Business
Customer Service Done Right
It has been said many times that it is more expensive to attract new customers than to resell to existing ones. This is true for most businesses. They rely on repeat business as much as new customers for revenue. And so what makes repeat business grow? The answer is excellent customer service. But excellent customer service should be a senior management initiative. It would not do well for a multi-branch operation for just one branch to be excellent, and the rest rate poor. It has to be enterprise-wide, and it has to be part of the company culture.
Case 1 - Jollibee
Jollibee is the number one fast food chain in the Philippines. Restaurants rely heavily on repeat business. After all, there are only so many people in a local area. Jollibee is number one not only because of price and taste, but for customer service as well. A few years ago I called to complain that I got my order wrong on a take-out. They apologized, and more importantly, the manager went over to my office floor (the Jollibee store was at the ground floor of our building), and brought me the right sandwich. I have a hunch this sort of service is not confined to a specific branch.
Case 2 - Miguel Bellido
Miguel Bellido belts are sold at Rustan's. The one I purchased had a screw on the buckle that came lose one day and I lost it. I emailed their office in Spain to ask for the size of the screw so I can find a replacement at a hardware store. They actually sent me a few screws in the mail, which was nice of them, considering that the margins for belts aren't that huge.
Case 3 - Banco De Oro SM Lucena Branch
At the Lucena SM Branch where I used to have an account, an employee declined to exchange a perfectly good 100 dollar bill based on a small tear. She declined it outright, stating company policy. In my dismay, I wrote a letter of complaint. Their reply was that the proper procedure was to clear it with her supervisor. The fact that standard procedure is not followed points to substandard customer service. These things should be covered in training and reinforced through their managers.
Case 4 - Equitable PCI Bank Perea-Paseo
Once they honored a check on the strength of my word. It was admittedly a mistake on my part, but they were very accomodating and understanding of my situation. I funded the check the next day.
Case 5 - Banco De Oro Perea-Paseo
This is the same branch as in the previous case. It was converted to Banco de Oro after the merger. The change in account number caused an incorrect debit of my account through a check. I brought the matter to the attention of the cashier, who was very helpful in trying to resolve my problem. After escalating it to the branch manager, immediate action was made, and the transaction was reversed.
Cases 3 to 5 show that Banco de Oro probably is not at the level of customer service that Equitable PCI Bank had. It may also mean that the Perea-Paseo Branch was exceptional in terms of customer service. I would like to think that it is company-wide back when it was Equitable PCI Bank, and that Banco De Oro has something to learn from their EPCI counterparts.
On the basis of previous experience, I will definitely go back to Jollibee, and do more business with the Perea-Paseo branch of Banco De Oro. All the cases here illustrate that customer service, when done right, will retain customers, and help bring repeat business.
Clifford Cada is an Information Technology professional who has worked on Customer Relationship Management applications and with various customer service organizations. He has also been on the receiving end of many customer service experiences, some of which were used in this article.