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I got a straight straw in my flex-i-straw box: Lessons on customer service.
I got a straight straw in my flex-i-straw box: Lessons on customer service.
I worked in customer service for a while and was surprisingly good at it. The big secret of customer service turned out to be: the customers don't expect help.
Oh, sure, they'd like help. They say they want help. But usually when they're angry or upset, they expect opposition.
This made my job very easy. I mean, sure, I had unhappy people on the line. But 90% of it was solved just by listening. "You got a straight straw in your box of flex-i-straws?" Being surprised at the problem. "You're kidding. Really?" If it wasn't clear, asking concerned questions. "Wow. I wonder how that could happen... how many straight straws? One? Two? Hmm. Okay."
Suddenly, they had an ally on the inside. Someone who listened. Who understood the problem.
It was important to take every concern--no matter how silly it seemed--very seriously. They bought flex-i-straws. They got a straight straw. They should not have. I may not know why it's a big deal. Maybe they're in a body cast and have to have flex-i-straws. The point is: they're upset and my job was to resolve that upset more than anything else.
The next secret to customer service turned out to be: find out what the customer wants.
Don't ask point blank. They often don't know. They'll often say things that they know won't happen--and that's when they're still in the state of not believing you'll do anything, so they might as well ask for the moon. So commiserate. Draw what they really want out of them with open-ended questions. It's often surprising how little they want. Often they just want to complain. Or else ... "I-I want a replacement flex-i-straw."
One. Singular.
"How 'bout I send you a whole box?"
"Oh. Really?"
"Sure!"
Over the years I've been amazed at the people I meet in customer service who manage to pour gasoline on simple matters. I'd see the moment where they were supposed to ask, in a concerned voice, brows drawn together, "What happened?"
And then they'd blow it.
... They'd give a canned response straight from the company teleprompter. Ow. Guaranteed to feed the customer's belief no one cares, that they're talking to a faceless machine. (Worst offenders: Indian customer service.)
... They'd get defensive, identifying with the company not the customer, thus feeding right into the customer's worst expectations. I could always tell those from the next cubicle: they started talking and talking at the customer. No, no, no, the customer should be talking, not you! And yep. Pretty soon that customer was talking to the manager. Or worse, they'd hung up, and were now off complaining to their friends.
... There was the dreaded phrase, "I realize you're upset...." Augh. No! That phrase invalidates their complaint by equating it with a neurotic emotional response! Customer: Goes off like a bomb.
... Then there's leaping into action, assuming you know what the customer wants based on their initial flailing reaction. Nooo... that's just the reaction--don't do anything yet. You have to get past that part before you can find out what's really going on. Otherwise they stay angry even when you work hard to solve it. What they say at first usually isn't it. And the CSRs who acted too fast always felt the customers were ungrateful.
In my experience, customers were grateful. Often all I had to do was send them a box of flex-i-straws. Or listen.
Usually, customers just want someone to care. It's not hard to give that.
I worked in customer service for a while and was surprisingly good at it. The big secret of customer service turned out to be: the customers don't expect help.
Oh, sure, they'd like help. They say they want help. But usually when they're angry or upset, they expect opposition.
This made my job very easy. I mean, sure, I had unhappy people on the line. But 90% of it was solved just by listening. "You got a straight straw in your box of flex-i-straws?" Being surprised at the problem. "You're kidding. Really?" If it wasn't clear, asking concerned questions. "Wow. I wonder how that could happen... how many straight straws? One? Two? Hmm. Okay."
Suddenly, they had an ally on the inside. Someone who listened. Who understood the problem.
It was important to take every concern--no matter how silly it seemed--very seriously. They bought flex-i-straws. They got a straight straw. They should not have. I may not know why it's a big deal. Maybe they're in a body cast and have to have flex-i-straws. The point is: they're upset and my job was to resolve that upset more than anything else.
The next secret to customer service turned out to be: find out what the customer wants.
Don't ask point blank. They often don't know. They'll often say things that they know won't happen--and that's when they're still in the state of not believing you'll do anything, so they might as well ask for the moon. So commiserate. Draw what they really want out of them with open-ended questions. It's often surprising how little they want. Often they just want to complain. Or else ... "I-I want a replacement flex-i-straw."
One. Singular.
"How 'bout I send you a whole box?"
"Oh. Really?"
"Sure!"
Over the years I've been amazed at the people I meet in customer service who manage to pour gasoline on simple matters. I'd see the moment where they were supposed to ask, in a concerned voice, brows drawn together, "What happened?"
And then they'd blow it.
... They'd give a canned response straight from the company teleprompter. Ow. Guaranteed to feed the customer's belief no one cares, that they're talking to a faceless machine. (Worst offenders: Indian customer service.)
... They'd get defensive, identifying with the company not the customer, thus feeding right into the customer's worst expectations. I could always tell those from the next cubicle: they started talking and talking at the customer. No, no, no, the customer should be talking, not you! And yep. Pretty soon that customer was talking to the manager. Or worse, they'd hung up, and were now off complaining to their friends.
... There was the dreaded phrase, "I realize you're upset...." Augh. No! That phrase invalidates their complaint by equating it with a neurotic emotional response! Customer: Goes off like a bomb.
... Then there's leaping into action, assuming you know what the customer wants based on their initial flailing reaction. Nooo... that's just the reaction--don't do anything yet. You have to get past that part before you can find out what's really going on. Otherwise they stay angry even when you work hard to solve it. What they say at first usually isn't it. And the CSRs who acted too fast always felt the customers were ungrateful.
In my experience, customers were grateful. Often all I had to do was send them a box of flex-i-straws. Or listen.
Usually, customers just want someone to care. It's not hard to give that.
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I was gobsmacked, and said so.
"You're not seriously going to try and sell me something now, are you?" I said.
There followed a long silence.
"No," he said. "I think I probably won't."
I know they have targets and scripts and all that, but some common sense wouldn't go amiss.
That said if they're stupid enough to offer a customer satisfaction survey when they know you're not satisfied I'd go for it, myself!
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Most of those companies can claim a "98% satisfied customer" rate because the unsatisfied ones don't stick around for the surveys.
However. I never deal with surveys that involve them calling me back. I'm not handing them the number of the phone I'm calling from so they can ask me questions.
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I did my standard dodge: "Do you have shell account access?"
"Shell account? What's that?"
Sigh. It took five minutes to establish that I did *not* mean "access to an account with Shell Oil."
I gave him some keywords and sent him off to speak to his IT people; he came back in a few minutes and said "good news! You *can* install pine on a Vista machine!" *Facepalm.* I don't read pine on *my* machine; I telnet into my ISP's servers and read it there.
He eventually admitted that he had no idea whether they offered shell access, but since none of the IT people nearby had any idea what it was, they probably didn't.
Ahem.
Up there with "wait for the customer to tell you what's wrong" is "know what you're trying to sell... and don't insist that you do have whatever they want." (Honestly. I was waiting for him to say "but this has electrolytes! It's what internet users need!")
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It boggles my mind that companies hire CSRs to represent them & don't impart the simplest skills. When I call to complain or try to get service, the one thing that is virtually guaranteed to make me forgive almost any idiocy is a sincere-sounding, "I'm sorry you're having trouble with ____. I'm going to do my best to help you with that."
Notice that the person hasn't said the company was responsible for or to blame for anything, & hasn't even promised to do anything. They just said, basically, "You're aggravated/disappointed/confused & I'm sorry. I feel responsible for helping you." Really, 19 times out of 20, that takes the piss right out of me. ;-)
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