Time for "Customer Behaviour" Charters?

I am interested in your opinion on an idea that I think can make a positive difference to our service interactions.

Many companies have Customer Service Charters which describe what customers can expect from the service provider.

What impact would it have if companies developed helpful customer behaviour guidelines? These guidelines would describe customer behaviours that would be most helpful for the service interaction..

We could call them “Just be Nice” Charters.

Let me explain.

Customer-facing staff are taught to “be nice to customers”.

And, on the other side of the coin, we as customers have been led to believe that we have a right to be given good customer. We want to be treated nicely, and efficiently.

This is a reasonable expectation.

But what if we were to add something to this thinking? Something that would help customers receive better service? more consistently.

What impact would there be on service interactions if there were guidelines for customers on how to be nice to service employees?

Bland customer, bland customer service

I was waiting in line at a department store cashier counter. I watched the interaction between the customer in front of me and the cashier.

Let me give you the view through the eyes of the cashier.

“The customer did not acknowledge me. He did not look at me. The customer was not unfriendly. I was just a “nothing” to him.”

The result was that the customer got “okay” customer service. It was just a transaction.

The customer got back what he gave.

You may say that the cashier should have greeted, smiled etc. But, hey, cashiers are human too!

In this case, the customer was bland, and so was the service that he received.

This is a scene that plays out most often right around the world.

Make their day – and you may be rewarded

I needed a caffeine fix.

I walked into a coffee shop,? looked with a smile at the team member taking orders, and gave him an energetic greeting,? “Hi! How’s your day been?”

His reply was a lower energy, “Not bad.”

Looking at and pointing to the two baristas behind the coffee machine, I said, “Not bad? Have these two guys been giving you a hard time?”

He laughed. So did they.

I looked at the coffee machine and said, “Does this coffee machine make large cappuccinos?’ The team member looked at me, smiled and said yes.

As I was getting ready to pay,? he said, “Do you want a discount?” Before I could answer,? “Yes’, he gave me the discount.

I asked him, “Why did you give me a discount?”? to which he gave me a surprising answer.

He said, “Because you made my day.”

My interaction with this team member lasted for just a few seconds. And yet, it created a memorable experience for both of us.

Let’s decode. I was nice to the person behind the counter. It started with me, the customer.

And he was nice back to me.

All that it took was for me to be nice to the service provider.

I consider myself to be a “nice” customer. I look at people who serve me in restaurants rather than speak to the menu. I greet service staff with a smile.

I have been rewarded in a number of ways – customer service staff are nice to me, they do that little bit extra to help me, and, once in a while, I get a discount.

Being nice when things go wrong

There are times when things don’t go in the direction that customers would like. They get upset.

It is not uncommon for customers to be rude to customer service personnel, to raise their voices and even to shout at them.

This is stressful for the service person who is there to help the unhappy customer.

Having the title of “customer” does not automatically confer the right to be rude and disrespectful to the people who are here to help us.

In fact, being rude to customer service personnel is downright unfair!

I recently had a very poor customer experience with a financial institution in Australia. My repeated, increasingly frustrating interactions were via phone or email.

On each of the four occasions that I spoke with a call centre operator, I started by saying to the contact centre person that this is not about him or her. I did want them to understand my feelings, but did not raise my voice or abuse these people. I was frustrated with the organisation, and not with them personally.

Of course, I could have created increasingly ugly scenes on each call. But it would not have helped solve the issue at hand. And it certainly would have depleted the mental health of the contact centre service people, and of mine.

Time to develop Just Be Nice Charters

Imagine the impact if ?companies develop “Just Be Nice Charters” that focus on the behaviours of both the person serving, and the person being served.

I like the simple concept of JBN – Just Be Nice. I first came across in the writings of Robin Sharma.

A charter might read as follows…

We are here to help you. Here are some simple guidelines to create happy experiences – for both you, the customer, and the person serving? you.

1.????? We will be friendly – and hope that? you can be friendly to us.

2.????? We will treat you with respect – and hope that you will do the same for us.

3.????? Let’s use kind words with each other.

4.????? If things go wrong, we are here to make it right. Let’s stay calm and deal with the issues so that we can do this.

5.????? We will end each interaction by thanking you – and hope that you do the same for the person serving? you.

We are all expert customers – we get lots of practice at it every week.

And, we all want to live in a positive world.

Let’s make that world just a little bit more positive and joyful through a mindset of “Just Be Nice” between us and the people that are here to serve us.

Let’s enrich the idea.

Let me know what you think.