So do we really have control over customer service?

Well as a valued team member of any company much of that control is in the standards set by the management. However, given a lot of companies don’t have measurable standards; it’s often up to an individual to set their own.

Now I don’t advocate that business owners should not set standards, I strongly believe they are essential. They should have measurable, achievable expectations so that the staff can gauge themselves, and provide regular feedback. But if those standards are not set or clear, that shouldn’t mean you don’t set them for yourself.

I think that poor customer service situations often occur because someone takes offence to what they perceive has been alluded to by the other party. You see in last issue’s article we showed that 68% of customers leave a business due to PERCEIVED INDIFFERENCE and the important word here is PERCEIVED. That can be the case on both sides. A customer perceives that you don’t care, don’t know, are thinking of something else, are rude, and are snappy or disinterested. But that is their perception only. They form a view early and this could lead to them not returning to do business with you again, because they respond to what they think is happening in your mind.

That also happens the other way around. A customer will come to the counter, be a little abrupt, short, demanding or rude and the team member immediately responds to that as a defence mechanism, by treating the customer the same way. Yet something terrible may have happened to that person that morning (heaven forbid). They may be sick themselves or had a child admitted to hospital. They may have lost their purse or wallet, had a pet put down or had a trolley crash into their car in the carpark. All these things we could empathise with and often never consider at the time of serving them.

I guess the message in this article is not everything is about you! If a client is annoyed or rude, DON’T take it personally. If the staff member is snappy while you are buying something, be a little patient. There may be some real life issue here. DON’T TAKE EVERYTHING SO PERSONALLY. If you do the right thing and hold yourself and your service standards in high regard, you will conquer most challenges and difficult people.

By Gary Jeffress