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