Why customer service matters – and why it’s about more than business

I think a lot about customer service – some would say too much. But it was National Customer Service Week last week,?so indulge me.

I want to explain why customer service matters. I’ll do this in the form of two stories – one good, one very, very bad.

The good: M&S

It was Christmas time, many years ago. I’d been working, so my husband kindly offered to buy the turkey. So far, so good, but there was one problem. The bird was frozen and needed 24 hours to defrost. Oh, and did I mention it was Christmas Eve?

There was zero chance of the turkey thawing in time, so I nominated myself to sort it out. Straight from work, with two young kids in tow, I lugged the frozen bird in the desperate hope that I could swap it for something that would be ready in time for Christmas.

I was not on my finest form – frazzled, angry at my husband’s lack of regard for time or physics, dealing with two screaming kids and the prospect of a turkeyless Christmas lunch.

But I didn’t have to go to a customer service desk or seek someone out. One of the staff came over. When I explained the situation, she said “wait here”, went to a back room and emerged with the last defrosted turkey in the building.

We exchanged turkeys and that was that – no receipts, no forms, no tills. She’d seen that I was having a bad day and proactively fixed the problem. She’s a manager there now.

The bad: an airline that shall not be named

I was flying to Las Vegas. This involved driving from Belfast to Dublin and flying to London Heathrow in the wee hours for a very early flight across the Atlantic. Well, that was the plan anyway.

The first flight from Heathrow was cancelled. Then the second, then the third. This meant hours and hours of waiting. Frustrating as that is, I can accept it. Things go wrong and it’s often nobody’s fault. The question is how you deal with it – and that’s where the problem was.

They told us nothing. No communication, no explanation. Then, things went from bad to worse. We were going to miss our hotel check-in, so I asked a member of the team what would happen.

The hotel was part of the airline’s package. Would they tell the hotel? Would we keep our room? ?Her response shocked me: “that’s not my problem.”

I didn’t know how to react. As it happens, it was her problem. It was her airline’s package after all. But that wasn’t the worst thing about it. The worst thing was the lack of empathy. Her colleagues sorted everything eventually – but on the basis of that one exchange, I will never use the airline again.

The moral of the story

Why have I shared these stories? Because they make the same point in different ways. I will continue to go back to that M&S, and I’ll never use that airline again. Service can create (and destroy) loyalty. But I honestly believe it’s more important than that.

Customer service is about empathy. It doesn’t matter whether the customer is spending thousands or pennies. What matters is that you’re talking to a human being. That is reason enough to treat them with respect and compassion.

It’s all about empathy

At Barclay, we train our team in empathy. I could have started the blog with that. But what I hope is that I’ve illustrated is why empathy is so important.

Everyone who talks to customers has a customer service role. And it’s crucial that they recognise how customers feel when they talk to them. That’s how we solve problems, manage expectations, reassure, and whatever else is needed to make people feel good about interactions with us.

Of course, there are good business reasons for good service. But what I hope I’ve illustrated is that it’s important for deeper reasons – empathy matters because people matter.