1:1 Customer Service

Most marketing books focus on the first 1: the customer. 3 recent customer service experiences brought home to me that the second 1: the individual provider is probably even more important. In our rush to apply technology to customer service, we have neglected that in the end it comes down to the individual service provider.

Example 1: Positive

I was at Blockbuster last night to get the kids a movie. At checkout, the assistant asks me "why are you paying $3.99 to rent this movie when you can buy it for the same price?" And then sensing my concern about a pre-viewed item, he goes "if it is scratched, you have 30 days to bring it back". Wow, I said - yes Blockbuster has evolved in to a kinder, gentler company as NetFlix forced it to, but it was the particular employee who stepped up. He could have just processed the rental and it would have gone down as a satisfied customer transaction. Instead he went a step further.

Example 2 :  Neutral

I go into the Cingular store because my stereo head/speakerset is acting up. It came with the PDA and I expected to get a warranty exchange and be out in 5 minutes. The clerk who helped me could not find the original receipt in the system, but can see with family plans and all I am one of their bigger individual customers. He could have just gone to the storeroom and got me the item and we would have both smiled and I would be out. Instead he calls the manager who asks where I bought it. I tell him the Cingular store I bought it at, and he says that is a dealer, not a corporate store.  That was followed by a flurry of phone calls, and the end result was 45 minutes later I left with a form to mail in the defective headset. And a lecture on why I should buy things at corporate stores, not dealers. What does it matter - I am a Cingular customer, for pete's sake. No information on how long it would take, whether it was covered under warranty. Take your chance - mail it in.

Example 3 - Negative

On my 16 hour Delta flight back from India, both my laptop batteries have run out over Ireland. I ask the flight attendant if he could take my laptop to business class and charge it while I take a nap. He says there are no empty seats in business class. I say I know there are 3 because I am already annoyed I did not get upgraded to one of those seats. He says we are not allowed to let economy passengers go up front. I say that's exactly why I am requesting you do it. He says - not my job. I ask to see a more senior attendant. She comes along and says we do not do that anymore. And I say I had it on a flight just a couple of months ago. She says we now have a rule against it. I say show me the ops manual. Something finally clicks that I was prepared to escalate to the captain of the ship if necessary and she takes the laptop and charges it. I was stupid to create a fuss at 39K feet - in this day and age you can get arrested for just raising your voice at an airline employee. But it would not have cost the first attendant a dime to do me that favor. And if he had bothered to check the printed passenger manifest would have shown my 2 million mile level at Delta. Not that my level should have mattered - it was as basic a request as a mom asking for a baby bottle to be heated, or someone asking for an extra blanket.

So what's the point of all this? Corporations have tried to homogenize customer service through technology and standardized policies. Realize that is needed to scale. But customer service is in the end delivered by individuals. If they are hostile, bored, unempowered all the investment in process and technology means little.

If corporations truly care about customer service, they will seek out and recognize the first employee, retrain the second, and temporarily assign the third to baggage service. Put some teeth behind the glib statement "We never forget the customer has a choice". Have employees repeat the statement after each customer interaction.