Attitude Adjustment: A Customer Service Reality Check

Jokes are funny only because they’re partly true. And where there’s the smoke of truth, there’s often fire. This sort of attitude may be a signal that your business is missing opportunities to better serve your customers. Here’s a look at the folly behind this flawed mind-set and how to stop it in its tracks.

Companies do a lot of things for their own convenience — not the customer’s. Step into the customer’s shoes, and imagine how you’d feel in these scenarios:

• It’s two minutes before closing. You sprint to the store, only to have the person inside shrug, point at the clock and continue locking the store door.
• You dial the company’s number and get a brusque “hel-lo” from someone you’ve clearly interrupted in the middle of a far more compelling activity and who’s annoyed by the interruption.
• You say, “I’m not sure, just looking around,” and the salesperson visibly loses interest in you.

I could go on: the phone pitch aimed at qualifying you in or out, the obstetrician who wants to schedule the Caesarean on Thursday before Friday’s golf outing, the clerk who mumbles “thanks for shopping at XYZ” while chatting on the phone.

You might be thinking, “That’s retail or consulting. I know better. I really don’t do that sort of thing.”