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July 25th, 2007

Cutting Down on Customer Service

In reading Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, I have learned and/or reinforced a number of great productivity principles. One of them that has really made a profound impact on my thinking relates to customer service.

Spending more time building your business, and less time answering customer emails and phone calls can all be summed up in one word: Simplicity. The following is a small excerpt from The 4-Hour Workweek, and brings up a new perspective on making customers happy.

Henry Ford once said, referring to his Model-T, the bestselling car of all time, “The customer can have any color he wants as long as it’s black.” He understood something that businesspeople seem to have forgotten: Serving the customer (”customer service”) is not becoming a personal concierge and catering to their every whim and want. Customer service is providing an excellent product at an acceptable price and solving legitimate problems (lost packages, replacements, refunds, etc.) in the fastest manner possible. That’s it.

The more options you offer the customer, the more indecision you create and the fewer orders you receive—it is a disservice all around. Furthermore, the more options you offer the customer, the more manufacturing and customer service burden you create for yourself.

Tim makes a great point here and goes on to share a couple other great illustrations regarding the same principle. Serving the customer has always been the backbone of our business, and it will continue to be. BUT, that does not mean there are not significant steps we can take to simplify customer decisions.

Is there any way you could simplify your product or service? If it cannot be simplified, then how could you simplify the process behind that product or service. Tim suggests that you could offer ONE shipping method instead of multiple ones including overnight that can create headaches. Or eliminate phone orders, even eliminate international shipments.

“What if I lose customers by simplifying the process?”

The customers that you do lose, if any, will be the high-maintenance ones that cause headaches for your customer service department or staff anyways. That also works out in your favor.

I believe life is just too short to get bogged down with customer service, so do everything YOU can to simplify your product/process, and everyone ends up better off.

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