Shifting customer service from frustration to infuriating
The perceptible demise of customer service in hospitality and retail is a concerning trend that is quietly but surely gaining momentum. Marred very often by disinterested employees who are more preoccupied on their phones or screens, than with the customer, one can collect important lessons (particularly from the larger organisations), on how not to treat customers properly.
It all begins by making a negative first impression
Always aim to provide less than what your customers expect. Ensuring not greeting the customer sincerely and warmly, is step one. Glumly asking the guest who walks up to the front desk with his carry bag “checking –in?’’. Failing to maintain eye contact, not listening attentively and getting the guest to repeat details and crossing one’s arms when addressing issues are some pointers that will certainly leave the guest unimpressed; and all it requires is to have de-motivated employees to not be present in the moment!
Moving the guest from upset to irritated
Developing policies that do not empower employees to efficiently address and resolve customer issues. Enable employees to muddy the situation in several ways, such as letting the guest encounter frustrating responses, such as “I’m sorry, but we don’t / can’t or won’t objections, or the hostile ‘no exceptions’, ‘the procedure does not’, and / or the ‘system cannot’’, combination of roadblocks. The idea is to prevent any resolution of the guest issue at level one or even at level two. Making it hard, inconvenient and customer-discouraging should be the mantra of the company.
Failure to launch
When forced to escalate the issue to a supervisor or someone of greater authority, ensure that individual, (supervisor) shows disrespect by not answering the call. Be dismissive by saying “maybe he / she (supervisor), is at a meeting” or “is not in office”. Not picking up the phone is a sure bet way of compounding matters further. Should by any chance, the supervisor answer the call, avoid the normal handoff (employee explaining matters to the supervisor) and compel the customer to deal with the supervisor by having him / her repeat the problem all over again.
Other ways of resisting customer satisfaction include saying “You’re the first one to complain about this”. This never fails for two bad reasons – one, it condescendingly uses the word complain, and two – it singles out the customer in a negative way. Another phrase that can upset the customer is “There’s no way that happened”. This phrase is the same as calling the customer a liar or delusional. (Of course, there’s no denying that there are a few customers who are one or both of those things, but common courtesy demands that one does not say it).
Undeniably, bad first impressions are a fact of life. Unfortunately, it appears that more and more businesses seem determined to make customers accept that as an everyday standard. To them, leaving the customer with a bad first impression is no big deal and is not really going to make a difference…and who cares whether it can be put right!
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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