An Inconvenient Truth About Bad Customer Service

By Doug Stephens

The effects of bad customer service may take years to prove fatal but the eventual outcome is almost always corporate extinction.  Despite this, surprisingly few companies turn these negative situations around and actually improve their customer service position.  And as counter-intuitive as it seems, many businesses act like they don’t even care.

It’s a lot like global warming

Whether you believe the science or not, most would agree that the world’s climate is changing.  With this change we are seeing potentially devastating and irreversible impact on the planet’s ability to sustain itself and its inhabitants, for that matter.  Unchecked, the problem will almost certainly eradicate life on earth.

So why have we done so little to reverse the trend?  I mean the survival of the planet is a pretty big deal!

According to Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology at Duke University and author of the bestselling book, Predictably Irrational, there are three primary reasons for our apparent apathy when it comes to huge problems like global warming.  Firstly, the problem seems simply too large for any one of us to comprehend solving.  Secondly, it’s a problem that threatens future rather than immediate devastation.  Lastly, we have trouble visualizing how the little things we do as individuals (like using more energy efficient light bulbs or recycling), can contribute to solving the seemingly insurmountable problem.  The end result is that we don’t become emotionally invested in the solution.  We check out.

This same theory holds true  to systemically bad customer service.  Despite leadership droning on about the need for improved customer service, front-line staff often see the problem as too large, too complex and beyond their individual capacity to correct.

The Prius Effect

Perhaps no other automobile has become as synonymous with the environmental movement as the Toyota Prius.  It seems safe to assume therefore that people who own a Prius are more environmentally conscious than those of us who don’t.  However, there’s no credible evidence of any correlation between driving a Prius and having an elevated environmental consciousness.  Apart from owning a hybrid vehicle, Prius owners are much like the rest of us.  They don’t exercise any more day-to-day concern for the planet than we do.  In fact, one study concluded that a mere 27% of Prius owners made the choice based on a strict concern for the environment – most drive one to save money.  Nonetheless, we perceive Prius owners to be more eco-friendly.  In other words we infer from their choice of vehicle that they actually care more about the environment than they actually do.

So, what if we took this idea of inference a step further?  What if you could create a similar effect when it comes to delivering customer service in your business?  What if you could define specific actions, that if performed, would infer to customers that your employees appreciate them, even if they don’t?   Think about it.  Could you program specific events into the customer experience that make even the least engaged staff member seem to actually care about the customer?

Stop Talking About “Customer Service”

The first step I would advocate is to stop using the term “customer service”.  It’s problematic for a few reasons.  Firstly, it implies servitude and who wants to be thought of as a servant?  Secondly, it’s nebulous, making it difficult for staff to know if they’ve really provided it or not and also making it difficult to measure.  Lastly, it’s too subjective.  Great service to one person may be mediocre to another.

Instead, let’s call customer service something different – I’ve always liked the term the path to purchase.  And let’s agree that along the path to purchase certain defined, measurable and positive events should take place.   These events might range from holding a hotel door open for guests to shaking a customer’s hand– it doesn’t really matter as long as they’re defined, measurable and widely accepted as being positive behaviors.

So now, instead of pleading with staff to “improve customer service” – which is undefined, impossible to measure and open to interpretation, you can be instructing them to perform the specific tasks you’ve engineered into the path to purchase.

As a hotel guest, I don’t really care how customer-centric the bellhop is.  If they smile and hold the door open for me, I’ll infer from their behavior that they care.  As a shopper I don’t know if the salesperson appreciates my business or not but if they come out from behind the counter to give me my purchase while shaking my hand, I’ll infer from their actions that they do value me.

Behavior Drives Emotion

But how do we solve the problem of apathy?  How can we get our staff emotionally invested in delivering a better customer experience?

It’s commonly accepted that what we do affects how we feel.  Change the behavior and you’ll change the emotion.  It follows then that if you get staff consistently doing things along the path to purchase that clearly indicate caring for your customers, eventually those same staff will care about customers.   There may also be staff who choose not to come along for the ride but trust me, with a clearly defined set of actions on the path to purchase, they’ll stand out like a Hummer in a sea of hybrids!