Unexpected customer answers reveal "moments of truth"

There are certain stock phrases used so often in customer service situations that they've almost lost all meaning. They've become perfunctory and the responses they illicit from customers almost seem scripted. "How are you today?" asks the customer service rep. The answer, of course, is "I'm fine."

But what happens when the customer goes off script and says something unexpected? You can earn an "A" for service if you are recognize these moments of truth and are ready for a little improv. On the other hand, you might get a "C" or even an "F" if you don't seize the moment.

Here are some examples:

Did you find everything OK?
Expected Answer: "Yes"
Moment of Truth: "No". My wife, Sally, got this one at the bookstore last night. She was looking for some note cards but didn't find anything she liked. She bought a few other items and the associate at the cash register asked her "Did you find everything OK?" Sally said "No", but the associate missed the opportunity to make some suggestions. She simply ignored the response and continued the transaction.

How is your stay at our hotel so far?
Expected answer: "Good"
Moment of truth:"It's OK." There's a subtle difference here, but a savvy hotel associate will catch it and take action. I once gave this answer to a hotel associate while sharing an elevator. Instead of following up with "How can I make your stay better?" it got uncomfortably quiet until we got to her floor and she quickly exited the elevator.

How are you today?
Expected answer: "I'm fine"
Moment of truth: "I'm terrible". I must admit I dropped the ball on this one when I was a teenager working in a retail clothing store. I really didn't know what to say until the customer, seeing my surprised look, followed up with, "Well, you asked!" Yes, I did ask, but I also realized I hadn't cared what the answer was. From that point forward, I was ready for those moments of truth and knew to respond with, "I'm sorry to hear that -- what can I do to make your day better?"

What are your moments of truth?

Less than half of U.S. employees are satisified with their jobs

A new report from the Conference Board reveals that only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs. A natural first reaction is to blame the current economy, but  worker satisfaction has been steadily declining from a high of 61% in 1987, when the Conference Board begun studying worker satisfaction.

I'm sure there are many contributing factors, but I have two primary theories on why this is happening.  (I'd love to hear yours, so please leave your comments...)

Theory #1: Employers are not doing a good job of hiring people who will love their jobs

The typical employee selection process includes a glance at the resume for similar job experience, an interview full of "tell me about a time when" and "where do you see yourself in five years", and a post-interview discussion about whether Candidate A or Candidate B is the best hire. Most organizations I've encountered do not put any deliberate effort into identifying whether a job applicant will fit in with the organizational culture. Sure, there may be some form of gut-check like "I think Mary would really get along with the team," but nothing specific. Some companies administer pre-hire personality assessments, but the results are often compared to a model provided by the assessment vendor rather than the employer's own workforce.

A few companies do a great job of hiring for culture fit and have some great results to show for it. Online retailer Zappos.com puts a lot of effort into hiring people who will love working there. It's no wonder they have developed a reputation for amazing customer service and they are currently #23 on Fortune's "Best Companies to Work For" list.

Theory #2: Employees are not taking enough ownership of their job satisfaction.

The current economy has definitely made it difficult to be satisfied at work, but the trend in declining worker satisfaction has spanned both good and bad job markets. There has to be more to job satisfaction than "the economy". I think it comes from unrealistic employee expectations. We want high pay, enjoyable work, wonderful co-workers, a great boss, and awesome benefits, and we want it all right now. If we're lucky, we'll get some of these, but it's wishful thinking to get it all without a lot of effort.

There seem to be two reasonable choices for dealing with a job you don't like. Choice #1: proactively figure out how to make the job enjoyable. (GREAT book on this - Love It, Don't Leave It). Choice #2: find a new job that you love, even if it means developing new skills, entering into a different field, or even readjusting your expectations. Many people expect a Choice #3: be miserable and wait for someone (the boss? the government? a genie?) to come along and make it all better, but that's unlikely to happen.

Frame-up! The exciting conclusion...

And now, the exciting conclusion to my incredible misadventures getting some frames made at Aaron Brothers. Special thanks go out to all the people who left comments (mostly on Facebook) wishing me well and especially my friend Marjorie, who wondered what I might have done to deserve bad customer service karma.

The big day

In action movies there's often a montage scene where the hero is shown training for that inevitable big moment. I imagined a montage all last week where Mr. Clean-up was busy building my frames while "Eye of the Tiger" or some equally corny rock anthem was playing in the background. At first, it was very difficult for him and he almost quit. But, through determination and hard work, he got better and better at it until finally he was ready to take on the forces of poor customer service and deliver my order.

Ring!

My phone rang on Friday afternoon. It was Mr. Clean-up. I held my breath.

"Your frames are all ready for pick-up," said Mr. Clean-up. I could hardly believe it. Are you sure? "Yes - they're ready to go. We close at 9, so you can pick them up this evening if you'd like."

Plot twist?

My wife, Sally, and I headed down to Aaron Brothers later that night to pick up our frames. In the back of my mind, I was anticipating a plot twist. The kind where you think the super villain has been vanquished, but suddenly he comes back to life for one last-ditch attempt at chaos. When we walked in, we were greeted by the Ball Dropper, that fiendish customer service villain who shirks responsibility and never seems to get things dong. Aaaaarrgh!

Bracing ourselves for the inevitable conflict, we were surprised to find the Ball Dropper contrite and eager to please. He brought out our frames (they were all great) and apologized for the hassle. A few minutes later we were walking out of the store with our frames in hand. Somehow, this really was the happy ending we had hoped for.

Frame-up! Service hero, villains, and not-so-innocent bystanders.

My favorite framing store in San Diego has evidently disappeared, so my wife (Sally) and I recently decided to give Aaron Brothers another chance. We'd received a lot of disinterested service from Aaron Brothers in the past, but they have a store near our house and we didn't feel like doing too much searching for a new place to get a couple of prints framed. Little did we know our adventure would read like a customer service comic book, complete with a cliffhanger ending!

The Villains

The Ball Dropper
The Ball Dropper shirks responsibility. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes just because, well, he's the Ball Dropper. That's his stupor-power -- not getting things done. In our case, the Ball Dropper struck twice. First, he mis-measured the matting for our frames, causing a delay since it resulted in the last piece of that matting being cut to the wrong dimensions. Zap! Pow! Backorder! The second instance was worse -- he neglected to call us and let us know there would be a delay.  Aaaargh!

Apathy Girl
We dropped by Aaron Brothers on Sunday to buy some additional frames and check on our prints. They were due on Monday, so we figured we'd see if they were ready a day early. That's when Apathy Girl materialized and informed us there had been a delay and our prints wouldn't be ready on Monday as planned because the evil Ball Dropper and bungled the order.

Apathy Girl's favorite phrases are "I don't know", "That's not my job," and "That sucks for you." The last phrase sometimes sounds like, "I'm sorry", but that's because she has a thick Apathetic accent. She's really saying, "That sucks for you."

In this case, Apathy Girl told us she didn't know when our order would be ready. We wanted to order an additional frame to match the first one, but she told us it was out of stock. She also didn't know when it would be in (maybe February?!). We asked if we could pick out a similar frame and get it all done by Friday since the original order was delayed. Apathy Girl didn't know. The new frame was also more expensive, so we asked if they would give it to us at a discount since we were inconvenienced. Apathy Girl didn't know that either. "I only work here one day a week," she said.

Apathy Girl's evil forces were so powerful that Sally and I decided to give up on Aaron Brothers for this frame job. We took our prints, got a refund, trudged out of the store, and then shook our fists at the sky. (Shaking your fist at the sky is what you do when you feel powerless because an Evil Customer Service Villain took advantage of you.)

Not-So-Innocent Bystander

The store manager witnessed all of Apathy Girl's show. She didn't say or do anything. Perhaps it was because she was assisting another customer and didn't want to cause a scene. Perhaps it was because she felt powerless to stop the awesome power of the evil super villain Apathy Girl. Or, perhaps she was secretly Apathy Woman and Apathy Girl was her prodigy. Whatever the reason, she didn't do much store managing on this day.

The Super Hero

Mr. Clean-up
On Monday, the date when our framed prints were originally due, I received a phone call from a Service Hero, Mr. Clean-up. He told me he was the framer at Aaron Brothers and was surprised to come into work to find our order had been cancelled. Mr. Clean-up was calling to see if he could do anything to win back our business or at least find out what went wrong. I told him our story.

"Ahhhh, the Ball Dropper and Apathy Girl strike again!" Mr. Clean-up then offered to do what he does best - clean-up a bad situation.

I asked Mr. Clean-up if he could frame our original prints plus make the additional frame we wanted at a discount, and get it all done by Friday. He explained that was a tall order because he had to get permission from the store manager (who might very well be Apathy Woman), but he would see what he could do. Could he give me a call back by Tuesday and let me know? Sure.

I can only imagine what happened next as Mr. Clean-up took on the evil forces of indifference and poor customer service that were part of the Aaron Brothers company culture.

Biff! Pow! Boom!

The rest of the story...

Mr. Clean-up left a message for me yesterday - we got the deal! All I had to do was bring the prints back in that day and everything would be ready by Friday. At a discount. I grabbed the prints and hustled out the door as soon as I got the message.

When I got to Aaron Brothers a few minutes later I was told Mr. Clean-up had already left for the night. (Has anyone actually seen Mr. Clean-up?!) However, another employee offered to help me. Unfortunately, I could tell she was another not-so-innocent bystander who was lured by the call of Apathy. "Mr. Clean-up has already left for the night." And, "We don't usually do that." And, "I couldn't guarantee it would be done by Friday." Aaaaargh!

I felt the urge to shake my fist at the sky again, but I had one last card to play. "Let's call Mr. Clean-up and see what he has to say about it," I said. She agreed and made the call. I only heard her end of the conversation:

"Uh huh. Uh huh. Well, we don't normally do.. Oh, I see.  Oh, OK. OK."

She came back to the counter, smiling. "We can do it all by Friday and give you that discount. Mr. Clean-up says it's OK."

Cliffhanger Ending...

I left Aaron Brothers last night feeling confident that I'd get my order by Friday. Or will I? Will Mr. Clean-up finish the job? Or, will the Ball Dropper intervene and drop the ball? Will Apathy Girl swoop in on her day off (she only works Sundays, remember?) and spread apathy across the store? I won't know until Friday, but I'm excited!

Avis service recovery - he DID try harder (eventually)

I had an interesting experience renting a car from Avis yesterday. Initially, it seemed like just another example of poor service.  At the end, I was pleasantly surprised to see the agent make an attempt at recovery.

This situation was a "moment of truth" because I had just signed up as an Avis "Preferred" member where I could skip the rental counter and go straight to my car.  Unfortunately, my name wasn't on the "preferred" list when I got to the rental car area, so I was a bit deflated. I noticed an "Avis Preferred" office, so I decided to go in and see if they could get my rental straightened out.

The agent who helped me definitely didn't live up to the "we try harder" motto.  He tried every trick in the book to make me go away. "You'll need to go to the rental counter." (Well, can't you at least look up my reservation?) "I'll have to stop serving you if a Preferred member comes in." (Aren't I a Preferred member?) "You're not in the program until you get your card in the mail - it takes 2 to 3 weeks." (I DID get my card in the mail, now what?)  "You'll have to call customer service." (I'll HAVE to call?! Can't you help me?)

Finally, after trying everything he could to get me to go away, the agent found my reservation in the system, verified I WAS a Preferred member, and printed out my contract. No apology was offered, but at least I had my rental car and I didn't have to go all the way back to the rental counter.

The surprise happened when I got in the car and started exiting the rental car garage.  I saw the agent leave the office and motion to me to roll down my window.  I stopped and he said with a smile, "I think I figured out why you weren't on the Preferred list!" He went on to explain that since my reservation was made before I became a Preferred member, the reservation didn't automatically upgrade to Preferred status. He assured me that I would be all set going forward with any new reservation.

All told, it wasn't a great experience, but I did appreciate the agent trying to turn things after our initial encounter. To me, that's the true lesson.  We'll all have moments when we say the wrong thing or drop the ball in some way.  What matters most is what we do after that moment has passed.