Customer Service - When Have You Created "Quality"

I often struggle with what the heck customer service really is. I've seen so many forms and flavors and I don't really feel that any of them left me feeling all that "serviced". Over the years I've tried many different philosophies on this and I'm starting to think I knew the answer all along.

In my early years I worked for my dad quite a bit. He owned a locksmithing business here in town and it was a great gig going through college because he would let me tailor my hours around school. Of course we had the regular dad/son fights and what-not, but overall I think it was a pretty sweet deal (for me anyway). One thing I used to laugh about was my dad's abuse of the customers. He truly had no compunctions about telling a customer to stop 'hanging over his shoulder' while he was working, or to "stop whining" when they complained about a price. He was basically an old hard-ass. But all that not withstanding, my dad TRULY believed in customer service - well, his brand of (old school) customer service anyway.

My dad believed in the following 3 anchors of customer service:
Fast Service
Affordable Prices
Quality Work

He never articulated this, but it was VERY clear that these were the three things he valued most - because if you violated any of these three core tenets, you could expect a vitriolic tongue-lashing in your next encounter. I've been on the receiving end of a few of these and I've spectated a few directed at the other guys that worked for him at the shop.

Notice that nowhere in that list is "the customer is always right" or "always be kind to the customer". Don't misunderstand - he was not abusive to customers, he was just very no-nonsense when dealing with them. He took complaints very seriously, was courteous on the phone, and tried his best to be professional. He just didn't believe that you could replace fast, affordable, quality work with lip service.

I'm starting to gain a new respect for his philosophy as I deal with many of the companies that I depend on for my business. I find the following to be their strategy:

Be Kind
Paraphrase the problem to the customer so they know you understand
Empathise ("I know this is frustrating, and we will take care of it")
Promise resolution ("we will take care of this for you today")
Be Kind

Notice nowhere in that list do we see any indication that the problem will actually be corrected, or that that they truly have an understanding of the underlying cause of the problem. This is the 'new deal' warm and fuzzy customer service. They have replaced qualified support folks with people who can 'be nice' at all costs.

I think I've come to understand that there must be a mix somewhere in between these two disparate philosophies. I think the old man had it esentially right though - his customers didn't always consider him their best friend, but they kept coming back because he kept true to "real" quality.

Remembering Norman 'Norm' Sterzenbach 9/14/1922 - 2/23/2007