1. People are more than willing to share their negative service experiences with others and with no shortage of social media forums, a global audience is just a click away.
2. For trainers of service professionals, these shameful yet often times oddly humourous stories make for great learning tools. I mean, just read a few of these responses from service representatives. These are actual responses people have received from employees.
“You’re not following our process.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s our policy and I’m not connecting you with my supervisor.”
“What do you want me to do about it?”
“It’s not our fault that you have this problem – it’s yours.”
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do for you.”
“Yeah, really not my problem, lady.”
“You should buy one of those bust reducing bras from XYZ”
“I am sorry but that’s our policy” (watch for a blog on this – this is a pet peeve of mine)
“You’re stupid.”
And my favourite of all is the following. This listening-related issue deserves its own blog as we spend a lot of time facilitating essential listening skills to our service professional learners. Here it is...
Customer: “My name is Debra. My father Pat passed away and I am the Executor of the Estate. I am calling to cancel his account.”
The service rep replied, “Well, I need to talk to Pat.”
Unfortunately, when you read the stats and figures on how much money is lost each year by businesses due to poor customer experiences, it is no laughing matter, particularly to managers and business owners. Our workshops spend time helping learners understand the connection between their performance, the company’s bottom line, performance reviews that link to promotions, incentive bonuses, gratuities, etc...
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