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Business Growth 3
A Customer Service Train Wreck
By Ellen
Huxtable
Don’t be stupid.
Once upon a time,
not so long ago, a mother sent an offspring to camp for the week.
Realizing that the offspring had forgotten a medication, the mother
delivered the medicine to the camp office at 10:30 a.m., noted the
next dose was due at 4 p.m., and was assured, somewhat abruptly,
that “We’ll get it to him.” At 10 p.m. that night, via text message
(because kids don’t talk, they text) during the only free time at
camp, the offspring noted he had not received the medication, but
would stop by the camp nurse the next day. At 10 p.m. the next night
offspring noted that the nurse didn’t have the medication, but that
“some unknown Resident Assistant” had it.
Calls to the camp
the next morning by the now somewhat concerned mother resulted in
two voicemails which were never returned, and one person who said
they’d look into it and reported that they had left voicemails for
other staff, implying that the problem was solved. The response to
the mother’s concerns that the medication was overdue by two days
was “Oh yes, this is a teachable moment for the Resident
Assistants.” The somewhat agitated mother requested that Ms.
“Teachable Moment” leave additional voicemails to the staff,
instructing them to notify her immediately when the medication was
delivered.
A few hours later,
with no response, agitated mom called additional staff numbers (the
camp prides itself on its accessibility to parents and gives
multiple phone numbers) and got another voicemail and the
residential coordinator, who seemed unaware of any of the previous
messages. The coordinator promised to ask about it at the staff
meeting later that day and call the mom back. When no call was
received, mom called again, was told that the medication was
delivered within the last half hour and that the offspring had been
paged both days, but “might not have been in.”
Don’t be stupid.
·
Your
customer’s or client’s problem is YOUR problem.
·
Saying something is fixed is not the same as fixing it.
·
Communicate internally and let the customer know.
·
Going
through the motions doesn’t count. You have to actually accomplish
something.
·
A
customer’s problem trumps “teachable moments.” Don’t even go there.
·
It’s
your job to go above and beyond expectations and fix the problem
NOW.
Poor customer
service destroys credibility. No one wants to deal with an
organization that appears either arrogant or incompetent. And no one
has to.
Ellen Huxtable
is the owner of Advantage Business Concepts, a firm specializing in
management support to small and mid-sized businesses. Read more at
www.advantagebiz.wordpress.com or visit
www.advantage-biz.com.
She is also the co-founder of
Growth Groups.
Coffee with the editor: As the publisher and editor of Business Growth Ideas,
Paul R. Lloyd welcomes your questions about writing and editing a newsletter. Call 630-393-6516 or send an
email.
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