How Much Customer Service is Enough?

As a mostly technology company, we are always hoping to be challenged, to stretch our software, to make it better, faster and more convenient. And, often, it is our clients that cause improvements, sometimes it is competition, but most often it is the question “can you get us this?” and rarely do we say no.

Recently, to our detriment. It seems that in our quest to accommodate a client, we accepted a piece of a program that we should have insisted we could not accommodate. In doing so, it created a black hole of back stepping, recreating, launching and, dare I say, abuse from the client. Not serious abuse mind you, more of the playground bully abuse. We have apologized, identified the issue, corrected the issue and in the end determined that, it was really not our fault.

What was our fault was not managing the expectations of the client, looking them in the eye and answering the question posed above: “How much Customer Service is enough”? When you have to use a shoe horn to make it happen it all too often ends up with both parties being harmed.

It is tough love to have to say no, but we will when we know it is for everyone’s good. That is great customer service.