Back in the mid-1980s, Wendy’s captivated the nation with their “Where’s the beef?” campaign, featuring octogenarian Clara Peller as a feisty, cantankerous fast food customer who was dissatisfied about the quality of her hamburger. Everyone remembers the hook line from the commercial, because Clara’s character slams the counter several times demanding to know, “Where’s the beef?” However, very few people remember the commercial’s closing line, delivered with disgust – “Oh, I don’t think there’s anybody back there!” It was funny for a while, but Wendy’s eventually moved on to a new campaign (and fired Clara after she did a commercial for Prego Spaghetti Sauce in which she exclaimed, “I found it!”). Unfortunately, even though Wendy’s and Clara moved on, the issue raised by the commercial – phantom customer service – is still very much with us.
How often do customers attempt to contact your company, articulating there own personal version of “where’s the beef?” only to discover that there is “nobody back there?” Clara wanted to talk to a real person about her problem. She wanted somebody to take her seriously, take a look at her situation, and find a solution that would satisfy her expectations (beef in her burger). Instead, she was ignored. The humans in the back refused to come out and face her.
Most customer service programs these days actually start with Clara’s worst nightmare, because “there’s nobody back there” from the very beginning of the call. Customers must force their way through a maze of phone tree instructions that may or may not point them in the direction of the answer to their question. Phone trees work great for some tasks, especially those that help address FAQs, or in cases where the customer already knows exactly how to address his solution and only needs to press a button to activate it.
However, phone trees are annoying to most customers because the choices and the information can be overwhelming, and even after they listen to ALL of the choices, many customers do not find a choice that speaks to their need. They have spent five minutes listening to prompts and punching buttons and have nothing to show for it except wasted time and elevated blood pressure. For all their trouble, they come up empty because the humans are still hiding in the back.
It used to be that companies would include a prompt allowing you to dial “0” for all other questions. Even if that option was not specified, until recently you could still dial “0” and talk to a real person. However, more and more companies are now disabling the “0” feature on their phone trees. (I still manage to get around it sometimes by dialing five or six numbers at random. After attempting to explain to me that my entry is not recognized, whereupon I dial more numbers, the phone tree queen will sometimes route me to a live person, assuming that I must have some type of disability that keeps me from operating a key pad. Either that or she just hangs up.) My point is, customer service departments these days are working even harder to make themselves completely inaccessible to normal people with normal problems. The message comes across loud and clear: “We may be back here (and we may not, we’ll never tell), but we are not coming out to talk to you.”
As I said, phone trees work great for some things, and I don’t mind using them when it makes sense to do so. I understand that companies employ phone trees because it saves money and offers quicker access to some services that customers request most often. But this really doesn’t justify the extremes to which some companies have gone to insulate their CSRs from the customers they are supposed to be serving. After all, customers are people, too. And just because they are – like Clara’s character – a little feisty and cantankerous at times, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with respect and dignity. Try to assure that your customer service programs meet these basic needs:
? Find a way to let your customers know you take them seriously. The sooner they can be allowed to speak with a live person, the sooner they will start to feel like you care about their needs instead of just wanting their money.
? Take whatever time necessary to understand the true nature of their situation. A customer isn’t just voice in a holding line; he is someone who can’t burn a CD with pictures of his daughter’s graduation because the stupid CD burner on the computer you sold him won’t read the disc.
? Find a solution that will adequately meet the customer’s needs. I realize that it is unreasonable for a customer to ask for a replacement CD player if he drove over his in the driveway, but most customers have normal problems and reasonable requests. Just put the beef back in the hamburger, which is all they wanted in the first place, and they will be happy.
Don’t forget, it costs five times more to sell a customer the first time than it does to sell him a second time. Keeping customers coming back is the smartest, cheapest marketing plan in the world. So if you are looking for ways to increase profits going forward, you might want to think about spending money on upgrading customer service. Replace some of those annoying prompts with real people. Quit hiding in the kitchen; come back to the counter and talk to us customers who are tired of the fluff and would like a little substance added back into our customer relationships. Companies who make the effort to “beef up” their customer service will have customers coming back begging for more.
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December Customer Service Quick Tip of the Month – Clue In To Vocal Cues
On one level, customer service can be pretty simple; answer the next call, click over to the right screen, read the script, pick an option, have a nice day, and keep moving. You followed the protocols but did you really meet the customer’s needs? An important part of finding a solution for you customer is providing that point of human contact that says to them, “I hear you, I know how you feel, I am here to help.” One of the most powerful ways to do this is to match your pace and tone of voice to theirs. Do they sound sad and overwhelmed? Choose a tone that is sympathetic, kind and patient. Do they sound just a little bit outraged? Pick up the pace and add a little intensity to your voice as if to say, “I hear you, man. That would tick me off, too!” Listen to the message behind the message –the one that their vocal cues reveal, and then respond in a way that lets your customer know they have been heard and understand.
