Customer Service Breakdowns Are Everywhere

It seems that there are no shortages of service breakdowns in today’s world. You would think that in the down economy where so many people are unemployed or hurting financially, that service providers would think before doing or saying something that could have a negative impact on them. But then you would be wrong in many instances based on my recent experiences. On two separate back-to-back business trips where I went to facilitate training workshops in several different geographic areas, I encountered at least a half dozen service providers in situations that I term “being stupid in a no-stupid zone.”

By that I mean that had they just taken a second to think before acting (or failing to act) related to serving their customers, they would not have needed to try to provide a service recovery strategy that might salvage their mistake. What was happening in each of my encounters is really not as important as the fact that on any given day in virtually any type of organization, there is a service provider who is improperly trained, has a poor service attitude or is inhibited from providing good service because they do not have adequate supervisory or organizational support. The result is that customers are disappointed and go away and ultimately negative word-of-mouth publicity follows an organization suffers.

If you are a service provider, I suggest using the acronym “STAR” to remind yourself of a way to provide positive customer service so that you do not fall into the dreaded “stupid zone.” Simply stated, that means:

(1) Stop to listen to what your customer is saying or asking;

(2)Think about what your customer said they need or want and the best way to address their issue or request;

(3) Analyze options for providing stellar customer service in that particular situation rather than taking a cookie-cutter approach to providing the same treatment to all customers; and

(4) Reflect on how you handled the situation after the customer has left in order to determine if you did the best possible job or how you might handle it differently in the future if a similar situation arises.

Customer service is not difficult if you approach it with a positive mental outlook and a plan to handle the unexpected.

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Common Sense Customer Service Is Not So Common Anymore

You may have experienced what my family and I did, related to one of those “dah” moments when we visited the Applebee’s restaurant in Maitland, Florida this weekend. We were celebrating my mother’s 96th birthday and she wanted to go there for their ribs. We ordered a spinach and avocado appetizer and found a hair in it. Our server said, “Wow, that’s not good. It’s a good thing you found it before eating any of it.” She quickly replaced the dish and things were going okay until we got our entrees. I ordered a baked potato and instead received mashed potatoes. When I pointed out the error, the order delivery person stated, “Oh, I saw that sitting there in the kitchen. I’ll go get it” ( I love this team approaches service where no one person assumes total responsibility for service and instead it is shared by half the staff!). Shortly thereafter, Steve (the manager) came by asking how things were going. When I said, that thus far things were a bit challenging in getting what we wanted and that I was disappointed because we were celebrating my mom’s birthday. When I shared with him about the hair and baked potato, he commented, “I heard about the hair, but they remade the appetizer, didn’t they? And, I see you got your baked potato. Please let me know if there is anything else that we need to correct.” He then left. Notice that nowhere in his comments did the words, “I am sorry” or “I apologize” come out of his mouth. No wonder that neither the server nor the food delivery person used those words either. Obviously, service recovery training is not something organizations want to waste time or money on these days.

Unfortunately, I see such scenarios often with service providers in different industries and organizations. What happened to basic service 101 where staff and management are trained to take ownership of service breakdowns, apologize, go out of their ways to resolve the issue and ensure that the customer is satisfied and/or compensated for their inconvenience before the service experience is over. Obviously, return business must not be an issue to many of these purported service professionals. I guess many of them have not suffered the ill effects of the current economy and do not worry about that issue.

There was one positive aspect of our dining experience. After I had received the check and paid for the meal, Steve came back with a $5.00 coupon and stated, I was going to buy your mother a dessert for her birthday but since you already paid, you can use this on future business. Of course, he is making an assumption that such an opportunity will occur in the future.

I’d be curious to hear if about similar service breakdowns and how they were handled.

Customer Services Skills Blog by Robert W. Lucas

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