A focus on customer service

A focus on customer service

Carolyn Baytion-Sunaryo, Jakarta

Customer service is like the icing on the cake. When a
customer decides to buy a cake, she chooses whether it's
chocolate, mango or black forest. When she eats the cake, the
enjoyment does not come from the cake alone but comes from the
icing too, which gives the customer deeper satisfaction.

So when a customer comes back to buy the cake again, she
looks for the same cake but does not mention anything about the
icing which contributed to her enjoyment. But she expects exactly
the same cake and if the icing is not there, she won't enjoy the
cake and will be disappointed.

Every business needs an "icing on the cake" to be able to
compete amid Indonesia's ever increasing competition. As
mentioned earlier, the "icing on the cake" I am referring to here
is customer service.

Customer service is often associated with department stores,
hotels and restaurants. But even in these establishments,
customer service is poorly practiced.

In Jakarta alone, there are now 80 shopping centers and
another 20 shopping centers will soon be opened. Since in these
shopping centers department stores and specialty stores abound,
customer service has improved.

Also, for many new retailers the only way by which they can
compete in the market is by establishing a good relationship with
their customers. They know very well that so much money has been
invested in advertising but to no avail. Consumers are already
immune to catchy advertising slogans and turn off at ads on
television and in the print media.

Shell is a new entrant into the market. Its only weapon is
customer service so as to be able to differentiate itself amid
the ubiquitous presence of Pertamina. It distinguishes itself by
having very clean gas stations, helpful attendants and receipts
that are automatically printed out as soon as the gas tanks are
filled.

Hypermarkets are the in thing nowadays. They offer reasonable
prices in convenient locations and at the same time offer a vast
range of products from fresh food to electronic goods. Bisnis
Indonesia reported that as of July 29, 2005, there were a total
of 52 existing and soon to be opened hypermarkets all over
Indonesia. In Greater Jakarta alone, there are 31 hypermarkets.

So how can smaller food retailers compete?

The answer is better customer service. I myself shop in these
hypermarkets for the comprehensive range of goods they offer, but
I also patronize smaller stores for their customer service, where
shop attendants recognize me by my face or name. I am glad there
are so many of these stores now in Jakarta. Even small fruit
stores are a pleasure to shop in because of their helpful and
knowledgeable attendants.

At Al Fresh, now renamed All Fresh, the store attendants will
select and weigh the fruit for you. They tell you whether a
certain kind of orange is sweet or sweet and sour. They also pack
your purchases and, if you like, bring the bags to your car. They
can even peel your pineapples at no extra charge.

Another good example of how customer service can differentiate
your business from all the others is Mirota in Yogyakarta. Mirota
is a furniture shop that offers antique and modern teak
furniture. It also offers batiks and knick-knacks from all over
Indonesia, and even different types of candy from the country's
smaller cities. My husband and I recently visited the place after
an absence of more than a year, and the store attendant still
managed to remember our names.

They are willing to assist customers in whatever way they can;
providing clean restrooms, and a cafe for husbands waiting for
their wives. Although the cafe is not available all the time and
they are slow to process payments, I am still willing to go back
time after time on account of the helpful attitude of the store
attendants, those who deliver the furniture and the owner
himself.

These establishments illustrate how customer service can
create customer loyalty in highly competitive sectors

These retailers belong to an industry where the profit margin is
not very large and the level of education of employees is not
high. But these organizations can motivate their employees to do
their best to assist their customers.

Indonesians by nature are friendly people but are also shy.
There is always a hesitancy to offer help. It is all the more
important then to stress to our employees that it is all right to
help other people. Our companies exist to satisfy whatever needs
and wants customers have. That's why customers visit stores in
the first place.

Wanting to help other people is the very essence of customer
service. The cakes that we sell wouldn't be complete if they were
not covered with the "icing".

The writer is a marketing lecturer at GS FAME Institute of
Business, Jakarta.