Customer service? Who cares?

It still surprises me how much junk e-mail I get. I delete most of the messages in my in-box without ever reading them, but recently, for some reason, I opened up an untitled e-mail from an unknown author. I’m glad I did. Here’s what it said:

I’m the purchasing agent who calls to find the order, but no one there seems to know where it is.

I’m the shipping clerk who calls for a price, but doesn’t get an answer until I’ve already given the freight to one of the carriers that gave me a rate two hours ago.

I’m the guy who calls with a simple question that I have to repeat five times because, ‘It’s not your job and you’re not sure who can help.’

I don’t get upset and you assume everything’s OK, that I’m easy to please.

What you fail to notice is that I don’t call back. I no longer request you for pick-ups, and I don’t bother to include you when comparing pricing and service. It amuses me to watch you spend thousands of dollars on sales calls and promotional material to get my business back, when all you had to do to keep it was give me a little service and show me a little courtesy.

By the way, I found someone who took the time to learn my needs and satisfy them because they value my business: your competition.

I re-read this e-mail over and over, and it affirmed in my mind just what it takes to succeed in the trucking business.

Think of the things you spend your time doing every day. Depending on your capacity, the list would include tending to fuel taxes, logbooks, broken down trucks, budgets, lost drivers… I could fill this entire column with an account of the drudgery we deal with on a daily basis. It’s all important, it all needs to get done, and all these tasks and issues underscore how complicated trucking is.

Hold on. Complicated? Wait a minute. Trucking is one of the simplest businesses there is. Compare trucking to the computer industry. The product lifecycle in that business is maybe two quarters. Meaning, you’d better sell a lot of your new models in the first six months, because after that they’ll be outdated. In that six-month window, your R&D department had better develop something new to replace the dinosaur that’s just gone extinct, because if it doesn’t, you’ll have nothing to sell. Now that’s complicated.

The basic elements of success in trucking, on the other hand, haven’t changed in 100 years. Back when our grandfathers were at the wheel, you milk the cows on time, you deliver the milk on time, and when you can’t perform, you let your customer know with a smile on your face. You do what you say you’re going to do. How is that any different from today?

Yes, I’m being simplistic. However, what would happen if everything got picked up and delivered on time and none of your employees ever showed indifference to the guy on the other end of the phone? You’d never lose a customer.

Now ask yourself: How much of your daily routine is spent making sure indifference to your customers is not part of your organization?

Indifference is defined as a lack of concern or interest. Detachment, apathy, unresponsiveness, carelessness. It’s the phone call that never gets returned or the voice on the other end with the “I don’t give a #@^%” attitude. My favourite is when people yell and hang up at their own customers.

When a customer takes his business elsewhere, often he says it’s because of price. I don’t buy that. I’d suggest that trucking companies lose far more business because they let it simply drift away. The customer feels neglected, so he starts paying more attention to your competitor. You know, the one offering the lower rates and faster transit times.

The message in that anonymous e-mail is important because few customers are ever so blunt about why they leave. In truth, it’s less messy for someone to say he’s switching carriers because of a lower rate than it is for him to explain that your receptionist keeps him on hold too long, and when he does finally leave a message, his calls are seldom returned. For all the paperwork and iron we push around, what differentiates one trucking company from another is service. Customers recognize that. So should we.