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Customer Service Lost
By Thomas
Fee Scrooge
tells Bob Cratchit that he’d better not catch him putting an extra piece
of coal on the fire because it will run up the cost of doing business.
Bah! Humbug! Not once
in the entire account of Dickens’s Scrooge (aka A Christmas
Carol) does Ebenezer Scrooge ever mention that those whose money have
kept him in business all these years deserve anything but his scorn. He
has the same scorn for his employees. Scrooge
would be a perfect manager for this day and age. Much
like those of modern organizations, his customers are a meaningless part
of the equation for success. Things like keeping down costs, increasing
income and wealth for upper management and the acquisition of greater
power and influence are the focus of this laughable, but miserable, caricature
of today’s successful business leader.
Why Has Customer Service Been
Lost?
Ask anybody
to tell you ten stories about poor customer service and they will reel
them off like a 7th Grader reciting the Preamble to the Constitution.
Ask the same people to come up with one or two good stories and they’ll
be stumped. Forget
the statistics and number crunching developed from self-serving “customer
satisfaction” surveys. Customer Service sucks and everybody knows it.
The consuming
public doesn’t even expect common courtesy anymore. The state of customer
care is at an all time low. Forget being treated well. How about being
treated like human beings? Does it
bother anybody that customer service has virtually disappeared? This former
art was a key differentiator for organizations throughout the modern age.
We are entreated with the stories about IBM, Xerox, and others whose stock
and trade were serving the customer. Now, customer service is a faint
memory from a bygone era.
Why Has
Customer Service Disappeared? Organizations
have shifted from being human (social) groups to object oriented entities.
The pencil
pushers of this world have taken the money generated by sales, marketing
and customer service and are putting it into their pockets. They are rich,
but their companies are poor – in spirit, in human care and concern and
in their attitude that their customers deserve to be treated with respect
and appreciation. Customer
service has become the victim of two modern phenomena:
Customer Service Lost continued
The Failure of Empowerment
Wall Street
has become the only customer that most organizations are concerned about.
There is a constant struggle (what
am I saying “struggle” - the struggle is over) between doing what is best
for the customer and doing what is most self-profitable in the minds of
upper management. Organizations are run by people at the top who put themselves
first, not their companies or customers. These
practices violate the most basic principles of good business to acquire
and keep customers satisfied as a means to stay in business. Empowerment
has failed because the policies set by upper management favor the short
term procurement of resources for themselves over the longer term need
to use those resources to solve customer’s problems. Empowerment
would require that those who make the decisions would have to give up
some of what goes into their pockets to take better care of their customers.
In today’s world, managers get ahead because of self-interest not company
or customer interest. Limited resources and self-enriching priorities,
restrain those who are in the position to do good, from actually solving
customers’ problems.
Can The Situation Be Remedied?
As long
as inwardly focused, self-enriching practices are the goal of upper management
there is no solution to the deplorable state of customer service. Most
organizations today are run by people who are willing to sacrifice the
good will of customer, for self-enrichment. Employees
have dutifully accepted the standard set by upper management and are working
hard to lower the standards of customer service across the board. They
have finally decided that what’s good enough for management is good enough
for them. Employees have given up trying to please customers because that
is not what personal survival in most organizations is about. Organizational
life is about political positioning and the ability to gain power and
influence within the organization and to hell with the customers,
employees and other constituents. The “political model” has taken a firm
hold on organizations. Consequences
If the
current trend continues, I predict that there will be more and more organizational
failures. By failure I mean any practice that tends to prevent the achievement
of an organization’s full potential. This includes: mergers, acquisitions,
buyouts, IPO’s, LBO’s and other macho, inwardly focused Customer Service Lost continued
solutions
to short term self rewarding practices that destroy an organizations ability
to perform at optimum levels. Wall Street
now sets the standards for how businesses are run. These cold hearted,
inhuman money mongers who live an elite existence, above the rest (and
often above the law) are now dictating who succeeds and who fails based
on their whims and personal desires for increasing their own wealth. Increased
litigation will continue to prevail. Tobacco companies tire companies
and other large consumer companies are already learning the lessons of
poor customer service. The new language of the customer is litigation.
It seems to be the only way they can express themselves to these uncaring
companies who refuse to be held accountable. The saddest of all observations
is that the companies seem willing to pay their fines and continue to
do business the same old way. What kind of people are these? A Classic Response
There
are business practices that cost much less that law suits and the time
and resources it takes to “finesse” a customer. Let me give you an
example. I recently
had a terrible experience at the Hyatt Beaver Creek in Colorado. I wrote
the company explaining a comedy of errors that led to my extreme dissatisfaction
with a weekend stay. What did I get back: An expression of concern about the fact that I
had a terrible weekend? Not on your life. Instead I got a classic
litany of excuses and explanations. This example is all too common a response
for unhappy customers:
·
I would like to take this opportunity to respond to your
comments….
·
We do reduce our departmental hours as business dictates…
·
Sorry we were unable to accommodate…
·
Thank you for taking the time in making me aware
of your concerns. Not once
did this Hyatt General Manager say, “Sorry you had a bad experience” or
“We regret your weekend was not what you expected”. Nothing. Making this
person aware of the problems I encountered with his organization didn’t
seem to solicit much concern based on his response. It made me wonder
if it wasn’t a common experience What’s
worse, this is the guy who runs the joint. If this is the attitude at
the top, how much do you think the rest of the staff cares? When I
read this letter, I thought it must be that the people who send them don’t
even realize how insulting they are. There must be some new school of
thought that I missed in which “letters to unsatisfied customers” have
become ways to express disdain for them.
Customer Service Lost continued
Solution Alternatives
Somebody,
somewhere has to take responsibility for treating customers with a little
more respect. Customers are not always right, but they are always customers.
We are not a bunch of unruly, unreasonable people who are asking for the
Moon! We are human beings who expect at least the courtesy of a response
from service providers that recognizes our humanity. What can organizations do?
─
“Sorry our tires killed your (fill in the title of your
relative).” would be a nice start!
─
“We care that you had a bad time” might be a suitable statement!
─
Instead of rationalizing problems – how about suggesting
solutions like: perhaps we could to this…
─
Comments from the Hyatt GM, after expressing his disdain
for my problem, like, “If I can ever be of assistance to you…” are code
for, “Don’t bother me again slug”.
─
Forget the self-justifying comments and try to address the
customer’s problem. Try finding out:
─
Put the customer first.
─
Make their problem your problem.
─
Take responsibility to fix it.
─
Try to resolve things in favor of the customer. Customer
Service isn’t so hard. It’s a matter of understanding the difference between
humans and objects. Humans don’t like to be treated like objects because
they have emotional content, self-awareness and act and react. Objects
have none of these characteristics. When human
beings have problems, they don’t want to be lectured to or get a lesson
on business policy. They want you to help them solve their problem.
More importantly they want to know that somebody cares. Customer Service Lost continued
Is customer
service a reality for the 21st century? I can’t honestly say.
What can be said is this. Ultimately the customer will decide who stays
in business and who doesn’t. This should scare the heck out of lots of
organizations. Hopefully it will scare them straight.
About the Author: Thomas
Fee is the founder of Performance Management Consultants™.
Performance Management Consultants™ is dedicated to providing the next
generation of professional development enhanced by technology and coaching
to enable users to change their behavior resulting in improved performance. They have
developed numerous programs and processes to enhance the skills, behaviors
and activities of managers, sales, client service and pre-sales (SE) professionals.
Performance Management Consultant’s™ programs address the specific challenges
faced by those working in the areas of business practice known as Customer
Relationship Management and Complex Sales. |
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