For many organizations, it is hard to make long range plans. Many factors affect this type of planning: today’s economic situation, today’s obligations, payroll that must be paid this week, and so forth. In short, many organizations are stuck thinking about what they need to do now at the expense of what will help in the future.

Customer service is both a short and long term goal. It is ongoing. Without customers, businesses would disappear. Yet, we have seen increased cost-cutting in customer service.  These days, you go to a supermarket and you are expected to check yourself out. You call the utility company, and you have to navigate a phone tree to get to a recording that is expected to resolve your problem.  Some companies direct to their online help encyclopedias where you should look up the problem you are having to see what the suggested solution is. Clearly, providing personal help is not a top priority for many companies. They are being short-sighted.

Delta Airlines seems to be finally understanding that customer service matters. Reuters reports that the airline is sending 11,000 agents back to customer service training as part of a $2 billion improvement plan. It is certainly a good start. It shows that Delta understands that in the short term it will cost them, but in the long term it will bring gain.

The Globe and Mail published an article entitled “The secret to great customer service.” In it, author Ted Rechtshaffen writes about brokers and certain financial deals. One broker,  refused to push a certain deal because she did not think it was in the interest of the client. He says the following:

There’s a lesson here for customers as well: It isn’t always easy to figure out in a short time frame who deserves your trust. One indication is how quickly an adviser pushes you to sign up for business. Advisers who take time to build trust and educate you before asking for your business are much more likely to take a career approach to relationships than those who push harder for the quicker sale.

For Broker A, this is a career she has been doing for more than 20 years, and her motto is that she doesn’t do deals, she builds life-long relationships. The proof was in the pudding of this deal. She wanted to do the right thing for the client and believed that it would be better for her career to turn down the deal than to accept it.

The bottom line is that to build great customer service, you may have to spend money right now (short-term pain). The payback is in the long term, with customers that are happy with your service and keep bringing business back.