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Starting over with customer service

Written by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: I've been writing a lot about this topic lately and thinking about it more. I have a radical proposal for you, but it takes a few paragraphs, so I hope you'll bear with me.

Starting over with customer service

I've been writing a lot about this topic lately and thinking about it more. I have a radical proposal for you, but it takes a few paragraphs, so I hope you'll bear with me.

Customer service is broken. Not just because of bad management, though we have plenty of that to go around. Customer service is broken for three reasons:

1. The internet has taught us to demand everything immediately (and perfect). As a result, we expect that every single time we pick up the phone or deal with someone in a retail setting, we'll be dealing with the Senior Vice President of Customer Satisfaction, the head of accounting and the chief of quality control, all at the same time. We expect instant results and undivided attention.

2. The rapid proliferation of choice has taught us to demand that everything should be cheap. As a result, we won't pay extra for superior service, which means companies need to hire cheap.

3. The availability of blogs and other public histories means that it is harder than ever to treat different customers differently. Word gets out.

As a result of these three inexorable trends, companies are on defense. They are forced to add a new layer to their pyramid, and yes, it's on the bottom. This layer consists of lots and lots of people, the cheapest the company can find. These folks are ill-trained, poorly supported and under lots of pressure. There is a lot of turnover (what a surprise) and most are working with nothing more than a simple manual and a lot of metrics.

No wonder customer service is so bad.

Well, one path is to yell louder at the companies, who will yell louder at their staffs.

Another path is to blow it up and start over.

I think the single factor that is killing this process and that is under the company's control is this: the desire to perform all customer service in real time.

In fact, most customer service can be done quite well overnight. You don't like your cell phone bill? (I get a lot of mail about this one). If you knew it was going to be handled properly, you'd have no trouble waiting a few days. Your airline ticket from a trip last week was messed up? Same thing.

Given the choice between amazing, guaranteed service with a one day wait or interminable waits on hold with people who can't really help you right now... well, the choice is pretty easy.

Imagine what happens when we take advantage of the asynchronous nature of this sort of support.

There's still a cadre of people answering the phone, but they are trained to do exactly two things. 1. Make it really clear to the caller that there is a problem, that the caller deserves great service and that things will be dealt with, and 2. Get every single relevant piece of information.

This isn't hard to train for. But yes, it needs and deserves training.

Now, the problem goes into a system (good news on this in a moment). And the problem works its way up the pyramid. Each person who touches it either takes responsibility for solving it thoroughly and completely or passes it up the heirarchy. Any problem not solved within 20 hours goes to some senior level executive who gets it solved or gets fired. (I'm serious).

At the end of the month, there's an easy trail to follow. You can see who solved how many problems. You can see who is passing the buck when they should be grabbing it. You can identify the delighted customers and what delighted them.

And because it turns out to be far more efficient, it's actually cheaper. Which means companies can put better staff on the problems and pull even farther ahead of their competition.

As I see it, there are three things that have to happen for this to work.

1. The frontline staff have to be really good at making this program clear and at gathering the data. They ought to offer the caller a realtime option, but only when it's clear that this offers a significant benefit to the caller.

2. There needs to be cheap and effective software that lets someone start using this without a lot of custom programming. I've found one alternative,(even though they don't actually market it for this use) and I bet there are others. It really works. It's not like me to recommend a commercial product specifically like this, but I'm talking about Fogbugz because I think they've accidentally revolutionized a huge piece of management. What the software does is allow exactly one person at a time to 'own' a piece of a project, a bug, an issue. That person either solves it or pass it off. And the entire process is tracked and timestamped and tickled, so absolutely nothing is permitted to languish.

3. The company can't use the diminished pressure that asynchronous support delivers as a copout to do less. Instead, they have to use it as an opportunity to be overwhelmingly spectacular. Use the money they save to potlach their customers.

If you try it, let me know how it's working for you.

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Article Tags: accounting, bad management, cell phone bill, customer satisfaction, customer service, desire, histories, mail, metrics, paragraphs, pyramid, quality control, radical proposal, rapid proliferation, real time, senior vice president, staffs, superior service, turnover, undivided attention



Related Forum Posts
Which major company does a good job with customer service? - Like many entrepreneurs I have run into major customer service problems with some of the large companies - having to spend an hour on the phone, talking to 4 different people and repeating my problem again to each one. As a result I try to work with smaller companies when I can because I know I will get better service. Do you have any stories of a big company that has got it right and does a great job with their customer service?
Re: How do you create the WOW factor in business? - I'm usually "wowed" by exceptional customer service at retailers by specific customer service employees. It's a sure way to win my repeat business and referral to family/friends.
Starting A Business - go get a customer! you can have a great idea but if you don't have a customer you'll never be successful. Build a product / service around someone who will pay you for what you can offer! It's the best way to build a business.
Re: Should bad tippers be exposed on Social Media? - I agree with you GT and Evan, A tip as far as I understand it is given according to the service received and if a customer is unhappy with the service they should be entitled to not leave a tip. If it was really bad then a complaint should be made to management. If the server is unhappy that there is no tip, maybe they should consider the kind of service they are giving to customers but under no circumstances should these things ever be broadcast on a social service or any public format for that matter. MichelleJ
Company services - Hi, In addition of not providing a good service, we are loaded with the new technology telephone systems. Here in the UK we have automated telephone answering. It takes quite a while to get to the desired sevice, then all over a sudden your cut off. One has to start all over again. Sometimes it can add hours ie waiting or redialing. In addition, we have numbers, which can add costs to the phone bill. One number in particuliar, the company gets some money back. If it is a charitable company, it can benefit them. More often than not, it is a legitimat company. Does that sound familiar? How can we overcome these lengthy calls etc.? Many times I deal by email and often benefit from a quick and satisfactory service. Often they call me, which I appreciate. [quote="ChrisH":1b1ok76u]I am familiar with the reasons why they could have customer service issues. But, if there is another company who wants my business and will give me customer support, why waste my time with a company who doesn't offer support for me? Over the years, I've dealt with enough companies who didn't care they had lousy customer service. There have been times when I mentioned that I liked their prices and products etc - but other companies offered better service and that can be just as important. Far too many didn't care and had no desire to make any changes. I'd rather focus on doing business with the companies who support me as a customer and who show they appreciate my business. Chris [/quote:1b1ok76u] Regards Beat


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