Customer Service

MKT 1002

(Lecture 3-4)
Recognize and Deal with Customer
Turnoffs
“ Research by Forum Corporation suggests
that 70% of the customers lost by 13 big
service and manufacturing companies
(studied) had scooted because of a lack
of attention from the front line
employees. Its an emotional tie, not
mere satisfaction that brings the customer
back”
- Tom Peters
Kinds of customer turnoffs -cont
• Being ignored or being rude or indifferent service.

• Having to wait too long. (movie ticket counters)

• Poor quality of work. (mechanic)

• No stock for items on sale.

• Merchandise prices not marked.

• Dirty restaurants and rest rooms.

 Kinds of customer turnoffs
• Phone calls put on hold or forcing you to select from a
long menu of choices. Ex. Banks

• Employees lacking of product knowledge.

• High-pressure sales tactics. (Direct selling sales people)

• Employees talking down to you using confusing jargons.

(Demo for an electronic product)

• Inflexibility when making a request. (Ex. No delivery or

commitment to minimum quantity purchase)
 Other little things that mean to
customers
• Price is usually is the consideration for most
customers, but what is the case if you are not price
sensitive??

Some reasons that influences customers considerations;

a) Perception of the advertisements (believability of the
ad)
b) Location of the store (Convenience)
c) Service provider supports local social causes. Ex Body
Shop, Shell
d) User friendly website. Ex. www.airasia.com
 The Wal-Mart experience
• Wal-Mart (US) had clearly differentiate itself from it’s
competitor Kmart will little operations differences.
• Most Wal-Mart customers feels their shopping
expectations has been meet.
• Some of the little things that contributed are:
a) Greeters at the door to welcome customers.
b) Employee wearing vest with name tags to help
customers find things.
c) Cleaner floors, tidier parking lots, no foul smell in-store.
d) Quick checkouts staffed with friendly people.
 Three categories of customer
turnoffs
• Customer turnoff fall into three categories; value, system
and people.

Value Turnoffs
• Customer received poor value from a product or service.
• ‘Value’ can be identified as quality relative to price paid.
• Customers will experience value turnoff when
purchase of high involvement products do not meet
their expectations. Ex. House, car, electronic
appliances
• However, this might be the case for low involvement
products such as a ball pen, stationary, etc.
Value Turnoffs - cont
• The value proposition offered from an organization to
customers will be determine by the top leadership.
• In the case of one person enterprise, the owner will
determine the quality/pricing formula which defines
value.
• Perception of value could differ from one consumer
to another.
• People in the organisation could affect value, but
leadership bears the major responsibility for ensuring it.
 Systems Turnoffs
• It is described as any process, procedure or policy
used to “deliver” the product or service to the
customer.
• Systems are the way we get value to the customers,
which includes:
a) Company location, layout, parking facilities, phone
lines
b) Employee training and staffing
c) Record keeping (computer systems for handling
customer transaction
d) Policies regarding guarantees and product returns
e) Delivery and pick-up services
f) Marketing and sales tactics
g) Customer follow up procedures
h) Billing and accounting processes

• Elimination of system turnoffs is the primary the

responsibility of managers in the organisation, because
it require resources.

• Ex. New locations, remodeling, additional staffing and

training and added delivery services.
 Systems – Ex. McDonalds
• McDonalds adopts a unified systems which deliver
consistent value to its customers across their stores.
• It provides a sense of comfort and help customer feel
that they are in control of their experience.
• The systems makes McD a success and every employee
is thought of the system. This avoids indecision, no
hesitation, frustration and miscommunications.
• The system creates comfort for both employees and
customers.
• Failure to design and train on effective systems ca result
in many customer service turnoffs.
 People Turnoffs
• Its due to communication problems, where employees
fail to communicate appropriately, both verbally and
non verbally.

• Examples of people turnoffs are:

a) Employees who fail to greet and smile at a customer.
b) People who give inaccurate information or convey a
lack of knowledge.
c) Employee chatting among themselves.
d) Behaviors that project a rude or uncaring attitude.
e) Sales tactics that comes across as high pressure.
f) Work locations that appear dirty or sloppy.
g) Employees who are dressed inappropriately or have
poor grooming.
h) Any communicated message that causes the
customers to feel uncomfortable.

• Turnoff arise because people fail to understand how

they come across to other people.
 Value Service Recovery
• Customer problems should be a viewed as loyalty
building opportunities.
• It is when a need or problem arises that a customer skills
are put to test.
• The payoff off for recovering potentially lost customers
is actually an increased likelihood that they will be
loyal.
• Studies have shown that customers who encountered
problem which was addressed promptly and effectively
will be more likely to remain as loyal than a customer
who never had a problem.
• Ex. Toyota ‘Lexus’ design defect.
• Toyota recalled thousands of units and took the
opportunity to highlight the excellent service provided by
exceptional dealers.

Efforts taken:
- Arrange to pick up their car to the dealer.
- Arrange for a loaner car.
- Giving a free was and wax job.
- Apologizing and giving gifts.

• Toyota turned the potential embarrassment to

demonstrate service excellence.
 Emotional element in service excellence

• Turnoffs are likely to occur when there is little or no

emotional connection between customer and
organisation.
• “Emotional connectivity” is the center of all
relationships and the center of customer service.
• Connectivity occur when people in an exchange are
turned into a genuine feeling situation. This could help
eliminate customer turnoffs.
• Techniques recommended by Freemantle to maximise
connectivity includes:
a) Creating the climate of warmth before the customer
approaches
 Freemental techniques - cont
b) Sending out warm and positive signals.

c) Being sensitive to the customer emotional state.

d) Encouraging customers to express their feelings.

e) Listening with genuine interest.

f) Finding something you like about each customer.

g) Eliminating negative feelings you have towards the

customers.
 Recognize and eliminate customer
turnoffs
• The first step is to recognize the existence of customer
turnoffs.
• Later, identify type of customer turnoff and gather
objective data
• Techniques such as listening, explorer groups,
mystery shoppers, focus group and feedback
system are able to reduce customer turnoffs.
a) Listen with more than your ears
- Customers will open up and share important ideas.
- Customers should be doing most of the talking.
Methods to be a better listeners:
• Judge the content of what people are saying, not the
way they are saying it (get clarifications and look beyond
the tone of voice)
• Hold your fire – hear the person out
• Work at listening – maintain eye contact, listen to content
• Resist distractions and interruptions
• Seek clarifications from customers to fully understand
their needs (probing)

b) Use explorer groups

– Getting employees to other businesses to see how
they do things.
- Top scope out new ideas being implemented by other
businesses
- Explore how own organization's serving customers by
being a customer. Call, go online or visit your own
company the way customers do and see how you are
treated.

c) Mystery Shopping
- It involves a mystery shopper who visits the company
location posing as customers.
- Trained shoppers will look out for specific behaviors
and then report results to management.
- It is best done systematically (scheduled intervals –
monthly)
d) Use Focus Groups
- A group of customers or potential customers invited to
share their impressions and ideas about the business.
- The group will from 8-12 people.
- Respondents will share their perceptions and
expectations about a particular product group or service.
- Respondents are selected randomly to participate in a
session. They could be qualified according frequency
and amount spent.
- Ask open ended questions and listen to feedback, and
look out for key words.
- Session should be recorded and no longer than 90
minutes.
e) Implement Customer Feedback Systems
- known as the comment card
- some drawbacks are:

i) Often completed by people who are very satisfied or

very dissatisfied (extreme feedback)
ii) Cards are poorly designed and ask wrong questions
iii) It requires too much time and effort from customers
iv) Cards fail to tell what to do with it

- Its best to have on online web based system to provide

feedback. Ex. Nestle, P&G, Unilever.
 Tutorial Questions
1. Describe in your own words the three
categories of customer turnoffs. Give
examples of each.

2. Describe three systematic ways

companies can get a clearer picture of
what may be turning off their customers.