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Customer Service: Uncommon Wisdom Through Quotations
Since there's so much misinformation floating around about customer service and its importance to business, I've decided to share with OUR customers, some quotations and sound-bytes about the entire universe of customer service knowledge and skills.
Got a Question? Disagree? Agree? You can comment at the bottom of this page. (coming soon)
Disclaimer: There is no intent to disparage the PEOPLE spreading inferior information about customer service and business here, but there is real intent to criticize the overly simplistic ideas that are passed off as wisdom by those mentioned.
The Wild World Of Customer Service Advice
There are three million references to "the customer is always right" in Google. Who says there are original thinkers in the customer service world?
There are 270,000 references to "the customer ISN'T always right in Google. Duh!
There are about 400,000 Google references to "respect the customer". How many explain that "respect" means different things to different people.
The real experts on customer service (all six of them), aren't telling people what to do via social media. They are too busy working with data, making sense of it, to waste time serving pearls before swine.
The problem with customer service advocates masquerading as consultants and speakers is that they are just dumb old customers pretending to understand business.
The customer service world is replete with "experts" who know almost nothing tell front line staff (people who know a lot) that they are doing things wrong.
Customer service advocates not interested in business success, just pushing customer agenda. That's what advocates bring to table.
"When I grow up, I want to work in a call center". Nobody says this. Why not?
Customer service advocates would be more effective if they understood how to run a business.
Every change requires advocates...and people to point out why they are wrong!
The REAL customer service experts aren't on Twitter, or blogs. They are too busy getting rich.
Most customer service "experts" are wrong because they are stuck in seeing things ONLY from the customer's POV.
If you get most of your info about customer service from blogs, social media, most of what you think you know is wrong.
If a customer service experts says: "Respect Your Customers", don't give them a penny. They know nothing and never will.
99% of discussion is about "customers", but it's impossible to generalize. What's relevant is YOUR customer, not customers.
Hire for attitude, not skill? Would you prefer a clumsy, but happy brain surgeon?
People who suggest you hire CSR's for attitude, obviously believe the "skill" part is easy. It's not!
Upmarket customers most likely to switch if customer experience not to their liking. Others? Not so much.
In many industries it's not EASY to lose customers from poor customer service. Which is one reason why it's so bad.
A business can't "WIN" by copying another company's customer service practice, because it will never be as good as the original. So don't.
Never trust a customer service advocate for balanced advice about your business, unless you want to go bankrupt.
Companies should "love" complaints? What about the stress levels for customer facing staff. Burnout.
Ask 4 people what constitutes good customer service, and you'll get six different answers.
Ask someone what constitutes good customer service, and you'll get different answers on different days.
Customer Service and Business Results
When it comes to customer service BALANCE is everything: Consider BOTH needs of customer and biz, or go bankrupt.
To customers, CONVENIENCE almost always trumps WOW. Implications for business?
What do Comcast, Walmart know about customer service that you don'? It pays to be bad. Implications?
Good customer service doesn't differentiate in business. Bad customer service does but it has to be really bad.
WOWING the customer is only important in a very few sectors with high end customers. Otherwise it's a waste of money.
For most business, customer service quality is FAR less important than being convenient, or price.
Most reviled companies due to poor customer service, year after year, make huge profits. They know what most experts do not.
The first company in each sector/niche that gives great BASIC customer service will win. BASIC, not WOW.
If you think customer service is everything, explain Comcast, Walmart, and other hated companies' success!
Customer service quality is never an end in itself. It's a business tool, subservient to profits, or you go bust.
Do you think a person will drive an extra mile to buy milk because they get great customer service? Of course not.
Companies that outsource customer service to other countries, won't do better by insourcing. Problem is viewpoint.
For every company using technology effectively for customer service, there will be 99 companies who do it poorly and make customer service worse.
Customer Service Tactics and Techniques
You can't address a customer's problem until things are calm enough for both of you to listen.
Social Media and Customer Service
Stop paying attention to what people say on social media. Most complainers have ZERO real world influence.
Your chance of being "killed" by a customer complaint gone viral is less than being struck by lightning -- TWICE.
Never start using social media for customer support until you get your other channels as good as possible.
The most popular people on social media are usually not the most skilled -- except at self promotion.
On social media, you aren't the customer; you are the product being sold.
One reason social media is objectively insignficant as a threat to business is mistaking "talking" with being heard, listened to, and the info acted upon.
Twitter is incredibly benign as to the power of customer complaints, because most tweets will never be seen again, after two hours.
It's impossible to "defend" your brand on social media. Even if you wanted to, because there's no way to reach the people who might have read a complaint. No matter. Few actually read, and almost none of them act on the information.
Every large company will receive both complaints and congratulations via social media. Funny how a company can be so good and so bad at the same time.
People on social media are often looking to have their own views about a company confirmed by others, which means the meaning of the message is determined almost entirely by the recipient and not the information of the message.
Simplistic and Oversimplified Ideas About Customer Service
From @envisioncrm FACT: 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Sadly nobody knows if they act on them!
From @knowledgebishop: "The social customer REQUIRES respect:" So, like respect means different things to different people! Run away!
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