Whatever happened to quality service when dealing with a company? Whatever happened to employees caring about their customers? Whatever happened to putting the customer’s needs before the business’s? Whatever happened to customer service?
Quite frankly, it seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs: extinct. At least, that is my view based on a series of poor customer-service experiences I have had in the past month. Interestingly enough, they were all with financial institutions with which I have a relationship. However, I am confident that this is simply not an issue germane to the financial industry. All industries are affected by this decline.
So what constitutes customer service? It may be helpful to share an example of what customer service is not in order to understand the definition.
The Perkstreet Bank Experience
One of my bank accounts is held with Perkstreet Bank, an online-only bank that offers cash-back incentives and perks for using their debit card. There are limitations to dealing with online-only banks. Apparently, that is just what I encountered last week. I called because my car stalled in the middle of the desert and just a short distance from a service station. I needed to transfer money from a joint account with Perkstreet to an individual account at the same institution. I was succinctly and apathetically told by the customer-service (un)professional that bank transfers “have to be done online.” When I informed her that I was stuck in the middle of the desert and needed access to my funds, she essentially told me that my situation was not her problem. I needed to find an Internet connection someplace and transfer the funds myself. After all, she had to follow corporate policies. You can imagine my reaction to this employee.
I eventually hung up on her and called back to speak with a supervisor. After he answered the call, I informed him of the poor customer-service attitude of the previous representative, to which he responded with clearly apathetic, “I’m sorry for the problems. What can I do for you?” No empathy, sympathy, or anything. Just all about business. After I informed him of my situation, he began to quote company policy and spent a fair amount of time telling me about his limitations in assisting me. After emphasizing to him that I would be stranded in the desert if he did not attempt to even make an exception for me, he put me on hold “to see what he could do.” He came back and told me that he could submit a request for the transfer, but it would take up to 24 hours. After an emotional response to that information, he placed me on hold and came back and told me that he was suddenly able to transfer the money. (What happened to company policy?)
The unfortunate aspect of the experience is that his telephone demeanor struck me as that I should be fortunate that he went out of his way to assist me, that it was not something that he had to do, and that I should be grateful and possibly obsequious in my response. To the contrary, his going out of his way to bring me a resolution is exactly what he had to do.
This example is not the epitome of good customer service.
Customer-Service Definition
So what is good customer service then? We only need to look at the words that comprise the concept: “customer” and “service.” These terms deserve a bit more treatment.
According to the dictionary, ” customer ” is defined as “a person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer; patron.” There is nothing difficult to understand about this definition. According to a different dictionary, ” service ” is defined as “the occupation or function of serving; the work performed by one that serves.”
All together, we can view customer service as the act of providing service to any individual who is purchasing or has purchased a good or service from a company. Customers have questions, comments, or even complaints. It is the company’s responsibility to handle each of situations with the utmost in care. Many companies are failing miserably at doing so. For example, here are a few that you probably do business with:
7-Eleven
AOL
AT&T
American Airlines
American Express (I just had an abysmal customer-service experience today with this company.)
Bank of America
Capital One
You can see a list here and here. Still, there are some notable beacons of stellar customer service:
Amazon (No shock there)
Apple
Customer-Service Transgressions
So let’s list some customer-service sins and talk a bit about why they’re sins. With any hope, the companies who are notorious for treating their customers like excrement will read this list.
Hiding Behind Policies–Telling a customer, “That’s against our policy” or “I am not allowed to do that,” will usually cause the conversation to spiral downward going forward. Yes, of course, there are policies in place that customer-service agents must follow; I do not dispute that. But diction is important when communicating a limitation of service due to policy. It is possible to share this limitation with a customer without seeming like erecting a brick wall. It should also be noted that common sense should trump policy. For example, in my Perkstreet situation, I did not find it appropriate to communicate policy to me in my somewhat-panicked state of mind. Exceptions can and should be made in exigent situations. Slamming Customers on Hold–In telephone interactions, telling your customer that she will hold, followed by the agent’s putting the customer on hold will most likely not contribute to a positive experience for the remainder of that call. Asking permission to place a customer on hold should always be the case. Also, explaining the reason why the hold is necessary and setting the expectation about how long the hold will be will go along way to building respect and credibility with the customer. Not Demonstrating Empathy/Sympathy–If you work in a service capacity, there is simply no reason for you to not act like you care. “Empathy” is an emotional identification with someone else due to having gone through the same situation. “Sympathy” is an emotional identification with someone else despite not having gone through the same situation. It’s not always possible to demonstrate empathy, but it’s always possible to demonstrate sympathy, whether a customer is screaming, crying, complaining, or questioning. And we should stay away from the empty statements, such as: “I’m sorry about that,” “I understand what you’re going through,” or “I know what’s that like.” A bit of creativity goes a long way for this point. Openly Acting Irritated Toward Customers–If the customer-service agent is openly demonstrating anger to the customer, he should consider quitting his job, or management should consider firing him. Anger or irritation toward a customer is never acceptable, no matter what the customer does or says. Getting angry or irritated shows that the professional is taking comments, questions, or complaints personally. Even though customers will have poor experiences with uncaring representatives, the anger is normally directed to the company; the professional is a corporeal version of the intangible company. Customers have no other option but to communicate their concerns (possibly loudly) the representatives. But the nature of their job is to deal with that type of scenario. Getting upset because they are doing what they were hired to do is as ridiculous as a doctor who complains about seeing sick people all day long.
These are just a few sins. There are many, many more.
Change You Can Believe In (If You Want It)
Poor customer service does not have to be the norm. Companies like Zappos, Verizon Wireless, and Amazon have all gotten the memo that when you provide a streamlined, customer-focused experience, consumers tend to respond in a few ways:
By staying loyal to the company. By recommending the company to friends, family members, and colleagues. By possibly increasing their consumption of goods or services offered by the company.
In all cases, the company benefits and revenues will eventually increase.
There are several companies or consultants who offer customer-service training to other companies. A notable one is Communico Ltd., which offers Magic® customer-service training to large companies. I am actually a certified Magic® coach and can attest to the efficacy of this particular customer-service approach. A notable customer-service consultant and champion to contact centers everywhere is Greg Levin, who offers a humorous but effective take on improving the customer-service experience.
But the truth is that some companies simply are uninterested in providing stellar customer service. Companies like Greyhound are routinely despised by their customers. And their very own employees even return a tepid response about working there. (So much for employee advocacy for the company.)
Conclusion
In my opinion, customer service is going downhill. Companies simply are not committing enough resources or are using ineffective methods of training their employees in the science of customer service, and that reality is shameful. The moment that a company decides to make revenue by offering a product or service to a customer–I don’t care if that product or service is being sold for a penny–the company is responsible for caring and nurturing that customer relationship to the best of its ability. Short-changing customers will only earn the company a poor market reputation and will lead to high levels of churn, i.e., fleeing customers.