Taking the Mystery Out of Customer Service
In a former life, I used to sell mystery shopping services. And most of the mom-and-pop entrepreneurs I approached typically had trouble understanding why they needed it. However, they heartily agreed that “large” companies definitely would benefit from my assistance – and they usually gave me an example of bad service that they’d received.
For the uninitiated, mystery shopping is when someone the employees don’t know pretends to be a customer and rates the customer service of a business based on preset criteria. A report goes back to the owner so that he or she receives an objective idea of what it’s like to be a customer of that business.
These small-business owners fell into the first trap of customer service. Since they were “there,” the service had to be good. The problem is that we often view our side of the counter with rose-colored glasses, thinking it’s the customers who are the ones with unrealistic expectations. Also, are you always “there?” Do you work every hour your laundromat is open? Of course not.
With that said, here are some steps laundry owners can take to improve their customer service:
- When hiring, the only quality to look for is friendliness. If you would enjoy chatting with this person while waiting in line at the grocery store or at a bus stop, they’re hirable. The first thing your customers are going to want is to interact with a friendly employee. Everything else, like folding clothes or using the cash register, can be taught – but you can’t teach someone to be friendly.
- The other end of hiring is that sometimes you have to fire people. It’s one of the most unpleasant parts of being a business owner. However, hanging on to an underperforming employee can be extremely detrimental to the bottom line. For example, I once inherited an employee who actually made some customers not want to come to my store, and who once told a customer to “go to another laundromat!” Of course, I had to quickly let her go. I can only imagine how much money and goodwill she had cost the previous owner.
- After employees are hired, do you have a plan or a system to train them? Or do you say, “Watch this other employee for an hour. It’s easy. You’ll learn.” Most operators own just one or two laundromats, so they probably don’t have an employee handbook. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a checklist of everything a new employee should know. For someone just hired, everything is new – from such mundane details as the location of the fire extinguisher and extra toilet paper to what do they do if a machine stops mid-cycle or a customer complains. All of this can be taught by a competent employee – but, as a best practice, the owner should go over the entire checklist with the employee before they are considered “trained.” This also shouldn’t be the only training they ever receive. Training and teaching should be ongoing.
- As the owner, do you lead, or do you pay lip service to customer service? I’ve had bosses who preached that “the customer is why we are in business,” up until the point when a customer wanted to actually speak with them. Then, it became someone else’s job to help the customer. When you’re at your store, do you greet all of your customers and thank them for coming? Or, do you leave that for the attendants? If a customer has an issue, do you help them, or direct an employee to handle it?
- Do you communicate your customer service expectations? One night, I lamented to my wife that even my own kids didn’t clean the laundromat up to my expectations. She made the point that the attendants will do whatever I tell them, but nothing more. If I want the bookcase dusted, I have to include that in the cleaning list. It reminded me of a training program I once took where the instructor asked everyone to draw a house. He then chose one volunteer, looked at the person’s drawing, and asked, “Where’s the two-car garage and the chimney?” The person responded that that the instructor had never mentioned those specific items – and that, in essence, is what I was doing with the store cleaning. I told my employees to draw a house, but I gave them no information or instructions, and then expected it to match what was in my head.
- Are your policies flexible? I allow employees the ability to take care of any customer that involves anything costing $8 or less. I chose $8 because that’s the cost of a wash in our largest machine. If a customer says a machine ate his or her quarter, just give that person another quarter. If someone used too much soap and is unhappy with how the clothes came out, rewash them at no cost and provide some gentle education on the correct amount of detergent to use next time. I don’t believe in fighting over the nickels and dimes, and losing the dollars. If I’m right and save three bucks, but I lose a regular customer, what have I actually won?
- Be aware of the silent customer. Many small-business owners think their service is good because few people complain. It could be good, or it could be that most people don’t complain. Think about yourself. Every time you’ve had bad service, do you ask for the manager? Do you leave a negative review, write a letter to the corporate headquarters, or vent on social media? Probably not. Most likely, you do what the majority of your customers will do, simply go someplace else the next time. When you think about the silent customer, it’s good to remember the words of Sam Walton: “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
- When you do get a customer who has a legitimate complaint, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if this individual is still in the store. A complaint means the customer is engaging with you, so there’s still a chance to salvage the situation. The silent customers don’t give you that opportunity. It’s reasonable to assume that, if one person has those complaints, others might as well, and this gives you a chance to rectify it going forward.
- One big step you can take to improve service at your store is to teach your customers how to do laundry. It seems so simple – until you see customers load all of their clothes into a dryer and then ask, “Where does the detergent go?” Not everyone knows how to do laundry. And this may include your own staff. If your attendants don’t know (and you shouldn’t assume they automatically do), how can they help your customers? The first thing we do is teach our employees how to do laundry. Do they need to separate out colors and whites? Is washing in cold water better than hot water? How do they know when a machine has been overloaded? What items are best air-dried, rather than placed in a dryer? Why do clothes shrink? And so on.
- Lastly, if someone has that “lost” look in their eyes, our attendants are instructed to go over and help them. We also have signage throughout the store helping customers learn more about removing stains, what the tags on their clothes mean, and everything described in the bullet point item above.
Now that you’ve made it to the end of this article, my challenge to you is to go back to your store and look at it with a fresh point of view – through your customers’ eyes.
