Eight Service Sins Can
Drive Utility Customers Away
By David Saxby
What is a service sin? Simply put, it’s behavior that drives customers
away.
I have considerable experience with cold calling utilities and posing as a
customer to see how I’m treated and, believe me, service sins do occur.
These sins are a result of employees’ attitudes and habits. They’re so
ingrained, they’re the basis of the way employees treat customers. Employees
may not even be aware that they’re doing it.
No utility can afford service sins, especially if they boost revenues with
products and services above and beyond power generation. Let’s take a look
at the eight most-common sins of customer service. Are your employees guilty
of committing one or more of them?
Sin No. 1. Apathy: This is the "I don't give a rip about you or my
job attitude" sin. Many employees get this way when they're bored with their
job or if they’ve lost sight that the reason for their job is to serve the
needs of the customer. Sometimes, they just need a reminder of such.
Sin No. 2. Brush-off: Some employees use this sin to get rid of
customers by transferring their calls. This causes the customer to tell
their story over and over until they become so frustrated they want to
scream. The only thing that can save this situation is if the customer finds
another person in the company who will take the time to help them.
Sin No. 3. Coldness: This sin is much like apathy, only worse.
Impatience, curtness, hostility toward customers or co-workers – that’s
coldness. The body language of this person shouts out, ‘You're a nuisance;
go away!’”
Sin No. 4. Condescension: A patronizing attitude is the hallmark of
this sin. Common examples include not using a customer's name during the
dialogue; using industry jargon or acronyms rather than communicating in
clear, understandable language; and communicating at a different level than
that of the customer.
Sin No. 5. Robotism: "Thank you, have a nice day, NEXT!” That’s
robotism and that kind of treatment makes customers feel like they’re
nothing more than a number. While it can be frustrating answering similar
questions and providing similar information for hours on end, customers
should feel as if they are the employee’s first caller of the day. Employees
need to stay away from a stock set of motions and make certain they connect
with each customer.
Sin No. 6. Rule Book: With this sin, employees feel they have free
license to use company guidelines as excuses for not providing service even
when they know the rules are flexible. When employees thumb through their
mental rule book, customers hear negative phrases such as, ‘That’s our
company policy.’”
Sin No. 7. Runaround: Don’t want to take ownership of the customer’s
problem? That’s easy. Send the customer on a wild goose chase. Give ‘em the
runaround.
Sin No. 8. Tune Out: This sin occurs when an employee fails to focus
100 percent on the person who is speaking. This sin creates a number of
problems, such as judging before you've heard the person out and not asking
questions to verify that you understand what was said. Other problems
include not giving appropriate responses and interrupting with your answer
before the customer has completed his or her question.
So what can utilities do to eliminate these sins?
Make everyone part of the customer service improvement team by involving
them in finding ways to eliminate your company's service sins. Managers
should ask each member of their team to make a list of the sins they observe
during a one-week period, omitting names of the people who committed the
sins.
Bring everyone's list to a staff meeting and, as a team, rank the service
sins, with
No. 1 being the most frequently observed. Then brainstorm ways service can
be improved to eliminate the sins. The sins will begin to disappear by
merely raising everyone’s level of awareness.
No utility wants to think that its employees are capable of unforgivable
customer service infractions such as the ones I’ve described. One way to
find out if this problem exists is to do a telephone survey of customers who
have recently interacted with your utility. Ask them about employee attitude
and how they feel they were treated. Another approach would be to mystery
shop your business. Hire an outside party to call in and pose as a customer.
You may or may not be happy with these results but there’s one thing for
sure – you need to know.
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
