Newsletters

Customer Support:   (972) 395-3225

Home

Articles, News, Announcements - click Main News Page
Previous Story       Next Story
    
The Key to Better Customer Service - Pay it Forward!

by James Koller - May 26, 2015

The Key to Better Customer Service – Pay it Forward! 
By James Koller,
http://vipdesk.comjkoller@vipdesk.com703.837.3525

How many times can you recall in which you complained to a server, call center agent or salesperson? Probably too many to recall; conversely, how many times have you spoken to a manager or written a letter to compliment service that went above and beyond or simply reflected well upon the individual and company? It might be equally challenging to recollect those if they are so far and few between.

The term “pay it forward” is a terrific customer service directive. It’s a clever way of instructing the recipient of good service to provide the same to someone else. Pop culture has explored this concept in books, a namesake 2000 movie starring Hayley Joel Osment (a.k.a. Forrest Gump Jr. who sees dead people…everywhere), and even insurance ads. What makes it so powerful is the idea that it is up to everyone to create a culture of appreciation and thoughtfulness by doing the same. It is the Golden Rule, only much more practical and realistic.

Our team was recently rushing to complete a presentation for a major prospect. We were writing, editing and constructively disagreeing at a pace that would make even Don Draper crack a grin over his lunchtime whiskey. Off to FedEx Office we went to have the final documents professionally bound. Client copies were full color and our copies had some black-and-white to maintain a modicum of fiscal restraint. To delineate between the two sets, I was proud of myself for instructing the technician to bind the full color copies for the prospect with one color backing, and the partial black-and white copies in another color backing for our team. When we arrived onsite, it would be a snap to differentiate the copies without flipping through or giving the prospect a black-and-white version. Nearly outsmarting myself, I nearly hyperventilated when I noticed that the back colors were mixed in randomly. Since I was not attending the presentation, it would be up to someone else to deliver the documents, someone not as clever or idiotic to do such a thing at the last minute as myself. While the earth would have continued to rotate on its axis properly, it could still be embarrassing for the client to notice and potentially even more embarrassing for me if our team noticed.

I was frustrated, running out of time and not thinly veiled in my frustration to the desk technician, Maji. This was not the one to whom I made the order or fulfilled the order, which I had to remind myself every two seconds. It’s so easy to blame the messenger in the heat of the moment, even if the real culprit is long gone. In this instance, the technician on-duty was a real pro. She helped me sort out the problem, identify which copies were correct and which needed to have new backs affixed. Even better, she was not defensive (cleverly averting a simmering confrontation), did not pass the buck and seemed genuinely concerned that we make a good impression to the client. She separated the source of my frustration from the manifestation of my frustration. Maji offered to re-bind nearly half of the copies before I could scarcely begin my eloquent protests. Oh, the arguments I had prepared. If I was offended, it was that I did not get to vent before she swooped in and solved the mini-crisis.

Within 15 minutes, my overly clever identification system was restored and I left with a higher estimation of the FedEx Office than before, even with the production error.

All too often that is the end of the story. We expect good service and complain about bad service, but often fail to reward good service. We may appreciate it, but do we reward it? After the dust had settled, I wrote a letter to the branch manager, describing the situation, focusing on Maji’s brilliance rather than the production error.

It is my hope that not only will Maji be rewarded by the manager, perhaps helping her to get a bonus, raise or promotion that much sooner, but she will be motivated to continue providing memorable service. If this creates a healthy competition within the team, then we all win. Not only will I win, but so too will everyone else.

By reinforcing the reward of good service as quickly as we complain about sub-par performance, we can help the purveyor of the experience, but this will hopefully lead to more people receiving better service.

 
Return to main news page