Ending Us vs Them... How to fix your Customer Service Culture.
We've all experienced bad service. Usually the reasons for it fall into one of three categories:
Sometimes it’s a person to person thing, where the humans involved either get along famously, or they don't. An easy fix if caught early.
Sometimes it’s a process or procedure thing, where, for whatever reason the system doesn't work in the customer’s favour. It's not always in the businesses best interests to change processes, unless there's a glitch... but the call is an easy one to make.
Sometimes it’s a culture thing. Sometimes the business treats the customer like the enemy because individual employees feel that way. This reason for bad customer service is the one that does the most damage and is hardest to fix.
Some customers are jerks
Everyone who has ever dealt with a customer knows that some of them are jerks. They can be entitled, stupid, angry, mean and all too often, wrong. It doesn't happen all the time, but the more an employee has to deal with jerks, the more they are going to dislike dealing with customers. These bad interactions create a rift between ‘servicees' and ‘servicers’, and this breeds a customer service culture of 'us vs them'.
It’s well documented how destructive poor customer service can be - from consuming valuable time to brand damage to the loss of income. Poor service stemming from the belief that customers are the enemy and a pain in the ass will hurt your business, and managers know this; maxims like ‘The Customer Is Always Right’ are an attempt at shifting culture in a more productive direction. But saying things that are patently untrue often just highlights management's disconnect with the realities of the front line.
[Customers] come to the conversation primed and ready to fight... they want to come out on top.
Employees aren’t idiots. they’re human and they’re emotional - they know the customer isn’t always right, and they know how it feels to have a rough encounter with a disgruntled customer. Guess what? Customers are human too! Except they come to the conversation primed and ready to fight - regardless of whether they're signing up, experiencing a technical issue or lodging a complaint they want to walk away with a win. So really, it’s easy to see how an 'us vs them' culture forms.
To a certain extent, a business can function well despite a general belief that customers are the enemy, but it takes effort and an element of hypocrisy to deliver good service under war-like conditions. Eventually it becomes acceptable and in fact almost necessary to dislike customers (see Jen Turi's post on cognitive dissonance) - and when that happens, the business is in trouble.
The key is to prevent the formation of an 'us vs them' culture.
1 - Start the right conversations with the right customers in the first place.
Customers have a need or a want and the business offers a product or service that fulfils specific needs or wants. Sometimes the business attracts the customer, sometimes the customer finds the business. Either way, the customer has the power in the relationship. And this is where things like “The Customer Is Always Right” come from. But if the needs or wants of the customer are a bad fit for the product or service on offer, then the relationship simply won’t work.
So, honest marketing to customers for whom your product or service is suitable it the first step. Don’t fall into the trap of wanting it all.
If you can attract only the customers that suit your business then you will cut the number of unsatisfied customers drastically.
2 - Connect with the customer.
If your business is genuinely trying to do well by the customer then management’s role is to encourage that conversation.
- Empower your employees by sharing the business’ goals across all departments, and ensure the customer’s importance to success is clear.
- Create a new culture of collaboration.
- Make sure everyone shares their insights about the business and customer service with everyone else, connecting across departments and seniorities.
Siloed departments with limited knowledge of each other’s goals, mandates and processes inevitably result in frustration for customers. Giving employees the ability to fully explain the situation to the customer will neutralise frustration, engender understanding and create connection; and 'us vs them' becomes obsolete.
3 - Review your technology and touchpoints.
However you communicate with your customers, you need to be aware of the impression you leave. For example, automated phone messages that waste their time and don’t solve their problem eventually deliver them to your employees in a highly pissed off state. FAQs pages a mile long but with no contact information can leave a customer feeling that if they don't fit in the box they are out in the cold.
Nobody gets in touch with a business just to say hi - but don't make it worse before you get to make it better.
You can prevent issues like this by actually experiencing how a customer interacts with you. Don’t get caught up in individual channels or touchpoints, technology and associated costs vs benefits just yet - step back for a moment.
- Take the customer’s role in the conversation.
- Encourage your employees to do it too.
- Test a bunch of product or service based situations and see how it feels to be your own customer.
- Collaborate with customers and employees to identify areas of frustration.
Only then should you re-design touchpoints or communications, taking learnings into account. Nobody gets in touch with a business just to say hi - but don't make it worse before you get to make it better. Going through this process means customers will be less frustrated and employees will be able to better empathise.
4 - Be the backup.
Regardless of the type of business you have or whether you have gone through the steps above, if you have employees dealing with unhappy customers they need someone who can deal with the really tough stuff.
It’s about preventing a negative interaction from damaging the customer service culture of your business.
Sure, they know why the customer is unhappy, they have heard it/read it/seen it first hand. They usually know what can and can’t be done to solve the problem. But if they can’t solve it for some reason or the customer just can’t be appeased then management needs to be there as backup. And by backup, I mean to take the problem off their hands.
- Understand the issue.
- Decide whether the business is willing or able to save the relationship with the customer.
- Do what needs to be done, whether that's a bespoke solution or saying goodbye.
It’s not about swinging in because your employee is incompetent, it’s about taking a problem that is damaging morale and keeping them from serving other customers, and making it go away because you are management. It’s about preventing a negative interaction from damaging the customer service culture of your business.
Overall, customer service is a complicated beast. You are dealing with evolving technology, competition, humanity, business goals and financial constraints. Customers are tricky, and they’ve long been conditioned to get the better of businesses whenever possible. But they aren't all bad, and they are the reason you can pay your mortgage, so if you want to keep the bank at bay, prevent bad customer service.
In short:
- Keep an eye out for 'us vs them' culture.
- Empower your employees with information.
- Attract the right customers and connect with them.
- Support customer service with technology and touchpoints that are customer centric.
- Back up your employees so they don’t get embittered by the tough customers.
Do you want help with fixing your customer service? Fill in your info and we'll be in touch.