The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.
Sam Walton
With the painful tension of a Mexican standoff, consumers and companies seem to mutually hate one another. You could nicely overlay a bad marriage onto this I-need-you-but-hate-you company/customer dynamic. We say we love our customers, but do we? Just take a peek at the pejorative policies that companies impart onto their customers and you will quickly see that customer service is critically ill.
We must ask, is the rapid decay of customer service only the fault of Corporate America? The answer is clear Customers are mutating into monsters. This dysfunctional dance between customer and company has engendered a hybridized Red Queen effect; and consumers have seemed to match absurd policies with there own brand of ugliness. We cheat on returned merchandise, we lie about lost receipts and companies respond in kind with vigorous and hostile return policies to thwart our unethical progress. The net result: companies and consumers both seem to lose equally. In our current economy with the saturation of its faceless e-commerce, customer service has reached its nadir. The new trend will be to “add back in” and alas, customer service will have its day. There’s an old saying, “Customers get better as you do.” And to that, I would wholly agree.
As companies, we cannot completely protect ourselves against the 2 to 3 percent of the nasty people who darken our doorway. But if we create policies designed to punish the miniscule few, we create a system that captures the dolphins in the tuna net. We will explore the sick psychology that surrounds the companies and consumers and better understand how human dynamics play into the psychology of consuming and the psychology of selling. When we better understand why humanoids do what they do we can respond with positive strategies to create the win-win scenario we all seek. It’s time for us to explore our company’s mental health by asking hard questions and seeking remedies that will build a strong, competitive company.
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I was in Babies ‘R Us yesterday and watched a woman in front of me buy a TON of stuff. She unobtrusively handed over a hundred dollar bill and a couple twenties and I watched the checker lift the $100 bill high over her head, angling it back and forth for all to see as she checked to make sure it wasn’t counterfit.
So I thought, here’s this young woman that everyone in line now knows carried a lot of cash, who’ll probably be robbed on her way to the car. I’m sure it was store policy to check the bills, but couldn’t the salesperson at least have done it without the big show?