Customer service is ‘in’

Last week at Whole Foods I was asked 4 times within 15 minutes if "I needed any help?" or "Was I finding everything okay?" My initial thought was ”Do I look confused?” and then didn't think much about it until my mall visit this past weekend. The mall provided similar experiences across multiple stores.Associates were going out of their way to help above and beyond my expectations. (And the stores were actually busy, hopefully a good sign for all of us.) After that, the thought crossed my mind that retailers have really put an emphasis on customer service.

But the icing on the cake was a customer experience phone call from Jimmy John's shortly after we ordered 8 box lunches last minute for delivery. The order was nothing out of the ordinary for us, but the follow-up call was. To top it off, Jimmy John's showed up the next day with a bunch of free samples for the lunchroom.  At this point, it seems there is a common theme across retail and hospitality alike - catering to the customer is ‘in’!

As John Pruban, president of tekservePOS, has mentioned in his tekREVIEW column this month – everyone wants more for less and shoppers are no different. An article in BusinessWeek confirms what Pruban has said “Just as companies are dealing with plummeting sales and sinking employee morale, skittish customers want more attention, better quality, and greater value for their money. Those same customers are also acutely aware that their patronage is of growing importance to companies as others decrease their spending.”

And retailers are beginning to see the value in keeping customer service strong or improving it. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research on customer service, “about half of the 90 large companies surveyed are trying to avoid cuts to their customer service budgets. Top performers are treating their best customers better than ever, even if that means doing less to wow new ones. While cutting back-office expenses, they're trying to preserve front-line jobs and investing in cheap technology to improve service.”

While the survey is not retail focused, but rather across many industries, seven retailers made the top 25 list of Customer Service Champs including Publix Super Markets, Zappos.com, Ace-Hardware, Nordstrom, Trader Joe’s, True Value and L.L. Bean.

And based on recent experiences, it seems many retailers are following suit - making good customer service a large part of the overall shopping experience.