FC Experts Blogs
July 5, 2007
Innovation: Top 10 Reasons Why Your Customer Service Fails
It’s no secret that when the time comes to evaluate your customer service, the finger pointing begins – and all fingers point suspiciously somewhere else. Let’s be courageous and look at the Top 10 reasons why customer service fails:
1. You’re doing all the talking – my grandmother used to say: “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. They are meant to be used proportionally.”
2. You are not doing anything about it – you don’t follow through with the feedback you request.
3. Your customer service reps don’t have the power to help – you are putting the most junior and least supported staff up front.
4. You have no idea of the cost to you of losing customers – if you were paying attention, you would know that good service means you retain more customers. Acquiring new customers costs more.
5. You see customer service as a cost, not a benefit – when you look at your department as overhead, you tend to under fund it and under staff it.
6. You are not keeping your brand promises – it does you no good to spend millions in advertising when customers find you difficult to deal with. A good experience is one of the best investments in your brand.
7. Your product needs help, start there – it is quite natural to think that your baby: your product or service is the best. Well, it may not be and that’s where you need to start helping customers, by providing a better one.
8. You did not notice the problem, so you’re behind on fixing it – this is how crisis get started.
9. You don’t have customer service – nobody is assigned to it, nobody owns it.
10. You don’t’ listen to your customer service reps – they know what’s going on and they would tell you.
Valeria Maltoni • Conversation Agent • Philadelphia, PA • ConversationAgent@gmail.com • www.conversationagent.com
Posted by Valeria Maltoni at July 5, 2007 8:23 AM | Topic: innovation |
4 Comments
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Wonderful list. To this, I would only offer the summary that "You are more concerned with your needs than you are about theirs."
I especially like #5. The flattening out of corporate America tends to stretch customer service to the breaking point in many organizations. Staffing for front line customer services is often sacrificed on the altar of today’s stock prices.
I also think that owners/managers forget that the way they treat their staff is the way their staff will treat their customers. If you yell and cuss at your staff, don’t be surprised to hear your staff yelling and cussing at your customers. If you want your customers to be treated with courtesy and kindness, it will need to be modeled in the relationships between owners, managers and front line staff.
On the one hand, "Duh."
On the other hand, most companies are still in the Completely Not Getting It category.
I recently had a highly satisfactory customer service experience at the Apple Genius Bar in Providence, RI. Even though I left with the same problem I came in with. Even though my "Genius" knew virtually nothing about my admittedly arcane issue.
Why was this so satisfactory? Two main reasons: honesty and effort. He was up-front about what he knew and what he didn't. And he looked everywhere for some info. He did his best and was honest about his failures.
How hard is that?
BTW, I fixed my problem by the old-fashioned process of elimination.
Thurston (Dave?) -- I see that you help organizations do business with the government. You might have picked up one thing or two about customer service in that line of work as well. Yes, behavior is modeled after behavior. I am still astounded that so many organizations think they can get aways with poisonous cultures and sloppy customer relations.
Frymaster -- I am a big fan of Rhode Island's many beautiful spots, esp. Newport. Yes, managing expectations is key, as being personable and staying interested in the customer's issue. The Apple rep communicated that he felt you were on the same boat with his behavior. At the end of the day we're not super heroes, just people. And we respond to being treated that way.