My Take on Customer Service

I'm not alone in feeling that all the talk about providing exceptional customer service is just that--talk. Vendors of customer services technologies, and trainers of customer service skills, and writers of books about customer service offer great solutions that is snapped up by companies desperately afraid of getting complaints from customers. What good does this all do?

The problem for the people on the front lines is that they are often asked to exceed expectations without having the resources to just meet expectations. Corporate directives tell these customer service providers to hurry up, or follow "policies" to the letter, or stick to the script.

With the diversity of customers in the world today, how is it possible for a fixed period of service time, a set of policies, or a script, to satisfy all customers? These tools may limit costs and add to net profit, but they also limit initiative, inhibit personality, and turn every contact with a customers into a test--did you follow the rules?

Business owners of small and medium companies are in the sights of vendors of 'customer relationship solutions'. These vendors promise cost and time savings by methods that reach out to customers with the smallest use of human resources.

You can decide to increase your net profit by investing in human resources, rather than by reducing them.

• Teach your customer service team how to ask questions that get meaningful answers quickly.
• Teach your customer service team how to listen to each other, and work together for the common cause.
• Teach your csutomer service team to remember that , as L.L. Bean said years ago, "The customer is the reason for our work."