Is being "nice" over-rated? End the tyrannical reign of "The Nice" in customer service!

Have we lost sight of true customer service in the vise-grip of "niceness"?

I think it's very fair to say that one of the values that drives much of customer service in the USA is "niceness". While I don't disagree that being surly is unlikely to get you repeat customers, the idea of "being nice" for its own sake has always made me itchy. 

My natural personality, while not Cruella DeVille, is more cerebral, intense, and reserved. Combined with my height (5'10") and my piercing stare, I tend to get feedback like "you seem harsh" or in a memorable conversation "You're the Talented Tyrant [type of person]". Oof. 

I've given this a lot of thought, because throughout my career, I've been "the sweetie" and "the headmistress" both. 

When I worked in collections, my coworkers (who included one guy who was arrested at work for breaking his probation!) called me "The Nun" and were visibly shaken one day when I imitated a debtor swearing. I didn't even do the swearing myself! 

When I worked in the Philippines, I was "The Irate Customer" and my long suffering account manager boss had to tell me twice in one week to let it go (the issue was speaking English only on the production floor, a particular bugaboo of mine) and wind down, I was scaring people. 

So which is it? Am I a "nice person" or am I a jerk? Neither. I'm human, and so are your customers and your staff. 

Again and again, I have read comments saying "My rep was very NICE but I couldn't understand her/ she had no idea what she was doing/ she didn't fix my problem" or "My rep was very sweet, but he transferred me several times to the wrong departments". Yes, being POLITE is a must, but we have seen customers value competence, solutions, and confidence just as highly as they value a syrupy tone and dozens of gushing apologies. 

It is one of my core beliefs that there is room in your team for all types of people, and trying to cram everyone into a mold of "niceness" is only going to backfire. In my experience, most people who get hired at a business level are pretty "nice" and presentable. 

It's seldom that you get a true jerk who made it past the interview process. What you do get is backstabbing, passive aggressive, victims, and a lot of high school drama-- a team who uses buzzwords like "misunderstanding" to cut each other to ribbons, and create cliques and a pecking order, all under the pink umbrella of niceness. Ugh. 

Also, on your production floor, when you ask your team to "whitewash" their personality (especially those that are a bit flat, technical, reserved, or quiet), you get a bland, cardboard-y product. 

Customers want a genuinely pleasant interaction, and in my opinion and experience, that can take many forms besides "It-is-our-pleasure-to-provide-you-exceptional-customer-service-today" (something that not only does no one believe, it actually makes people angry with its empty promises). 

So how do you get the customer service you want out of people who aren't naturally bubbly, perky, upbeat, and "nice"? 

First, find their strengths. Then work with those to find ways you can raise the profile and reputation of your quiet or intense types and avoid the 'so and so is a B on wheels' thing. 

---Are they a technical whiz? Perhaps they can contribute to the group with a weekly or monthly tech newsletter or Twitter feed. Just a few sentences on the latest gadgets or the office tools might work. 

---Are they a bit of a loner or shy? Maybe they can be encouraged to join the conversation on the SharePoint or other "group media" tools that your office uses. With the extra buffer zone between them and others, their true personality may shine (let's just hope it's socially acceptable!) 

Secondly, try to create an atmosphere in which gossip, backstabbing, and petty drama are discouraged. 

When Geri comes to you to whisper that Bettina is "really quiet" and "not doing so great on sales", firmly tell her to keep her eyes on her own paper. You'll never get rid of all cattiness, that's how any group works, but you can set a tone that teamwork AND the quality of someone's work are valued equally, and people who are *only* perky and fizzy at 8 am without the work to back it up won't last long at your office. 

Lastly, mix it up. Be real. Being "nice" is not as good as being kind, tactful, supportive, and genuine. 

Yes, there are mandated scripts that some conehead in the home office thought sounded terrific, but outside of those, try to inject some life into your interactions with your REAL personality. 

Just ask yourself: "Would I say this to a friend, in this way, with this tone and these words?" If not, remove half the syrup, ditch the scripts, and use your own good hearted-ness to guide the way. You don't have to be "nice" to give wonderful customer service.  

Wear your Service Heart on your sleeve: Why service jobs are the best kind of jobs.

Service job. 

Image from "Weheartit" on Tumblr Images

What does that phrase mean to you? To many of us, it's a code word for a stop-gap job, a stepping stone job, or a job that is taken by people with few choices-- a last resort. 

I disagree with that characterization and I'd like to rally the customer service community to start revamping the image and connotation that goes with "service" and "service jobs". 

For almost my entire working life, I've been in service or "support". Even unrelated-seeming jobs such as window dresser and nanny have actually boiled down to "service." When I was younger I couldn't wait to get away from the dreaded customers, and it burned me to know that people I was waiting on were having fun while I was working. 

Now I think about service slightly differently, for a few reasons:

Expanding types of service jobs, such as online goods selling or DIY entrepreneurs have refashioned the market and injected a much needed "cool factor".

Whether it's the barista who knows everything about coffee and has a tattoo of a vintage esspresso maker, or the small batch craft beer guys, the rise in DIY and entrepreneurship has raised the profile of what we would consider "service" jobs. Celebrity nail polish artists, food truck rock stars, SuperNanny? They all work in service jobs!

I realize my years in service gave me valuable skills I could use later. 

I know the customer backwards and forwards, and I've sold all kinds of goods to all kinds of people. I've honed my sales pitches on literally thousands of customers, and I have had the benefit of dealing with hundreds of irate customers. This is equally true for all the teaching and child care jobs I've done: creating games and activities has translated into an effortless creativity and deep well of ideas for classroom training events. 

I found a way to look at the concept of service differently. 

In reading a non fiction book about the personal staff of the very rich (I can't remember the title to save my life!) I came across a term I love: "Service Heart". The person being interviewed explained that some people are just born with a service heart. It's natural for them to intuit what others need and want, and to figure out ways to create moments and events that delight, dazzle, and satisfy. This changed "service" into a kind of calling like the ministry or educating, that allowed me to think of service in a more elevated light, and I encourage you to do so as well. 

I joined a community.

When I started my professional Twitter feed, I was astonished at the amount of like minded people who were almost crazily passionate about customer service, the same as I was. Many had bios that strongly resembled mine! There are also entire businesses who make it their only goal to help other businesses provide better customer service! With a strong, active community around me, I came to see that customer service, and having a service heart was not just a bottom of the barrel designation: 

It's something to wear proudly on your sleeve!

Ignore your Customer: The 8 types of Voice-of-Customer responses you can safely toss.

What do irrelevant VOC survey comments look like? (And how do you handle them?)

Source: Zazzle.com

When I first came to my language and cultural coaching job, I was appalled at the comments I was seeing from customers. They were so angry! Listening to my first few calls, especially those that had  angry comments attached, I could see why they were so mad. But over time, I learned that not every comment has merit, or is even true! 

Here's the easiest to spot types:

(Let's say your call center is handling KableForAll, a mega-provider of Cable Services )

1: Response clearly refers to another company's product or service. 

Looks like:
 "Every time I call you clowns, it takes three hours to get through. And then you still can't take my order right. All I want is to get easy, correct phone service. How hard is that in this day and age?!"

2: Response is mostly or fully based on the fact of outsourcing itself.

 Looks like: 
 "If President Whatever had a good head on his shoulders, he would BRING JOBS BACK TO AMERICA!"

3: Response is upset about out- of- scope issues:

Looks like: 
"Look, if I pay for a one year warranty, I think it's not too much to ask for you all to extend the courtesy by at least 2 months!"

4: Response is unintelligible or garbled. 

Looks like:
"yea, whatevs. You guys sux. Haterrrssss!"

Medium- Easy to spot

5: Response is based on the quality or standards of the product, and not your services:

Looks like:
 "This throttling is not what I paid for! GIVE ME MY FULL CABLE AND GAMES!"

6: Response is a reaction to a chain of events your rep just happened to be the last person to handle:

Looks like:
 "I am cancelling my service because since July of 2007 I have NEVER received good service. Good day to you!"

7: Response is specific, but upon reviewing the call, in your professional opinion, the rep did not commit the errors you read about:

Looks like:
"The rep kept me on hold for 45 minutes!! Is that what you yahoos call service!!! And when he got on the phone I could barely understand him, his accent was so thick!"

Hardest level: 

 8: Response is specific, but does not hit the issue. However, there were issues on the call, just not what the customer called out.

Looks like: 
"How many times am I going to call these phone lines and get an INDIAN on the phone? I am so tired of hearing the same scripted CRAP over and and over." (Your reps are not Indian, and do not use scripts, but they had accent and delivery issues). 

How do you handle these?

Well, every call center has its own protocols, but usually your Quality Assurance Team has come up with tags that will clearly indicate that the response is not relevant to your scores, and why. 

It's also key to have calibrations, both with your teams and with your clients. Ensure that what they consider an out of scope response is also what you consider out of scope. Equally important is the "why" they agree to toss out a survey response-- make sure that when you're discounting responses it's for the same reasons as your clients'.

Ensure that you are not biased, as much as you can. As a trainer and a coach, I had soft spots for certain reps, favorites, and people I did not give any inch of excuses for. We all do it. Just make sure you're not dismissing a comment because you "know Jim is a great guy" or giving more weight to a nutzy comment because that "Misty kind of *is* a b----".

Make sure you read the comments, the Quality Reports, and the breakdowns of the tags every time they come out. Again, different call centers have different tools, and they can sometimes vary from account to account, but most call centers track all kinds of stats. Ensure that you as a trainer or a coach work with your operations team to get access to those tools and reports and for goodness sake, use them!

Finally, it's important to do lots of audits. I used to audit almost 100 calls a week, and I became very good at spotting good calls that the customer would  wind up giving a bad review to. Calls where the customer couldn't get what they wanted, they were just plain mean people, or they had an axe to grind with the system or the product. 

Remember: when evaluating criticism, first consider the source.