Comments on: Customer Service

By: 10 More Working Days Till Blogging Career Sunday Links | Credit Card Information

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:32:36 +0000

[...] about customer service is always interesting!� Let’s see what Four Pillars have to say about [...]

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:26:32 +0000

Randall: Sorry, your comment ended up in our spam queue.

I questions sometimes at what point companies will fire employees. Some stores have trouble getting staff these days, so they’ll definitely allow a lot more leeway before someone is let go…

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:14:40 +0000

Ron: I think you’re right that that’s the range of customer reactions, and it sounds like you handle each of them in the right way!

Nobleea: TMW made an insightful comment that the financial industry preys on inertia. I think many modern businesses count on it being too much trouble for customers to leave.

Al: I think that’s a reasonable reaction. I do the same thing when I have discretion to provide a range a solutions: if they’re going to be unpleasant, I’m not going to reward that behaviour.

Elasticlad: Absolutely, there are nightmare customers who definitely take advantage of companies that want to offer “bend over backwards” customer service.

By: Elasticlad

Elasticlad — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:08:40 +0000

I think in most cases the customer is absolutely right.

Most people have average requests that are easily handled. (Could I have extra pickles on that? Where do you keep that cat food?)

It’s the extreme requests, the ludicrous requests that tempt people who have to deal with customers to get their backs up.

We know who they are. These are people who know that you work for Giant Faceless Chain Store that has a company policy of “The Customer is Always Right.” They know, in most cases, your manager wants you to do whatever it takes to make them happy. Because Giant Faceless Chain Store wants to have a reputation as a store that looks after its clients, no matter what the cost.

So these custoemrs push the boundaries, they raise their voices, they make unreasonable requests and they do it knowing full well that you will try to accomodate them.

Thus, their bad behaviour becomes justified.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:28:13 +0000

I’ve been on both sides of the customer service equation. The best bet if you need good customer service is to get the customer service rep as an ally. When I was working at Canadian Tire, if the customer attacked, I defended. In other words, they weren’t getting what they wanted if I had anything to say about it. On the other hand, I could usually work the managers pretty well when the customers were friendly and wanted to work with me to solve the problem. I call it ‘active karma’.

By: nobleea

nobleea — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:03:32 +0000

I’m sure there’s an 80/20 rule in there somewhere. Where the 80% are the customers who can be satisfied easily, or are too lazy to switch stores.

By: Ron@TheWisdomJournal

Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:39:48 +0000

In my experience, when things go wrong, there are three types of customers.
1. The one who tries to reach an agreement with you and wants to work things out.
2. The one who will try to get you to give away the store to them to “make them happy.”
3. The one who cannot be made happy no matter what happens.

The key is to build a relationship with #1 – they can become your greatest fan and loudest proponent.

Be firm and stand your ground with #2 – do what’s reasonable, but no more.

Get #3 out of the store somehow …

By: Randall at CreditWithdrawal

Randall at CreditWithdrawal — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:33:15 +0000

It’s hard for businesses to balance good customers with bad sometimes. A bad customer can cause any number of ‘other’ customers to stop coming to the business by spreading bad rumors.

It’s not usually the person on the front line that cares about this, as you’re right that they don’t get paid on a per-customer basis. But if they treat customers too badly, and someone complains, it can definitely cost them their jobs.