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Have you decided your service level?
Now what kind of question is that? Have you decided your service level? Of course you have. Just ask your people who are performing customer service.
My son loves the movie “The Incredibles,” and our hero becomes an insurance claim adjustor. He has been drummed out of the Superhero business because of lawsuits (he saves somebody who is trying to kill themselves and they sue). So the government relocates our superhero and his family into a “regular” job, that of the insurance adjuster.
His boss is interested in anything but customer service; he is interested in profits to the exclusion of all else. Our hero Mr. Incredible, being a superhero and all, has spent a lifetime helping people. So when someone comes in with a claim, he feels sorry for them, and he gives them the way to overcome the bureaucracy and get their claim paid.
Mr. Incredible’s boss is infuriated at how our superhero’s customers penetrate the bureaucracy and get their claims paid.
Now this probably isn’t your business. You probably don’t stop customers from getting it right. Or do you? Maybe you don’t even know it yourself, but with policies and procedures you may be encouraging people to try not to give service. I love it, when at the beginning of the month everyone is “gung ho” about customer service, “We are going to be the best, number one!” And at the end of the month when the expense reports come out, everyone screams about the cost of doing business, and, “Our shareholders need more return on investment.” So there we all sit, between providing customer service and trying not to spend any money on customer service. Between fiscal responsibility and what our customers want, what do we do?
We decide on our service level, and if we are OK with not giving everything to the customer, then that’s what we should do.
But what really happens is that everyone knows what you “really” mean about customer service: give them a smile and don’t give them any money, or here is the limit of service that we can give. And hope that you don’t run into that difficult customer and have to choose between the rock and a hard place.
Sometimes we hire whole customer relations departments to tell our customers “No,” or “This is all we can do.” How much cheaper would it be to do what is right from the beginning, not need a customer service department and instead let the people on the firing line do the right thing?
Now this may not be right for you, but isn’t it worth a look?
How much more employee satisfaction would you have?
All I am suggesting is that you have chosen your customer service level, so be honest about what it is, and what it is costing you in time and money.
Most of the time, people on the front line know more about the products and the customers than the people in customer service. This may not apply to you, but you should still reflect on what your service level really is, and what you want it to really be.
See Previous Customer Satisfaction Articles:
- The customer is Not always right
- You have to have happy employees
- Do you have the right tools?
- Do you have the authority?
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