editor’s forum I Wasn’t So Special ... and I Shoulda’ Been
My personal experience should be a lesson to us all: our customers have lots of places they can spend their money.
“W
as there something you needed?” asked the store man- ager. He had followed me out of the gas station’s minimart, and
spoke to me as I was aborting my fill-up and replacing my gas cap. I didn’t look up as I spoke to him. “Well, I was in line to buy a bottle of water while my gas was pump- ing. You were talking and laughing with your two employees, one who was obviously not on the clock because he was in street clothes. I stood there for three minutes while you guys talked about paychecks and other stuff. I’m shocked you didn’t even notice when I put the bottle back in the cooler and walked out. So no, I don’t need anything.” He stood there like an idiot. Evidently he didn’t expect a
SOLOMON DANIELS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
John Schwartz so eloquently put it, “We make love to our customers.” It’s funny because many times guys can’t accurately describe exactly what it is they do to exemplify the claim. It seems like making statements such as “We greet every customer” or “We stay open for late pick-ups” don’t do enough to describe the true drive behind making a customer for life. After all, these are just practices and policies, right? The truth is, when you get to the point where you can only describe your service in vague terms, it usu- ally means it’s so infused in your store’s culture and practice that direct policies aren’t necessary. But for all you young-uns who want to own your own store or are just starting out with ownership
customer to actually tell him his service sucked. I took the opportunity to continue. “The whole reason you are here is to take care of me and people like me who spend money here. Yet, I wasn’t important enough to even get an acknowledgement. The way I see it, you don’t deserve my business.” I almost felt sorry for the guy but I
let him stew in his indecision a bit more before I shrugged my shoulders and gave him a way out. “Just feedback,” I concluded. He mum- bled an apology as I drove off. If there were a Top 50 award in the gas
“Te truth is, when you get to the point where you can only describe your service in vague terms, it usually means it’s so infused in your store’s culture and
station industry, that guy wouldn’t be gettin’ it. There is, however, a Top 50 award in our industry, and I can
in a new location, understand that this is a goal, not a begin- ning. You NEED to establish policies to get yourselves and your people in the practice of consciously emphasizing service: Always acknowledge a customer when they enter. Answer the phone with a smile in your voice. Be respectful of your custom- ers’ preferences. Call them after a purchase to make sure they’re happy. The practice creates the culture. Repeat
practice that direct policies aren’t necessary.”
guarantee that the stores and individuals who recently received this recognition for 2014—along with the Top 100 Installers— aren’t treating customers that way. The reason? Because despite all the knowledge and expertise we can bring to bear and solve any problem that the big boxes either can’t or choose to ignore, we can’t do anything without first-rate service. We often joke about doing interviews and hearing retailers describe their best asset using general lines like “great customer service,” “we treat our customers like family,” or as the great
6 Mobile Electronics July 2014
after me: The practice creates the culture. As I’ve said before, our job at the maga- zine is to carry the standard. It’s to identify and share best practices so that regardless of how narrow-viewed a retailer gets in his business, he can always look to our pages and see what the ideal practices are from the best stores and installers around North America.
And guess what? It’s your resource as
well. Read up on some of the Top 50 Retailers and Top 100 Installers in this issue, and the Top 12 Retailers and Installers in the next issue. Understand what it took to get them to that level, and copy what they do best. Great service doesn’t have to be unique, but it does need to be consistent. There’s too much competition out there. The only way a spe-
cialist can survive is to be special. To us, we might think about being special in our knowledge or ability, but to a customer, it’s about making him or her feel as if you appreciate the fact that they chose you.
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