Create Value For The Customer

The above title is actually the 10th Guiding Principle of the Shingo Model.

In a recent LinkedIn post by my friend Romeu Balanga, he argued that customer service IS NOT a favor.

Our business, Leg Up Solutions?, commented thusly,

Customer Service is definitely a significant touch point where organizations can Create Value For The Customer.

You can get a sense as to whether a business is a revenue mill vs one that creates value for the customer when you try to call customer service for issue resolution. A sympathetic voice goes a long way over an automated, labyrinthine, and ultimately circular voice menu.

I’ve been getting a lot of circular voice menus lately. Ugh!

But then a funny thing happened at the dealership where I buy and service my cars. I will address it in STAR format: Situation, Task, Action, Result.

Situation

It seems there was a problem with my wife Jill’s truck. The center console has two cubbies, one for devices, Tylenol, hand sanitizer and accoutrements that can fit in a narrow space. Then there is what I call the “black hole” which is a deep storage area in the console, beneath the narrow storage space where larger things can be stored. The vehicle is old enough that it has slots in this storage space for storing CDs vertically.

Jill had placed something of value in the lower compartment and when she went to retrieve it, the latch allowing the top of the console to lift broke. She was a bit panicky and decided to head straight to the dealership. She was there 40 minutes and walked out with a charge for $223, all of which but $35 was labor.

Upon arriving home, Jill presented to me the invoice, which I can say honestly, was presented with a visible measure of righteous indignation.

I buy the cars in the family. Jill has a healthy disdain for dealerships for the obvious reasons. She would actually be in another country when I am in car buying mode.

My relationship with the dealer is entirely different than Jill’s. They know me there and call me by name. It is a matter of relationship, whereas with Jill, they don’t know her and it is more transactional. She hates that.

Task

I committed to resolving the overcharge the next time I was at the dealer.

At a later date – about a month later – my car was being serviced and I brought the offending invoice with me for discussion with the service manager, who as it turns out, was a new guy. I walked into his office after asking permission and told him that I thought the invoice was excessive for the time that was spent on Jill’s truck. He asked if I had the documentation and if so, could he look at it. I gave it to him and braced for a negotiation, given I’ve had to do this in the past with other service guys.

As he was looking at the invoice, I told Preston (the new service manager), that I had no problem with the part costing $35 dollars but was extremely frustrated with the labor of $188 dollars when only three screws were needed to fix the problem.

Action

Preston, without hesitation, said I was right and offered to credit the $188 dollars and got on his computer to execute the transaction. I was baffled. This was unheard of from dealerships in general and service departments specifically. He then explained to me that he was trying to shift the culture (now he really had my attention), to viewing diagnostics as an opportunity to delight the customer rather than making it a profit center.

What?!

What wizardry is this?!

Has a spell of reasonableness been cast from somewhere in the universe?

Have I somehow found myself no longer in the dark ages of customer service?

Result

After I recovered from my shock, I thanked Preston profusely and marveled at his understanding of the customer and how to create value for the customer in the environs of his new employer. I also sent him a copy of the Shingo Model booklet and a thank you note.

Conclusion

Customers are not objects. Customers are people. People who buy stuff, i.e., goods & services. People who have concerns, cares and feelings. People who need to feel validated that customers are important. Circular phone menus do not validate. Chatbots do not validate. Call center manuals and their respective flow charts do not validate.

What validates customers and brings them back is treating them with respect, approaching their concerns with humility and recognizing them for what they influence. Your paycheck.

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I very much appreciate you and the time you have taken to read this article. You can find more articles like this from me at https://www.legup.solutions/blog.

If you have thoughts on this or other topics regarding yours or your organization’s journey of excellence, feel free to continue the conversation on my Secret Sauce slack feed.

Originally published at https://www.legup.solutions on 10 SEP 2024.

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