Sara, the perfect CSR??

"Sara sits behind a glass booth in a sleek white suit, her full lips turned slightly upward in a polite smile. She has flawless skin and curly black eyelashes that she occasionally bats by taking deep, calculated blinks. Her voice is gentle and melodious. "If you have any questions, please say hello!"
Yes you guessed it Sara is a robot. Leave it to the Japanese to create a robot receptionist. After reading this article in Zoom Zoom magazine the phrase "be careful what you wish for" made me wonder how this robot scenario would work in the US.
The most frequent complaint we get is that the line is taking too long. It is always interesting to me on how impatient people are. Surprised by this complaint, we timed how long each transaction takes and it is less than 2 min. We normally get this complaint when there are about 3 people in line, so it takes people 6 min. to push them over the edge and act towards another human being in a most inappropriate way; a behavior that if displayed in any other situation would be considered appalling. For some reason people feel they have the right to behave this way towards another human because they are paying the establishment that this representative works for. Let me ask you, is it this CSRs fault that when the company begins to have financial downturns the first place they start cutting is in staffing employees; therefore there are less people to help visitors and more work for the CSR causing more headaches from the continuous complaints on how there should be more people to pamper to the guests and make sure that they don't have to waste 5 precious min of their precious life standing in line.
I digress, let me explain. The other day I was helping someone that was visiting our venue and offering my knowledge to this visitor on what to enjoy at our facility and commenting on some other things in the area that may be of interest, and yes I took a moment to have a conversation with this person. During this interaction 2 people started to form a line behind this person. I was in the wrap up of the conversation, which was not a lengthy conversation, just a little longer than the normal transaction of taking money, give ticket, and send away, when the visitor behind the 2nd person in line started to wave their hands and yell over everyone "Hello, I would like to pay and get in!" When someone acts this outlandish the people that are around have the same reaction of looking around with mouth dropped open and a look of unbelief at this person's uncalled for behavior. It stopped our conversation in it's tracks, and I nicely replied that I would help her as soon as I finished with the people in front of her. "Pfhhh" was her reply.
I really had to bite my tounge from frusrtating ly replying back saying "are you freaking kidding me lady?!!!. I am giving this person the courtesy of answering questions that help them to enjoy this environment that they are paying to get into. I am sorry that you have to wait and extra second of your unhappy life in line. When it is your turn I will not help you at all. So shut your trap and deal with it"
I would love to take longer with the person that I was helping, but they also felt uncomfortable with this comment, collected their items and went in. The ironic thing about this situation is when this rude person finally made it to the counter, after waiting in line for a grueling 2 min., she proceeded to ask numerous questions and took more than usual time.
No I didn't make the comment that I would have liked to because I have dignity. I helped helped her with a smile (fake of course) and answered her questions then sent her on her miserable way. Yes I am a little bitter towards this type of customer that thinks the world revolves around them, like my 5 year old. She was so inconsiderate to the person I was helping that next person in line, before her, was cautious to ask any questions as to avoid a burn from the steam coming from the cranky lady behind her.
So let's replace Sara in this situation. Ask a question to Sara and she is going to give her canned answers. She will only give answers to questions that she has been programed for and is incapable of giving her opinion. Sara would make the line go faster because her responded will be quick and repetitive. After a visitor has asked and continues to receive the answers "I am sorry I can not answer that question" or "I could not make out what your question is, can you please ask again?" or my favorite automated reply "did you say____" and of course ___ is not what I said, they would give up and move on. Inevitably the questions would be minimal and if they complained to Sara, the only reaction they would get is a blank stare, open mouthed smiling robot with mechanical blinking eyes. If you wanted to complain to Sara her reply may be, "I am sorry I did not understand what you said" Hmm maybe Sara has something; should I respond more like her? Just kidding.
So here is something to think about when you are waiting a little longer in line due to a CSR taking time to offer additional service, is to understand that when it is your turn you will receive the same concern and interest to all your questions and will be answered in a personable way. Or would you prefer a virtual perpetuation of the automated phone answering machines where you know you try to push "0" because you want to talk to a "live" person.
Just a thought.

Shells

A hard shell. That is what customer service reps. create once they have worked in the industry for awhile. Daily we get hammered with stupid questions, rude comments and blamed for everything that has gone wrong during the customer's visit.

Now this shell is usually easy to crack and just takes a little consideration for the person that is helping you. Consider that a customer service rep. (CSR) has helped numerous people all day long and sometimes they go into autopilot and are daydreaming about the weekend or something else besides servicing the customer standing in front of them. Now we have become so good at this technique that most time customers will not even notice the void behind the smile. There are times that I will go into auto pilot and I will not remember the description of the person I just helped.

Turning off the will take a little effort on your side, not much just a little. There is a great quote that goes "do unto others as you would have done unto you". If people would use this more in their interaction with people there would be so many less people walking away scratching their head and wondering why they always receive horrible service.

Smile and acknowledge the CSR and you will find most times it will be reciprocated. Don't walk up to the counter and start demanding what you want. Would you do this any other time when you are meeting someone for the first? Say "Hi" simple right? But you would be surprised how many people will walk up and start bellowing out their requests and needs like the CSR was a robot that would nod and take their requests, and this is about the reaction that you will get when you behave that way

Something that shuts off my auto pilot mode is when someone asks me how my day is. It is like someone turned on a switch and I suddenly notice the person standing there and will have a conversation with them. Do they get the best service I can provide? You bet they do.

I have tried this experiment often when I am out and about. I went to a fast food restaurant and there was this guy behind the counter that was clearly in auto pilot and had just had a mean customer degrade him before me in line, so I walked up to him with a big smile greeted him and told him my order. Boy did his attitude change and this bright missing teeth smile came to his face. He kindly helped me with my order, even came over to my table when I sat down to offer me napkins and condiments. I don't think this would have happened if I had been like the many customer drones that he had just helped.

So the lesson is: if you would like to receive better service put in a little effort and you will get a much better result. I can't promise this all the time, but generally speaking it works.

Racial Profiling

Throughout my blog I am going to be posting on actual customer experiences. This is where I am hoping that this will give humor to the people that work in the customer service industry and give some incite to the people that don't.

A woman comes into our organization that has a group tour. We offer free tours as long as the group pays together. This lady is a member and has been to this with her group several times, so you would think she would not be so surprised when we told her the rules.

First in order for her to get her free member tickets we either need to have the member card or need to see a photo ID. We live in a state that has just passed the 1070 law so we hear the words "racial profiling" thrown around loosely. So we asked her, since she does not have her membership card, for a photo ID. She then proceeds to tell us that we are racial profiling. What??

She was a senior and very Caucasian. Then after we explain that it was more of a security check to protect her identity, she says that she was joking, but yet continues to say argue that we are profiling by asking for an ID.

So tell me something.. if someone is standing in front of you telling you that you are racial profiling due to hyped up press about a law that you don't agree with, how hard is it to keep smiling and be friendly to someone that is directly attacking your views?

To continue with her transaction, she argued that she did not know she needed to pay in one payment, then continued to have individuals in her group pay separately which inconvenienced the other people in line and clogged up the lobby area with her group standing in the doorway.

Oh what a lovely lady

Pod People

Going into the customer service industry takes a certain type of personality to succeed. This personality is typically one that has a passion for the industry that they are going into and have a firm belief that they will be providing a great service to the public with the service they provide. It is almost a vision of that lone ranger standing on a mountain peak with a proud upturned chin, wind blowing through their hair, and a big badge stating "How may I help you?"

In my years of managing these people, It is always interesting to observe the first time a person has worked in the service industry and to determine if they will make it. A new employee will usually start with a freshness and they are enthusiastic to start working with the public to showcase the awesomeness in their great service. They have an underlined cockiness to them and will look to the more seasoned workers with contempt because they can not understand why they have lost their enthusiasm and also think to themselves that they will never be like "them". "Them"as having lost their sparkle and have no more desire to give superior customer service because they have realized that, in most cases, no matter how hard they try the customer will not reciprocate the reaction that is expected, perhaps this is as simple as a thank you. So "they" have given up and gone down the flat-line road, where they don't give bad service, but they don't go above or beyond as they once did. Little does this new sparkley energetic employee know that "they" were once like him/her and have been beaten down like a tired dog and callused by the general public's unknowingly disregard that the person they are helping is another human being. It seems like once a person wears a name-tag or stands behind a counter ready to help people that the people on the other side of the counter then believe that they have every right to treat this person with as little regard as a person as they like.

Have you ever seen the movie "The Dark Crystal"? There are these cute bubbly little Muppet Pod people who are captured by the evil grotesque Skeksis who drain the Pod people's life juices t and drink to make keep them young. The Pod people are them left in a zombie like state and become pale faced servants for the Skeksis. Now I am not saying that all customers are Skeksis, but.... it is draining to continually try to excel by helping people as best as possible and to only be let down with the same result of under-appreciation and sometimes downright cruelty. I will give examples of that in future posts.

Unfortunately these Pod people are the ones that have survived, the left over zombies that have lost their zing. Then you will hear the public state with dazzling wonderment and ever pondering question "where has the customer service gone?" It is a vicious cycle where the more people strive to give great customer service the more people come to expect that as the norm and when they don't always receive that same type of service at every place they go they will give the worker their opinion. Every time this happens a piece of the zing is chipped away until it is gone.

Introduction

This a blog for all the people that have to work with the general public. In my career path I have had many jobs that pertain to customer service and daily I see and hear some pretty interesting things from the public. It has made me start to observe other people that work in the customer service related industry and how they react to the odd personalities that they have contact with. It has also helped me to change the way I act when I am on the other side of the counter and how I can get the best service from people that look absolutely miserable with their jobs and show the signs on their faces of being beaten down by public saying whatever they want to say to the person that is helping them out.

As I started my observation of other customer service workers, I noticed an underling theme between all of us that have to deal with the insensitive comments and assumptions that people will spew onto us and that is that there is a barrier of protection that we all hold. A point at which the saying "the customer is always right" (oh and btw I have a couple strong words I would like to say to the person that coined that phrase) is not going to hold it's weight anymore and the person turns to defending what they know id right and this is where it gets ugly. No one ever wins.

Continuing forward will be observations and personal experiences and advise about the interactions with people on the other side of the counter