Know Your Stuff

There are many fine points to providing good customer service, including the application of empathy, listening and communication skills, and follow up. With the aim of improving the care we provide to our customers, we receive individual coaching, work as a team to develop strategies and procedures, and go to endless learning sessions du jour designed to improve specific skills that contribute to our service abilities. That’s all important – very important. But I maintain that the foundation of good customer service is for people to be extremely competent at their jobs. Yes, just Know Your Stuff. Think about times you have been disappointed with service you have received. How often has the root of the issue been a service provider who doesn’t know what they are doing? For example: Long lines at the register at a store because the clerk doesn’t know the computer functions. Hotel checkout takes longer than it should because the agent doesn’t know how to correct the charges added to a bill in error. Empty your grocery bags at home and find the poor defenseless raspberries crushed under a jug of orange juice. Waiters put dishes down in front of the wrong guest because they didn’t note who ordered what. Any of these scenarios result in customer DIS-satisfaction as a result of incompetence on the job. Sweet smiles, hollow apologies, and thanks rarely take the stink off a customer encounter badly botched. “Sorry you had to wait” or “Thank you for being patient” are well-intentioned, but I’m sorrier than you that I had to wait! And I’m not patient! I beseech companies to collect and examine their customer feedback data and get to the root of their customer complaints. Take time and spend money first on preparing your employees to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Then layer the finer points of customer service on top of competency. Show that you Know Your Stuff, and your enterprise and its representatives will both be more successful.