Good Customer Service: an endangered species

I have had this topic on my mind for a long time and wanted to write a blog post about it. It was going to be on how the only good customer service left, can be found in Apple Stores and at my mom’s store. Concluding that Apple some how, found a way to train their staff to provide good customer service (and my mom just rules too much). But all this changed this weekend, the reason: I went shopping for a traveling Backpack (see image bellow). Also, like this blog post, for a long time wanted to buy one, but I never got totally convinced.

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I like to travel around and is tough to do it with regular luggage (although I don’t travel as other do, I travel ). I always went to checkout the bags, but never understood this product and is tough to buy a product when you don’t understand it. You may ask yourself, what is to understand about a backpack? Trust me there is a lot, but at first glance the only thing I saw was size, materials and the brand name. I thought this characteristics defined the price, although they have a saying, they share the responsibility with other properties or characteristic of same importance.

I went to InterSport in a outlet shopping center in the outskirts of Stockholm. I went in to the store and like always I helped myself to checkout the bags. After five minutes an a employee asked me if I was looking to buy a bag and I told her, yes. What happened in the next 30 minutes was mind boggling, I got a crash coarse on backpacks. I mean I was amaze by how much is to this bags and she did a very good job. She went around explaining each bag, trying to find out my needs, what will fit me, my type of travel, etc. She made me try them and see how they felt and fit. From that point one can get  a feeling that this person knew what she was talking about. The way she dealt with me was very good, because she sensed in a good way, I was price sensitive and tried to find the best value for me. Also remembered me about the 30 day return policy most stores have in Sweden. So, I bought it and follow her instructions to fill it up with clothing and test it, if I don’t like it I will return it, that simple.

Of coarse this doesn’t make us understand if this is an abnormally or is there something to learn from the shopping experience. And things didn’t click until the cashier commented that she is very experience in this because she hikes and loves to hikes. That was my moment of “ahaaaaaa”. Well it was like an hour later after I was able to digest everything, but it was thanks to the conversation with the cashier. The key word here is love, a word that is used so lightly this days, but still is very important. What does apple store clerks and this lady have in common? You guessed right, Love for what the product or service they are in charge of (selling or helping). Yes indeed they love it. Apple customers are the best sellers you will find, because plain and simple, they love their products and is easier to sell something you love  contrast when you don’t. [Clarification for any smart ass: in the contrary if you sell a person you love that means the opposite]

Finding people that provide customer service and are crazy about a product is tough to find, that is why ladies and gentlemen, good customer service is a rarity these days. And is not an easy task to make people love a product that they own or don’t have a saying on how is made. So there lies the challenge: how to train people to love the product or service they are providing customer service for. Maybe next time you put an ad for new employee, the main requirement: “love our product”.