Surviving Customer Service - The Happy Customer

To better understand the perspective of this and my other articles on customer service I recommend you read the short introduction at Why These Articles? first.

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This, like all of my articles on customer service is designed to help the person in customer service to retain their integrity while doing the best possible job. 

If they are generally happier about being in customer service and can have a majority of pleasant interactions no matter what the mood of the customer then the company they work for will look better as well.

I’d like to clarify this “happy customer” animal.

You cannot make someone into something they are not in a brief customer service interaction. You would have a difficult, if not impossible, time achieving this if you had months with this person and unlimited resources.

I have seen other materials and trainers use the brush-him-off-as-a-jerk philosophy if he is difficult to please or make “happy.” That is a cop-out and a negative assumption. I agree that you should not necessarily bear all of this person’s bitterness and contempt as if it’s your fault. Nor should you ever accept personal abuse as a requirement of your job.

What I do know that has some workability and that takes into account a broader perspective is this: You don’t know this person - what’s really going on in his or her mind or what this person may have experienced. Let’s start with that as a working datum.

For example, the parents of children in critical care in hospitals can be extremely brave and composed when at their child’s side, but go out for lunch with them and they can fly off the handle at the slightest flaw in their experience.

What if you were serving one of them and you just gave them the old “jerk” routine? Or, maybe you just served someone who just got fired or divorced or a serial killer. Who knows? The point is that your obligation can be strictly held to the customer being pleased with the quality of the product and the pleasantness and competence of the service. That’s your happy customer right there. If you have done all you can to achieve this and they still have an unpleasant demeanor, don’t worry about it.

This position is not intended to reduce customer service to a minimum but as my introductory article Why These Articles? states, to remove barriers to justifying poor service or discourteous behavior and to make life easier for the CSR.

If they are a reasonable person, which most people are, they will be pleased and will be willing to recommend your business to another. Of course, great customer service can and should go beyond this to add that wow factor and extra caring and attention to detail that will make your business stand out. We are covering a different point here.

You are not obliged to change his/her life on the spot. However, you must remember to give the person the benefit of the doubt and at least give the person a chance to have a pleasant experience. Find out what is really going on. Do the usual of making sure you fully understand and acknowledge their complaint or poor experience. Try your best to make it right.

I’m telling you that most of the time things will turn out all right if you are just nice and tolerant. That makes you the one in charge. That makes you the big being. That will protect your integrity. You will have done the right thing.