I was throwing a small party and wanted to rent some equipment -- not much, just a few things I didn't have at home, extra glasses and dishes and such. So I did some digging on the Internet and found a place that had what I wanted.

The price was right, and I put in my order by phone. But I was taken aback when I asked when I could come pick everything up.

No, they said, they weren't open evenings. They weren't open weekends, either. Monday to Friday only, and they close at 6 p.m.

That seemed strange to me, after all, aren't most parties on weekends and evenings?

I ended up taking time off at the end of a workday to pick up my order. And what could have been a pleasant business transaction was tinged by my frustration at having to make two mad dashes through traffic -- one to pick up the order and the other (the following Monday morning) to return it.

It got me thinking about customer service.

And the more I thought, the more frustrated I became because I soon came to realize that my experience with the party rental place was just one of several frustrating "customer service" experiences I had gone through within a few days.

I don't think I'm alone.

"Customer service in this country for the most part stinks!" says Roy Prevost, a Burnaby, B.C.-based management consultant, business coach and self-described "customer service activist." (See www.royprevost.com/).

It's bad, he says, because too many companies place their needs before customers' needs and also because not enough of us complain.

Customer service, I think, boils down to two things: Convenience and attitude.

Convenience has to do with such things as hours of operation, location, ease of access to items and, in the case of services, delivery. It can generally be measured.

Attitude it is harder to quantify. It's a tone of voice, the way a person smiles (or scowls), a way of approaching problems. It's all about human interactions.

Mr. Prevost says too many firms dealing with the public just don't understand these simple things.

And it didn't take much for Mr. Prevost and me to come up with a half-dozen examples of bad customer service we'd both encountered within the previous week.

The rental place presented a problem of convenience: Everyone I dealt with was pleasant, and the service was efficient. It was just the hours that were inconvenient for me. I would have liked to have been able to pick up the equipment on Saturday and return it Sunday.

Attitude was the issue when Mr. Prevost related an encounter he'd had in a restaurant. When he complained about the meal, the server replied curtly: "Well, you will know what not to order the next time you're in here!"

Instead of being flippant, she should have asked what was wrong.

Convenience issues usually arise when a store tries to work on a schedule that suits the owners and the employees rather than the customers.

Yet being attentive to customer needs can pay off.

Mr. Prevost tells of a man who ran a store selling archery equipment and sporting goods. He said the man found his customers were available from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., so that's when he opened his store.

"And when he made that distinction, his business went up by 20 per cent and continued to grow."

Attitude is a problem when people dealing with the public forget the old adage that "the customer is always right." In my experience, it usually involves people getting defensive when presented with a problem, instead of trying to find ways of resolving it.

Instead of turning defensive, Mr. Prevost says businesses should be telling customers: "How can I help you? How can I make this work for you?"

Mr. Prevost says all too often, businesses don't know enough about customer needs.

That, he says, is why customers have to be militant about demanding service.

He encourages everyone to complain if they feel they are not being served properly. Phone, write, talk to the boss. Demand a response. Find other people who agree with you and present a joint complaint.

In other words, make noise.

He acknowledges that it's not always easy to do.

"It takes a lot of courage," he says, particularly if the business you are complaining about is in your community or a place you visit often. There's also liable to be a lot of resistance from people who aren't used to handling criticism, even if constructive.

"It's up to the customer to educate them on how to serve us properly, because otherwise that person will never know what they are doing wrong!" he says.

"Becoming a customer service activist is the only way you will get these people to understand anything."

Daniel Drolet is an Ottawa writer.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007

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