Mary Gober’s Clinic – Are Your Managers Pinning Their Colours to the Mast?
Mary’s column is published in Customer Strategy magazine. To read the rest of the magazine, please click here.
The Scenario
This real life story was relayed to me last week ….
A Customer Service Director was passed an angry customer letter of complaint from his CEO to handle – the letter was addressed to the CEO himself.
In the letter, the customer recounted her infuriating experience with their contact center – in a nutshell, the customer explained she had called in with a complaint, and at the very onset of the call asked to speak directly to a manager, as she believed a manager needed to be involved to solve the problem.
The frontline advisor insisted on helping the customer himself – and after a lengthy debate, he finally put the customer on hold, approached one of the managers on duty – the manager refused to take the call and talk to the customer.
The advisor went back to the customer and attempted to ‘explain’ the situation – this infuriated the customer even further. She then asked to speak to a higher level manager. After attempting to persuade the customer to let him help her, a second time, he relented and approached a different manager.
The second manager also refused to take the call leaving the advisor no alternative but to go back to the customer with that news. Hence, the reason for the angry letter.
Comment
1. No wonder the customer wrote the letter … what a valuable peek inside the organisation the customer gave the CEO … what an opportunity for leadership and leadership development!
2. What kind of predicament did the situation pose for the advisor?
3. With all the focus on employee engagement these days – what must this employee be feeling and thinking?
4. Think about how much time this whole situation consumed!
5. Not one, but two managers refused to talk to the customer. What does that tell you, even without knowing all the facts?
6. This story raises serious concerns in my mind about the ‘customer’ ethos and service capability within the organisation. Were the two managers indifferent to the situation or have they never been developed and trained to be masters in talking with customers – listening and taking action to handle upset and complaining people? Did these managers think they had the authority to resolve the problem? Is this a matter of management authority? capability? confidence?
7. I really hope whatever caused this manager-behaviour is being addressed constructively and not punitively. This situation has the potential to be a great turning point for this organisation if handled properly..
Some Questions for You
This scenario raises some questions you may want – or need – to discuss in your organisation:
- what role does your CEO play in responding to escalating complaints? Is it good enough? Does it send the right messages to customers and staff?
- are your frontline people expected to dissuade customers from talking to managers – if so – how are they trained to do that – have you heard them?
- how is your frontline trained to involve a manager when asked to do so by a customer?
- do all of your frontline people really feel supported by their managers in difficult customer situations?
- does every manager in your organisation ‘pin their colours to the mast’ and stand by their team – even in the most difficult circumstances?
- what additional help do your managers need to handle escalated complaints and unhappy customers?
My Final Comment
To me … it all boils down to what I know is essential – an ownership and responsibility mind-set must permeate an entire organisation – top to bottom!
