So in a challenging economy will your company lower its service levels because you can shrug your shoulders and say “we can’t afford to do what we normally would have done to keep our customer happy.” It may be easy to use the economy scapegoat but unwise in my opinion.
I’ll give you an example: one of my customers recently received 2,500 Lanyards shipped directly from China. He called me once he’d opened the box and was quite disappointed with the size of the Lanyard (body width) and the quality of the logo reproduction. Now despite the customer having approved several key order confirmation steps and digital pictures of the preproduction samples I immediately agreed to accept the less-than-acceptable product back and replace it at my cost. This will involve a loss of several thousand dollars to me.
Why do it? Well firstly it’s the right thing to do. Just because my customer provided approvals it is my duty as an expert to act as a steward on behalf of my customer. And the digital pictures of the preproduction sample looked great BUT the actual product delivered was of poorer quality.
Secondly, most of my customers are long term (over five years) and this customer has been active with me since 1999. In my business model customers tend to become more like friends. Would you turn a friend away and just say “well you’re going to have to pay me.” And since most of my customers are extremely loyal and refer new customers all the time, it behooves me (I love that strange word!) to keep them happy.
Instead of using the economy as an excuse to lower service levels – think of it as an inspiration to serve your customers like crazy knowing that they will stick with you through the tough times and be there in twelve months when there is money to spend again.