Have you ever had an extremely positive customer service experience? How about a totally terrible one? I’ve
had one of each lately and the contrast actually proved to be a good case study in leadership. Both experiences were a result
of a situation gone bad, but the way in which the bad situations were handled
was completely different.
The
positive experience came from the Apple Store in purchasing a new laptop and
transitioning my files from my old PC laptop to the new MacBook Air. I left both laptops to transition the files,
but when I picked it up and they began to walk me through checking to make sure
everything was there, it was obvious several things were wrong. Here are the things they did that
demonstrated positive customer service:
1.
Stephen introduced himself from the get-go (before we even know
something was wrong) and asked me my name (he remembered it too).
2.
They have a process to check to make sure everything is there. They don’t want to send a customer home only
to find out they need to bring their computers back because something is not
right.
3.
When I began to freak out that none of my emails transferred over, he
reassured me it could be fixed.
4.
He stayed after the closing of the store to try to get all the files
transferred. When it was obvious that it was going to take a while, he checked my computer in said he could have
it ready before Noon the next day.
5.
He called at 10:00 am the next morning and said the transfer was
successful and I could come pick it up (2 hours before he guaranteed it).
6.
He recognized me when I walked in the door and even though he wasn’t
assigned to cover data transfers that day, he got my computer and checked to
make everything was how I needed it.
7.
He couldn’t transfer any financial data in my Quickbooks (which is
understandable) but he walked me through how to do it step-by-step.
And
now the bad experience. It came from an
appliance store. My husband and I bought
new kitchen appliances because our oven died.
We paid for the new set on March 5th. It’s mid-May and we still don’t have all our
appliances. We are obviously beyond
upset about this, but here are some things they did to illustrate poor customer
service.
1.
We were told our appliances would be in in a week when we ordered them. Here were are 2 months later…
2.
They told us they would call when the appliances were in to schedule a
delivery time. Two weeks after we paid
for it, we had not heard from them. So
we had to call them. This
was the first of about ten calls to check on our appliances when they told us
they would call us every time. They
have not called us once to update us on the status of the purchase.
3.
We have been lied to at least five times about when our appliances
will be in and/or when something that is in will be delivered
4.
We talk to different people each time and get a different story each
time.
So
what is the leadership lesson in all of this?
I think there are several. I
actually learned a few from Stephen’s (at the Apple Store) manager, Mark, when
I sought him out to brag on Stephen.
1.
Under promise and over deliver.
Don’t tell someone you can have something done by a certain date or time
when you are unsure if you can. People
want you to be honest with them and they don’t want to hear excuses when you
aren’t.
2.
Train people on customer service and put processes in place that help
front-line staff deliver positive experiences to customers instead of prohibit
them. For example, Apple allows their
front-line sales and service people to make most decisions on their own when it
comes to meeting customer needs and they are trained on how to best make those
decisions.
3.
Consistency in customer service is important. This could mean assigning particular
customers to particular employees to follow the case from beginning to end, or
it could mean having a thorough process in place to record and communicate
customer cases to all staff members that may deal with a particular customer.
4.
Selection processes should check for behavioral based customer service
orientation. They don’t put the techies
with no people skills up front to help customers at the Apple Store, they are
in the back fixing computers and transferring data.
5.
That said, those that are customer service oriented do still have to
know the product and know it well.
Stephen was a techie, he could answer any computer question I had, but
he was also customer service oriented.
All
in all customer service is a people thing, but is also a process thing. You have to have the tools in place to
support positive customer service and you have to hire and support people who
value positive customer service.
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