Keep Your Standards High!
For years our industry has seemed to struggle to catch up to rising standards of customer service that others have made normal and consumers have grown to expect.
But not this year. This year, we set the bar.
Think about it.
Hotels with no breakfast, airlines with reduced options for drink service, restaurants with longer wait times; the list goes on.
While there are justifiable reasons from staffing issues to other pandemic effects for some businesses to have reduced offerings, another more frequent excuse for poor service is inflation.
Inflation – while problematic – really refers to needing more money for the same goods and services we have enjoyed. Presently, we’re paying more while businesses are offering less.
Enter the term “skimpflation.” This comical phrase was coined in NPR’s Planet Money by Greg Rosalsky. I think it applies perfectly to what many of us have witnessed this year. “Skimpflation,” Rosalsky says, “ is a situation where we’re paying the same or more for services, but they kinda suck compared with what they used to be… It’s when, instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the goods and services they provide.” 1
If you’re like me, you’re thinking, “Yes, that! Exactly that!” so let’s agree on something else. Let’s agree that this is a point in time where the best customer experience, possibly anywhere, is to be had in an auto repair shop. Top off that windshield washer fluid. If that bar which we set high moves from the place it took so long to raise it to, let it not be lowered in exhaustion and brought down to the level of reduced expectations so familiar elsewhere. Let’s continue to still raise the bar, and strive for all areas of our business to operate as best-in-class.
Offer that bottle of water.
Perform those digital inspections.
Offer your client a ride to work or home.
