I USUALLY CONSIDER MYSELF A FAIRLY PATIENT PERSON. HOWever, a few customer-service issues of late have seriously tried that patience.
It makes me wonder if the current labor shortage is affecting companies’
ability to serve their customers properly.
The unemployment rate stood at 3.7% all summer. It’s tougher than
it’s been in decades to find good help. So it’s understandable that service might take a back seat when companies are forced to hire from a
less-than-desirable labor pool. But that doesn’t mean we should settle for
what often feels more like customer disservice.
Without getting into the murky details, my recent experiences included poor service in a restaurant, the inability to find
a trained person to assist with a large-appliance purchase, and heavily advertised items that no one could
locate. We’ve probably all found ourselves trapped in
the customer-service version of Dante’s circles of hell
when trying to resolve a simple issue by phone that
would have taken a human 30 seconds to fix. Instead,
we’re taken on a full tour of the automated call system’s menu options only to return to the menu where
we started. Pressing “0” never seems to summon a
human anymore.
Although companies may not realize it, the effects of
poor service add up over time. Most unhappy customers will not complain directly to the businesses that
disappoint them; they simply won’t return. And then
they share their experiences on social media.
Obviously, good customer service requires finding people who are willing and able to be trained to work with customers—which isn’t easy even
in times of plentiful labor. On top of that, workers today, especially those
on the lower rungs of the ladder, change jobs frequently. That means that
all of that training often goes for naught.
For good customer service, it is not enough to just keep workers happy.
People today need to be engaged in their work. It’s much more than
employee satisfaction. It’s a belief in the organization’s mission and a
desire to do their part to ensure the company’s success.
Training firm Dale Carnegie said in a 2017 report that the three factors
that most affect an employee’s engagement are the worker’s relationship
with his or her direct manager, a belief in the senior leadership, and pride
in working for the company.
With so many examples of poor service out there, companies can easily
differentiate themselves from their competitors simply by focusing on
good service. The low-hanging fruit is to start by engaging the employees
who engage the customers.
bigpicture
Editorial Director
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