Customer Service Training:
Customer Service Courses: Well, it Was Worth a Try - Not!
Although I have 20 years experience as a Customer Service Management professional, I have spent the last two years working as a headhunter. My last assignment before heading back into Customer Service Management is to find a new VP of Engineering for a high tech company in Germany. This person should speak German with fluency, have experience leading teams in laser development and a degree in physics, specializing in either Quantum Optics or Quantum Electronics. Because people with these qualifications are difficult to locate - why else would you hire a headhunter? - I was extremely pleased when I received a call from Jerry, a fellow headhunter who was "reaching out" and building his professional network.
As headhunters always do, Jerry eventually asked me if there was anything that he could do to help me out with any of my existing assignments. Naturally, I sent him the Job Description for the position I was working on and offered him a split on the assignment, hoping that he had a few magic resumes up his sleeve. Sure enough, within minutes Jerry replied with someone who he said he felt was "close to perfect" for the position.
Amazing! What tremendous luck I was having that day! That was, until I read the resume he had sent me. The individual that he was presenting did have a degree in physics, but that was it. She lacked each and every other requirement on the Job Description. She didn't even speak German! When I emailed Jerry about the candidate's lack of alignment with my requirements, he replied "Oh well, it was worth a try."
Huh? Am I missing something here? Was it worth a try because he didn't bother to read the Job Description I had sent him or was he hoping that I was stupid enough to take a candidate who was miles away from my requirements? I started to type an "educational" reply to Jerry and then thought better of it. He did sloppy work and no amount of email would make him any more capable. Instead I simply deleted Jerry from my contact list.
Jerry lost me as both a peer contact and a potential customer within 30 minutes of contacting me. Had he been honest and indicated that he had no candidate who aligned with my requirements, I would have appreciated his professional approach and put him at the top of the list for the next opportunity. The irony here is that Jerry knew that I was leaving recruiting and heading back to a "real" job. Thus, I was about to transition from peer to potential customer and he was offering services I would very likely need soon. In spite of this, he chose to execute in such a way that assumed I was either stupid as a customer or useless as a peer.
What does this have to do with Customer Service?
Like it or not, you are always being watched and judged by your customers, even when they are not your customer at the time you touch them. Any time that you're not giving your best effort and end up delivering short of the mark, your (potential!!) customer knows this - even if they aren't saying anything about it. It is a rare customer indeed that will take the time to give you honest, unsolicited feedback on the quality of your work unless you executed excruciatingly poorly. If customers think you are doing a poor job, it is easier for them to go somewhere else than to take the time and energy to explain to you what they feel should be improved.
Thus, there are three basic things you should strive for in customer service:
1) Always give your best and nothing but your best to everybody. You are always on stage, you are always being judged and measured. If you have a choice between doing work that is sub-standard or no work at all, select the latter. Customers will typically remember you for the worst experience they had with you, not the best. People who aren't yet your customer will judge what they could expect from you based upon how you interact with them when you don't have anything to gain. Any opportunity for a referral from an impressed colleague or associate is also out the window when you slack.
2) Expect that your customers are smart! Very, very, very smart! They will see through every ruse, every game, every lie, every excuse, every rationalization and every pointed finger that you send their way. Instead of calling your bluff, they'll just walk away and look for someone who is more serious about their profession.
3) Always let your customer know that you want their opinion. Either give them a chance to comment after each case/project you work on with them, or include them in regular Customer Satisfaction reviews. If you can, collect your responses personally rather than digitally.
Source:
Edward Caulfield:
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Article Content: Customer Service Courses
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Customer Service Training:
Customer Service Courses: Well, it Was Worth a Try - Not!
