If there’s one story that I’ve absolutely beaten to death on this blog it’s the one where my family and I went to Disney and the waitress forgot to bring my son’s lemonade.
You had to see the look on this woman’s face when my son very politely pointed it out to her. She was visibly upset for my son.
She apologized and told us to wait and see what happens when a mistake is made at Disney.
When she returned, she didn’t have a glass of lemonade, it was an entire pitcher complete with a really cool straw and several way cool glow cubes.
Situation neutralized and leveraged into a “Wow” but . . .
What about the people out there who don’t care enough to properly handle a customer challenge?
I recently had a major issue with the company who hosts my podcasts. On more than one occasion I could not log in because of a problem on their end.
I called it to the company’s attention and even told them that I missed several deadlines because of them. I was promptly ignored.
There was no phone number on their website for me to call.
Just for the heck of it, I checked Twitter to see if I could contact them there and noticed that they haven’t been on since May. Not Bueno!
Then I checked to see if there was some kind of issue going on where others were going through the same challenge as me. Yep and they were trying to message the company. No response. Once again, not bueno!
I wrote them again and received no apology, no “We understand Paul and have done a, b and c” No offer for some kind of compensation for my troubles. Just a 2-3 sentence, “we fixed the glitch” email . . . minus any degree of what experts call “giving a sh*t”
So let me turn this over to you if you don’t mind . . .
Why do you think this poor level of service exists? Is it because senior management is typically unaware or do you think they’re aware and simply don’t care? And just for the heck of it, I’m promoting you to Grand Poo Bah of your company. If you were in a position to do something about this level of service, what would you do?
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That there are other users having problems and their Twitter account has been dormant for three months tells me that there may be far greater issues than just customer service.
Separately, so many companies think they have customer service ‘fixed’ until they scale up their customer numbers, and then realise they have planned for and/or budgeted for the resource needed to provide a great customer experience. Sad, but too often true.
I agree Ian . . . there really does seem to be far greater issues going on beyond customer service.
Thanks!
I think it happen because those who deal with the issue either haven’t been taught the true value of a customer, i.e. why are customers and WOM so important – what happens when we deal well v badly with a customer complaint.
Also they may have been given the classic procedure manual, this is common, right? Procedure driven complaint handling, oh boy, is there anything worse in the world? You know the deal Paul, if a.b.c. happens do this, then that, then refer upwards, then blah, blah, blah – get them to fill out form 4ac sections 1 to 5c. Call this number press *5…….
I strongly believe if people (employees) where left to their own devices to be ‘human’ and have a little encouragement from their companies to do what they see fit and understand why customer service is still #1 – it may go some way to solving the problem.
Too often companies try to cut cost to make money, the paradox is eventually that will drive costs up further due to dealing with an increasing number of complaints. Companies need a focus on quality and that will eventually drive out costs and increase revenues, which is still the goal, at least last time I looked.
I will never tire of that story Paul.
I particularly like the idea of allowing people to be human James. I would even say that we should encourage and applaud that within the company.
Thanks James!
Paul–Thank you.
I just had a very poor customer service experience with a private car service in CA and just had to use this as my first time to post. I love your content and read it frequently.
I was told the car was at the airport and it would be 5 minutes. Multiple calls and nearly an hour later, I found out the car was never at the airport and was coming from another city?
I’m not thrilled that the car was late, but what was even more unbelievable is the attitude of indifference. The person on the line actually said, “We just read from a script, we have no idea where the vans really are.” No apology, what else can we do, nothing. I’m still surprised that in these days when consumers have so many choices, companies still allow individuals who don’t have a clue about customer service to be the front line interface with their customers!
It’s almost as though customer service is an over-used term with no meaning behind it. On this company’s website, they state several times, that they are “known for their exceptional customer service.” The rule used to be that we receive good service and poor service was atypical. It’s now the other way around. Thanks, Dionne
Paul – My experience has been that larger companies are generally willing to accept a certain percentage of attrition caused by a bad experience. It is factored into their P & L. So much customer service has been automated in the name of reduced costs. That along speaks volumes about how a company perceives customer service.
Also, many companies place far more emphasis on acquiring new business than they do on retention. So, they are automating customer service to save money and spending more on acquisition which is far more expensive than retention. Make sense? Not to me.
Cheers,
Marc
I agree on both accounts Marc.
I think it was Conrad Hilton who used to make his employees switch jobs for the day once a year.
Perhaps if sales and customer service switch for a good solid week, there would be a new appreciation for acquiring and maintaining new business but . . .
Neither would be beneficial if the folks at 30,000 feet are telling them to do otherwise.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Marc!
Paul,
I spent 18 years as a “fix-it” manager for retail stores, I was successful in turning several failing stores into successful stores once more. I’ve been asked a great many times what my secret was. It really is no secret: I always placed the highest emphasis on Customer Service. I viewed termination of employees as a last recourse, not a first option. I encouraged employees to make suggestions and show initiative in both thought and deed. I treated mistakes as training opportunities. Customer complaints were taken very seriously and the procedure was very clear: Hear them out first, let them say what they needed to say. Repeat the problem back to them, to show you were really listening. Apologize with sincerity and offer some sort of compensation for all that they have been through. Commit yourself to not only correcting the mistake but learning from it and improving your service through it. I tried very hard to treat every customer like they were the next door neighbor I grew up with or an old school mate or a favorite uncle or friend. Never like a number and certainly never like just a dollar sign.
The problem today is that in our lust for technology and in our ever growing impatience, many people have simply forgotten how to interact with other people. They are more comfortable with their computer screen and their smart phone than with any form of human interaction. This only strengthens the fear of rejection so many commonly face, to the extent that now they’d rather hide from a problem and hope it goes away than risk someone might actually take a stern stance with them, offer them a cross look, or – God forbid! – raise their voice to them. And so they create a self-perpetuating cycle of anti-social behavior and poor decision making. There is little responsibility and nearly no accountability anymore. And worse, many managers want to simply point a finger or make an excuse rather than take the time to TRAIN their staffs in proper respect and customer etiquette. From lower level managers all the way to upper level managers, we’re all too busy thinking about how to increase sales at the store level, how to keep our work-schedule under budgeted hours, how to reduce shrinkage, how to produce add-on sales. The “Human” element has been completely forgotten at nearly every level.
So, what is the first thing that we can all do to promote change and to help ourselves to get back to that “Human” element? It’s a simple old adage my parents instilled in me: Put yourself in the other person’s shoes for a while. Ask yourself: “If that were me, if this happened to me, how would I feel about it? What would I expect to be done about it? What would resolve this for me?”
Sorry for such a long ramble…
“The problem today is that in our lust for technology and in our ever growing impatience, many people have simply forgotten how to interact with other people” spot on and brilliant Billy.
I couldn’t agree more about getting back to the human element.
Definitely the key!
Thanks again Billy. I appreciate your contribution to our discussion!
i recently had a bad experience, trying to get my partner (also my brother) a new credit card, since I am the first contact. Capitol One spewed the party line to me too many times (we understand your frustration, blah blah blah), so I finally put it into succint language that they understood. Namely, that if the card did not arrive today, I would close my account, and get new cards elsewhere. Imagine my surprise this morning when i came in to find that two different cards had arrived Saturday!!
I think its an awful shave that things ever have to get to that point.
They should have heard you the first time.
Thanks Francey!
You know Paul, this is a “modern day” problem. The phrase “the customer is always right” has been around forever…but some companies (let’s be real: some people at these companies) either don’t understand what that really means or don’t care enough to make the effort. When you fix a customer problem with empathy and humanity, the exponential good will and PR are priceless. When you don’t the fallout can eventually wipe you out. You need to fix things fast…even waiting too long to do the right thing can leave a pall of suspicion and distrust, leading to questions on agenda and intent.
What about when you just can’t fix it? Say so! Say why! Ask if something else will help. In other words, be authentic and human. It goes a long, long way in these sometimes robotic times.
First time posting huh Dionne? Well welcome to the party my friend!
I think you nailed it when you mentioned the attitude of indifference. Its that indifference that will escalate the emotions of the client every time and force them to take their business up the road.
I have no patience for people like that. They either need to be retrained, moved off the front line or given their walking papers unless . . .
They’re not the real problem . . . its the senior managers who created that monster.
Thanks again for stopping by Dionne. You are appreciated!
A year ago I left a company because of poor customer service. The customer was seen as a distraction and small customers were routinely considered expendable. Project Managers were encouraged NOT to answer their phones to force customers to email their needs. In spite of this, the company is very successful.
That’s awful on so many levels Jon.
I can’t see a company ignoring customers and sustaining success.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
So many companies forget that it is easier to keep a customer than earn one from scratch.
I expect a poor customer service experience from large corporations. From the small businesses I expect much more. However, yesterday I had an excellent customer experience with the largest cell phone company in the US. They were kind, human and very helpful. Boy, was I surprised.
I would love to see sales and customer service switch for a week.
I think everyone would have a new appreciation for both the value of hunting a new account and the value of keeping one!
PS Thanks for your comment Joe!
An excellent topic, Paul.
I that I think the problem exists because a service culture and mindset has not been established as a core value and priority of the company. It also probably means that the service mindset isn’t being modeled by top leaders. If service that wowed was a priority to them, they would hire people with service attitudes, celebrate great stories of service and make it a core component of performance reviews. In other words, no one would be confused about how important to the success of the company delivers awesome service would be.
In the case of your podcast provider (ironically, I was going to ask if you liked them, their service and then I read your post), it sounds to me like they just didn’t care, which is odd because there are all sorts of podcasting alternatives.
Well said Barb and I couldn’t agree more.
Poor service isn’t just poor service. Its the sum total of lots of things that may be non existent in the organization.
I would love nothing more than to recommend my podcast service but I don’t want to encourage this type of behavior.
Truth be told, I feel a bit stuck Barb. I would love nothing more than to drop them immediately but the thought of having to migrate all my previous podcasts to a new service, change things with i-Tunes is a something I really don’t want to deal with.
Thanks for stopping by Barb. I always appreciate your contributions!
I believe that it’s a lack of top-down leadership. While the Mission Statement on the wall might say something about a commitment to customer service, a lack of it is an indication that customer service has not permeated that company’s culture. While not 100%, in most instances the focus for a company lacking good customer service tends to be investor, stockholder or bottom line focused and not customer/client focused.
Three things would dramatically change the degree of customer service in an organization:
1) Empowering employees to make things right up to a certain level with no questions asked by the company (your lemonade example at Disney, Nordstrom’s, The Ritz, etc.).
2) A recognition system (not necessarily $$$ incentive) for employees who do the right thing.
3) Consumers leaving the store or establishment in droves singing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going To Take It!” Unfortunately, while this is very effective, we consumers are a fickle bunch … we’ll complain, but cave in to convenience rather than take a stand that could change how businesses cater to consumers.
Thank you, Paul, for your dedication to being the best.
John
Paul – The question I ask most often is “who is taking care of the client’s experience?” More often than not….the answer is NO ONE!
I love when you talk customer service Paul!
It has been my experience that words on a wall about customer service are just that; words on a wall. Unless customer service starts at the top and is modeled by the leaders in how they treat employees, employees often don’t treat customers well.
We assume employees come to work knowing how to treat customers. That is often a false assumption. I’ve been interviewing employees who provide great customer service and asking them what kind of training they received from their employer. Often the answer is none.
Just because someone has experience in a position or an industry doesn’t mean they know how to treat customers. It is the responsibility of the business owner or management of a company to educate their employees on how they want their customers to be treated. And then they need to hold them accountable to do so.
I recently interviewed the HR director of a supermarket chain and she told me that being rude to a customer is grounds for dismissal. That chain is known for providing great customer service and they walk the talk. My bet is that they don’t tolerate anything less.
And neither should we as customers!