[00:00:00] Rebecca: Hello and welcome to the Rebecca Saunders Show. And oh my gosh, have I got a meaty one for you today? Customer service? Has it died? I like to think that it hasn't, and I also like to think that I'm not gonna go down the route of being super ranty in today's podcast episode, but quite frankly, in the majority of, places, subscriptions, companies that I have interactions with, customer service as far as I'm concerned, is dead.

[00:00:43] And as consumers, we need to be making ourselves aware of this and not, quite frankly, not putting up with it. It's actually horrifyingly disgusting how some companies are treating customers in terms of lack of service, lack of care, lack of attention. We work hard for our money. You know, we work hard.

[00:01:02] Every dollar we make have, we have worked for and to give it away to organizations that don't quite frankly care for it. Um, I think is something that we should be raising our awareness too. you know, there's three or four examples that I want to share with you today that have really ground my gears and I'd be very keen on social media if you come and DM me on Instagram and tell me your stories to highlight this in a much more broader capacity because I feel we have all become extremely complacent in, oh, well that's just how it is now. Because of Covid that's just how it is now. We don't have the staff, and actually that's the wrong way of looking at things. Covid is not the reason that you can't smile when your customers walk in the door. Covid is not the reason that you can't deliver stuff on time now, right?

[00:01:49] Like It's a given blanket that people are accepting and companies are using to deliver us bad service. And if I'm being really honest, I have been canceling [00:02:00] subscriptions left, right, and center. I have been very aware and acutely aware of the service I've been being given in supermarkets, in organisations, I'm online with subscriptions, and if I am not getting the service that I deem the standard of service that you should be providing me as a customer, I'm not gonna be shopping with you anymore.

[00:02:21] I'm not gonna be spending my money with you anymore. I am not accepting the standard as, oh, that's just how it is. No, I want to be greeted with a smile. I want emails to be answered. I want my inquiries to be solved, you know, problems to be resolved in a timely manner. And I want the service that you're selling me in that I'm paying for.

[00:02:40] Like I want that. That's not a big thing to ask for. And what got me down the route of talking about customer service and thinking about it has been two things. Number one, I have on my vision board in front of me. Big VIP sign for me this year I was, I'm all about feeling like a VIP at some point, if not all the time, every day.

[00:03:08] Micro things, all the way through to big things, all the way through to interactions with organisations. And I would deep dive into that in another podcast episode coming up in the next couple of weeks called Live the Standard. And or at live the standard. And be the standard, right?

[00:03:22] Living and being a VIP I know I'm not talking bougie, expensive, you know, spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on things to get fancy experiences. I'm talking, I want you to smile when I walk into your store, and if you don't smile and acknowledge me as a customer, I'm not gonna buy it from you.

[00:03:40] So the principles are there. So being and feeling like a VIP is number one. And then the second thing got me thinking was a recent podcast that I've listened to from Simon Sinek with a guy called Will Gudera. He's an American restaurant here based in New York City. And during this podcast, he shared the story of how [00:04:00] he decided to become the number one restaurant in the industry by not focusing on traditional methods in terms of the food but by focusing on the service and the human desire to be cared for, right? The human desire to be cared for. And he used the words, he chose to be unreasonable in his pursuit of this. Underpinning all of this the podcast was titled unreasonable hospitality, you know? And that has got me thinking on a whole new level.

[00:04:35] You know, what are we being unreasonable about in our lives and in our businesses to ensure that we get our needs met and that we are cared for? start thinking about that now, my friend. What are the things that you are just happily putting up with, because that's the way it. No, no more. This is not okay.

[00:04:54] We are spending hard-earned money on products and services that are giving us crappy, crappy customer service when things go wrong or when the service that they've sold us doesn't get delivered. So here's a few examples that have happened to me in just the last few alone, right? There is a big retail store that I have purchased furniture from a number of times.

[00:05:20] I placed an order for furniture, a bed to be exact and some other stuff, Christmas bedding to be delivered to my house prior to Christmas. I made this order in November, about the 24th of November, and I scheduled it for delivery on the 20th, 21st. I can't remember the exact. I got a choice of delivery options.

[00:05:43] I picked that one. Now, on the day of delivery, I hadn't received a text message to say what time this delivery was going to be arriving, and so I called up and I was assured that delivery was coming and that I would re receive the text message shortly. Long story [00:06:00] short, several calls later, about 3 30 in the afternoon, they say to me, oh yeah, that delivery is being cancel.

[00:06:08] I'm sorry, what do you mean canceled? You know, just canceled out of the blue. Yeah, we're not delivering it to you now. Um, We don't have any drivers coming your way this side of Christmas, so it'll now be a January delivery. Well, that's not helpful for me, is it? Having ordered a bed in November for December for my guests to sleep on while they're here with all the fancy Christmas bedding that I, you know, added to the basket because it was Christmas and I was feeling festive.

[00:06:32] That debacle about getting that bed delivered has gone on for months. It has only just been delivered a week ago, and we've caught recording this in February. It took three months to get the delivery that I requested back in November. No apologies at all in the process and as part of the delivery process, I had to, I had no other alternative other than to pick Deluxe delivery. Okay. Deluxe delivery is, and this is the words on their website, paraphrased coming in, bringing the products in, setting up the furniture and taking away the rubbish. The delivery drivers came in, plunked the boxes upside down on my ad cuz the arrows for their direction we're pointing downwards and left.

[00:07:21] And so I r reached out to the, to the organization and I. Hi. Just letting you know that, you know, this delivery has been anything but deluxe. And I'd really like a refund on it actually, and the response back, because I've got all these support tickets, which support tickets are the biggest bug bear of my life right now, support tickets, and I'm talking to multiple people about this process.

[00:07:43] Not one person seems to be reading the above correspondence. And the response back to me was, well, we can refund part of the delivery because it wasn't put together right? But obviously it was still delivered and my mind just boggles, you know, I have spent [00:08:00] $300 on delivery of this product because that is my only only option for delivery.

[00:08:05] And it's been delivered late. It has been not assembled, and it has been Not acknowledged or apologized for at all, but either the delivery company or the organization. To make matters worse in this whole situation as these things are happening, Christmas has been and gone and everything. I ordered full price at Christmas, which I hadn't yet received in my hands, has now been put in the Christmas sale.

[00:08:27] Go figure. Like I am not a happy bunny about that. And I can't be the only one in that boat, right? So I now know what shops I'm not gonna be shopping at, which is kind of annoying because it was a really good and the lady in the actual physical store that I go to when I'm back in Sydney is phenomenal.

[00:08:43] So yes, I may buy something from the store physically, but will I be ordering furniture again from that organization? Absolutely not. And I have not had an issue like this before and it's only recently that these things are happening, so I'm very surprised by that. And so my standard is no, if, if you can't respond to me in the right way, if you can't at least acknowledge the problem and the issue that is arisen due to lack of care and service on your part, I did not wanna be giving you thousands of dollars for furniture as just the number.

[00:09:15] Like, I just don't wanna feel that way anymore. We can do. And just as that started there's an online conferencing tool, which we all know and love, and I've been a big advocate for over the last three years in terms of live streaming. Been paying a very big subscription on that, a business license for 10 licenses when there is just me that uses the platform.

[00:09:36] So I downgraded, I downgraded to the lower platform. I asked the question, will I still have HD recording capability? When I downgrade, cause I don't need these 10 licenses and I'm spending a lot of money. I'm spending $300 a month on a subscription that I'm only using one 10th of.

[00:09:52] Oh yeah. Well let's definitely downgrade you was the conversation that had on the phone cuz I was at that level of subscription. Then I got phone support, [00:10:00] ticked all the boxes, made sure that all. And then as soon as I downgraded, I lost the phone support and none of the things that I had been assured would carry over, carried over.

[00:10:10] I have now spent the last four weeks in a mangle of support tickets with people that don't seem to be able to help, that don't seem to be able to understand the situation, and when referred up to a specific person as an account executive took a week for them to come back to me and they said they hadn't got time to look into this.

[00:10:31] And so put me back into support tickets. Mind blown, like what kind of service is that? How have you got a job in customer support if you are not supporting? Your customers. So I've just sent that email canceling my subscription and moving to something else. You know, this is not okay. I can, again, I cannot be the only person right now being put around support ticket after support ticket after support ticket, because no one's giving a crap.

[00:10:58] Not okay. Not the standard we should be letting happen. If I look at my accounting firm, right? Beautiful, beautiful accounting firm that was recently a. As soon as that acquisition happened, I then feel like a number. I have been outsourced to someone in the Philippines, I think, for doing part of the work.

[00:11:17] And I am not getting the care and attention and detail that I deserve as a paying customer and then I want as a paying customer. And one I took three months off over the Christmas period, I've spoken about before, not one person reached out to ask me why revenue had changed. Now this is someone that should be, or an organization that should be backing your corner, understanding your business, how it flows, helping you navigate that as part of their service.

[00:11:44] Crickets. So the conversation this morning has also been, I'm gonna find someone else and someone that makes me feel like a VIP and someone that will help me. And this stuff for me is baffling. You know, it's absolutely baffling that we let this go past because [00:12:00] as a small business owner, and I know a lot of you listening and watching this episode are small business owners.

[00:12:06] We wouldn't have businesses, we wouldn't have our livelihoods if we treated our customers in the way that these big organizations treat us. And I just think it's absolutely ludicrous that they're allowed to do it. things can keep going on and on and on. You know, the state of stores when you walk into them, because the staff don't care.

[00:12:27] You know, staff looking at their phones instead of greeting you when you walk into a store, or actually even worse than that, is continuing their internal conversation. When you walk into the store and they don't even acknowledge you, you know, stuff isn't cheap. Things to buy right now are not cheap.

[00:12:43] We're living in a world where things are expensive. Where are you spending your hard-earned money? If the big guys, I'd prefer to spend my hard end money with the small guys, the guys that make me feel a million dollars when I walk in. If I look at my orbit now and several businesses spring to mind in terms of like huge customer success stories for me, and it can be really micro, right? but huge impact. If I think about Emma in one of the stores down the road from me here in Muji, she smiles at every single customer when they come through the door. You know, she genuinely cares and wants to tell you about the product she's selling and the designers that she's bought into her shop and for what reason.

[00:13:25] And it gives you all the feels and all the joy just to see the smile and the joy. Her serving you as a customer and gives you the joy to want to be a customer, you know, that is great customer service. She writes hand, little thank you notes when you've ordered stuff online. Beautiful. If I look at Confetti Rebels, the t-shirts that I wear, the Beautiful Amy also puts all those little touches into her, products and offer.

[00:13:51] They care about every single sale and every single customer, and they make you feel that way. They make you feel like a VIP when you buy [00:14:00] something. New nail salon in town. I've been talking about this on Instagram a lot. I went to go into the old nail salon in town, which has been subpar, but there's one girl in there that used to do my nails really, really, really well.

[00:14:16] That Nail Shop was shut, so I thought, Ooh, I'll try the new one. It turns out this new nail salon is now owned by the lovely lady that used to do my nails in the old one, and she's sick of the way she was treated in her industry and organizations around town, and so she's doing it differently. And hell yeah, I can get behind that.

[00:14:35] So I've talked about it a lot. I'm, you know, spooking her services around town in terms of telling everyone I know that that's the place to go because I was greeted with a smile. It was clean and tidy when I walked in, and she genuinely cared about the products and service she was delivering. And so I think about all of that.

[00:14:52] Like, I think about what can you be doing in your businesses and in your lives to up that level of customer service. That standard of customer service that we want, are you gonna walk by and accept just the crappy service and continue to go back and go back and not actually get quality service for your hard end cash?

[00:15:11] Are you gonna start thinking about and consciously thinking about the service you get when you go and buy your regular coffee? Are you going to the same coffee shop day in, day out, week in, week out? It doesn't matter. Are they remembering you? Are they remembering your coffee order? because in that industry, in hospitality industry, that's what they should be doing.

[00:15:33] remember your name after a few visits, remember your coffee order after a few visits. And I know some of you're sat there going, yeah, but they see a lot of people, Rebecca, like they'll see a lot. Yeah, they do see a lot. And I can tell you that when I was a supervisor at one of the biggest American coffee chains in the uk, I could serve hundreds of customers a.

[00:15:53] And still remembers people's names and orders. I think if you even put them in front of me now, and I had the right time and the [00:16:00] right mindset, I could still remember some of their names and some of their orders. You know, we are in that industry to serve and so make the effort. Don't just go and buy things because it's like, oh yeah, but that's the way they always do it.

[00:16:13] No, go find yourself a coffee shop that will remember your name and remember your order. It'll make you feel good as much as it'll make them feel good. The whole thing is a win-win situation in terms of customer service. You've just gotta find it. You know? Same thing in restaurants. If you walk into the regular restaurant or your regular cafe and then remember what you're drinking or what you're regular food is like, that's amazing, you know?

[00:16:36] But it's amazing. Because it is so few and far between in places. And so what I want to start thinking about and what I'm making a huge, huge, huge focus for myself this year is how do I make my service to myself, to my clients, to my community members? How do I give them the VIP experience? How do I give them the wow factor?

[00:16:59] And you know what? It's actually gonna take micro things for me to stand out in my industry. Micro things. What can you be doing in your space, in your industry right now to change the culture of customer service? To bring it back into its heyday of smiles when people walk in or genuine care. When you send an email, it's not just transactional.

[00:17:23] You know you are giving as well as taking, you are giving more than you're taking. You know, you are greeting people with a smile. You are honoring the dollars that they're paying you. You are writing them a handwritten note, you're sending them a text message just to say, I'm thinking of you. You know, what are those things that you can do?

[00:17:39] Really small, simple, mostly free things that you can do that will make a huge impact on the customers and the services. the customers that are buying from you to make them raving fans, not resentful, resentful customers. We don't want resentful customers. We want raving fans.

[00:17:58] So what are those things you can. [00:18:00] So there are things you can do in your business, right? In your life. What are the things you can do? Same principles can apply, and I will be talking way more in depth about how I make my life v I p every single day in the next episode, next solar episode coming out.

[00:18:16] Because there are things you can do that don't cost the earth, that make you feel a million dollars. And I'll tell you when you are feeling a million dollars and you've got a smile on your face, the ripple effect of that is absolutely. Phenomenal moving forward and in your orbit. So we'll come to that in another episode and then start thinking about the stores that you shop in.

[00:18:34] Are you getting the service that you deserve? Are you having to push yourself through self-service checkouts? They're a pain in the ass, right? Self-service checkouts. Oh yeah, yeah. . Checkout your whole trolley without a conveyor belt to put your shopping on, or a space to put the finished products mind-Blowingly weird, frustrating for absolutely every customer.

[00:18:54] Do you think they're changing it? No, because not enough of us are standing there going, no, open the checkout. I wanna be served by a human. What are the things that you're just walking by and accepting as that's the way it is, instead of pushing for and fighting for the customer service that you deserve?

[00:19:10] That's what I want you to take away from today's episode. What are you doing and stepping past and accept? Standard when your standards should be at level, that you deserve the service that you're paying for the v i p experience that you want to give yourself and your customers. So many takeaways from this, and I think, you know what?

[00:19:29] I think I've managed to pull this one off without making it too much of a rant. Several examples, several examples of it going really, really well, and some golden nuggets for you to take away and start thinking. Her cleaning on and even actioning in your own lives and your own business. So like I said, at the.

[00:19:46] You've got stories you wanna share, you wanna rant about them, share them. Uh, there's two things you can do. You can jump into my dms over on Instagram. You can find me at the Rebecca Saunders on that platform. I would love to chat with you and hear these stories. I think the more we [00:20:00] talk about it, the more it's not gonna be acceptable anymore.

[00:20:03] Um, And if you want someone you wanna meet like-minded people that you can chat about this stuff too. Chat about your business ideas with, have a little bounce around in terms of what you wanna do in your personal life to make it a V I P thing. Get all those cheeky ideas and just have that conversation.

[00:20:16] Come join us inside the Champagne Lounge. That is what the conversations that we're having, how do we raise the standard? How do we raise the bar? And how do we live life with more joy, more connection, and more celebration. So that's it for another episode of the Rebecca Saunder Show. Thank you so much for tuning in.

[00:20:31] I do not take it lightly that you tune in every week to have a listen. I hope you've taken a lot away from today, and I am very grateful for you tuning in. We'll see you next time.