Customer Service is Dead!

Customer Service is dead. Well maybe not dead, but it’s definitely on life support. But then again, maybe it’s just me. I tend to believe that if I’m paying money for a product or service, then it’s a reasonable expectation that some level of customer service would be included, correct?

I have many personal examples to bolster this belief, but I’ll just touch on my most recent example of (or lack of) customer service. I won’t name names, but it’s my prior internet service provider (it rhymes with “dead-last”) who, after waiting for the better part of an hour to speak to a phone rep actually couldn't find my account and when they did find it, had it populated with incorrect information, from my name to the package I was paying for. After another hour running in circles, I finally cancelled my service and went with a competitor who (knock wood), is cheaper, faster and more customer-savvy.

 In any case, this post wasn’t written to bash a particular company or product. It’s just that after having worked in a number of “customer-focused” organizations throughout my career as well as having been a customer of these companies (and others) it stands out that some organizations are paragons of world class service and others exhibit customer service so horrible you’d rather stab yourself in the ear with a dull pencil than have to talk to customer service.

And let’s be clear-NO organization is mistake-free. The difference between those that give great service versus those that don’t is how they manage issues once they are brought to their attention. But why is it that so few companies do this?

 It comes down to 6 major factors, outlined below: 

• Empowerment (I’m sorry sir, but the “System” won’t let me change this)
• Lack of Training (knowledge of systems, products and procedures)
• Poor Pay and lack of opportunities within the company (Loyalty to the Organization)
• Call center offshoring (and the unique inherent issues that come with this)
• Not a priority for the organization (Not reflected in the DNA of the company in how they treat external AND internal customers (staff))
• Too expensive/No return on investment (short term focus)

In short, the organizations that offer great customer service have it “Baked-In”. It’s not an afterthought or something that is added after you find yourself on the “Worst –of” lists year after year. It has to be an area of focus throughout the organization, not just the customer service department.

 In the following weeks I’ll run through each of these issues in detail in the hope that this stimulates conversation and debate. We’ll start with empowerment later this week and I’ll update with a new factor every few days.