like drowned rats and I suggested to the lady behind the counter that we go to our rooms and get cleaned up and then come back and check in – but no, we had to do it right then even though we had prepaid for the rooms.  When I asked for a cloth to wipe my hands and face (which were dripping with water), you should have seen the look I got.  We had to drag out wallets, licences, credit cards, and sign rego slips all the while dripping water on the floor.  To say the woman was unfriendly, uncompromising and unhelpful would have been a compliment to her.  I am surprised she didn’t ask us to mop up the floor after ourselves.  We are never going back and the manager, who we told the story to the next morning, was very upset at how we had been treated.

In a service industry like Group Training we have nothing to sell but ourselves and the service we offer to our clients.  We have to remember that people talk about Group Training service and we have to remember that a bad customer experience will usually be relayed to ten other people – one of which may be our next Group Training customer.  So, if we can do a little more to help out our Group Training customers or to help our boss help out our customers then all we are doing is ensuring we have a job tomorrow.

David Brown
MIGAS CEO

Customer service