Customer Rage Study Reveals Simple Truths About Complaining Customers

Last week I had the pleasure of being a presenter at the International Customer Service Association’s Annual Conference (ICSA) in Atlanta. Hands down, it was one of the best conferences I’ve been to in a long time. The multiple keynotes were terrific as were the topical seminars.

In Scott Broetzmann from Customer Care Management and Consulting keynote he shared the results of their latest “Customer Rage” study. The study demonstrated the role that “non-monetary” remedies play in customer satisfaction (highlighted in green in the chart below). You will notice that five of the ten things customers said that they wanted (Reassurance, Explanation, Thank You, Ability to Vent, and Apology) cost nothing. Scott categorized these five things as “psychological currency.” An unlimited supply of this “currency” is available to every one who handles customer complaints.

(Source: Article in the Wall Street Journal on 9/22/10, How to Keep Your Cool in Angry Times.)

Evidently, this type of currency isn’t being spent as frequently as we’d like to believe. Scott told us about a separate study in which a researcher posed as a bank customer that had called to get the address of the closest  location and was given incorrect information. When the “customer” called the bank’s service center to report the error, only 38% of the reps apologized.

This week, remind your service providers to tap into their stash of psychological currency and spread it around. No need to be stingy. There’s plenty more where that came from.

Have a great week.

Barbara Burke
2010 © Barbara Burke. All rights reserved.

This Monday’s Aha! is from my customer service fable about a service rep in a call center, The Napkin,The Melon & The Monkey.
> Buy the Book direct from the Publisher (at 50% off the cover price)
> Listen to Chapter One.

www.barbaraburke.com

Go ahead. Make their day.

I decided to call my wireless provider after a recent radio interview. The host of the show, Paula Granquist, and I discussed just how stressful it is to work as a service rep in a call center. She observed, “When customers call, you can bet they aren’t calling to tell you how great you are.”

After the show Paula and I stopped in the lobby to visit. She mentioned that our conversation got her thinking. She decided to place a call to her wireless provider, Verizon. Paula planned to tell the agent who answered, that as a long-time customer she thought it was about time she called to let them know how happy she was with Verizon’s service.   

Inspired by Paula, I placed my call to AT&T and got an agent by the name of Curtis. As he verified my phone number and the name on the account, I detected a slight Texas drawl in his voice. “Hello,” I said, “You are probably going to think this is odd, but I thought I’d call you up and let you know how happy I am with AT&T’s service. I signed up when I got my iPhone a year or so ago. I’ve had very few dropped calls and have been very happy with the service. So, I thought I’d call and tell you how much I appreciate that.”

Hearing nothing on the other end of the phone, I wondered if he thought I was a crank caller and hung up. Finally, he replied, “Why … thank … you.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “We try to do our best. I really do appreciate you calling to tell me. I very much appreciate it.”  As I was about to say good-bye, he said, “I do appreciate it.” three more times.
Consider the karmic effect if we all called the services we take for granted (phone, cable, internet, energy…) for the sole purpose of complimenting them on a job well-done. Karma works by returning to you what you give to others. There’s nothing particularly mystical about this. It is a matter of cause and effect. If you’re friendly to others, you receive friendship. If you’re generous, people are more inclined to be generous to you.

This week pay it forward and see what happens. You’ll not only rack up some additional karma points, you’ll be sure to make the day of the person who receives your compliment.

Barbara Burke

2010 © Barbara Burke. All rights reserved.

If you are like most leaders your style has changed over the years. Most of us start out (myself included) thinking that getting that new title meant having to be out in front — leading the charge. Driven by our inflated ego and not knowing any better, we expect our people to buy what we’re selling and support us. If we are lucky we eventually figure out that we’ve got it backwards.

In a recent interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Anne Berkowitch a young CEO shares some of the lessons she has learned about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to leading others.

Q. How has your leadership style evolved?
A. If you think about how you steer a boat, it’s always from the back, and I’ve moved toward the back of the boat. Initially, my sense of leadership was to be a military general out in front of the troops and the first one rushing into battle. People have to know that you’re in charge, but I think it’s got to be almost more of a support role.”

Q. What else have you come to understand about leadership?
A. Ask a lot more questions and make a lot fewer statements. Leadership is really about asking questions and letting people answer them. I think it’s the only way you get your team to think. If you’re constantly talking at them, they don’t have to think. And as important as it is to ask questions and not make statements, you’ve also got to make the decisions, and faster.

So, you might ask: What are the questions I can ask from the back of the boat that will get my team thinking? I’ve found open-ended questions are the best. Questions starting with “who, what, where, when, why and how” require a thoughtful response (and can’t be answered with a “yes” or a “no.”) When I want to recall those words I think of a poem by Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Be happy. Enjoy your week.
2010 © Barbara Burke. All rights reserved.