Why (your) customer service is bad and declining
More than you want to know.
With all the billions being spent on customer service and training, you'd think that service would be great everywhere. Wrong. Service is still lousy and, in my opinion, getting worse.
How come?
Upside down priorities brought about by lack of understanding and delivery of what the customer wants and needs, as well as failure to make the customer the hero rather than the goat of your company policy.
The above are compounded by the overall lack of responsibility taken by employees for actions that customers require. "It's not my job," and other issues of blame (the opposite of responsibility) are the biggest reasons why customers go to competitors.
Here are the basic reasons why service is bad and getting worse, followed by some hard questions. Try to read these without squirming. How you answer and follow through on the hard questions will determine who gets the re-order you or your competition.
Wrong mission statement. Your ad agency created it; no one gets it or knows it. It doesn't relate to the customer, it relates to the company and, if you put a gun to the heads of your employees and said "Recite our mission statement or die," they'd all be dead. Hard question: Why have a mission statement no one knows, understands, follows or lives by?
No established, written principles for the customer. Just a bunch of rules and policies most of which are written in terms of the company. Principles are what you live by policies are what you live with. Hard question: Do you have written customer principles to guide your employees and business by?
Poor examples set by upper management, which is inaccessible to customers and employees alike. It's easy to recognize them they're the ones who have their calls screened with the words, "Can I tell him what this is in reference to?" They're also the ones you can count on not to return your call. People more concerned with helping themselves than helping others. Hard question: How much day-to-day contact does your upper management have with your customers?
Companies allow employees to be rude to customers, and tell customers "no." When you deny customers, their need still exists and they are mad. Then you add to the fire by saying, "Don't talk to me like that," or "I don't have to take this." Good move. A complaining customer is seen as a "hassle" rather than an opportunity. Hard question: Who is allowed to tell a customer "no?" How do you handle, document, and react to complaints?
We are living in an era of responsibility shirkers and blamers. "It's not my job" is their credo. Responsibility takers are so rare that they often receive awards and have articles written about them. Hard question: Does the person who takes the complaint follow through to see that it was handled? Do you reward your employees for exceptional complaint handling?
Companies are concerned with customer "satisfaction" rather than "loyalty." Satisfaction is the lowest form of loyalty. Satisfied customers will shop anywhere loyal customers will fight before they switch and will get others to do business with you by referral. Satisfied customers are apathetic. Loyal customers will be your advocates. Hard question: Are you measuring satisfaction or loyalty?
Low training-budget priority. Big companies spend more money producing and airing one 60-second commercial than they will spend on a customer service program all year. They spend more money on lip service than customer service. Pathetic. Hard question: How do your service program and training budgets compare to your advertising budget? Or, in other words, how does your advertising budget compare to your word-of-mouth advertising budget?
Concentrating on competitive issues rather than competitive advantages. "Our price is too high" and "Our market share is too low" are competitive issues. Airline customers want baggage room underneath row one and drinkable coffee those are competitive advantages. A competitive advantage is something the customer considers very important at which you or your company excel. The competitive advantage is the most overlooked issue in customer service. Hard question: Based on the new definition provided above, have you identified your competitive advantages?
Companies make the fatal mistake of only providing company and policy training. They may provide some customer service training, but very few offer any personal development training (positive attitude, goals, listening, responsibility, pride, communication skills). This is especially fatal with front-line people who need to know it starts with positive attitude and not the company policy or manual. Rule of thumb: Provide as much personal development training as you do company training. Hard question: How much personal development training do you provide to the employees who need it the most?
Companies only train once in a while instead of every day. Fifteen to 30 minutes of training a day will make any employee a world-class expert in five years. Hard question: How much daily training do you provide?
Failure to realize who is really in sales and service, that is, anyone who talks to a customer (often referred to by mistake as a client, patient, member, passenger, subscriber, or guest). Do you have a list of people who interact with customers daily? Hard question: Do the people on that list understand, execute and deliver the mission and customer-service principles of the company in a world-class way?
The above wake-up call is just the tip of the iceberg. Next week you will be exposed to the principles of customer service that need to precede your company policy and you'll get a preview of the universal mission statement.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of "The Sales Bible" and "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless." President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. Inquiries should be emailed to salesman@gitomer.com or faxed to the WBJ at (48-22) 646-0576.
