The customer’s not always right
Australian business is moving beyond the adage that the “customer is always right” and embracing a better service principle, according to a new survey.
The survey, released for Customer Service Week (October
6 to 10), found that 45 per cent of businesses say they
live
by
the “customer is always right” policy. While
many businesses may have found a superior code to aspire
to, the
evidence on training is not encouraging.
Australian companies are training their staff on customer
service for a little more than three days a week, and
spending just
15 minutes on the thorny issue of dealing with difficult
customers, the survey by the Australian-based group International
Customer
Service Professionals has found.
Tricia Olsen, the founder and chief executive of ICSP, which is staging Customer Service Week in Australia for the first time, said business should dump the customer is always right motto in favour of a more positive principle. “Today’s customer mindset is to expect they are always right, but does someone or anyone need to be right,” she said. “Is it a matter of right or wrong, or is it a matter of having a win-win approach to service? “If the customer believes the company values them, or will do their best to resolve their problems, and if they approach staff with a constructive mindset, then it will be more productive for everyone. The reality is the customer is not always right, but neither is the company always right.”
A customer service professional always seeks to develop a partnership between the customer and the business, Ms Olsen suggested. “In this relationship it is the service professional’s responsibility to be a true professional. What do we expect of a true professional? The expertise, training and a strict code of ethics to work to. In this regard we have come a long way but there is much further to go. “Customers are pushing this right much harder; they are more confronting than they were a few years ago which is putting pressure on today’s customer service providers.”
Ms Olsen said Customer Service Week was an opportunity for businesses to thank their customers - and for customers to acknowledge good service. It was launched at Myer’s Melbourne city store by Deputy Lord Mayor Susan Riley.
ICSP surveyed customer service providers in 300 businesses in diverse industries and three size categories: small (less than 30 employees - 30% of sample), medium (30 to 100 employees - 10% of sample), and large (100 plus employees - 60%). Findings include:
- most confronting customer behaviour - physical (27%), blaming (19%), yelling (17%), sarcasm (14%), swearing (14%) and denying (11%);
- first response to a confronting customer (more than one answer possible) - try to turn situation around (67%), tell customer to calm down (28%), prove customer wrong (19%), stick to what they believe (16%), hand over to superior (10%), yell back (1%);
- 84% of service providers said expectations had risen over the past three years;
- 52% of businesses benchmark service standards against other organisations;
- 25% of service providers believed their organisation provided “excellent” service, 48% said “good”, 19% “average”, 1% “very poor” and 7% “didn’t know” - surely the most worrying; and
- 84% of respondents said their industry needed to improve customer service, but their business was okay.