Had an interesting experience recently – let me lay out some background for you.
First you need to know that we live in a rural area where all the properties are
10 acres. Every day Sugar, Ebony (sometimes my husband Kyle) and I go for walks.
There is really only one route we can take. On that route all the horses are behind
dog proof fencing, as are all the dogs. There is one small exception to this. One
home is 100% dog fenced, except for the wrought iron gate across their driveway.
This family has a dog named Buddy. Buddy is maybe 20 or 25 pounds. It is very
easy for him to walk through the gate and come to say Hello. This would be fine
with me, except that though he gets along fine with other dogs, he’s not so fond
of people. He’s bitten me twice and Kyle once. Only one bite actually broke the
skin.

I had first talked with Buddy’s ‘father’ when I saw him outside in December 2010.
At that time Buddy had bitten me once and I requested that they put some wire mesh
across the bottom of their gate so that Buddy couldn’t get out. Nothing happened.
In January Buddy bit Kyle. In February he bit me – this time breaking the skin.
Since I didn’t have a phone number for these people, I wrote them a very polite
letter telling them what happened and again asking that they put wire mesh on
their gate. Buddy’s ‘mother’ called me and assured me that they would get the
gate secured. (Caller ID provided her cell phone number.) Still hasn’t been done...
Buddy still gets out. The only way to deter him from going for our ankles is to
throw stones at him, which I don’t like to do on general principle. I’ve learned
that carrying a walking stick is also a good deterrent, and there is no chance I
could really hurt Buddy with the walking stick. Just waving it in front of him
makes him take a few steps back.

Buddy was getting out more frequently and I was getting more annoyed. I really
enjoy my daily walks but Buddy, or the possibility of Buddy being out, was
definitely putting a damper on my enjoyment. I had called Buddy’s parents a few
times, always getting voice mail. So I wrote another letter. In this letter I
said if Buddy was out one more time I would call Animal Control. Buddy was out
one more time, and I did call Animal Control. And this is where we get to the
Customer Service concept.

A very nice and professional Sheriff’s Detective / Animal Control officer came
out on my call. She did talk with Buddy’s mom, and then reported back to me.
Buddy’s mom admitted the only reason they hadn’t put the wire mesh on the gate
was laziness. That’s it – plain and simple laziness. That got me thinking –
how often does shear laziness impact Customer Service in business? If people
can be so “lazy” that they can’t string some chicken wire across 20 feet of
gate to keep their dog from biting the neighbors (and possibly get them large
fines and jail time), what does that say about their attitude in taking care
of details for their customers and clients?

So I decided to do some research and found a fascinating study reported on in
October 2010. The headline is “Slow Customer Response Costing UK Businesses
Billions” – yup, billions. The article opens with this fact, “UK brands have
lost a huge 70 billion pounds ($113,631,014,124.34 on May 22, 2011) worth of
business this year (2010) because of a failure to respond quickly enough to
potential customers”. Did a little more research and based on the UK’s GNP
for 2009, that is 20% of their total GNP!!!

The article goes on to say that the number breaks down to 30,000 pounds
($48,655.65 on May 22, 2010) per business – for every business in the United
Kingdom, big or small. Yikes! Just for being more timely in replying to
customers you can add almost $50,000 to your bottom line. I say get moving!

And this is not just a European problem. I would say that at least 50% of
the business owners I talk with say that creating a sense of urgency in their
employees is one of their biggest challenges. My response to that is education
and motivation through contests, bonuses and the like to get staff into a more
pro-active mindset. It is important for everyone today to realize that in this
digital age in which we live, even waiting 24 for a reply can seem like an
eternity. And if I am shopping for a product or service and do not getting
timely call backs, I’m on to the next business on the list that does call me
back.

I would love to hear your thoughts - or about your experience - on this subject.