It starts at the top!

If you want to know who to blame for bad customer service look no further than the top of the food chain. The owners and management are the ones responsible for what ever type of customer service a company provides.

Usually when a customer service training program is started though, the normal starting place is at the bottom. The general staff employees: the sales people, receptionists, front desk, technicians etc are the ones sent for the training. This bottom-up customer service training program is backwards! Actually the training should start at the top, not the bottom!

With some companies I really wonder what in the world are they thinking! Do they honestly care for the customer, or is the customer thought of as a farmer thinks of a cow, something to be milked for all it can provide. Actually that’s unfair to farmers. They are much more interested in the cow’s well-being than many companies are in their customers.

Advertising is a direct reflection of the attitude of management. So much advertising this day is really nothing more than a pack of lies. We see this all the time. Advertisements with the word FREE in them are inevitably full of lies. There is Free Credit report dot com. Definitely NOT free. Products are often advertised for free, and of course they are not. There is always more to it. Why can’t they just be honest? If the offer is two for the price of one, why not say it. Instead they say it’s free and then when you read the fine print, you see that the product is “free” only when you buy another product.

Advertising and marketing practices speak volumes about the company’s attitude toward the customers.

Of course EVERY business claims to REALLY CARE about their customers. This phony, false caring is seen through sales procedures, pricing and billing policies.

Some companies will sign you up for services you didn’t order, bill you for products or services you didn’t want and only correct things when the customer raises a stink. What kind of customer service is that? It seems that the bigger a company gets the more brazen it gets in its predatory and criminal practices.

Some recent examples I have seen are:

Recently many banks have been changing the due date on their credit card statements. The idea is that the customer gets used to paying on the 10th of each month. So the bank changes it to the 7th. The idea is to catch the customer napping and then the bank gets to hit the customer with a late payment fee of $35.00. Not to mention a negative credit report entry, or a higher interest rate.

I used Verizon for some of my business accounts in the past. In one year I had three separate instances where they billed us for services we didn’t want or use, lied to entice us to sign up for new services and then tried to delay our switching lines when we finally decided to go with another provider.

These examples of abuse are not customer service issues. Somewhere there is a management person who comes up with these “bright ideas” to make a few extra bucks by ripping off the customers. The company probably gave the “genius” a bonus, more stock options and a bigger office for devising these new scams.

How about some companies exchange or refund policies? Have you ever tried to change your airline ticket or cancel your ticket due to an illness or accident? The policy is a total penalty to the customer. I recently saw an ad for an online site for purchasing airline tickets. They were making light of a person who can’t complete the transaction to purchase airline tickets. Of course the person is nervous about the final purchase selection! If you make a mistake or change your mind, there goes half your money!!!!!

All of these examples are management decisions. These policies and actions are NOT decided by the customer service staff. They are the unlucky ones who have to enforce these polices and take the brunt of the pissed off customers who feel ripped off and abused by the managements decisions.

Employee loyalty is everything.

But when I say that management bears the responsibility of good or bad customer service, I am speaking about more than the above examples. Really good customer service starts with loyal employees. If the employees are not loyal to the company they are NOT going to do the extras that add up to great service. Management may THINK that the employees will do what is best for the company because “this is what they should do” or “this is what we pay them for”. Maybe managers go out and watch how employees treat customers directly and see good service and so assume that this is what happens when they are not watching.

But when they are NOT watching employees who are not loyal to the company I can tell you from being there that this is NOT the case. Any management person who thinks otherwise is delusional.

How many times have you seen an employee change the way they treat customers when there is not anyone supervising them? Ever go to a 7-11 late at night? Or anyplace really. I have seen this on airlines, at hotels, restaurants, stores, hair salons, dental offices, ad infinitum. ONLY loyal employees make loyal customers.

So, how does a company make loyal employees? Pay and benefits are part of it, but there is a lot more: acknowledging employees efforts; creating and maintaining a safe environment; continuing education; empowering people; involving employees in making decisions. These are what make an employee loyal. Honesty from management is also a key factor in what makes loyal employees! You wouldn’t think you had to point that one out, but have you ever seen any management that was less than honest with its employees?

Internal atmosphere

The overall atmosphere inside a business has EVERYTHING to do with its level of customer service. We already spoke about the relationship between management and employees, but what about the internal attitudes between departments and employees? I don’t think I have ever seen any large company where there was not loads of bickering and infighting between departments. Sales versus production. Shipping versus sales. Accounting versus everyone. Front office staff versus the back staff. The list goes on and on. 80% of all customer complaints are caused by dropped communication. The message did not get relayed, was lost, etc. Or it could be that the system is at fault, there were no correct channels for the communication to flow on. All of these problems are again management problems. If there are ANY communication problems, any bickering between departments, then right there you have management who are too unaware or lazy to be considered management. And there are the bulk of your complaints from customers.

Another version of this I have seen is where the employees are bluntly critical of the customers. The customers are ”stupid”, “idiots”, “morons”, etc. I was in a computer repair shop not too long ago and the staff were making deriding jokes about how stupid their customers were. What idiot would do this, or do that, ha ha. No wonder the moron’s computer broke. Then the managers walked in the room and went right into agreement with them! They started laughing and agreeing and telling their own stories about what idiots the customers were.

What an example to set! Those “stupid” customers are the only reason you have a job! When employees work in an environment where it is okay to make these sorts of comments, don’t you think this is going to come through when the employees deal with customers? Of course it will! Have you ever run into a smarmy or condescending computer repair tech? Where do you think they got it?!

Being a manager is a lot like being a good gardener: you have to be good at weeding! Employees who constantly gripe, gossip, criticize and complain about each other AND / OR about customers are the ones who need to get weeded out ASAP. They set a bad example and drive way your loyal employees who DO care. Of course if a company has management fitting into some of the categories you see above its very unlikely that they will do any weeding. Simply because they need to weed them selves out first! And that’s not very likely.

Where to start?

Good management sets policies and procedures for advertising, marketing, pricing, customer service, etc, that in themselves demonstrate a commitment to great caring customer service. They then hire, train, nurture and keep loyal employees. Good management sets an example for all employees. They set an example in how they treat all employees and their customers. Good management creates a safe productive environment by weeding out the people who don’t care and who just want to be miserable.

These are the basic points necessary to achieve to attain great customer service.

I always have a derisive laugh when I see a company with poor customer service try to fix it by sending a few of their lowest paid employees to some customer service classes. Because the ones who need the classes are the ones at the top, not the bottom!

So, the next time you go into or call any company and get steamed because they provide lousy customer service, now you will not only know who to blame, but you will also know where they need to start to make things right!!!

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