Every contact your company has with a customer, or potential customer, is a critical service moment. If you believe that, then every employee that interacts with the customer becomes an “official customer service representative” for your company. Most companies do not fully embrace this belief - some even deny it. It really doesn’t matter if a company believes it or not – customer service is a personal, intimate encounter between the person providing the service and the person receiving the service. Each encounter is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken the relationship with the customer.
Smart companies train their employees to capitalize on each of these critical service moments. Smart companies empower their employees to think and respond to each customer’s unique needs. Unfortunately, most companies are not smart companies and fall well short of maximizing their employees’ potential. Customer service training often gets regulated into an annual mandatory requirement, a two hour credit that somehow convinces the employer their employees are adequately trained. Smart companies realize that customer service training has to take place every day.
One industry that realizes the importance of excelling at each critical service moment is the healthcare industry. Although the need for customer service is recognized at every contact point, most industries including healthcare do not provide the necessary training or tools to be successful. Preaching the need for excellent customer service is only half the battle. Equally as important is selecting the right people and giving them the training they need to succeed.
Several years ago I went through Disney’s Quality Service in HealthCare training seminar in Orlando. Disney has a fanatical devotion to detail and refuses to leave any encounter with a visitor to chance. Employees are given exact instruction and trained relentlessly. No detail is too small. Employees are taught how to point and how to lean. I also remember something the presenter told us during the seminar. Not everyone is fit for human contact he advised us. He was exaggerating of course, but his point was simple, we’re not all “people persons.” Training can help to some degree but, without an innate desire to connect with the other person, it’s superficial in most cases.
This point was clearly illustrated to me during a recent visit to a grocery store. While picking up what I needed, I ran across something I wanted – cinnamon biscuit mix. All I needed to add was milk but I wanted to add another ingredient. I wanted a sugary glaze to pour over the biscuits while they were still hot. I looked in the baking section. I looked in the frosting section. I looked all over the store but I couldn’t find the glaze. Finally, after passing a couple store employees several times as I criss-crossed the store, I stopped and asked for their help. I’ve bought the glaze before, but it was in another store with the same chain. These two employees, however, seemed certain that this product didn’t exist. They didn’t bother to help me look or check with a manager. They didn’t budge. Instead, as if they had a running inventory of the store in their head, they quickly told me this product was unavailable if not non-existent. They quickly escalated my frustration when one of them actually told me that I should just make it myself. Defeated, I walked away and took the items out of my cart, put them back on the shelves and left the store.
Now I’m sure both employees thought they were giving good customer service. They had stopped what they were doing and listened to my request. Not only did they answer my question, they had also given me a possible solution. In their minds, I’m sure they thought I was satisfied with their answers and service when I left. They’ll never know for sure, however, because they didn’t take the time to ask me. If they would have asked, I would have told them that they had weakened our relationship. I would have told them that they had failed to strengthen their bond with me during this critical service moment. I would have told them their lack of effort and disagreeable comments were destructive and contrary to providing excellent customer service.
Will I ever return to this store? I’m sure I will because I have been pleased with the customer service I have received up to this point. All the good customer service I’ve received, however, has been nullified by my last encounter. In other words, we’ve reset the score back to zero. They have to start over in earning my brand loyalty. I know this may sound harsh, but companies don’t promise fair or inconsistent customer service – they promise excellent customer service every time. Smart companies succeed because they realize that every encounter with the customer or potential customer is a critical service moment and deliver outstanding customer service every time.