Here’s an exercise I often assign during the initial work up on a project. At the point I do this, I have a company team together with front-line people and at least one supervisor or manager. I don’t allow programmers or techies in until we’ve spent some time getting people thinking clearly about what they need.

The exercise came about because I was frustrated with people who could say the words about good customer service, but weren’t doing it themselves. As the saying goes, they could ‘talk the talk, but they couldn’t walk the walk’! In most cases, they didn’t even realize what they were doing.

FIRST … everyone goes to lunch or some other non-company activity like stopping at a book store, visiting a gym, or whatever they do with their break time (when I did this in England, it was often stopping at the Pub)

SECOND … everyone records an outline of their experience, capturing not only WHAT happened, but also how they FEEL about what happened.

THIRD … everyone reports to the group on their experience focusing especially on their feelings about what happened, both good and bad and discussing how the good and bad things that happened are happening or not happening in their own jobs.

It doesn’t really work well without a team, because you really have to hear other people discuss THEIR experiences to get the most benefit from it, but try it yourself anyway. You could even do this exercise over the phone. Try calling your PC Manufacturer for service, or Microsoft, or Apple. Record what happened and how you felt about it. For example …

———————– Phone Service Experience ——————-
I’ve been waiting here for 30 minutes and all I hear is elevator music
I keep hearing that my call is important to them, but no one comes and there’s no way out without losing my place.
OOPS … finally got someone … they’re taking down a ton of information that isn’t related to my problem … what’s this all about … I just want to know why my service isn’t working!
OK … they’re happy, now on to the problem …
D#$N … the person who answered is transferring me to technical service because they can’t help … I’m off on a ringing phone again!
Double D#$N … the phone stopped everything and I got nothing, no sound, nothing …
I GOT THE DIAL TONE BACK! The transfer didn’t work and the person I talked to doesn’t know! I’ll have to start all over again.
I’m FRUSTRATED, MAD, and I’ll take this out on anyone who answers the phone!
———————————————————————-

Sounds bad … that was a real call … I won’t say to what vendor, but the names have been changed, hidden, and otherwise deleted to protect the guilty! Could this happen in YOUR service center with YOUR Customer Facing System?

One of the things I found in using this exercise was that agents became far more aware of how important feelings are in judging the success or failure of a transaction. They learn that you can solve the problem the customer has handed you, but still fail the transaction if the customer isn’t satisfied in some way with the effort. Managers and Supervisors learned the importance of providing a continuous process that smoothly moves the customer through from initial contact to resolution. … AND … I learned where the holes are in their systems so I can think about how best to plug them.

For many people, it introduces a whole new perspective on what they REALLY need to do on the phone or face-to-face with a customer.

Categories: Call/Contact Centers, Customer Service