Having been in the business of IT for 13 years, I can say with confidence that there was never a situation where the problem was only technical in scope. There was always a human factor, always a business factor - there was always a customer service facet to the project, the job, the trouble ticket, the phone call. When I ignored that, I got into trouble.
Customer Service - how to do it right - has always interested me, if only from a perspective of self-preservation. I don't really care for it, if you asked me then or now, I yearn for the day that we can just take the toy out of the box and play with the toy and not have to worry about how others will find it, work with it, break it, whatever. I think it's the seeking after simplicity -- just fix the thing and don't worry about anything else. I already know that life doesn't work that way and so, I don't think that way either.
But, how do you DO customer service well? How do you ensure you're taking care of your customers and your CSRs at the same time? How do you maximize customer satisfaction and profit margins at the same time? How do you emphasize quality without sacrificing time or cost? Clearly, this is a balancing act and there are many people who are interested in finding the perfect equation - I am one of those people.
The Problem of Customer Service
CSRs experience the joy of living between rocks and hard places. The rock of the company that wants them to maximize profit by 'instituting a quality process' in every interaction they undertake and the hard place of customers that want to whine, wheedle or bullyrag privileges out of the CSR that they have no business asking for.
Everyone has a point, of course. The business needs to maximize profit and maintain reasonable customer service expectations (nobody gets rich by writing checks, right?) and the customer knows that he can get something for nothing maybe 7 times out of 10 by behaving rude, unreasonable, unpleasant or all of the above. Why shouldn't the customer try to get something for free if the company is willing to offer it? Why shouldn't the company insist on paying as little overhead as possible? In the space between the business and the customer lives your Customer Service Reps. They're the civilians caught in the crossfire between two armies trying to claim as much real estate as possible.
The constant push and pull from both sides - constantly negotiating with both to make them as happy as possible - it wears you down after a while. Trying to mate customer expectations with the recent "All call documentation will be completed prior to next call and within your 2 minute wrap-up time" memo that circulated down...there's no way that you can't get dragged down by it.
Looking at the problem from a pop-rocks-psychology standpoint, it's not hard to understand the basic rule: you are what you're surrounded by. This is why we tell people to surround themselves with successful people to be successful. If that be the case, why is it so hard to understand that your CSR or phone support reps are unhelpful and/or unhelpful? They're surrounded by unpleasant and/or unhelpful people all day long! That guy who insisted his keyboard came from the factory with spilled Coke stuck under the keys and the lady who didn't realize her computer had to be plugged in to work - is it really that hard to understand that keeping your cool when dealing with jerks [or other, unpolite descriptors] takes a toll on you? All the mantras, all the silly jargon acronyms (Remember Together Everyone Achieves More?) - their effectiveness gets eroded like a cliff constantly pounded by waves. Coffee mugs, corporate events that do indoor go-kart racing and paintball - that stuff does only so much to counteract the mental hoodoo that gets put on you by people who treat you like a punching bag for hours in a day.
Does any of this sound like ground-breaking information? I doubt it. I put it out here to bring up the biggest problem of all, the one that stands in the way of making life better as a customer service representative for your company: Your company already knows how hard it is to be a customer service representative - they just don't care. Yes, I said it! Let the kingdom know that the Emperor wears no clothes! Let the sky fall, let the bears catch Goldilocks and let the wolf forever escape from the Woodsman! Yes, I said it...the problem with customer service is that the company is only willing to solve the problems of customer service if they manifest a clear and present danger to the profit margin. Since those problems are difficult to quantify in terms of bottom line impact (most of the time) companies will focus on the things that do have a direct effect on their bottom line. This is why people write "[Company Name] Horror Story" blog entries - they know that companies are afraid of "Bad press" (whatever that is, anymore) and will respond more rapidly than someone saying "I'll never shop here again!" Bad press can and does affect a bottom line...so do a lot of other retaliatory tactics that jerks, CSR and customer alike, have learned to execute. Getting a company's attention through outrageous behavior has been quietly condoned, mostly because the company hadn't addressed the problem and created a process for it.
As companies are becoming more aware of the cost of jerks as customers, they're beginning to do more about them. Case in point, Sprint fired a number of their 'problem customers' and the boost in morale to their CSRs was significant. Is firing customers the answer? Is there a way that we can all get together, sing Kumbaya and eat s'mores in the business world? Do you have to be Sprint to fire a customer? Let's take a station break and consider the possibilities in Part 3.
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