Your Top Customer Service Questions Answered By An Expert

by Micah Solomon (that’s me). Originally published in Forbes.com. The author is a consultant, influencer, keynote speaker, and trainer in customer service, customer experience, customer service culture, and hospitality. (Here are three ways to reach Micah:email, chat, web).

Being a customer service consultant, keynote speaker, author, and whatnot, I find that people approach me with questions about customer service at the unlikeliest times. The other morning, some guy sidled up to me in the men’s room and started firing off follow-up questions to a customer service keynote speech I'd just delivered. (Despite the awkward setting, I did my best to oblige.)

I get questions on the plane as well–from seatmates and flight attendants alike–and even once at a doctor’s appointment (I consult on patient experience in healthcare as well, so I guess that doctor considered my exam to be a chance to brush up).

So for this article, I’ve compiled five of the more interesting questions on customer service that have been posed to me in such contexts, or sent to me via email. (If you have questions you’d like to have answered, let me know and I’ll get them in the next round.)

Dear Micah: I manage a large customer support team, and I guess I was born to let things roll off my back.  But my employees can’t seem to do the same; they get so defensive when customers complain that they invariably make the situation worse.  Do you know why they take it so personally?–Confused in Cambridge

Dear Confused: Your employees use defensive language and defensive responses because of what they’ve seen modeled growing up (as kids, they may have grown up watching one parent react to the other with defensive and accusatory retorts) and how they’ve learned to react in their personal lives growing up (it’s pretty habitual for all of us, when a sibling accuses us of something such as breaking a toy, to snap back with, “I did not!”)

To break defensive habits, employees need to be told and shown what’s expected of them at work.  In my customer service training workshops, we work on replacing defensive words and phrases with non-inflammatory alternatives, accomplishing this through information, modeling and role-playing.  Beyond that, you can take the approach that I do when working with customer service consulting clients: I help them to  develop their own “language lexicon” with discouraged phrases and phrases that can be used as substitutes.  

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Dear Micah: When I see my employees making mistakes in how they work with the public, I’m never sure when the right time is to correct them. Should I say something right away? Should I wait for a regularly scheduled check-in?–Tongue-tied in Tel Aviv

Dear Tongue-tied: Immediate correction is the way to go.  If you wait, neither you nor the offending employee will remember the incident clearly. (Important: You never want to correct an employee within earshot or eyesight of a customer. Patrick O’Connell, the legendary proprietor of the double Five Star Inn at Little Washington, tells me that he’ll make use of a hidden elevator shaft right off the dining room for employee corrections, to ensure they’re not audible or visible to customers.)

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Dear Micah: We’ve had customer service trainers come in in the past–not, you by the way–and it’s hard to sustain our momentum after the hullabaloo is over. Can anything be done to give staying power to customer service principles?–Frustrated in Fresno

Dear Frustrated: The value of customer service training is enhanced if it’s part of an overall customer service initiative that includes  one or more sustaining rituals, to keep the key points of the training alive.  One such ritual that I recommend to customer service consulting and training clients is what I call the “Customer Service Minute.” (In spite of its name, it will more likely require five minutes, but keep it under ten.) The Customer Service Minute happens at the beginning of each workday (or shift, if you run more than one) and involves employees—all employees—who gather in small groups to kick off the workday, or shift, on the right note.

Each Customer Service Minute should be devoted to a single aspect of providing great service. This typically includes the sharing of examples that illustrate that single service principle as well as going over helpful techniques, pitfalls encountered, and challenges overcome. Note: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has followed this procedure for over 30 years, every single shift, to keep the entire global organization on the same page when it comes to service excellence.

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Dear Micah: At the company I just joined, the so-called “best practice” for receptionists requires them to give every incoming caller the third degree, before letting a call get through:

“What is your name?”

“Who are you with?”

“What is the nature of your call?”

“Who did you vote for last election?”

(Okay, I made up that last one, but it’s not too far from our reality.) If I were a customer–or, worse, a prospect–this would really turn me off. Your thoughts please. –3rdDegree in Thurmont.

Dear 3rdDegree, Wow, you’re totally right: that so-called best practice that requires receptionists to aggressively screen calls needs to be revised.  I’m not in favor of an business screening calls unless it’s absolutely necessary; screening is a quick way to turn off customers and to repel prospective customers to boot.  (I cover this in my first book, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit, co-authored with Leonardo Inghilleri,  from which I’m going to quote here.) There is no faster way to alienate potential customers (and business allies) than to make them run a gauntlet before you’ll speak with them. If someone wants to talk with you, let them. If you’re not the right person, you can quickly and politely transfer the call onward.

What if you do need to screen your calls? (Maybe you’re CEO Jeff Bezos at Amazon.com, and potential vendors won’t give you a moment’s peace, even though you’re the wrong person for them to speak with.) At least create a discreet call-screening protocol that protects the feelings of callers:

 Bad Screening:‘‘Who’s calling?’’

‘‘Does Mr. Bezos know why you are calling?’’

‘‘Who are you with?’’

‘‘What is the nature and purpose of your call?’’

Good Screening:‘‘Absolutely. May I tell Mr. Bezos who is calling?’’

(In reality, the caller is very unlikely to get Jeff. But hackles aren’t raised; feelings are spared. There’s no feeling of a test that must be passed before getting through—even if, in fact, there is.)

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Dear Micah, why has customer service gotten so much worse these days?–Cranky in Colorado

Dear Cranky: I bet this complaint was popular in caveman days as well. By most objective measures, customer service has improved.  The reason you feel differently may include:

• Customer expectations have become elevated as well.
• Generalization based on small sample size: one surly clerk, one long hold time, one grudging greeting can be enough to paint everything with a broad, nasty-colored brush for some of us.

For a business, this is a good reminder that providing consistent service is of essence. And that, since no company that works with the public will ever be perfect, striving for a personal connection with customers is essential, as it will likely result in them cutting you more slack when mishaps occur and you fail to live up to their expectations.

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Reminder: If you have questions you’d like to ask, let me know and I’ll get them in the next round.

[Originally published in Forbes.com. The author, Micah Solomon, is a customer service consultant, best selling author, influencer, keynote speaker, and trainer in customer service, customer experience, customer service culture, and hospitality. (Here are three ways to reach Micah:email, chat, web).]