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54 . Glasgow Business February 2015


BIG TALKS Bryan Garvie, Director, The BIG Partnership


Is good customer service always vital?


» It may not be core to big-business success, but it really pays to be nice I


’ve decided I want a motorbike. I recently binge-watched Sons of Anarchy on Netflix, where a bunch of hairy Harley riders run guns, beat people up and generally go


around being very unpleasant. Horrible people, really. But man, they look


cool doing it. Unfortunately, my SoA experience came to an abrupt end aſter the season five finale, since Netflix in the UK – at the time – didn’t have season six. So late that Saturday night, I tweeted:


@NetflixUK Just finished Sons of Anarchy s5 … when’s s6 coming? Soon? Please? #reaperwithdrawal Even now (aſter Netflix thoughtfully


uploaded season six a few days aſter I received the DVD for Christmas) I’ve yet to receive a reply. OK, it’s Netflix, it’s massive, and truth be


told, I’m not that bothered. But how long really would it have taken to reply with: “You’ll need to watch this space, bucko”? Here’s the rub: they don’t need to reply to me.


I’m not going to cancel my subscription in a fit of pique, because frankly, it’s an awesome product. Te de facto position of any organisation should be to keep customers happy – but does customer service always mater? Take Apple, for instance. New iterations of


iOS routinely cause global iPhone meltdown, batery life can be dreadful, and they have a reputation for uterly refusing to engage with customers on any level beyond the transactional. Tere’s an @apple Twiter account, with


31,500 followers, but in five years it’s yet to post a single Tweet. Despite all of this, Apple is blindingly successful, because the stuff it makes looks amazing and is brilliant to use. Business researcher Jim Collins wrote a book


called From Good To Great, which explores why some companies knock spots off the rest of the market, even if the rest of the market is doing really well. He identifies a really


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For more information on The BIG Partnership, visit www.bigpartnership.co.uk


”Very few companies can now get away with poor customer engagement”


interesting point about core values. If they’re applied consistently, and work for your business, they don’t need to be very nice. Your core value can be all about making


money, at the expense of everything else. By that same token, customer service, for some companies, doesn’t appear to be everything. So should brands abandon customer service


ideals? Er, no. Not everybody can be a Netflix or an Apple. What Collins didn’t reckon on at the time he wrote the book (the first edition was published in 2001) was the extent to which social media would play a role in how customers interact with businesses. Very few companies can now get away with poor customer engagement, and before long there’s a wave of public opinion which can become very problematic. Far beter to be known for great


customer service, and have that celebrated among your customers. Once you identify the channels they prefer, you have a much beter chance of creating some positive engagement and a business benefit. As far as Netflix


goes, all I really want is for them to return my love. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Especially since my wife says I’m not allowed a motorbike.


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