I had to call Fedex today to let them know that I wanted to pick up my package at their location instead of waiting all day to get my new iPhone on Monday.  I also had to wait through one attempt at my house, which happened on Friday, in order to make any changes to the delivery location. The customer service representative answered and asked me how he could help and I told him I wanted to pick up my package at their location. He asked me for my tracking number and I told him I had the DOOR TAG number, which I gave to him.  So, instead of listening to me when I said door tag he goes into the script that pulled up associated with my package and proceeded to go into this long explanation of how I had to wait for the first delivery attempt. Of course if he would have listened to me in the beginning when I said I have the door tag number, which means there was already an attempt at my house, he would have saved himself and me the agony of him reading his boring script.  The unfortunate thing with this scene is that customer service representatives hate their jobs and act more like robots than human customer service representatives.  The training these customer service representatives needs to be so much better to make the experience better for both on the phone. I know the scripting is to help them with solving the customer service problem, issue etc on the phone but the simple act of listening would also, in most instances, cut down on the time on the phone and solve the customer’s problem and then both sides are happy that the amount of time spent on the phone was reduced.  So, for everyone reading this post, remember to listen before you speak and you will be surprised with what you hear.

Make it a great day!

I was on vacation last week, staying at this great place for my third time and we were hanging out at the pool with some other people that unfortunately had to check out that day. The cleaning crew was busy in the morning cleaning all the rooms and the Operations Manager rushes by and drops a bomb on the people checking out that he cannot believe the mess they left in their room. They were kind of shocked that he would say something like this to them and even explained to us that they had picked up their room and put all trash in a neat pile to be picked up. To me it was no big deal, they helped the cleaning crew by making their job easier. Well it gets better, the Ops Manager not only says something again but 3 more times to them. One of them goes to the Manager of the facility to complain about how rude the Ops Manager is being to them. The Manager obviously says something to the Ops Manager because he storms over to them and confronts them head on and starts arguing with a Paying customer. I then have to go get the Manager to diffuse the situation.

So, the number 1 rule in a service business or any business is Never argue with your customer, nothing will ever good come from that argument for your business. Yes, I do believe that the customer is always right, they are paying you and you need to provide to them the level of service you are guaranteeing to them. In the scenario I described above, no matter how bad they left the room, you never argue about that with them. They could stay at your place for the next 20 years and end up spending thousands of dollars at your facility. Now all you are going to get is 8 very unsatisfied customers who each will tell between 5 to 10 people how bad they were treated and it could potential sink your business. What I would recommend to them is to have a fund that at the end of the month you take the cleaning crew out to lunch or dinner to thank them for their hard work and then you can laugh about how bad some of the rooms where left but you are showing the team you appreciate them and their hard work.

With social media these days you will always lose in arguing with a client and they will always win when they slam you on every social network. Smile and make the situation better by taking the high road and you will sleep better at night.

Make it a great day!