Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

  • Rosa’s Books
  • ManagingWithAloha.com
  • RosaSay.com

Customer Service is lost somewhere, please help me find it

August 26, 2004 by Rosa Say

Had to get my car serviced this morning, and on the way, I stopped at 1-2-3-4 different places where I encountered 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17 different “customer service people.” Here’s the result of my very informal, random survey: Customer service is aimlessly lost. I sure couldn’t find it, hard as I looked. I baited (gave my service people easy scenarios to excel at), I smiled a lot, and I tried to be very understanding of their dilemmas, with a voice in my head chanting “kill ‘em with kindness, they’ll respond, have faith.” No luck. The “service” I got was either MIA or mired in auto-pilot and mediocrity.

I’m not going to belabor the horror stories: let’s imua and go forward. All you managers out there, help! We’ve got to turn this around! Some quick thoughts to get you started:

1. First of all, hire people who enjoy being service providers. How’s that for a revelation? Yes, I know that we are now “enjoying” the lowest unemployment levels ever, and that means its slim pickings out there, but look at my numbers above again: 2 of my 4 stops were truly over-staffed. You’ve got to hire right, or you’re starting by talking four steps backwards and everything else will just be too hard.

2. If an employee doesn’t demonstrate that they actually like other people, for goodness sake, don’t subject them to your customers! By the way, that means don’t ask them to answer the phone either.

3. Realize that even normally great mea ho‘okipa (service providers filled with ho‘okipa, the hospitality of complete giving) need a break sometimes. Learn to read the signs when their cup doesn’t runneth over anymore and they need a refill.

4. This one is part of your training 101: teach your staff to always deal with people first, and computers/ paper/ other staff second, no matter how backlogged they are. That non-human stuff isn’t going anywhere, whereas that ignored, impatient, and disgruntled customer is a bad word-of-mouth black plague brewing. The longer they wait for attention, the more toxic that plague will be.

5. Even when they are focusing on the customer first, good employees can get flustered and overwhelmed when it’s busy and Murphy’s Law comes to visit. Don’t waste time training fancy new skills like cutting-edge software programs, until the basics are second nature: multi-tasking is an important job skill, keeping cool-headed in a pressure cooker is an important job skill, listening well is an important job skill: these are the ones that are critical to satisfying your customers.

That’s my quick “do” list in contrast to all the “don’ts” I saw this morning. Everyone reading this wears the shoes of the customer: what are the other qualifications and job skills you feel are vital for good service providers?

To end my story, after my car was done I went to Subway to pick up a sandwich for lunch, and my sandwich artist Arie was terrific. It was busy, and he was jamming. Yet he smiled at every customer, talked to them as if they were the most important person in his world, and infected his co-workers on the sandwich line with his enthusiasm and energy. There is hope, and there are great examples everywhere. Thanks Arie for giving me my smile back. The sandwich was great too.

Filed Under: MWA19: The 19 Values

Comments

  1. atina says

    August 24, 2006 at 11:32 pm

    backlogged they are. That non-human stuff isn’t going anywhere, whereas that ignored, impatient, and disgruntled customer is a bad word-of-mouth black plague brewing. The longer they wait for attention, the more toxic that plague

Search Talking Story your way

RSS Current Articles at Managing with Aloha:

  • Do it—Experiment!
  • Hō‘imi to Curate Your Life’s Experience
  • Kaʻana i kāu aloha: Share your Aloha
  • Managing Basics: The Good Receiver
  • What do executives do, anyway? They do values.
  • Managing Basics: On Finishing Well
  • Wellness—the kind that actually works

Search Talking Story by Category

Talking Story Article Archives

  • July 2016 (1)
  • April 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (6)
  • February 2012 (6)
  • January 2012 (10)
  • December 2011 (1)
  • November 2011 (4)
  • October 2011 (17)
  • September 2011 (8)
  • August 2011 (6)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (2)
  • May 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (12)
  • March 2011 (16)
  • February 2011 (16)
  • January 2011 (23)
  • December 2010 (4)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (4)
  • August 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (4)
  • June 2010 (13)
  • May 2010 (17)
  • April 2010 (18)
  • March 2010 (13)
  • February 2010 (18)
  • January 2010 (16)
  • December 2009 (12)
  • November 2009 (15)
  • October 2009 (20)
  • September 2009 (20)
  • August 2009 (17)
  • July 2009 (16)
  • June 2009 (13)
  • May 2009 (3)
  • April 2009 (19)
  • March 2009 (18)
  • February 2009 (21)
  • January 2009 (26)
  • December 2008 (31)
  • November 2008 (19)
  • October 2008 (8)
  • September 2008 (11)
  • August 2008 (11)
  • July 2008 (10)
  • June 2008 (16)
  • May 2008 (1)
  • March 2008 (17)
  • February 2008 (24)
  • January 2008 (13)
  • December 2007 (10)
  • November 2007 (6)
  • July 2007 (27)
  • June 2007 (23)
  • May 2007 (13)
  • April 2007 (19)
  • March 2007 (17)
  • February 2007 (14)
  • January 2007 (15)
  • December 2006 (14)
  • November 2006 (16)
  • October 2006 (13)
  • September 2006 (29)
  • August 2006 (14)
  • July 2006 (19)
  • June 2006 (19)
  • May 2006 (12)
  • April 2006 (11)
  • March 2006 (14)
  • February 2006 (14)
  • January 2006 (7)
  • December 2005 (15)
  • November 2005 (27)
  • October 2005 (22)
  • September 2005 (38)
  • August 2005 (31)
  • July 2005 (34)
  • June 2005 (32)
  • May 2005 (27)
  • April 2005 (28)
  • March 2005 (36)
  • February 2005 (33)
  • January 2005 (35)
  • December 2004 (13)
  • November 2004 (24)
  • October 2004 (22)
  • September 2004 (28)
  • August 2004 (8)

Copyright © 2021 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in