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Customer Service

How has your customer service been lately?

There has been a lot of talk lately about the Great Resignation. What prompted it? It’s not all about pay. As Aretha would say, it is probably much more about R-E-S-P-E-C-T and the way staff is treated, with those positions that are client-facing running the highest risk.

According to a recent article in Forbes, only 39% feel the tone of Americans is civil toward one another. This percentage decreases for those in direct service areas where 74% are estimated to be experiencing burn-out. One example might be a Children’s Museum who closed their doors for ten days to allow their employees to recover from the rude treatment they encountered from visitors who objected to the mask mandate.

While sympathetic, this is a two-way street, as those who say they encounter poor service from businesses has increased to 75%. They can be equally frustrated by long waits, higher prices and inefficiencies and mistakes caused by poor staffing. It is not uncommon for a business to create customer mandates just to work with them, many of which don’t make sense or serve any useful purpose whatsoever. If you want to shop at this mall and spend $500 in one day, you’d better be prepared to pay $12 to park there and ten cents for each bag.

We all want to feel good when we visit a business. It’s an emotional, experiential thing. Yes, every time. Even in a drugstore where on the fly you see that candy bar you loved as a kid. You anticipate how good it would taste right now. You have to have one only to find the caramel is as hard as a rock. It’s been around for a while. It has clearly outlived it shelf life….supply issues, you know.

What happened to the days of a fully focused personal shopper who understanding your style, takes pride in pulling just the right piece for you. Or a hotel agent who anticipates that it’s your wedding anniversary, acknowledges you by name and has a bottle of champagne chilled and waiting. Where is the maître d’ who knows that you prefer a table by the window. By the way, where is the maître d’ at all? It appears as though he has become the new age dinosaur.

While it is nice to take this stroll down memory lane, to address the more immediate problem and in the spirit of everyone being part of the solution and not the problem, here is a short list of phrases/words that we do not believe a client or customer should ever have to endure from a business representative:

“Unfortunately”: Please, no matter what the problem, do not begin a sentence or even use this word when addressing a customer issue. It just sets both of you up for failure.

“It’s Our Policy.”: Frankly, we don’t care what your policy is. We all have policies and apparently the two are not in sync or this conversation would not taking place. The best thing that can happen here is a workable compromise… tempered flexibility, which is what we highly recommend to retain the client relationship.

“Sorry about that.”: Your business has just leveled your customer a letdown. Is there any single statement that could be more flip. The translation really is, “Too bad for you.”

“No”: Finally, it is hard to believe, but you would be amazed and should listen for how many times people in service industries just say “no”. No explanation, no apology, no effort to lessen the frustration…just “no”.

Nothing personal here, but there is nothing personal. Businesses that embrace their customers (and vice versa) want to see a shift for toward the kinder, gentler. Everyone is hungry for it and it could reap a big return for your business.

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