In Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey, the nemesis of the movie was a computer called HAL. Its voice sounded exceptionally friendly and it made all the right noises and if it had possessed a face it would have been smiling inanely. Yet all the time it was trying to kill the humans it was meant to serve.

Call me cynical, maybe even a conspiracy theorist, but it seems that some companies have been able to replicate the essence of HAL and insert it into their “Customer Service Specialists”.

These people are not literally trying to kill you, of course, merely destroy your will to live whilst dealing with the company they represent. They speak in reassuring tones, nodding and smiling at everything you say, and then they hit you with their pre-programmed responses defined by the system within which they have been ordered to operate.

I think customers become annoyed because they believe the descriptions pinned to the lapels of these people. If you went into the bank with an enquiry and the counter clerk said to you: “Yes, you need to go and talk to the robot over there,” you would have little expectation of a favourable outcome because you would know the robot’s parameters were limited. Instead, you are actually informed that you should speak to the “customer service specialist”, and herein lies the misconception.

“Customer” – You

“Service” – Providing appropriate assistance

“Specialist” – Highly trained

Put all those together and you naturally believe that this person will be able to listen to your particular request or gripe and then use their knowledge and most importantly, their discretion, to tailor a personalised solution.

A human should be able to do this, but not when they are working within strictly imposed company guidelines. When you remove the option of discretion, you often also remove the entire concept of customer service and you effectively end up with a robot. You can almost see the confusion behind their smiling eyes.

We are not talking about complex customer requests here. The other day, I asked my bank (the Commonwealth) if they could split my personal credit card limit, and allot one half to a new business credit card.

Apparently this was impossible!

The only solution was that I would have to stand around and wait for someone to carry out the necessary paperwork to apply for a new card.  And I mean stand around, as there were no chairs.

I asked why this person couldn’t just take all the details the bank already had about me, complete the form and send it to me for signing, but this data option was not pre-programmed into my CBA “customer service specialist”. I left!

Later when I called to offer feedback, I was informed that what I had asked could have been carried out, but that it wasn’t company policy. This person further admitted that it would have been within the realms of possibility to direct my backside towards a chair whilst I waited. Obviously, because robots do not have muscles that tire, they cannot grasp the human need to take the weight off.

In reality, to blame the individual “customer service specialist” is a little harsh. The real problem is with the management who do not allow the human factor to come into play with their customer-facing staff. The only genuine reason why this might be good business practice is if the people they are employing are not very bright and cannot be trusted to think for themselves lest they make a reckless decision that triggers a whole host of problems.

If this fear is preponderant, then they should pay higher wages to attract brighter employees. The payoff would be a much happier clientele, and increased revenue through an enhanced customer service reputation.

Fortunately, some companies do get the point. I have experienced quality customer service on a couple of occasions recently, where the specialist really deserved their title. Then again, all they had to do was listen to what was being said, and possess the freedom to act unilaterally to resolve the issue.

It is a sad reflection of the state of play, however, that when you have such a positive experience with customer service personnel, you’re left feeling that something strange has just happened.

Companies need to give their employees the opportunity to provide the best customer service where it matters – on the ground with the customer. They have to be given the go-ahead to become human again, and to stop behaving like robots.

PS The partly completed form arrived in the mail a couple of days after my “feedback” and after I had arranged a business card somewhere else!

When I checked into the new Novotel at Brisbane Airport today the General Manager, Mr Alex Penklis, stopped by for a chat. He didn’t know me from Adam but he knows how to impress guests.

The service in the restaurant reflected his touch. The delightful young lady who served me took time to ask where I was from and engage in a lost art – called conversation.

Compare that to two other experiences this week. One at a hotel in Launceston, and the other at a Car rental company in Sydney. Both times employees blamed their bad service on management cutting staff numbers.

All of which proves attitude and leadership drive good service.

What does all of this have to do with small business in our country? Well, China is one of Australia’s most important trading partners. That affects the Australian economy in ways we have yet to imagine.

So, over the past few weeks I’ve been researching business activities in China – everything from lending policies, a growing middle class and expanding base of manufacture.

My conclusions? Indeed, China is a powerful country and a major player on the world economic stage. But it is not a great country.

In effect, the Chinese sabotaged the climate change talks in Copenhagen at the end of the 2009. Of course, this summit of world leaders and scientists had little teeth to begin with, serving in an “advisory” capacity to world governments.

China, a country that tops the list of polluters – pumping even more filth into the atmosphere than the U.S. – refused to budge on their pollution control policies. Why? Well, China simply doesn’t have to play ball with the Western nations. It’s that powerful a force in the world economy which, as small business owners, we recognise as having a direct impact on our business.

Need a new product fabricated and manufactured? Chances are, you won’t use an Australian-based fabricator when you can get the same job done in China at half the price. Long live our great nation, but business is, well, business. National pride often takes a back seat when it comes to the cold, hard realities of global economics.

No one questions China is a powerful nation. Its holster is jam-packed with nuclear weapons – enough to annihilate the world. It has an almost endless supply of cheap labour to develop a powerful manufacturing base. It has a government that encourages a little bit of private, albeit, highly regulated private ownership. China is slowly marching in to the new millennium in some ways.

In other ways, China remains a repressive regime, strongly centralized and tradition bound.

What defines greatness?

Read the article at http://strategies.com.au/art1002a.html

“Following our phone conversation yesterday we would appreciate it if you were to consider removing the harsh comments in regards to the Hahndorf Resort.

We understand your disappointment in the conference, but we would appreciate at the least if you could remove certain phrases which you have pointed out in our conversation. Yes, your comments want to reflect the truth of the situation, and we do respect the right of everybody to express their view, but in this instance I believe that some of the comments can be misconstrued to the detriment of the Resort, and that is not a true and fair criticism as seen by yourself.

I would first of all like to point out that we work very hard and with passion in everything that we do at the Resort and it is very disappointing that it did not seem this way to you.

In regards to your heading, we would like to see the removal of “(and probably soon to be out of business)”-this might indicate to some people reading your Blog that the Resort is under financial pressures and that will influence future bookings that will affect employees and the local economy, and this statement is not true or correct.

As much as you are very disappointed, we have a number of companies that have enjoyed their conferencing and the way we conduct our business.

In reference to your comments in regards to “use by date” the packaging was Best By Date-there is a big difference and it seems in your quotations that ALL the cereal was out of date which is once again not true and correct. It was only one brand of cereals out of 7 and in someone reading your comments would think that ALL the cereals were out of date! And even though we realise now and it’s not a policy of the Resort to even offer anything best by date on that date and we have taken measures to ensure this does not happen again, it was only one day out of best by date. In reference to the yoghurts, again it was best by date by 1-2 days.

In reference to the Butters, I did not see the date and the instruction was to just throw it all out and take a new box off the shelf.

In reference to your comment “the game is up” I think that is very unfair as I can assure you it is not a game to us and that all of a sudden food that was in date did not just “come out”. It can be misconstrued by the way it has been written, that we use all our out of stock products first before putting out our in date stock.

In regards to our Gourmet biscuits, I think that is an unfair comment also, as it only seems that what we classify as our Gourmet biscuits and in your comments it seems that the only products we put out there are Monte Carlos. The Gourmet biscuits that were used in afternoon tea were Kez’s Kitche and yes because they are very rich, following past feedback from other conference groups as mentioned to you before, that some guests do prefer the Monte Carlo and Kingstons that we do offer. We do not reduce the number of Gourmet biscuits that are provided for each guest, we just actually add extra of the other two types to ensure we cater for all.

In reference to your pizza comments, we believe it is a harsh criticism as we know the produce we use and the marinating is way above the quality of Pizza Hut, especially in our chicken pizza, but we all have different taste buds and if that is your assessment of our pizzas then we accept that. A few days later we catered for British Aerospace executives ( who had the pizzas) and a group of 20 medical doctors( who had a dinner) and it is their second time at the Resort in 12 months and our catering, preparation and our service was exactly the same and they were more than pleased with the quality and the taste of our Pizzas.

In reference to me blaming the staff and suppliers, yes I had just been honest with you and even though the buck stops with me at the end, I just expressed my disappointment in the supplier so you can understand that it is not the Resorts policy or the way it does business and it was the supplier that let us down and our lack of vigilance that let us down too. And it also did not help that our experienced girl whose job it was to set up that morning was involved in a car accident, which left us in an awkward situation in trying to get everything ready on time. You must also appreciate that it was not just a minor accident and all the rest of the staff were very concerned about Jenna including myself as it only happened approximately 15 minutes before your breakfast started.

Michael your comments are justified in some areas in which you were disappointed and in that regard the Resort has lost a client, but I don’t believe that its fair that your comments can be read and for any person that was not at the function, and that the information will be misconstrued. You know how tough it is out there and  we realise that the mistake that was made has cost the Resort dearly, as well as the casual employees that depend on the Resort for their livelihood. We would hope that as a professional businessman that you will take our request of the above matters seriously and make the alterations to your Blog as soon as possible.

Just to inform you the Resort has given the organisers a full credit for the breakfast and have sent them a new invoice.”

Manuel the Manager promised the world – five star service, gourmet cookies, gourmet pizzas and delivered:

• breakfast cereals that were past their use by date
• butter portions that were a month past their use by date
• yoghurts that were past their use by date
• gourmet pizzas that were barely equal to Pizza Hut quality  (for $35 per person)
• Arnotts Monte Carlo (gourmet) biscuits, and
• barely defrosted carrot cake

During morning and afternoon tea the clean up of the conference room was left to the facilitators.

His website states “We set our standards high and take pride in providing our guests with conference room equipment and quality food and wines to post conference activities.”

In his apology at the end of the conference Manuel blamed it all on his staff and suppliers.

Funny how he immediately found “in date” food when he realised the game was up.

A place to avoid!

The bay number after my name read an ominous “see office”.

At the office I learned that my car, which was booked for 10:00 am (and it was now 11:05 am) was not ready.

The station manager fussed about and said he could get me a car soon (and he did) and I was on my way in a somewhat lower class of car than ordered. An hour later I noticed that I had still be charged for the higher class of car so I phoned Hertz.

After waiting in one of those “we value your business so we have placed you in a queue” queues I tried calling the head office switchboard and asked to speak to Jacqui Lehmann-Vogel, the Hertz Manager in Australia. The receptionist, Annie, (who refused to tell me her name) told me in no uncertain terms that Ms Lehmann-Vogel does not take calls from customers – they have to be directed to the customer service department. When I queried her she said “our executives don’t talk to customers”.

Well eventually I got through to a customer service representative who did all the usuals – reduced the rate, provided a credit, said I could exchange the car at the City office for the type confirmed and offered to send me a free one-day rental certificate as compensation. All wonderful, but I had to take my time to go and change cars and my time to call them several times before I got through.

Yes, I saved a few dollars (which is frankly irrelevant in a business situation) but what I remember is “Executives Don’t Talk to Customers at Hertz”.

Maybe Hertz should find some executives who do talk to customers. Or even train their airport staff how to deal with service recovery (when something goes wrong – not after the customer has had time to become even more upset).

It’s a lesson for us all.

A sad anecdote

Consider this customer services experience: This week I stayed at a 5-star, branded hotel and noticed how otherwise smaller things had become too much trouble for customer service staff. In the Executive Lounge I asked for a Diet Coke at 5.15 pm and was told “we don’t start serving guests until 5.30 pm.” When I explained that my mini-bar had not been restocked the person reluctantly got the drink.

The mere fact that I am telling you this is worrying. There seems to be an increasing tendency to short-cut on service delivery.

A ‘can do’ attitude will create a positive customer experience; a ‘no can do’ attitude will sullen the experience and result in a totally different word-of moth message. Clearly the above story had nothing to do with resources at hand (the good were there, as were the staff) but all to do with mindset and training.

Recession response

Some businesses – especially those that rely on discretionary spending – cut back on staff as a first response to a loss or threatened loss of revenue. For sure a business must “right size” itself but there is more work to be done before customer service levels are compromised.

One specialised Sydney based furniture retailer, rather than cut back staff, took them to a sales seminar which had a strong customer service training element. The proprietor said that she built her business on giving superb customer service knowing that this brought referrals.

In a recession the word of mouth channel becomes the critical revenue generator as new revenue dollars would be hard to justify.

The idea that cutting back staff in order to maintain margins does not cut it in a service oriented industry. As the store proprietor said, “The recession gives me the opportunity to buy stock well (at hefty discounts) and thus maintain my margins. I didn’t need to cut back staff.”

Illustration

Staying with the hospitality industry gives us further insights to ‘can do’ and ‘no can do’ mindsets. Have you ever wondered why some restaurants have a loyal customer following while others limp along? The answer is not in the ambiance or even in the quality of food. Today, those are taken for granted — every “good” restaurant is expected to have these. The difference between restaurants that build a loyal following and those that don’t is all in customer service. That special ‘can do’ attitude that permeates all the best establishments.

You know it at the very first interaction with the staff. The ‘can do’, successful restaurant will resonate from the moment you enter the place. An impression is made that either enhances or detracts from the experience. Successful establishments recognize the importance of customer service and spend time training their staff on exactly how to work with customers. They will not put at risk customer loyalty through a lack of delivery of a ‘can do’, high level customer service.

The TV series Faulty Towers had the bumbling Basil (a “manager”) always speaking before he thought. Is it not basic that Customer Service 101 would be to think before you speak? Consider the impact of your words on the customer or client and how they might be interpreted. If you want your clients or customers to a have a memorable experience or to genuinely experience your service as “above expectations” then you need to be sure to think about the words you use – at all times.

What customers take away when they leave a restaurant is an overall impression of the quality of the experience. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the total customer experience.

Final thoughts

Finding new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones. Cost saving expeditions would do well to discover that customer service is too valuable a function to put in the “items to be cut” list.  Customer service is more than just keeping customers happy.  It’s about revenue, because a lost customer means lost revenue and an unhappy customer can damage your reputation.

Some aspects of effective customer service are:

• knowing your customers’ needs;
• identifying your key service activities;
• delivering superior service;
• follow-up.

Oh, and don’t think this just applies to hospitality.