Customer Service, More Like Shmustomer Service
Where has top-notch customer service gone? I’ll tell ya, I can hardly find it anywhere. More often than not, I expect poor customer service and become overwhelmingly thankful when I receive just normal customer service. I started experiencing customer service when I became an adult, so, around 2006 (and yes, I’m still in my 20s and always will be). I remember going through a Starbucks drive thru, and if you waited too long or they made a mistake, they’d give you a “free drink” card. I don’t even think they have those anymore. Nowadays, if someone makes a mistake, they usually look at you like you’re the problem. You used to almost always expect to talk to a real person when you had to make an 800 number call to customer service. Now, you spend most of your time trying to figure out what number to press to talk to a real person, and when you get to that person, they have to transfer you to someone else or you get cut off and have to go through all of the prompts again. Recently, I called my internet mesh system manufacturer to fix our internet, and long story short, they did all kinds of technical support over the phone, then told me I needed to purchase a security contract for it to work better. Surprise!… it still didn’t work, so when I called back to get my money refunded, I realized the number I had originally called was not, in fact, the manufacturer at all, but a company posing as them. You can’t even expect a company to be completely truthful. I, also, recently went to pick up a grocery order and when I pulled up, the young female employee just stared at me, so I said “Hi”, she still just stared at me and then said, “Name please!”- like she was annoyed by me. I don’t do pickup orders often, so I don’t know the standard routine, but again, why am I in charge of controlling the conversation and customer service? She should treat everyone with a warm welcome and assume no one knows how to do a pickup order… AND this is in “Iowa nice” territory. Shout out to Kidde, my smoke detector company. I called them because my smoke detector was alarming, stating there was a fire, but there wasn’t. When I called them, I was able to talk to someone immediately. I ended up having to call twice, and both representatives I talked to were knowledgeable, patient, kind, and took their job very serious. They understood that having a malfunctioning smoke detector could be life-threatening. Sadly, the service I received from Kidde seems to be rare these days.
Customer service is a huge part of healthcare and can largely contribute to the care and healing a patient receives, whether it’s in a hospital, lab, testing/procedure center, or clinic. Customer service in healthcare also needs to translate over to phone calls and via online messaging systems/charts. It seems like employees are more confident in treating people poorly over a messaging system than in person because they’re not face to face. They feel like they can cut corners and be short and to the point, which is not okay at all! We’ve all witnessed poor bedside manner coming from physicians, nurses, techs, pretty much everyone. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect anyone to be perfect, but I do expect people to try and if they’re at fault, just apologize. As healthcare workers, we have to know and acknowledge that patients in our care are not exactly having a great day. They are sick. They don’t feel well. It’s unexpected. They’re in an unknown and anxiety inducing place and situation. No one wants to be sick, poked, prodded, and then treated poorly on top of that. Being empathatic can carry customer service a long way.
Let’s talk about what customer service should look like. It may sound like common sense, but apparently, a lot of people don’t have common sense or they don’t want to utilize it, especially when it comes to customer service.
Smile and greet clients/customers/patients: a smile is the opposite of a frown or scowl. Greetings can include, but are not limited to: “Hi, how are you?”, “Thanks for coming in!”, or “How can I help you today?” Also, if you are doing something non-essential, like mopping, cleaning windows, or typing on a computer, stop what you are doing, walk over to that customer, and help the customer. You can always get back to what you were doing when you’re done interacting with the customer. Customers > mopping.
Make eye contact and have open body language: when conversing with people, turn your body towards them and look at them in the eyes, nose, mouth, mole, or unibrow… really, anything on their face. And don’t forget, keep on smiling! Just because you’re on to the next step doesn't mean that you can forget the previous steps.
Actively listen and be attentive: Actually listen to what the customer is saying. Don’t just nod while thinking about the meatloaf you’re going to have for dinner that evening. Do more listening than talking. You need to know more about the customer than the customer needs to know about you… so shut that pie hole… or in your case, your meatloaf hole!
Be a gentleman or gentlewoman: Offer a chair or a drink. If you see or hear a need… meet it! Be one step ahead of the customer. Meet their need before they even have to ask for it. Use kind words and don’t cut people off while they’re talking. Be patient. Just remember, you can’t help the next person until you help this one, so don’t be in a rush. The only excuses for rushing are life threatening situations or explosive diarrhea.
Be knowledgeable: Know what the heck you’re talking about, and if you don’t, don’t act like you do know. Say this; “I don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out for you and get right back to you.”. Then, you should actually go figure it out for them. You learn something AND they learn something. Win win! Also, when you ARE knowledgeable, don’t treat the customer like they’re stupid. People only know what they know. We all have room to learn and grow.
Proper sign-off: when nearing the end of your customer service venture, ALWAYS ask if they need anything else. Don’t make it a yes or no question because that makes it easy for them to say no. Say, “What else can I help you with today?”. Then, both you and the customer know that their problem/need has been completely solved/resolved. You are now at the end of your interaction. Please end with a catchy phrase like “You stay classy San Diego.”, courtesy of the great and wise Ron Burgundy. Or you can use a more classic phrase like, “Bye, have a great day!” or “Thanks for coming in!”.
There you have it folks… 6 simple steps to proper customer service. You may even want to think about going above and beyond your call of duty… walk someone to the door, open the door for them, buy them a coffee, go the extra mile. Let’s get back to the basics of treating others how you would like to be treated.