No this article is not about how to provide customers with good service, sorry but maybe I will cover my thoughts on that area in a later blog posts. This post is about how service in many forms affects your view and interaction with not only the provider but the overall product as a whole. For example, if you went to a restaurant that was renowned for its food, but the service was horrible. How likely are you to go back? How likely are you to choose that establishment regularly? On the opposite of that, what if you went to a restaurant were the food was average but the service was some of the best around. Which combination would you choose?
Another angle to this, do you tip your waitress solely on the basis of the service they provided you? Or do you let the cleanliness of the establishment, the speed the food was ready, and the quality of the food affect your decision on how much to tip?
Why am I talking about restaurants and tips on this blog? It dawned on me while eating at a local restaurant, while I was sitting there waiting for a long time for my steak, regularly interacting with the waiter who appeared to be good. How much am I going to let the kitchens problems affect the tip I give my waiter? How often do others do the same? And how does a similar mentality affect other industries.
Do you own a product that is good at what it is supposed to do, but the level of support, consulting, training, or basic customer service you have gotten from the company or its affiliates negatively affect your ability to use it and does that affect your level of satisfaction with it? Based on that would you recomend the product to others? Would you talk to others positively about the product?
I believe you might not actually realize (without really stopping and thinking about it) how you let it affect your thought process. I believe a lot of people have made good purchases in software, electronics, or other, however the level of "service" they are provided in the form of instruction manuals, documentation, training, implementation or install services may affect the end view/result in a negative way.
Is this a bad thing? Is it wrong? I don't think so, and I think more companies out there need to realize that the end all and be all is not just the product. Your product is only as good as the weakest link in the package that makes it up So if you make a simply fantastic product that in every respect is the best there is, but there is not enough information on how to use it "right" or not good enough support when you have questions, not good enough support where something goes wrong, or even not enough good people out there to help you put it to use. Is the company out there listening, trying to find ways to improve?
So I wonder (out loud sort of) how K2 is viewed. What kind of tip are we going to get? And will that tip be mainly because of the product (a.k.a food) or will it be influenced good or bad, by our support, our documentation, our partners, etc?
Obviously you probably don't run a restaurant but the correlations can be the same. The food you serve is your primary business. For K2 this is BPM software. Our service, our restaurant facilities, bathrooms etc are our documentation, training, consulting etc. Thus rounding out the full K2 experience.
So what does your restaurant look like? Do you provide excellent service? Think about your customers' full experience, what does it look like? Correlate this to your next visit to your favorite eatery. Think about your experience and take notice of everything the cleanliness, the food, the service, the bathrooms, even how the tables are laid out. All of these can affect your overall experience and how you feel about going there.
Then think about how this correlates to your business, what is your table layout? What is your cleanliness? What kind of tips would you be getting?
I think social media and “community” are a fantastic way for companies to learn about what tips they are getting. Its a great way to get out there an listen. Great way to get out there and converse with your diners, see what they are saying, ask how the service is, listen in to how the experience is for them.
What do you think? Let me know what you think. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome here. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Or you can email me directly chris dot geier at Gmail.com
You are right --- the weakest link can be the impetus to bring the whole house of cards down. However, to use your analogy to a restaurant I go to some restaurants because the food is so good that I don't care about the ambience. This is not to say I don't expect the plates and silverware to be clean and have decent service, but I would continue to go back if the human aspects of the service were not quite up to snuff.
ReplyDeleteThe flip side of this occurs too - here in Seattle there is a well known restaurant for steak - they have great service, great food and great ambiance, but they have something else that puts them at the bottom of my list for dining choices. They come off as very pretentious and that is very off putting to me.
I have seen software companies with this same level of pretentious behavior. They are often the current "it" company and they know it. They think that because they have the current hot product that they can let other areas falter or at least not get as much attention. They are often in for a rude awakening when the next "it" product or company bubbles to the top. This is when their "weakest links" are exposed and they have to make a decision. Rise to the occasion or becomes yesterdays lunch.