Bad Service

#2. Bad Customer Service

Intellectual Property & Financial Services professional

William Cunningham

I was in a drug store the other day (the one you are thinking of) and had a terrible service experience. Bad experiences don’t just affect customers but can quickly damage your company’s reputation; especially in this day and age with social media, Tweets, and Bloggers abound.   Bad customer service is sometimes the fault of an individual, but consistent bad service is a sign of bad management within the company.   Managers are either unaware of the problem or do not have the skill-set to address it properly. Communication with employees, putting the right people into management positions, and paying attention to customer feedback are ongoing priorities for companies.

Customer service is not something you can just address once and walk away from. There is not a one time fix because there are all sorts of things that can go wrong within a service model for clients. Customer service is fluid and perpetual.   Managers at the top and team leaders have to prioritize customer service and be diligent. When a company prioritizes other things over service goals, employees will become complacent - and lackluster service can quickly become the norm in your organization.    I’ll us my recent drug store experience as an example.

I walked in for some shopping and to pick up a prescription. I checked and there was a line at the pharmacy - only two people - but there was no line at the front counter for groceries; so I shopped first. Having shopped and paid the cashier I asked if I could leave my bags at the front counter to go back to the pharmacy. (This is good customer service - being convenient and understanding to the client or customer.)

Back at the pharmacy I noticed the line had not moved at all; the same lady was still checking out and the same guy was still in line behind her (and I didn’t shop that fast). I took my place in line and began to analyze the situation to diagnose what was going on (lifelong habit of mine).   There was one checkout girl, one lady for the drive-through, one person manning the phone, one filling prescriptions, and a manager, also filling prescriptions, but overseeing it all. Four employees plus a manager, three customers in line; this should be a slam-dunk.

The backup of the line was caused by a slow cashier -- she was either new, or, not getting it. She asked a lot of questions and left the register a couple of times, too. The customer in line wasn’t swift either, but, she’s a customer - she takes her time checking out her goods, fishing through her purse for coupons one at a time, trying hard to read all manner of ID and bank cards. But that’s her right to do so. What is not right is leaving a queue with only 2-3 people backed up for 20 minutes. The man in front of me had been waiting since I parked my car.

This is a situational management fail. The manager was there, filling prescriptions, but he has to know his staff’s capabilities and in general where they are. A manager has to recognize problems and intervene. And most important, a manager has to anticipate problems and head them off before they occur (once the problem starts, it’s too late).

Perhaps every time the manager looked up he only saw two people in line. However, he has to recognize that he is seeing the same two people each time. After a time, he needs to intervene -- open another register, reassign an employee, or, (gasp!) jump in himself and take the next customer.

All too often I saw people promoted to management who thought they could leave their previous duties behind. Anytime you see a manager standing around just looking, you’ve found one -- a person who thinks their only job now is to go to meetings, check timesheets, and yell at people.

Remember this: You are promoted to management because of who you are at the time. The person you were in the customer service role. How good you were with customers, how well you spoke to colleagues, and how much managers like to be around you. You do not have to change your mindset -- you will have a new set of duties, maybe some skills to develop, but be yourself!  (There’s only been one person I’ve ever told that to who didn’t want to hear it. She fired me.)

If you change your mindset you become someone else; someone different than who was promoted. If you put your feet up on your desk, pretend to be on the phone, and let your team run amok all day, that is easily noticed by the higher-ups and will show up in your review. (You might still get a bonus though.) Bad managers tend to blame their underlings; Upper management tends to blame middle-management.

Remember the adage: A person who receives good customer service tells one other person; A person who experiences bad service tells ten. And a handsome, good-looking customer who has experienced ridiculously bad service writes about it.  - BC

Situational Management.
Know your staff.
Anticipate problems.
Intervene and Resolve.
Hire the Right managers for the job.
Customer Service is Perpetual and Fluid.
Bad managers blame their underlings; Upper management blames middle-management.