Throughout the years I’ve
been in several business situations where I could only conclude that the person
with whom I was interacting was either criminal or incompetent.
And I’m really
curious. Does the distinction even
matter?
If the outcome is
absolutely the same, should we care that the person on the other end simply
didn’t know any better?
Seth Godin posted about E.
coli bacteria in spinach and almost
getting hit in the head by a bottle someone threw out of a car window.
Does it matter that no one
intended to get people sick or (let’s hope) to hit a passing bicyclist with a
bottle?
These might be extreme
examples, but what about situations we face all the time?
Does it matter that the
customer service representative we have on the phone has no clue how to fix our
problem and isn’t just trying to be
difficult?
I don’t think it does.
It’s our responsibility to
get it right, do it right, and treat them right!
We don’t get any points with
our customers for good intentions – and we shouldn’t expect them.
Craig –
You bring up a great point in your post (link above under track backs). We in the US tend to be very “US” centric and we don’t realize how we sound to natives of other countries – or how our products look to them. Trying to cultivate a global perspective is really challenging. (I’m glad you’re on the case!)
Thanks for visiting!
Ann
On point and well put as usual — you have once again been cited for your insight on my blog. Of course it is so easy to recognize poor customer service when you are on the receiving end, but it seems to be so much more difficult to effectively implement good customer service when your company is on the providing end. It is such an obviously good business strategy that I wonder why so many companies miss the boat.
How Does Your Service Sound to Your Customers Abroad?
Ann Michael as usual hit the nail on the head in a post earlier this week on her Manage to Change Blog entitled Does Motivation Matter? And as usual, I am going to put a slight twist in it to
Susan – Sometimes the situations you run into are so ludicrous that you have to giggle (or cry)!
I laughed out loud, Ann, at your first paragraph – even though it’s not a funny topic. It’s just that so often I throw my hands up in the air and wonder how some people can be so careless – and clueless – and not just in the business world.
How one even begins to address this is frustrating to me. You make excellent points all around.
Ellen – it’s funny that you should bring that up. I was just having a conversation with a colleague this morning about how “good Karma” is good business!
Ann, it is so easy to run and in the running to forget the deeper parts of integrity that you often tease out so well — and have done again here. I wonder if it would help to show companies that to do integrity is also to do more profit! Seems to me that a motivator could spark a new interest in the better parts of integrity as they mold business. What do you think?
Kent, thanks for making this distinction.
In this post, I was only considering the customer’s perspective – and in that realm there are no good excuses.
Managing people is a whole different issue and I agree with your approach completely.
In terms of the result, I agree that motivation doesn’t matter – at least in the kind of examples you used. However, if we want to solve the problem, motivation can make all the difference in the world.
If I am running the customer service department and have a representative who is not solving customers’ problems, I need to know why. If it is for lack of training, I can fix that with more training. If it is because that person’s attitudes and beliefs just aren’t suited for customer service, I can fix that by reassigning that person – either in or out of the organization.
Thanks! I’m certainly not advocating being impatient or disrespectful with people in customer service roles – but ultimately – you’re right – they’re all just excuses and we shouldn’t be expected to deal with them. Thanks for stopping by!
Wow, this was right on the money, as far as I’m concerned. I completely agree with you that excuses are just that–excuses! It is imperative that businesses have standards and that they do what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it!