Who sits at your Front Desk?

“One satisfied customer's telling a friend, an acquaintance, a cousin, a bus driver, a total stranger how happy he is with your service is worth its weight in gold (or five times its weight in advertising dollars).” - Tom Peters

Customer Service, perhaps, still remains an underutilized brand building tool. The first “touch point” for the customer experience in the service industry is the front desk. Each one of us can probably recall at least one bad experience with the front desk in say a bank, or a hospital.  That one experience could have serious repercussions for the organization, because in the worst case scenario, the customer never returns. It is a well established fact that attracting a new customer costs on an average five times more than retaining an old one. The managers running an organization may be aware of this-but unfortunately, the person manning the front desk might not.

As a mother of two young children, finding a good doctor/ hospital was one of my prime concerns when I first landed in the UAE. When one of my children fell sick we visited a local hospital, run by an Indian management. Since I had just come from India, I was more comfortable with the idea of seeing an Indian doctor. The receptionists were not very friendly, the waiting period was too long, and the waiting area was crowded. I kept enduring this experience for some time, but each time it became worse. Then on one occasion when my younger one was suffering from a mild respiratory infection, we decided to give a local clinic in our neighbourhood a try. The experience was a marked improvement on what we had been suffering in the past. The receptionist actually smiled and even told us the approximate wait time;the paediatric waiting areas were painted in cheerful colours and the staff was empathetic.  We dumped our old hospital and became regulars at this clinic. However, since it was small setup, sometimes the doctor there had to refer us to another larger hospital for special consulting or lab work.

Over a period of time we have migrated to another larger hospital where the facilities are better. And the thing that we like most about this place is the front desk staff – they are efficient, they smile, they have problem solving abilities, they don’t frown when they have to repeat instructions or give directions- All in all they give you a feeling that they are happy to help you.

The management of organizations, especially those in the service sector must realise the importance of hiring people with an aptitude towards customer service to man their front desk and to answer their phone calls. Investing in the training of these employees can pay heavy dividends. A disgruntled, disenchanted or indifferent employee at the front desk, on the other hand, can drive customers away- so it is important to keep them happy, as they are the ones who will  keep your customers happy.

Coming back to the quote by Tom Peters; I have already recommended this hospital to several of my friends and family... So who needs a celebrity to endorse a brand? A satisfied customer can  be a much better brand ambassador and that too at no extra cost!