Training Tips Blog

Top 10 Ways to Fail at Customer Service

Providing customer service as if it should be a matter of common sense. But there are so many different ways to go wrong.

After combining the company’s web for 10 minutes to find a telephone number, you dial, only to be granted by the company’s seven – layer voice – system. Once you finally get a human being on the line, he or she that you screwed up or puts you hold while finding someone who might be qualified to answer questions. It’s Dante’s customer service hell.

Customer service reps insisted the problems were his fault. Normally a restrained man, he ended up screaming at one of them. Call it customer rage. In it’s 2004 study of 1,000 respondents, the Customer Care Alliance found that one in three consumers had yelled at a service rep in the previous year, and one in 10 had cursed at them.

If you have anything to do with customer service at your midsize company, you’ve probably already been on the receiving end of customer rage. While no one condones such over – the – top behavior, we can all understand it as the unfortunate – and inevitable – result of poor service. Following are our picks for the top 10 ways to fail at customer service – and what you should do instead.

1. Waste customer’s time.

Last year’s Customer Rage Survey asked respondents to identify what they had lost as a result of poor service. For most, the biggest compliant wasn’t lost money but lost time, says Scott Broetzmann, founder of the Customer Care Alliance. Don’t force customers to cool their heels while you figure out what went wrong and who’s at fault. Instead, address their concerns promptly and then figure out how to better going forward.

2. Treat your workers badly

Give them little for increased responsibility or promotion. They’ll be sure to take out their misery on your customers. That’s why Jill Leonard skills.Tavello, vice president of culture and communication at Stew Leonard’s, spends most of her time ensuring that the Connecticut grocery chain’s 2,000 employees are satisfied. “ To have happy customers, you first have to have happy people,” “Travello says, Among the workplace strategies the company uses: maintaining flexible schedules, recognizing high performers, promoting from within, publishing a daily companywide newsletter and encouraging community involvement. Employees provide such great service that executives from other companies worldwide travel to take Stew Leonard’s customer service seminar.

3. Forget to train your frontline employees in interpersonal

Everyone knows how to be friendly. Right? Many service representatives treat customers badly either because they simply don’t understand basic courtesy or because they’re reacting to their own high – stress jobs. “They’re constantly barraged and berated by angry customers” says Jeffery Gitomer, a Charlotte, North Carolina – based customer service trainer and the author of Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless (Bard Press, 1998). By the end of the day, they’re likely to vent frustration on customers. Instruct your employees exactly how you want them to treat your customers, especially those with complaints.

4. Restrict your employees’ abilities to provide high – quality customer service.

Some companies give employees the authority they need to make customers happy. “Our team members are empowered to make decisions right there on the spot – to give exchanges, refunds, to get a customer someone else ,”says Stew Leonard’s Travello. “There are no hassles, no going through channels.” Customers can return products at any time for any reason., While a few have returned gnawed turkey bones after Thanksgiving, complaining that the meat was dry, 99 percent of customers never test the company’s no – hassle policy. In fact, Travello credits the policy for creating strong customer loyalty and contributing to industry – leading sales record.

5. Rely on customer self – service.

Customers detest voice – response telephone systems. “Lots of studies have been conducted where people compared automated phones to going to the dentist.” Broetzmann says. He lauds what he calls “courageous” companies likes L.L. Bean for spending the money necessary to staff the order department with human beings. “Our goal is to answer every call,” says Cindy Williams, an L.L. Bean customer service representative who answered the phoned on the first ring. “We do have an automated system, but it would really unusual for it to kick in.” Unlike many companies for which the automated system is the first line of customer service , L.L. Bean wisely employs it only as a backup for extraordinarily busy times.

6. Respond slowly – or not at all – to e – mail requests.

Nobody likes thinking that an impassioned plea for help is heading into a black hole. In one recent speech, a United way chapter’s marketing director had this to say about trying to contact her organization before she worked there: “I sent them an e- mail asking for more information on volunteer opportunities – and they actually replied!” You can delight your customers by immediately acknowledging that you’ve receiving their e- mail inquires, even if you can’t answer their questions right away. Most will be quite if you answer within 24 hours.

7. Fail recognize the opportunity in an unhappy customer.

Mistakes offer a good way to retain a customer for life while generating tremendous word of mouth about your excellent service, says Donna Fenn, the author of Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become the Leader of the Pack (forthcoming from Harper Collins). Whenever you make an error, acknowledge and apologize for it immediately, Fenn says. Then solve the problem quickly and giving the customer a small gift. Can’t be bothered? It’ll cost you: 85 percent of the respondents to the Customer Rage Survey shared their service – nightmare stories with others, and 59 percent vowed never to do business with the offending company again. On the other hand, rapid provide enormous gain, Jack Mitchell, the author of Hug Your Customer (Hyperion 2003) and the CEO of Mitchell’s and Richard’s , two Connecticut clothing stories with revenues more than 65 million, says his associates will drive to a customer’s home to pick up clothing that was tailored incorrectly, retailor it that day and bring it back – and give the customer a gift as well. “We make heroes out of people who make mistakes” Mitchell says.’ “Customers say, Wow, these people at Mitchell’s aren’t afraid to make a mistake and fix it.’ “In fact, he says, “we’ll open a store early or come in on Sunday to fix a mistake”

8. Don’t bother using technology to understand who your customer are and what they need.

You wouldn’t think clothing would need to know much about its customer – most retailers don’t. But Mitchell’s keeps detailed information about all its customer, from what they purchased to the name of their pets. Furthermore, the company has integrated its inventory, customer and marketing databases, do that when new apparel from a particular designer arrives, employees can call customers who love that designer’s clothing. Bottom line: Consider investing in the best technology you can afford to learn about your customers. However, remember that consumers are growing increasingly wary of data – collection systems. Be sure to use the information you collect wisely and ethically.

9. Measure satisfaction to get ratings, not responses.

Most companies send out customer satisfaction surveys. But asking customers “Are you satisfied? Or “How can we improve”? yields superficial answers, often geared solely to get high (but unreliable) ratings, Jonathan Copulsky, a principal with Deloitte Consulting in Chicago, offers these far more probing and useful questions. “What do our competitors do better than we do?” and “if we lost your business, what do you think the cause would be?”

10. Don’t solve their problems.

Big surprise: Customers’ No. 1 according to the Customer Rage Survey, is for their products to be fixed or their service issue to be resolved. Do it. No matter what it costs. The loss of one customer – and all potential customers he or she vents on – will ultimately be far greater than the cost of solving one problem.

Adapted from Elaine Appleton Grant's article