Why am I not special anymore?

A local business had, in the past, prided itself on its stellar customer service.  But over time, management had come to the decision that it wasn’t worth putting an effort into it.  Their products sold themselves, so what was the point?  Under the guise of cost-efficiency, the business no longer provided an incentive for employees to offer a good experience.

Unfortunately, their customers noticed the change in the quality of the service, so while the quality of the product hadn’t changed, their customers were not happy.  And even more unfortunate for the business, their customers had other options.  The organization might have wished they had thought through this plan a bit more.  Customers were leaving, not because of the product, but because the quality of the experience had dropped drastically.  If given a choice between two similar products, customers will always choose the better experience.  Because, why wouldn’t they?  Why wouldn’t anyone?  Why be treated poorly when you can be treated well?

Creating good quality products can be difficult, but creating a good quality experience is not and the payoff is well worth it.