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Customer Service Made Easy: All You Need to Know
December 19, 2007
Staples was onto more than they realize when they launched their “That Was Easy,” campaign. They talk about making work easier via their office supplies, but what if the real message was that every employee would go out of his or her way to make each customer’s life as easy as he or she possibly could? I mean, think of the possibilities. Or better yet, imagine how nice it would be to shop there, call on the phone or order from the website.
I have long believed that the biggest problem with customer service is that companies tend to make things harder for their customers than they need to be. So, no matter how well trained employees are, and regardless of how pleasant they “act,” customers can still walk away feeling frustrated because the experience just wasn’t easy enough. Service goes far beyond attitude. It also has a lot to do with how well an organization is run and/or how difficult it is to "do business" there.
For years, politeness has been the gold standard of “good customer service” and is very likely what spawned the saying, “The Customer is Always Right.” However, anyone who services customers on the frontlines, knows that “right” is a relative term and it isn’t actually true that the customer is always on that side of “wrong.” By making all customers right all the time by default, companies set their employees up to feel unsupported and possibly even abused. It’s not good for morale or company culture and ironically it erodes the quality of service delivered as the employee-customer relationship becomes more fragile and tenuous.
What if there was something we could do that was more tangible for employees to execute and straightforward for employers to articulate? Service could be more consistent and delivered at a higher level. It would be less vulnerable to individual interpretation and idiosyncrasies and more apt to please customers. How? You ask. Make it easy.
Posted by Donna Flagg on December 19, 2007 | Comments (0)
