| Good customer
service can be summed up in one word: respect.
Respect for the customer's time and intelligence.
Respect for their desire to manage their own
destiny. The customer is crying out: 'Don't
waste my time!'
What customers hate is uncertainty.
They hate waiting, but they can handle it
if they know how long and why the delay. But
they hate being lied to, so saying 'it'll
just be ten minutes' when it will really be
thirty is very bad. London's buses are building
ridership with readouts at bus stops that
tell how long before the next number 14 will
be along.
When you encounter a ten-mile
tailback on the motorway, which would you
rather do, sit in line for an unknown period
or use the back roads, that you know will
take two hours? Most people want to take action,
rather than sit in ignorance. They want to
run their own lives. They'd take the back
roads if they could only get off the motorway.
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