Customer Service Is Key To Survival

If you're a silver-lining-seeker like me, you're hoping to learn as many lessons from this past year of business as possible. As I look inward at my own operations and outward at the triumphs and failures of others, I am reminded of how adversity is a valuable opportunity to stress-test the cardiovascular system of an enterprise, isolate the weaknesses and strengthen the qualities that set it apart. I encourage you to make this effort, just in case your bottom line wasn't already telling you to do so; however, do so with informed scrutiny and caution.

A compulsory reaction to recessionary conditions is to dispense of anything deemed nonessential, or a "luxury," to business objectives, and basically strip the chassis to the power train. While this can indeed make for a leaner machine, it may not drive the way your customers prefer.

Survival is important, but be sure your company's core competency isn't cut in the process. Customer service, for example, is one of the last areas a business should cut. I regret that American Express, a company I once publicly lauded as a case study in customer-service excellence, now serves as a study in how abandoning core competencies results in the loss of clientele. I count myself as one such departed Centurion cardholder after an issue that should have been simple to resolve had to be escalated to the office of the CEO, and even then took a month to resolve. The company's decision to cut the quality of—and actual number of—customer-service representatives has compromised its ability to provide the individualized attention on which it built its reputation (and a very loyal following).

Furthermore, sacrificing without counter-compensation shows a lack of consideration for a customer's business. Amazon.com comes to mind as a company that forgoes individualized sales attention in favor of providing an empowering self-service customer experience, as well as human assistance, when (infrequently) needed. This is the competency upon which it has built its image, and it has thrived by maintaining it. If AmEx finds it cost-effective to shift in such a direction, it will need to prove to its customers that it is doing so with their interests, not just its costs, in mind. Based on my own declining satisfaction with AmEx, I remain unconvinced.

Now looking inward at my business, as well as this industry as a whole, I have concluded that I am running what is ultimately a customer-service-centric outfit. While cost is a constant factor bemoaned regardless of budget, my clients both now and prerecession stay with me due to a relationship with my organization that they can trust, through both thick and thin. Remember that your customers are facing the very same pricing pressures, reductions and blood-pressure spikes you are. What they need is a dependable friend in the business who understands their challenges and can assure them it will be OK.

Right now, your silver lining is an opportunity to examine, evaluate and enhance the strengths that have allowed you to come as far as you have and demonstrate to your clients that they'll weather the storm with you by their side. Budgets and pricing will always fluctuate; consistency and trust should be a constant.

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