BrainTrust Query: An Inconvenient Truth About Bad Customer Service
Commentary by Doug Stephens, President, Retail Prophet
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Retail Prophet Consulting blog.
Bad customer service may take years to prove fatal but the eventual outcome is almost always corporate extinction. Surprisingly, very few companies turn these negative situations around and improve their customer service position. And as counter-intuitive as it seems, many act like they don't even care.
It's a lot like global warming.
Most would agree that the world's climate is changing. With this change we are seeing devastating impacts on the planet's ability to sustain itself. 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 problems
like global warming:
- The problem seems simply too large for any one of us to comprehend solving.
- 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) contribute to
solving the seemingly insurmountable problem so we don't become emotionally
invested in the solution.
This same holds true with systemically bad customer service. Despite leadership droning on about the need for improvement, front-line staff often sees 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. 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 percent of Prius owners made the choice based on concern for the environment -- most drive one to save money. Nonetheless, 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 define specific actions that if performed, would infer to customers that your employees appreciate them, even if they don't? What if we stopped talking about customer service and simply programmed specific events into the store experience that makes even the least engaged staff member seem to actually care about the customer?
As a guest, I don't know if the bellhop really cares about me. If they hold the door and smile, I'll infer that they care. I don't care if the sales associate really values my business. If they shake my hand and thank me, I'll infer that they appreciate me. That's good enough.
And as for emotional engagement from staff, 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!
Discussion Questions: Is it possible for retailers to create the impression of caring for customers through specific actions? What do you think of the suggestions offered in the article?