Today, Seth Godin posted an article about great customer service and how much this is worth. In his post, Seth mentions being stuck in an airport trying to figure out how to transfer your seat home from one airline to another (especially appropriate this holiday season!). The question he poses is, "Would you pay $20 to talk to a competent,
empowered agent who answered on the first ring?" (Read the article
here.)
My staff and I pride ourselves on the level of customer service and knowledge that we offer our customers. We have taken our three generations of jewelry expertise and successfully moved it to the world of the Internet. We like to say that we offer the same service to our customers whether they live in our home town of Scottsdale, AZ, or anywhere in the world.
But, as Seth states, today's dilemma is, "Increasingly, the web makes pricing cutthroat. And service suffers, because it's expected for free."
Everyone knows that superior service is not free, it costs plenty to attract, train and maintain qualified individuals who not only know their stuff, but can successfully communicate and work with customers to help them with their needs. And, fine jewelry is not a simple widget-type product to work with, it's very complicated. You cannot take a person who was selling mens socks one day and move them into the loose diamond or custom jewelry design departments the next day.
So what is this level of service worth and how does it fit in with the 'cutthroat' nature of the web today? What is it worth to be able to get on the phone with a real, live, knowledgeable professional to obtain product information, to gain peace of mind about a major purchase like jewelry, or to troubleshoot an issue should one arise? I encourage you to give our customer service oriented online business a try and see for yourself what a difference good old fashioned customer service can make.