Comments on: Why Customer Service Just Plain Sucks http://jtpedersen.net/2010/02/02/why-customer-service-just-plain-sucks/ Providing Thoughtful Business Leadership Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:06:31 +0000 hourly 1 By: John Ferrara http://jtpedersen.net/2010/02/02/why-customer-service-just-plain-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-990 John Ferrara Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:41:17 +0000 http://jtpedersen.net/?p=1673#comment-990 Hey folks! Good customer service isn't a mystery and it should be the norm, not the exception. In my past lives in consumer goods companies the focus became making the "numbers" the higher up you moved in the corporate chain. I always fought for the latitude to abrogate policy and delight the customer when it was appropriate. In almost all cases we were able to prove the result was a positive in sales, profit or just lack of churn. To Tonya's point, I don't think it should be a "clear your sinus" event when you get good customer service as more and more companies are realizing it is a marketing tool that provides a clear ROI for them. Hey folks! Good customer service isn’t a mystery and it should be the norm, not the exception. In my past lives in consumer goods companies the focus became making the “numbers” the higher up you moved in the corporate chain. I always fought for the latitude to abrogate policy and delight the customer when it was appropriate. In almost all cases we were able to prove the result was a positive in sales, profit or just lack of churn.
To Tonya’s point, I don’t think it should be a “clear your sinus” event when you get good customer service as more and more companies are realizing it is a marketing tool that provides a clear ROI for them.

]]> By: JT http://jtpedersen.net/2010/02/02/why-customer-service-just-plain-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-984 JT Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:56:26 +0000 http://jtpedersen.net/?p=1673#comment-984 Hello Chuck, Good point, glad you brought it up. Makes me reflect on a point earlier in life as a support tech. I worked for a smaller, very customer-oriented company. After being acquired by a larger firm, metrics slowly worked their way into our lives. Measuring, reporting, justifying. Customer service, at times, seemed to become a 'problem mitigation' activity more than a customer <em>service </em>activity. Cheers! Hello Chuck,

Good point, glad you brought it up.

Makes me reflect on a point earlier in life as a support tech. I worked for a smaller, very customer-oriented company. After being acquired by a larger firm, metrics slowly worked their way into our lives. Measuring, reporting, justifying. Customer service, at times, seemed to become a ‘problem mitigation’ activity more than a customer service activity.

Cheers!

]]> By: Chuck van der Linden http://jtpedersen.net/2010/02/02/why-customer-service-just-plain-sucks/comment-page-1/#comment-983 Chuck van der Linden Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:43:30 +0000 http://jtpedersen.net/?p=1673#comment-983 been there and got 7 years plus worth of shirts. But often it was hard, because being focused on truly meeting the customer's needs and solving their problems resulted in 'the wrong numbers' for all of the things your managers used to judge your 'performance' Longer calls, fewer calls per day, etc. In fact the only number that looked 'good' if it was ever considered was 'did they have to call back again regarding the same issue'. IMHO most of the people who get jobs in support truly WANT to help the customer But then they come up against policies and goals (short calls, taking lots of calls per day) that create incentives to just 'get rid' of the caller as rapidly as possible without regard to if their issue is resolved. And these reps start to resent the customers who have tough or tricky problems, or can't explain what they want very well, and thus cause their 'numbers' to suffer. This causes people to get jaded or burn out, and just punch the clock. It's not the people on the phone that have become the death of good support, but the people managing them that are to blame. Those places that have good support usually manage to a different standard. The numbers they care about are 'problems solved' and 'delighted customers' and they empower their people to do what's needed to solve the customer's problems without silly statistics like call length and calls per hour. been there and got 7 years plus worth of shirts. But often it was hard, because being focused on truly meeting the customer’s needs and solving their problems resulted in ‘the wrong numbers’ for all of the things your managers used to judge your ‘performance’ Longer calls, fewer calls per day, etc. In fact the only number that looked ‘good’ if it was ever considered was ‘did they have to call back again regarding the same issue’.

IMHO most of the people who get jobs in support truly WANT to help the customer But then they come up against policies and goals (short calls, taking lots of calls per day) that create incentives to just ‘get rid’ of the caller as rapidly as possible without regard to if their issue is resolved. And these reps start to resent the customers who have tough or tricky problems, or can’t explain what they want very well, and thus cause their ‘numbers’ to suffer. This causes people to get jaded or burn out, and just punch the clock.

It’s not the people on the phone that have become the death of good support, but the people managing them that are to blame.

Those places that have good support usually manage to a different standard. The numbers they care about are ‘problems solved’ and ‘delighted customers’ and they empower their people to do what’s needed to solve the customer’s problems without silly statistics like call length and calls per hour.

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