A “MOMENT OF TRUTH”

By the time you receive our December newsletter you will be either relaxing at home having completed your Christmas shopping or embroiled in long shopping lines hoping for a bit of customer service from the overworked clerks. Hopefully, you had a memorable experience. Have you ever thought about what made that experience memorable or better yet, what would be a memorable experience for your customers?

Kaset International, a consulting firm specializing in customer service, talks about the “Moment of Truth” in the cycles of service. That “Moment of Truth” is any instance when a customer (external OR internal) has an opportunity to make a judgment about the quality of service you provide. In other words, it is what customers' experience whether in a library or a large department store.

The concept of “Moment of Truth” comes from bullfighting. Each time the matador encounters the bull, it is a life or death “Moment of Truth”. Hopefully, each time you perform a service for your customer, it is not a life or death situation! However, each single customer encounter influences the customer's perception about your library services just like you did with your holiday shopping.

If you did not get the service you desired, you/your customer may complain, quit or tell friends. If an internal service to your employees is not delivered well, people may complain or go around you.

We are all working towards excellent Customer Satisfaction. Satisfaction can be described as the comparison of the expectation of how the service will be and the perception of how it actually “is” at the Moment of Truth! Ironically, if the experience meets the expectations, it has been found that customers will have neither a positive or negative experience—they are satisfied which equates to a grade of “C”. If the experience exceeds the expectation, the customer is surprised and will give you a higher grade.

In my next article, I will discuss the cycles of service and how we can manage those “Moments of Truth” with our library customers.

In the meantime, think about the “Characteristics of the Unhappy Customer” as described by Kaset:

• 96% of unhappy customers never complain
• 91% will not buy again or use your service
• An unhappy customer will tell nine other people about their “Moment of Truth”
• 13% of unhappy customers will tell 20 or more people

Have a great Holiday and hope your “Moments of Truth” are all good ones!!!

Diane Klaiber