Rethinking Customer Service
I’m NOT A Customer Service Whore!
When I read the exhortations, particularly by self-styled experts writing on the Internet, I get the distinct impression that the role of the customer service representative, at least in the minds of these “experts”, is to whore to meet the needs, or wants of the customer.
We are told to love the customer. We are told we need to demonstrate to the customer, a passion which he has never before experienced. Another “expert” tells us we should deliver “bliss”. We must “focus on the customer”
Lessons in Whoredom?
Here’s some exact quotes from tweets published under the #custserv tag.
Ted Coine tell us: : Have a POWER mindset – Passion, Optimism, Wit, Empathy, Resilience #custserv”
Jim Miller let’s us know: : 22% of consumers feel that companies take their business for granted (Ah, just like the spouse, but whores don’t?)
Saltpeppergroup informs: Always make sure you have good breath, smell and look nice
Saltpeppergroup also tells us: Be sure to present multiple options to the customer and explain the differences between each.(“Bob, it’s $100 for all night, or here are some other options. If you want %$@^#^, or #&*(@ I can do that too.)
Kate Nasser: You need multiple touch points to ensure gr8 #custserv: (Indeed, you have to touch the right spots!?)
It must be me, but could we take these facile, glib comments and build a training course for whores around them? You bet, and I’m not buying it, selling it or designing it. That’s not the way to build and improve sustainable customer service. “All You Need Is Love” may be a great Beatles song, but when that becomes the guiding principles for customer service, we have a problem.
A Customer Service Era of Stupidity
We’ve gone way past the point of reasonableness and equity in interactions with customers, and while the emphasis has been on love, bliss, passion and so on, customers themselves tell us year after year that customer service is getting worse. Selling love, bliss and passion simply doesn’t work, at least on average, because:
The relationships between customer and company is one where the customer pays money to receive a service or product. This “transactional” relationship underlies and is in the back of the mind of each customer. A whore, in the same transactional relationships with customers, may say “I love you longtime, big boy”, and “Wow, that was the best sex I ever had”, but few customers accept that the whore loves them feverishly — at least unless they are stupid ones who seek self-deception to shore up their flagging lives. It’s the same for any customer service. The customer PAYS, and that means that emotional reactions are no longer untainted, genuine or even believable.
Getting Real About Customer Service
If we are to have a hope of moving customer service forward, we need to base what we do on providing good value for money, but we do not need to come across like whores, by pretending we “love” our customers. We need to attend to the basics of what customers deserve without pandering to unreasonable demands, or trying to entice customers by telling them things that are patently silly.
Having worked training people in delivering customer service under the absolute toughest situations on the planet (try working with immigration officers or police officers, farm insurance reps), I will tell you that I AM passionate about the value of customer service. But that’s me. I don’t run around telling others that is what THEY have to feel to be successful, because it’s not true. You don’t need to love the customers, which is a deceptive whore type attitude.
We need to get back to basics, and stop the pandering for money.
As I’ve said elsewhere:
I do not “love” in exchange for money. I do not show passion for customers like they are sex objects. I don’t even “like” some of my customers. In fact, some I have strongly disliked. I reserve my emotions for those close to me, my family and friends. I don’t sell those things.
I will, however, go as fair as I can possibly go, to meet the needs of PEOPLE who happen to use my services and products. I don’t lie. I don’t call them “big boy”. I simply put before them what I have to offer, try to offer fair value for what they pay, and work to ensure they are happy with that value.
I don’t love for money. I don’t get paid to touch my customers everywhere. I don’t sell my emotions. I don’t get overly attached to customers. I don’t even need to “go where the customers are”, as many social media fanatics tell us. Whores do that. I don’t.
If customers want to pay for love, I know of a little bar (in every town there’s some) where you can plunk down your money and get all the “love” one wants.
Ultimately customers are just customers. Let’s give them fair value, convenience, and do so while creating a reasonable, positive interest in helping them.
Finally, a thought to leave you with. I don’t know a SINGLE customer who would trade “being loved” by a company (whatever that means), for fast resolution of their problems, and basic convenient access to help and information.
Do you want love as a customer? Or, do you want a fair exchange of value for value?
