Customer service is simple when you look at the big picture from the bright side

These days it seems as if consumers are becoming more irritable, demanding and, in general, more difficult to please. And it seems that more often than not employees handling difficult customer-service situations are too inexperienced to deal with complaints in a satisfactory way. Today a lot of employees have to solve tough problems before being properly trained to fix them. That is a direct result of the labor shortage affecting the restaurant industry. Because of the shortage, employers have no choice but to use these ill-prepared workers before they have gained sufficient experience.

However, several types of behavior can be taught to front-line employees quickly and easily in order to get them up to speed sooner. But first we need to practice them ourselves. To start, here are two that will produce quick results.

Assume good intentions: In resolving service complaints, introduce the concept of assuming good intentions. In other words expect that a business conflict with a co-worker, manager or customer can be resolved through improved communication and better understanding. Business managers and owners who train employees who are new to customer service seem to find that concept especially helpful.

To illustrate the point, customers at fast-food restaurants want instant service and often. If they have to wait for service or food for more than a couple of minutes, they become irritable and inconsiderate of the restaurant staff and other customers. A natural reaction for an employee might be to become defensive. The worker may display irritation and may be thinking such thoughts as: "I'm doing the best I can, buddy; you try to fry chicken all day," or "Get a grip! Do you want the cheeseburger fresh or not?"

Such thoughts assume that the customer has bad intentions rather than good ones. And they don't deal sensitively with the reason why the customer may be behaving that way in the first place. Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of learning to assume good intentions through experience comes from "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," by Steve Covey.

In the first chapter Covey tells a memorable story of a Sunday morning subway ride in New York City. As people sat quietly reading newspapers, a father and his young children entered the car. The father sat down, put his head in his hands and seemed to be in another world, oblivious of the fact that his children were running around the car, screaming and distracting the other passengers. After a few minutes the man was asked to control his children.

His reply is an important lesson in assuming good intentions. "Oh, you're right," he said. "I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either."

Covey also wrote that he instantly changed his original feelings of annoyance and distraction to those of sympathy and an impulse to help. Though the example is extreme, it is a lesson for all never to assume the worst in people, but rather to assume that sometimes we do not or cannot understand what is causing a person to behave in a way that makes us uncomfortable.

As for responding to seemingly "poor service," employees should try to ask themselves, "Is there a time when I might behave the same way and have a good reason for doing so?" There may be a reasonable explanation for the behavior that has been established. If in fact, that is the case, then the worker's irritation might be relieved and he can focus on more important things.

Take a seat in the skybox or pay attention to yourself and others: We've all heard the expression about walking around in another person's shoes, right? Well, if we truly wish to understand and improve a situation, there is a step beyond walking in someone else's shoes. It's called "taking a seat in the skybox."

In the Midwest much media attention is given to the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. When legendary head coach Tom Osborne retired after the 1997 season, much speculation went on about who might replace him and what would happen to the program. In a somewhat unconventional choice, Frank Solich, an assistant coach for the Cornhuskers, who spent most of his Nebraska coaching days in the skybox, was hired as the new head coach.

Solich spent years sitting in the skybox, watching games in a climate-controlled area away from the action on the field. When he spoke to the players and other coaches during games it was via the telephone. So how could this "skybox" coach be successful as a leader on the field? He could do it because he spent years seeing something no one else on the team or coaching staff had seen: the whole picture. He could see the offense, defense, cheerleaders, bands, mascots and fans, and he could analyze how each one of those aspects of the game affected the others. In 1999, his second year as head coach, Solich led the Huskers to a 12-1 record.

You see, whether coaching football, discussing a complaint with an irritated customer or addressing an uncomfortable issue with a co-worker, we all can benefit from a skybox view. To simply try and understand another point of view is not enough; it doesn't force us to examine ourselves in the situation. We must lift ourselves far enough to see the big picture.

By removing ourselves from comfortable, regular thoughts and attempting to understand situations we are involved in as third parties, we open our minds to appreciating the conflict or opportunity better. From the skybox we can see ourselves, the other party and the outside factors, too. And with that new vision, we can make sounder, more beneficial judgments.

As consumers, employees, managers and business owners, we should look at not only the ways in which we think but also how we train others to handle service better and the ways we handle service and sensitivity ourselves.

Dr. Mark Peterson, Ph.D., is a clinical professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and an instructor at Iowa Western Community College. He also is the proprietor of The Change Doctor, which assists businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations in dealing with the effects of change and other organizational issues.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group