Customers won't return if they have a negative experience in a shop or business. Photo / Getty IMages
Customers won't return if they have a negative experience in a shop or business. Photo / Getty IMages
Service industries account for 70% of New Zealand's GDP. That's almost $150 billion a year, with just 11 industries worth around 20% ($27 billion) of that. Those 11 also account for about 20% of employment - 363,000 full time equivalent jobs. If you're involved in aviation, tourism, travel, museums, cafes,bars, restaurants, accommodation, food services, quick service restaurants, clubs, or retail and wholesale then a share of that $27 billion is yours.
Dean Minchington, CEO of Industry Training Organisation Service IQ says service skills are the new currency of today's world. "Services are things you can buy or sell but can't carry. When you go into a store to buy a tangible something, you also - hopefully - receive that intangible good customer service. In some transactions most of what you get is customer service, such as when you visit a museum and get great assistance from one of the staff - and in this case that great service may even have been free.
"Service is also what a customer is most likely to complain about. A product purchase decision is often internalised differently to that of a service. It's a natural coping mechanism - buy a physical thing and you justify the negatives and eulogise the positives, even if you actually regret the purchase. If that regret can be shifted, which is also natural, that's where 'service' gets the blame. You might rationalise that the sales person recommended the wrong item or misled you.
"In cases where the main, or only, purchase is service this transference gets even easier to do, especially since expectation is involved. The room wasn't as clean as expected, the tour as interesting, the food as hot, the bartender as friendly, the shop assistant as helpful, or the airport queue as short. Qualified, skilled people will help ensure that customer expectations are met.
"You choose which new TV to buy. If it develops a fault the purchase validity stands and how the repair or return is handled becomes the new touch point because the purchase (product) and fault (experience) are not directly connected. In the case of a pure service purchase, such as a hotel room, it has to be right from the start because the service acts as both product and experience - a dirty room is a dirty room.
"Good service can be easy to give, making customers happy from the start. People who are delighted will spend, and often spend more. Customers control your business. They choose where to spend and what they tell others about the experience, good or bad. Price is important, but value is the experience, and that's where service shines."
Ensuring that staff have the skills and knowledge they need to do the job is good for customers, for business and for New Zealand, says Dean Minchington. "Every day, Kiwis and visitors to New Zealand alike interact with people in the service sector. If those people have the skills and knowledge to excel and provide a memorable experience then the reputation of that business and of New Zealand grows. Remember though that the opposite is also very true.
"Provide a great experience and success is more likely, leading to a bigger slice of that $27 billion pie, and helping grow the pie too. "
It's well worth visiting www.ServiceIQ.org.nz to see what qualifications could benefit your people and your business, and talking with one of the ServiceIQ Training Advisors about how up-skilling can help build business success.
