Customer Service or Lack thereof.....

Many articles have been written about how to do great customer service no matter what segment of business you are engaged in, however, last Saturday I experienced a service provider that completely missed all the articles and yet believe they have fantastic customer service.  Allow me to explain and hopefully keep someone else from losing a customer.

We have a dog and visit a vet on an annual basis, nothing unusual so far, but our vet finally decided to retire and he sold his practice to a group of two new, just out of school, vet's.  They completely disregarded all the principles and everything our Doctor had built his practice around.  They quickly got rid of the long time office staff, who made the visits more pleasant as well as ran the office quickly and efficiently.  Then when those two failed (about 8 months) they again sold the practice to several new doctors, who again are recently out of vet school, and they not only didn't return to the standards of before but actually made the practice much more user friendly - for themselves - forgetting completely about the customers and our needs, like Saturday visits for those of us who both work.

As I usually preach to everyone else, I chose to vote with my feet and we got our record from the past 6 years of visits and found a new vet.  During this search process we decided since we spend so many weekends up at our Lake house we would use a vet up in that area.  We asked several local friends who they used and it turns out they most all recommended the same vet clinic.  In fact, one of our friends are very close neighbors to the vet and we've even had dinner together once. Seems like a perfect choice doesn't it.

Here's where the story gets sticky. My wife called not only this clinic but 3 others up in that general area just to check out the prices and levels of service, plus be sure that they in fact did have Saturday hours - and all did. We went to the highly recommended clinic and we were impressed when we walked in that only 3 other clients were ahead of us. Our old vet in Norcross, on a Saturday morning, usually had 20 + waiting and it took him about an hour and a half to get to us.  We were thrilled!   Our joy turned sour after the first hour passed and only 1 person in the waiting room was seen.  At about the 2 hour point I stood up and announced that I'd had enough of this rudeness and was ready to leave and go somewhere else. At that point in time the person behind the counter quickly found a way to get us into the exam room.  Where we waited another 30+ minutes. 

How does this all tie into customer service?  Well while we were sitting there waiting at least 5 others, obviously friends of the staff of the clinic, walked right in, never sat down, just walked back into the back and had their pets taken care of and then left.  No, the clinic doesn't take appointments. No these weren't emergencies (unless you consider trimming nails an emergency) and finally, no the vet who has the great reputation wasn't the one in the clinic.  It seems he too has decided that to better improve his practice he brings in a young, recent vet school grad, do you notice a pattern developing here,  to work on Saturdays so he can enjoy his weekend.

So here is my punchline - we will continue our search for a more consumer friendly vet clinic where the customers are treated well, but that "SPECIAL" customers are treated the same as the rest of the customers. It's not much money involved, we only spent about $200 but rest assured someone else will be the recipients of my money on the next visit. What if they are treating 100 other clients this same way?   Is this happening in your business?  Are you forgetting about keeping the new customer pipeline filled while pampering your existing customers? Maybe on day, just for fun, you stop what you are doing and walk out into your waiting room to ask the customers you haven't yet seen how they feel about your customer service rating!!!!  Maybe provide a feedback card like the fast food places do so your customers can tell you without disclosing who they are.  I assure you any cost is cheaper than losing a customer you should have had for life.

These are my thoughts, what are yours?
Steve