May 26, 2008

Carving piece of customer pieBy Deena WaisbergFinancialPost.com

Gail Watson was surprised and delighted when she received a big apple/cherry pie and a note apologizing for a missed appointment from Nurse Next Door, a Vancouver-based elderly home health care company. While she was initially upset about the missed appointment, the company’s prompt apology and “humble pie” helped turn Ms. Watson into a loyal customer.

“It’s unusual to see such a proactive approach to customer service today,” Ms. Watson says.

Yet, poor service is often the norm. In a recent customer loyalty poll conducted by Ipsos Reid, only 62% of respondents said that they had received great customer service in the past month.

Poor customer service can kill a company’s reputation and sales, which is critical for small businesses since they can’t always compete on price or selection. But delivering good service is more difficult than writing it into a mission statement.

Customer-friendly policies are a good place to start. “We want to make it easy for customers to shop with us,” says Jon Dyer, co-owner of BabyGuru.ca., a Mississauga, Ont.-based company that sells a wide range of baby items.

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