Human Element is essential for Customer Service Success

When you go shopping or are in some kind of retail situation, don't you want the salesperson, manager or establishment owner to be friendly, helpful and accommodating?  Who wouldn't?  Who doesn't?

Recently I wrote about the importance of point-of-sale customer service and received a great response from a reader.  This reader, a young mom, related her experiences on a recent afternoon when she planned to take her toddler [age 3] to an afternoon matinee at the movies.  Her afternoon involved not one, but two examples of what NOT to do in the area of customer service.  She has given me permission to relate her story.

Example One:  First this young mom took her son into a discount retail store to purchase some snacks to take to the movie.  She thought she had allowed plenty of time before the start of the movie...and the discount store was in the same shopping center as the cinema.  In her words:

• "...I spotted at least 5 employees in [the store] just as I was standing in line. Only one checkstand was open and the line was growing. We waited in line for over 5 minutes before someone came and opened up another line...."

Granted this seems a small thing, but the store's manager should have been on his or her toes and put the clerks to work rather than let a line of customers grow at one lone open checkstand.  At the very least, if the clerks who seemed to be loitering were not indeed yet on shift, they should not have been standing near the cash registers giving customers the feeling of being ignored.  Yes, I'd have to agree with this reader that this was an example of poor customer service.  The result of this for her was to put her late buying tickets for the movie.

Example Two:  I think we've all, at one time or another, been late to the start of a movie.  I know I have.  I've rushed from the parking lot to run to the ticket window only to be told the movie had already begun...but still I bought my ticket and quietly took a seat.  This reader had a much different experience.  Again in her words:

• "...So now we were even more late to the movie...it wouldn't matter to [her son] if we missed the first 15 to 20 minutes of the movie so I went inside to buy my ticket. The girl at the ticket counter said we were too late and wouldn't sell us the tickets. My thought...why would a business turn down a paying customer? I was willing to pay full price for less of a product! I spoke with the manager and she told me that after 20 minutes the option to sell that show physically disappears off the computer. So she used the old, 'the computer wouldn't let me do it' excuse. If I would have been her, I would have said, 'Let me ring you up for your movie,' and 'I'm sorry for any inconvenience.' But she just said the computer doesn't let them. What kind of a business has a point of sale system you can't override? To me that is poor business...."

In this I totally agree with this reader.  There are a few key factors that made the manager's decision not to sell the young mom a ticket the incorrect decision:

• this was a weekday matinee - in most cases the house is no where near full, so allowing someone to enter the theater after the movie has started shouldn't be an issue
• "humanity" should have swayed this manager's decision: surely you can't look into the face of a 3-year old little boy and tell his mom that she simply won't be able to buy a ticket because the computer says 'no!'
• every business should have 'exceptions to the rules' for just such cases as this - yes the computer system has built-in time changes for ticket sales...however, managers should have the ability to receive cash, make out receipts and then account for them at the end of day

Business reputations can be made or broken by how that business' employees or processes affect and effect the buying public.  I know what it is like to have to face the disappointment of a child when a ride at an amusement park is sold out or broken down and they can't get on as example.  The human element of customer service is every bit as important as the dollars and cents elements.  In the movie theater example of this young mom and her son, for goodness sake manager...sell her the tickets and let them see the movie!

I will say that it is difficult sometimes to know what to do in a customer service situation.  Earlier this year I was faced with making a hard choice at a convention.  This convention had a day that was open to the public.  The convention involved attendees making and then bringing and displaying things they'd created.  The 'public day,' as it was called, was to allow the general public an opportunity to see these "cool" creations.  People had to pay a small entrance fee and the viewing hours were clearly posted.  The complication came when the public attendance grew beyond all expectations.  By afternoon it became clear that people would be turned away.  My job for the convention was public relations...never an easy job.

The situation that is relevant involved the very end of the public day.  The signs were up that public viewing was now closed and the very last of the public was in the main hall finishing their viewing of the displays.  Then a woman came to one of the fellows standing "guard" at the entrance and said she needed to get in, that her family was in there.  The man at the gate told her politely that we couldn't allow anymore people in and that she was welcome to wait right there for her family to come out.  Behind the lady was a small group of those who had been turned away and, for whatever reason, just didn't leave.  A bit of an argument was arising between the man and lady so I went to investigate.

Turns out that the "family" was only this woman's adolescent son and she was concerned that he didn't realize she'd been late to arrive.  There was more to the story, but suffice it to say that I made the on-the-spot decision to allow her to enter the hall.  After several minutes she and her son came to me, both very grateful for my decision.  However, one of the people in that group of disappointed people came up and demanded to also be let in.  In this case I had to be firm and say 'no,' but did offer that person an abbreviated explanation - which they graciously accepted. 

It's my belief that customer service policies should never be so carved in stone that they become cold and unyielding.  What would I have done in the case of my reader and her son?  I'd have just let them in, free, and offered them popcorn.

Comments

[Small Business Answering service]

Your relationship with your customers will make or break your business. Customer service is not simply a term or a department, but rather an attitude and a manner of doing business. Anyways, thanks for the post. The ideas and insights are very worth reading.