The Wilder Zone

Say What?! An Example of Good Customer Service Gone Bad

Last night my sweetheart Glenn and I went grocery shopping for the week at a major chain grocery store. By the time we were done it was about 8:30pm and the idea of cooking once we got back to the house didn't appeal to either of us.

We decided to pick up a rotisserie chicken from the store's deli. They were running a special that included a side dish and rolls. As we were standing there a store employee walked up to ask if we were finding everything we needed.

Not an unusual occurrence in this particular chain grocery store. Every time I visit one of these grocery stores I have anywhere from 1-3 employees ask me that very question. The store training manual obviously spells out that employees are to ask this question of their customers, and I'm betting it's because the store expects that having its employees do so will provide a higher level of customer service. Which made what happened next all the more surprising:

Glenn (in response to the store employee's question): Do you have mashed potatoes?

Store employee #1 (shouting to store employee #2 behind the deli counter): Did we throw the mashed potatoes in the garbage yet?

Store employee #2 (shouting back to store employee #1): I don't know. Let me check.

Meanwhile...Glenn and I are looking at one another with stunned expressions on our faces and I'm thinking, "Say WHAT?! No way! He did not just say that!" Moments later Glenn and I are both laughing at the complete lack of decorum. Clearly the store training manual didn't cover an exchange such as this. And let me just clarify, should you be wondering...both store employees were adults. You'd think they'd have known better. You'd think no one would have had to tell them that this was not an appropriate exchange to be having in front of a customer.

This is a prime example of why, if you have a team of people working with you and representing you and your business, it might prove helpful to be more specific than you think you need to be about what your expectations are. Sometimes the things you think go without saying need to be said.

Do You Have an Emergency Back-up Plan for Your Business?

The phone was ringing. Instinctively I was rolling out of bed in response before I was even fully awake. As I did so my eyes fell on the glowing red numbers on the bedside clock - 2:56am. I ran for the phone. 3am phone calls are never good news. As I grabbed the phone from the table where I'd left it the night before the "missed call" message flashed onto the screen. I flipped the phone open to see that the call had come from my friend, the mother of my 17 year old son's best friend. "Shit, shit, shit...." I began chanting as I dialed her number. No answer. My panic rising, I hit redial. Still no answer. "Shit, shit, shit..." I'm mumbling under my breath now trying to keep the panic at bay. I hit redial again and she finally answers.

"What's going on?" I asked, skipping the niceties altogether. "You mean you don't know?" she asked. "Know WHAT?!" the rising panic clear in my voice now. "The boys were in a bad accident," she replied.  "The car was totaled." 

"OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod!" My panic was full blown now. My heart dropped into my stomach, chills ran down my spine and my throat clenched closed as all the air was seemingly sucked out of the room in that instant. For a moment I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. Then one word ran through my mind - breathe - as I realized I was gasping for breath, and the mother-instinct that has been fine-tuned over 20 years of raising kids kicked in and the panic receded enough for me to speak. "Are they okay? Where are they?" My voice still sounded a bit shrill to my own ears and the dread in my voice was echoed in hers as she replied, "I don't know. They're being taken to St. Anthony's."

"I'll meet you there," I replied. I was already stepping into my jeans and looking frantically for my shoes. Two minutes later I was in the car, trying to maintain some semblance of calm so that I could drive. "Breathe, breathe, just breathe," I thought. It was taking every ounce of will I had to prevent any other thoughts from running through my mind. My concentration slipped for a moment as I prayed, "Please God, please God, let them be okay. Please let them be okay." I pulled my attention back to my breathing as I realized that silent plea was increasing my sense of panic.

Needless to say, as I rushed to the hospital ER, my business was the furthest thing from my mind and I didn't stop before I left the house to grab the phone number for the clients with whom I had a call scheduled for later that morning.

That was a week ago. Thankfully, my son and his friend were released from the hospital several hours later with only minor injuries and my clients were the essence of understanding about the missed call.

However this leads me to the question in the title of this post - do you have an emergency back-up plan for your business should you ever receive one of those dreaded 3am phone calls? If an unexpected emergency arises that requires your undivided time and attention do you have a plan that will allow someone else to take care of things for you?

While we all hope we'll never receive one of those calls, it's important to plan for the possibility by creating an emergency back-up plan. If you don't already have one there's no better time than now to create one. If you haven't already done so, document the most critical aspects of your business. Create master lists of: 

• Contact info for your clients and for your team if you have one.
• Passwords to any business tools you use regularly such as business email, an online calendar, project management system, auto-responder system, etc.
• Account numbers and passwords for any business accounts.
• Accounts payable/receivable and any associated account numbers and due dates.
• Critical tasks and any details needed to accomplish them, including a schedule for when they need to be accomplished.
• Anything else critical to your particular business.

These lists and an operating manual if you have one (if you don't have an op manual you should, but that's another post), become your emergency back-up plan.

The next and final step is to give this emergency back-up plan to a trusted team member, colleague or friend so that in the event of an emergency you're able to make a single phone call and they can implement it for you.

Creating an emergency back-up plan insures that if you ever do find yourself or a loved one in an emergency situation you have the peace of mind of knowing that at a minimum, the most basic and critical aspects of your business are being taken care of.

   

Gain Powerful Relationship Insights

Life and business is really all about relationships. I don't know anyone, myself included, who doesn't from time to time have one or more relationships they'd like to improve. Whether it's a personal relationship with a spouse or significant other, with your children, friends, or family or business relationships with potential clients, current clients, colleagues or the team you're building to grow your business.

Because relationships are at the heart of both our personal and business lives,  I'd like to  invite you to join me tomorrow night, Tues. Nov. 14th, at 9:30 pm EST, for a special free tele-seminar where I'll be interviewing spiritual teacher and relationship expert, Ron Wypkema, about the revolutionary relationship model which is helping people’s lives and experience of relationship transform dramatically.

I've mentioned Ron here before, and when I heard about his approach to relationship, I found it so exciting and so refreshingly new in the field of relationship coaching and training, that I wanted to be a part of getting the word out....that's how much I believe you can benefit from this. In addition to the interview you'll have the opportunity to experience first-hand one of his techniques and to ask any questions you may have about his methods. To join us simply register now. I hope to 'see' you there.

AOL: How Not to Handle Customer Service

Can you imagine a customer service manual with these instrctions:

Be rude.
Be obnoxious.
Be annoying.
Refuse the customer's request - repeatedly.
Talk over the customer.
Argue with the customer.
Patronize the customer.
Imply that you know better than the customer what is best for them.
Follow it all with a threat and subject the customer to another 60 sec diatribe they have no interest in, and have already indicated they don't want to hear.

While I can't imagine such a manual existing, after listening to Vincent Ferrari's attempt to cancel his AOL service you have to wonder if the AOL rep he spoke with was reading from just such a manual. This isn't just poor customer service by an apathetic rep. You have to actively work at providing such horrible customer service.  Enough of my comments.....check out this short video clip of an interview with the Today Show's  Matt Lauer. The recording really speaks for itself.

While no one likes to lose a customer or client, when the customer or client is committed to moving on, you have two choices......you can amicably wish them on their merry way, or you can follow this AOL rep's lead.  With the former, while the customer may no longer need or want your services they may still refer others, while  in the latter you may well wind up with a great deal of negative word-of-mouth, which, like it or not folks, tends to spread like wildfire as this one call from Vincent Ferrari demonstrates.