When Customer Service Reps Poison Customer Relationships
Curtis, As a buyer of fine giftware for 25 years, I would say that I had approximately 200 reps who called on me. I can count on both hands the reps that gave really good service. Of the rest, the better ones were "the best of the worst" amd were not even good order takers. I've enough war stories to fill your computer hard drive with all the bad experiences I had with poor reps. Problem was, that for many of the products we bought from them were of such good quality that even their ineptitude did not stopping us writing orders.
Saying this, I agree with you that when the service or lack of same from a rep is so evident, that given a choice, buyers will find another source.
Here is a poem I ran into a few years ago that Edgar A. Guest in 1942 wrote about the subject of good service called "Good Business"
If I possessed a shop or store,
I'd drive the grouches off my floor!
I'd never let a gloomy guy
offend the folks who come into buy
I'd never keep a boy or clerk
with a mental toothache at his work,
Nor let a man who draws my pay
drive customers of mine away.
I'd treat the man who takes my time
and spends a nickel or a dime,
with courtesy and make him feel
that I was pleased to close the deal
because tomorrow, who can tell?
He may want stuff I have to sell,
and in that case, then he will be
glad to spend all his dollars with me.
The reason people pass one door
to patronize another store,
it is not because the business place
has better silk, or gloves, or lace
or cheaper prices, but it lies
in pleasant words and smiling eyes;
The only difference, I believe,
is in the treatment folks receive.
Alan
Alan J. Zell, Ambassador Of Selling, Attitudes for Selling
www.sellingselling.com
azell@aol.com
Awarded the 1992 Murray Award for Marketing Excellence
Member, PNW Sales & Marketing Group
Member, Institute of Management Consultants
Member, International Speakers Network
Hi Curtis
I spent many years as a Professor of Marketing and CRM, and I've worked in many institutions.
At one institution, which must remain nameless, I had a colleague who had been overlooked for promotion, not once, not twice, not three times, but a surely deserved four times.
He made sure that every class he taught knew exactly what he thought about his workplace and workmates. He was particularly hard on new students. "So, you reckon you've joined one of the country's leading programs, do you? Well, you'll soon find out. And, now you've paid your fees, you're stuck here for the next 12 months. There's no refund. Too bad, eh?".
He's still there, unpromoted, poisoning morale, and seeding bad word-of-mouth. I was Program Director for a time, and tried to get rid of him. The tenure system disabled that option.
Francis Buttle
Curtis
Sadly, we all know of people like this. People who poison the workplace through their difficult behaviour. And as Francis suggests, getting rid of them can be very hard to do. Sometimes impossible.
There have been a number of great books and articles on the topic recently, including:
Building the Civilised Workplace
McKinsey Quarterly
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/04/mckinsey_quarte.html
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
by Robert Sutton
http://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surviving/sim/044...
Happy Reading.
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager
Some years back, I was Customer Service Manager (managing the Call Centre and Support Technicians) for a Legal Software firm operating in South Africa. During a CRM course I developed and presented to the staff (from CEO down to developer), the Sales Manager told me during the course presentaion that he and his sales team did not have the time to apply CRM, and in any event, he did not believe in CRM!
Unfortunately, one of the Company Directors (and major shareholder), while paying lip service to CRM, did not believe in practicing CRM, nor did he believe that anything else other than superior knowledge of the company's products and prompt response times to call outs, allied with fantastic system functionality, would retain clients or turn around disgruntled clients.
Obviously, this negative thinking rubbed off on sales staff, with the appropriate results. I was lucky; I escaped before the business went down the toilet.
The upshot is, if customer reps are posining the client pool, look upwards. That is where you will find the source of the evil; unfortunately, all too often, the spread of the evil goes undetected until too late.
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Folks,
Some time ago I read in a book an anecdote of a disgruntled customer service representative that when studied, was actually poisoning customer relationships and it would be more cost effective if the rep just stayed home rather than ruining the relationships.
Has anyone here ever come across that anecdote (or anything similar)?
Thanx,
Curtis
PREDICTIVE CONSULTING GROUP
Profitable Growth Through Customer Insight
Author of forthcoming book, The Hottest New Title in the Executive Suite: The Chief Customer Officer
www.predictiveconsulting.com
blog: http://www.curtisbingham.com