When Accountants Dictate Customer Service, Customers Suffer

I visited a local Jiffy Lube this morning for an oil change. They're quick, efficient, they explain things in easy-to-understand terms, and they offer a veterans discount. I like the way staff interacts personally with customers and how they know, track, and share the history of my vehicle.

Jiffy Lube has a new "greeting policy" that decreases personal interaction and attention. And while it may more efficiently utilize employees, the new policy potentially endangers customers. More on that in a moment. 

Marketers think: "Good place to welcome customers."

Accountants think: "Unnecessary expense."

But first, as a marketer, in addition to creating content that meaningfully, memorably and measurably engages customers, I scrutinize the processes to which our marketing directs customers. 

Before promoting a product or service, I try to understand how, when, and where customers engage with the products or service. The critical mass (energy) produced when content and process collide generates decisions. Some questions I ask colleagues:

• How and where do we meet prospects and customers (digitally or physically)?
• How do we shepherd prospects through the sales funnel (digitally or physically)?
• Where can we enhance our service to make sales more personal and less transactional?
• Are the costs of these enhancements worth our investment of time, treasure, and talent?
  

From this perspective, Jiffy Lube's new policy doesn't improve customer service. In fact, it makes it worse.

In the past, a greeter/worker would welcome you outside, ask the services you want, and escort you inside, handing you off to a team member at the front desk. The new policy has greeters direct customers to check in at a computer inside the work bay. 

Beyond the fact that the work bay is (compared to the inside) dirty, loud, and subjects customers to the weather (hot in summer, cold in winter), it's also potentially dangerous: Oil is slippery, right? Did the bean counters consider how favorably working women in heels or men in dress shoes will view going into a work bay? What about the kids? What do they do while mommy and daddy are checking in? Does Jiffy Lube really want kids messing around in the work bay? 

Customer think: "Dirty."

Accountants think: "Money

I'm thinking the new policy has to be the brainchild of bean counters and profiteers who prioritize staff efficiency over customer service. Sure, checking in customers in the garage keeps staff working on cars and not manning desks. Sure, you'll probably make more money keeping staff busier. 

From a marketing perspective, this move erodes an important (but unquantifiable) customer service and interaction point. But even worse, from a customer's perspective, it's potentially dangerous. 

Suggestion: "Red Carpet Service".

Instead of checking in customers in the garage, install a red AstroTurf carpet from the covered greeting area that leads inside to the service desk. 

A greeter/worker welcomes the customer, and--while genially escorting them inside (perhaps with a branded umbrella in case of inclement weather--asks the services they want. He/she then checks his/her customer in at the computer. This creates a more personal, safer, and seamless customer engagement experience.

A comprehensive national marketing and advertising campaign could promote Jiffy Lube's new "Red Carpet Service" and highlight the services Jiffy Lube already provides: Quick oil change, check/refill fluids, check/refill air in tires, check wipers, etc. Throw in a couple discounts to entice customers to "Experience-Our-Red-Carpet" service.