Customer Service: The Conveninence Factor

Customer Service: The "Convenience Factor"

Are your Customer Service score marks declining and you are not sure where to look? One area you might want to check is your “Convenience Factor.”

By that, I mean, has your organization become concerned with what is convenient for your customer or convenient for your organization?

Have you heard this lately from your representatives?

“No, that was our old policy. We are doing it this way now….”

“I can’t get to that today, how about next week?”

“We’re too busy today. I can schedule you in for an appt. on Thursday the 20th.”

“No, we stopped doing that.”

“You’ll have to bring it back in next week.”

“I can’t check on it right now. I’ll get back to you in a day or so.”

“We are very busy right now. Can I call you back later?”

“It’ll be awhile until I can get to you.”

Do you see what I mean? All of these are at the heart of the loss of Convenience by your Customers, and lead to a drop in your scores.

Of course, there may be mitigating circumstances.

Are you a one man show, or do you have a whole department? Maybe you are extremely busy and cannot answer the question or get to the request right then. I, and every Customer on the planet can understand that sometimes, we have to wait.

But when you are diagnosing a decline you need to look at your “Convenience Factor.”

You might find that someone in the organization has taken it upon themselves to rewrite company policy or procedures. This is normally done in response to something that takes a little more time or is more difficult to complete. So instead of searching for ways to become more efficient, people start looking for "shortcuts" to make it easier to do their job, and that may not be in line with what is right for the Customer or the company. And almost always it will not meet the "Spirit of the Position."

Maybe there has been a rash that has developed. This rash is called “Notme” rash. It spreads from one rep to another when there has been a decline in management involvement or one of the reps has decided to take it upon themselves not to follow company policy or procedure, or even worse, become “Maliciously Obedient.” Sometimes “Notme” rash develops as a result of a personal request that has been turned down or a raise that has been delayed. Sound familiar?

It can be corrected with a dose of “Management Salve” which includes diagnosing and counseling. Sometimes the rash has become so severe the rep does not make it through the procedure. Most times though, they make it through the session and with a change in attitude, they become engaged in making Customers happy again.

Other times it is simply a result of a procedure change or policy change that has started to produce unexpected results. Like maybe you had to make a scheduling change, and suddenly there is a gap in coverage. Or you changed your policy regarding returns and the person working the returns has not been trained or did not receive the new policy.

The key here is to make sure that you are still convenient for your Customers and not for your organization.

Any time you make a Customer jump through a hoop that is designed to illustrate to the Customer that they are “just a Customer” you will start to lose business.

However, if your organization shows your Customer that they are not “just a Customer,” but a Friend, and that Friends take care of each other, then you can expect to see excellent CSI results.

And that is where the "Convenience Factor" will show up in your results.

Leonard Buchholz is a Certified Trainer, Author and Speaker. He leads seminars in Customer Service, Communications and Management. He believes in the simple concept of Hire Friendly, Hire Trainability and Hire Competency when building a Customer Service Team. He is available to provide coaching and consulting in Customer Service and Management. He resides in Southern California and you can reach him at 760-529-5635 or email him at selfemployedagent@cox.net.