Now that you know what we are referring to by "core components of customer support," let's go back and talk a little more about my local pet store — we'll call it The Pet Stop.

The Pet Stop is a nice little shop. Its size is probably 1,200 square feet or so. It has four aisles and carries a decent selection of pretty much anything you could need for your pet. While it doesn't have every possible brand or variant of every possible item, the owner is very finicky and tends to select the best items from the available range, in order to optimize his space. Because of this, you are usually safe in choosing pretty much anything on his shelves.

He also carries a few small mammals and birds, an excellent selection of freshwater fish, and a decent selection of marine fish as well. All of the animal cages and fish tanks are very clean and neat, as is the entire store. With the exception of a few of the younger staff, the people who work at The Pet Stop are typically very knowledgeable. If asked a tough question, the more junior staff will readily admit that they do not know and will ask someone more senior for the answer rather than make a poor guess.

The people who work there typically are pleasant and will go out of their way to give you as much help as you need. There are always enough people in the store to help you within a reasonable period of time, and if they are not able to help you, they will at least stop, say "Hi," and explain that they are very sorry but they are very busy and will be sure to get to you as soon as they possibly can. The store is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It's been the only decent pet store within a 15-or-so-mile range for about 20 years, and needless to say is very well established and well known in the area.

Sounds like a great little store, right? Well, no place is perfect. The store does carry some small animals and cats, but it does not carry dogs or turtles. Because of the size and high-rent location of The Pet Stop, the prices are also a touch high. The selection is a bit on the limited side, which causes problems if you are looking for a solution that is a little out of the ordinary.

Most unfortunately, the store owner has a tendency to snap at you if you are being, in his assessment, "stupid." "Stupid" behavior usually includes things like sticking your fingers in the macaw (big red parrot) cage, which is positioned strategically under a big red-and-white sign clearly indicating that this sort of behavior is a very bad idea. (If that bird can snap a whole walnut in half with his beak, what kind of chance do you think your fingers have?)

So now that we have some information that we need about The Pet Stop, why don't we try to determine why the store is such a success? Again, sounds pretty simple, right? It's a nice little local shop that carries nice things and has some nice people, right? Well, yes. There is, however, a significant amount of oversimplification in that sentence that would make it very hard for the owner to look at his organization and see what he could do to improve it. Let's help our pet-store owner out and try to break it down into a little more detail.

Let's start by taking each of the core components we mentioned earlier and see where our little pet store rates on them.

The store has some key items, but not many. It is a small place that does not specialize in any particular thing, though it does have a great selection of freshwater fish. Aside from the fish, the store is simply too small to rate anything other than an Average in Selection. It does, however, have some very knowledgeable folks and less-knowledgeable, but eager and helpful, junior staff who would certainly do their best to get you an answer. This gives The Pet Stop an Above Average rating on Selection of information and know-how (intangibles).

Clearly, the owner of The Pet Stop is a bit crotchety at times and would be happy to tell you to your face that you are being a moron, but as long as you aren't dunking your siblings in the piranha tank, he is agreeable and even pleasant. The other people in the store tend to be energetic and very friendly. Since the owner is usually present, and often feared, the store would overall score a Courtesy rating of Average.

The people working at The Pet Stop are always very good about acknowledging your presence and letting you know that they will be able to help you as soon as they possibly can. They rarely give an actual estimate of time, but they are always very attentive and keep you updated. The Pet Stop would probably score High on the Response Time scale.

The Pet Stop is usually adequately staffed, so it is very rare to have to wait longer than a few minutes for someone to help you get your fish or answer your question. While the employees are very good with managing the customers on the floor, The Pet Stop does not staff a full-time register person, so there are some, reasonably rare, occasions when a customer has to wait several minutes in the checkout line. Because of this slight shortcoming, The Pet Stop would probably only rate Above Average on Turnaround Time.

The store is clearly a big winner in the Convenience category, since for most of the surrounding towns the next option in pet stores is well over 15 miles away. The aisles are wide, and the items on the shelves are categorized and easily located. You can call them up and have them special-order items they do not usually stock so that they will be available on your next trip. Unfortunately, the parking lot is small and cramped, and the mall is difficult to get in and out of. The Pet Stop probably would score Above Average on the Convenience rating.

The Pet Stop is more expensive than most other stores for various reasons, including the high rent and small size of the store, which prevents it from lowering prices by increasing the volume of sales. Without question, "pet super-stores" offer prices much lower than an independent shop such as The Pet Stop. The Pet Stop probably would score a Below Average in the Cost arena.

Now that we have an idea of where The Pet Stop stands in each of our core components of customer support, let's put the results into a table so we can analyze our findings.

Core Component	Pet Stop Rating
Selection	Average
Selection (intangible)	Above Average
Courtesy	Average
Response Time	High
Turnaround Time	Above Average
Convenience	Above Average
Cost	Below Average

What, then, are the priorities of the customers of The Pet Stop? Well, it is somewhat hard to say from this table exactly what the order of importance is, but we can make some assumptions that cost, selection of tangible goods, and courtesy are not absolutely critical for the people who go there, because The Pet Stop really does not fare all that well in those categories. This seems somewhat odd, doesn't it?

On the basis of the information we collected, it would appear that we could effectively jack up prices and throw dead fish at our customers when they are being annoying (I'm sure you think I'm kidding), but so long as we're quick, know what we are talking about, and are the best game in town, we will still have great business! Yikes!

Well, actually . . . yes, that's somewhat true! This leads us to the obvious question of "Well, OK, so what are the most and least important priorities of customer support?" After all, you've spent your whole life waiting for an opportunity to set up a shop making serious money, all the while barking at your customers and hurling mini-flounders at their heads and keeping score on a big lit-up board with your employees . . . right?

Definition and clarification of the actual priorities is actually somewhat dangerous. There are most definitely priorities, and customers will unquestionably place more weight on one component than another, but it is very important to keep two things in mind.

The first is that all of the core components of customer support are extremely important, and the severe lack of any one of them can cause major problems for your organization. If you have no product, why will anyone come? If you take a herring and smack every single person who walks in the door across the face, why would anyone return? If you don't bother to acknowledge people's presence for hours on end, why will they wait? If you never help them at all, why would they bother to visit your shop? If you are a clueless dullard, why would they even talk to you?

The second thing to understand is that the difference in priority between any two of the core components is the equivalent in weight of perhaps several grains of sand. They are all, in fact, very close in priority to one another.

Assuming that we are not completely missing any major core components of customer support and that we have the ability and time to improve only a certain amount at a time, we need to know what is the most important thing to focus on first. For the sake of argument, we will also assume that we are working with organizations which definitely would choose one priority over another.

For most organizations, courtesy is unquestionably the number one priority. One of the interesting realities of customer support is that, barring utter and complete failure in any one of the other areas, as long as you are polite and considerate, people will tend to be patient with you and your organization. If someone makes a mistake or is unable to help you but is very apologetic and empathetic, you're likely to forgive him. Certainly there are limits to this, but it is very effective.

Second, and extremely close to courtesy, is response time. You can be sweet as a bunny covered with daisies, but if you never get around to actually talking to your customers they're not going to know that, and, more to the point, they'll think you don't know that they exist and are waiting for you to help them. Being certain to let customers know you will attend to them soon makes them feel satisfied that they are being attended to, even if you are not helping them at that moment.

Most customers are usually quite concerned with turnaround time, and it usually falls around third. Needless to say, customers want to have their needs fulfilled within a reasonable period of time. A customer may never get a chance to determine what your turnaround time is like, however, if she gets tired of waiting for you to indicate that you know she is there and intend to help her before she turns to dust. She is also unlikely to hang around waiting if staff are glaring at her and making rude remarks.

Convenience is a surprisingly powerful motivator but usually falls around fourth in the list. Customers are likely to come to your store first so long as you are reasonably competent in other customer-support priorities/categories. They will, however, definitely go out of their way to find a support organization or store that will be filled with happy, daisy-covered bunnies who hop over immediately to say hello and are always good about bagging your fish quickly and with a smile. (Wow — there's a mental image for you!) They will not, however, go to the place if it has rude, inattentive, uncaring staff, even if it is right next door.

Oddly enough, selection, whether tangible or otherwise, is often very low on the list. Certainly, if you literally don't have, and cannot get, what the customer needs, he cannot purchase it from you. Assuming, however, that you score high on all of the other priorities, the customer will most likely try your store first, and will often opt to wait for a special order through you before going to another vendor. Standard rules about happy bunnies, of course, still apply.

This brings us to cost. Surprise! Cost is very often the last thing on a customer's priority list. There is no question that people will pay extra to obtain more of any of the core components listed above. It is easy to come up with hundreds of examples, but certainly you can think of some yourself. Did you pay more to go to a restaurant with nicer food than McDonald's? More pleasant wait staff? Perhaps you went to a more expensive car wash because at the cheaper one the scary man with the big washing broom was making lewd remarks? The list could go on for pages.

So let's throw those items into a list in order of priority so we can analyze what we have:

Priority	Core Component
1	Courtesy
2	Response Time
3	Turnaround Time
4	Convenience
5	Selection (tangible/intangible)
6	Cost

How does this compare to our list of ratings, or core competencies, with The Pet Stop? Does it line up exactly, or are there, perhaps, a few differences? How significant are they? Why is that so, and why do you think The Pet Stop is a successful business? If a priority is high, but the Pet Stop rated low on the scale, why are they still making money? Think about these questions for a while, then read on.

Now I would like you to take out the list you created after you read my last article [;login:, December 1999]. Look at the places you visit and carefully examine each of the items you listed as priorities for why you chose that service or product over another. Select from the list of core components of customer support the priority that most closely fits each of the priorities that you listed on your sheet. Now compare them against our priority list and see how close you came. Did your list of priorities match the list above? Was it different? If so, why?

It is likely that many of you are looking at the information you just fleshed out and are realizing that it is somewhat, or even completely, different from the priority list above. You may even be thinking that I am completely wrong and have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.

For those of you out there who are in this position, I say "Good!" In fact I say, "Perfect! Could you please stand up and wave to the remainder of the people in the audience." To everyone who is still sitting, I will now say that the people standing are a fantastic illustration for the next article in the series. My next article will focus on a modifier to this one, which will throw a rather heavy wrench into the works because it will bring to light that every customer is different!

As an exercise, think more about my local pet store and its list of strengths and weaknesses. Think more about why certain customers choose it, and why certain customers would not. If you were one of the people whose priorities were not in the same order as the list above, try to determine whether you would or would not go, based upon the description that we used. Try to identify why you have said "yes" or "no," and look for reasons in your list of priorities. If you find many inconsistencies, attempt to explain them using other priorities and how they compensate.

If you happen to visit a pet store for inspiration, beware of fuzzy bunnies bearing baggies of fish.