How to RECEIVE great Customer Service?

Thousands have written about giving great customer service, how to exceed the customers expectations, and ensuring that the customer leaves with a smile on their face.

But what about the other-side of the equation?

Do we know how to receive great customer service?

Since middle school math, we’ve been taught that both sides of the equation must balance.

We always talk about the employee, the manager, the business owner giving great customer service, but it seems like its taboo to address how customers should receive great customer service.

Well . . . this is me touching a taboo subject.

The employee we are interacting with is not the entire company

Whatever the reason we become a customer at a certain establishment, many of us have a preconceived notion that the person we are interacting with is a miniature version of the big bad world that is Corporate America. We have to remember that that person is an employee for that company not THE company.

Our customer experience could go much better if we remember that and treat that person with respect.

That employees job is to follow a policy set by individuals much higher than him/her, get paid much more, and have no idea what happens on the front-lines.

We need to remind ourselves that the employee is a human being, with a story like the 7 billion other stories in the world. If we treat that person with respect, they will most likely go out of there way to making sure our experience is a great one.

Keeping a positive attitude despite the negative situation

This is the hardest aspect of being a customer to grasp. Whenever we experience something negative with a product or service, we immediately flip a switch from happy to mad, sad or a combination of any other negative emotions.

It is amazing what keeping a positive outlook on a negative situation can do. Something my mom has told me in arabic is: “تفاءل بالخير تجد” which translates to – Expect the positive, or keeping a positive attitude and you will find the positive.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: “Is it really that bad?”

Is it a matter of life and death?

Most likely not.

Will I lose my loved ones, or become homeless, or go hungry because of this bad experience?

If the answer is yes to those questions, than you have much bigger problems than a bad customer experience.

The bottom line is bad experiences happen. Our food might take a little longer, the server might have written the order down wrong, the bank might have placed a wrong charge on the account, their could be a false charge on your bill, but is it really worth getting mad or upset over?

There is no perfection when humans are involved. I’m not perfect, and have yet to find someone that is. We have to understand that human error is a part of our lives.

There is way too much competition for your money, many more alternatives for you to choose from out there for you to be miserable over a bad customer experience. Life’s too short.

The straw that broke the camels back.

I admit, I have been guilty of this as am sure many of are as well.

We’ve all had bad days, days where it seems like nothing can go right, seems like the whole world has conspired against us, then on top of that, we have a bad customer experience. The product that we spent money on isn’t working properly or the service we are expecting is never delivered.

Then we explode. The tower falls, the straw that broke the camels back.

And we take it out on the employee in-front of us, or on the person over the phone, and want to sue the entire company or establishment, rage is in our hearts, and revenge is on our minds.

In a previous post, I mentioned taking ourselves out of the situation like Sherlock Holmes, or looking at a situation from a bird-eye view.

Rosamund and Benjamin Zander call it “being the board (not the game pieces),” in The Art of Possibility.

That is a skill which I am trying to work out, I have improved tremendously but still have a long way to go.

Before I get blasted on this post, I would like to make it clear that this post is not defending companies and businesses. It’s still imperative for a good business to deliver excellent customer service for it to succeed.

All I’m saying is that there are things which we can control to tip the odds in our favor.