Indicators of Weak Customer Service Programs

I don't know if people who buy service or expensive products do this but ever since I started getting evaluated for customer service quality, I began to compare everything I do in customer service to every store or shop that I patronize.

I am very optimistic that those who are good at the basics of customer service will grow whether they like it or not.

Do you know why I truly believe this?

There is so much bad service out there that doing the basic things like courtesy, listening, and actually doing something for customers will look exceeding exceptional in the eyes of a customer.

Let's take a look at a great number of indicators to open your eyes on things you should NOT or NEVER do!

The customer is often or usually talking to the owner, supervisor or general manager regarding issues of service delivery that are basic or mundane better delegated to rank-and-file.

Customers who call by phone will not get ready answers to inquiries nor get issues resolved within minutes or will not be referred to the "right" person who can resolve the issue or respond to the inquiry.

Service agreements or terms and conditions of delivery are filled with clauses of what the customer cannot have or what the customer will do that will void the agreement or violate the terms & conditions of the service. Some of the terms and conditions I've seen in computer maintenance are so full of things that can't be done, the sales people were finding it hard to explain exactly what they will deliver.

Written communications related to customer issues are evasive and are normally written in a legal or lawyer's editorial style or tone. You may have heard of service companies who take their customers to expensive lunch meetings because that's the only thing they can really do right and which they don't deliver themselves.

Service personnel are overly cautious when responding to issues related to terms and conditions of delivery and will be non-committal when communicating with customers regarding action to be taken.

Personnel responding to customers are curt and seem to exhibit arrogance when requested to clarify issues or when interacting with customers. There are even truly obnoxious and rude characters who are just being arrogant as a ploy to hide a plain old fashion rip-off. These are genuine con artists who should be behind bars rather than behind the service counter.

Service personnel are not keeping records of tasks or are using forms (some don't even have them) that are either poorly designed, printed in so many copies or going through unnecessary layers of procedures that tend to frustrate customers rather than help them.

There simply is no system in place for the business to gather information or data about customers. The service people seem to have the habit of passing you to different people or offices in the guise of "escalation" without explaining why.

The people are just downright or simply sloppy exhibited by dirty work area, poorly groomed service personnel, inappropriate uniforms, bad layout of service area, poor communication skills, and apparent lack of training even in the most elementary procedures of phone handling or management of customer complaints.

Poorly labeled or misleading labels on products or services.

The business is simply selling products or service with a branding strategy that smells like a scam or rip off more than anything else.

Exaggerated and use of worn out claims in advertisements. If it's too good to be true, it's really too good to be true.

It takes so long for a walked-in customer to get prompt human contact or interaction from frontline staff. If you're standing in a reception area for five minutes without any staff acknowledging your presence, you're in there too long.

Had enough?

You should!

I had enough of bad service a long time ago!

I'll take you down a road where you never have to be the bad guy in Customer Service.

You might think that I have some secret or sophisticated technique behind all these customer service concepts but honestly, I don't.

What I have is an experience in the simple things in business and lots of common sense. I want you to read and read between the lines.

The best Customer Service managers are very good at the basics. 

You will too.