Why Customer Service is About More than Customer Service

There is a commercial that runs for Comcast in my area with a customer service representative stating that the company is shifting towards customer service. It's a horrible commercial, seeing as it is stating pretty clearly that Comcast didn't care about it's customers until fairly recently, likely as they were filming this commercial. I understand they want to show they are improving, but the message is muddled by the fact that they're tacitly admitting to a failure they've been denying for years.

Customer Service is so much more than just customer service. It is a brand promise that has to be integrated in how you approach a customer. Whether it's B2B or B2C the customer has to understand up-front what you intend to show them from a customer relations standpoint. The baseline for this support expectation is how your company performs when things are at their worst, and the implications for your brand are wide-spread.

Recently my role has involved much more air travel than I've experienced in the past. Everyone has their horror stories about air travel, and I've learned a few lessons along the way. (If your flight gets cancelled immediately get on every standby list you can for the next flights out......   Don't wait until everyone else has filled the standby lists.) Weather and technical issues are always going to exist in a travel system that is dependent on technology and the cooperation of Mother Nature, so I understand that air travel is not a perfect system. However, the response to a crisis is well within the control of the airlines.

Several weeks ago weather cancelled an afternoon flight out of the east coast I was depending on to get home. It also cancelled a fair number of other flights in and out of that airport, so the disruption wasn't singular to me. I won't name the airline in question, as that's not my purpose here. However, I noticed several troubling occurrences and interactions from the airline employees in direct with customers affected by these cancellations. 

"Been There, Done That"

The most troubling interactions I witnessed, and they occurred repeatedly over a 17 hour period, was that these customer-facing employees were used to these kinds of issues. You would think that would be a good thing, as they understood what to do and how to efficiently move through their process. However, during times of crisis, which 300 people standing in line at a single customer service counter counts as a crisis to me,  it's not just what you do but how you do it that matters.

As I approached the desk after waiting 2 hours in line I asked passively how I was going to get home. I prefaced my request with "I know this must be a tough day for you, so thank you for helping me." To my shock, the CSR stated "This isn't a bad day." That was it. As I watched the other CSR's in the station emotionlessly explain to the throng in line that they could not get onto another plane today and that they would not pay for hotel rooms for the inconvenience, I realized these employees were completely apathetic to the plight of their customers. They were doing their job efficiently so that they could move through the line, and that was their only goal.

What this portrays is a company that expects these things to happen and wants to minimize the inconvenience. However, their CSRs are so dispassionate and have become so used to inconvenienced customers asking them for special  treatment they have lost the compassion to understand the plight of those customers. If customer service isn't about empathizing with the customer in both good and bad situations what is the purpose of customer service? Yes, efficiency matters. However, how you are efficient matters as well.

It also matters that you show an overall concern for the customers who's money you are taking. With 300 people in a customer service queue you would expect an "all-hands on deck" process to engage. Instead, as the line grew the number of customer service representatives at the desk shrank. It started with 5, but quickly shrank to 2. There might have been good reasons why this happened, like union rules or planned breaks. However, it "appears" really bad to the 299th person in line. It also frustrates the customers in line that still  believe they may be able to get on a flight that day that are running out of time to get on that flight.

"Not My Job"

I've had several interactions with the same airline where I asked for simple information and was greeted with the impression that I was a mere annoyance for asking them to assist. For example, during a delayed flight I asked a gate service representative what the process is if I missed my connecting flight. Instead of directing me to someone who could answer my question I was given the response "I can't help you with that." That employee then looked down at their computer and refused to make eye contact with me. They couldn't help, but they also didn't want to help. This is a core sign of a customer service issue.

Realize that it doesn't always happen this way. On a night that many of us were sleeping in the airport due to a cancelled flight I saw one airline representative that was only responsible for ticketing come around with blankets and asking if people needed pillows. She wasn't asked to do this: She cared enough about the reputation of her company and the comfort of the inconvenienced customers to do something about it.  I've seen where people in line waiting for TSA screening that would otherwise miss their domestic connecting flights were rushed to the front of the line by airline reps wanting to ensure that the experience ended positively instead of having a customer service nightmare.  These proactive steps by employees not in charge of these activities speaks well for that business.

I've also seen employees fail at times of crisis. At a gate just yesterday waiting for a flight home I saw an employee sit and read email in a chair beside the service desk while 10 people waited for boarding passes to be re-printed. The flight was going to be delayed, but nobody knew it because the airline hadn't notified any of the passengers. The employee knew it, and because of that wasn't going to open the service desk until 1 hour before the flight was set to take off. Simply stating "I am sorry, but we're experiencing a slight delay and we will open this gate shortly" would have been enough for people to understand that the line wasn't going to move any time soon.  Instead, that employee read her email while 10 people mumbled about poor customer service.

When employees go above and beyond it doesn't anyways get recognized right away. Often a building of events like this leads to a brand awareness that adds credibility to a company while ensuring repeat business. However, a single failure to show the slightest bit of compassion during confusing and difficult times will last as a stain on the branding of a business for a long period of time.  Once again, it's about how you perform in a crisis that matters to your brand, not just how quickly you respond. 

"The Roller Bag Disaster"

One of the other major customer service issues I've seen in my new travel routine is how poorly airlines manage luggage. If you fly a domestic carrier that has a fee for checking bags you've seen this happen over and over. Someone tries to bring a bag that is way too big for the overhead bin onto a plane and the entire boarding process becomes a fiasco. With Southwest Airlines being the notable exception, there is some sort of fee for just about every airline to check a bag. Because of this, EVERYONE attempts to bring as much carryon luggage as they can to avoid these fees. The results are as expected, and they hurt the brand of those airlines as they occur.

In the race to the bottom of the price war for airline tickets a new dynamic has emerged. Everyone at the ticket counter and the gate is repeatedly cautioned about ensuring they meet the requirements for their carryon luggage before they get on the plane. However, nobody does. It's almost comical to see these giant roller bags being wheeled down the jetway that you know aren't going to fit. Why do people do this? Because if it doesn't fit they will check it for free on the jetway. Why pay a $55 bag fee when you can inconvenience a planeload of people by trying to cram your 7-day luggage into a spot meant for 3-day luggage? And when it doesn't fit, doing the walk of shame against the flow of the rest of the plane's occupants is worth the savings. Have two or three of these luggage over-loaders on  a flight and it's guaranteed to be delayed.

Yet the airlines do not police this at all. They have rigs that allow you to verify you meet the proper measurements for the plane you're boarding, but I have yet to see a single person instructed to use them. Instead, everyone is boarded as quickly as possible in an attempt to meet a deadline to leave the gate in complete ignorance of all the possible points of failure being rolled down the jetway. If a study was conducted on the major reasons airplanes leave the gate late "luggage" would be up there with weather and technical issues as the top three reasons.  And every delay that starts early in the morning has a compounding effect on every other plane flying in the system that day. There is a 30 second gap between planned take offs at most major airports. If your plane is a minute late to it's slot every other plane taking off on that runway is now late as well. That plane is also potentially late to it's next stop, as is all the other planes in line.  By the 10PM hour most flights throughout the US are in some way delayed simply by the fact that their planes were delayed somewhere else in the system.

Airlines are Just an Example

There is more to this post than just raising concerns about the airlines. Every day customers are engaging with the employees of your company, and those employees have a choice to make. In some companies that choice is made for them: The customer is their sole responsibility and they should treat them that way. Other companies allow their employees to use their discretion, with mixed results. Some companies tell you in their TV ads that they just figured out that customer service is important within the last few months, mostly because of bad press or a viral video showing how poor they are at it.

The choice you make affects your company's bottom line. Too many businesses can compete on price these days for price to be your major brand promise. Once you settle on  price as your dominate trait someone (like Amazon) will hurt that brand promise. Customer service is a cheap and effective way to build loyalty with customers, and can actually help avoid the price race to the bottom. When ever I can I fly Southwest simply because everyone there seems to  enjoy their job, and it's infectious. They are having fun, and it makes me feel happier. I don't care if Southwest is slightly more expensive than a few other airlines I have flown recently: I prefer them because they "get the customer". It's not just a slogan on the wall. Their employees live it.

So what will your employees do in a crisis? Will they live customer service, or will they become emotionless drones? It's at these times your brand can take the biggest hit or show you can rise to the occasion. Have you checked your customer service brand recently?