The Manager 152 - Customer Experience
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The Manager - Edition 152 - Customer Experience
Hi,
I hope you are safe and well. We went away to the Isle of Wight for a few days camping as a family. It was very nice and we saw a lot of the sites. It was good to get away and have some sense of normalcy, although a great many people seem to have given up on masks and social distancing...
It was also nice to eat out, wander the sites, visit the tourist spots etc - but one thing is clear, not everyone seems to have gotten the message about customer service....and how it really is the new marketing. And of course, the customer service from any company is always a reflection of management.
It shows what they focus on, what they measure, what they ask their people about, how good the company is, how good the training is, how people are empowered etc.
If you experience a poor customer experience, the chances are, those who are providing the direct front-line service are working in a company with a poor employee experience.
Customer service shouldn't be forced, scripted nor fake. A good company, with a good product / service and good people, working for good leaders and managers, will naturally have good service.
Next time you're interacting with any customer service consider what management are doing to make it like it is.
Some examples:
We ate out in a wonderful sea front restaurant last week. When I asked the waitress what type of cheese a "gallybagger" cheese was, she shrugged her shoulders and glared at me. I asked her to go and find out. She was nice enough, but her training was lacking - a management problem.
I was trying to sort out an IT problem and needed to put my case on hold as I was going away. The person I was dealing with panicked and asked me if I would close my case and then re-open a new one after my holiday. His numbers would be bad and he'd be told off.....so the pressure, work and problems are pushed to me, the customer. Nice chap working in an organisation that measures the wrong thing. They are focusing on measuring "Case Open Time"....and not - "did we solve the customer's problem?"
In a cafe last week we ordered a cake and some drinks. One of the drinks didn't turn up for a while and, as everyone had already finished the food and drink, we asked if they could just not charge us for that drink - as it didn't turn up. They apologised profusely and refunded all of the drinks - only charging us for the food. Nice work.
A consistent good customer experience can only be achieved by having a consistent good employee experience. And this belongs to management.
Things of interest this week
Speaking of customer experience - here's Seth on why building robust systems of dealing with fires is easier than constantly mollifying angry customers. And yep, those systems belong to management :)
Check your job adverts - masculine words cause fewer women to apply for jobs....
Why this company makes every employee the CEO for the day.
How to foster a creative company culture.
Why uncertainty is so hard for our brains to handle.
Until next time
Rob
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Rob..