Thoughts on Customer Service

I have a habit of going off on long rants on random things. (In fact, I debated titling this blog "Random Musings from The Jackal," but "The Jackal's Cackle" sounded better.) Sometimes I post them in the discussion area of various Wikipedia entries. That's not really the place for it (although right now the readership potential is much higher there than here, since no one knows about this, yet), so I thought I'd cave in and start a blog, because I want comments. Lots of comments.

For my first post, I'll take the random rant I just posted on the discussion page of Wikipedia's Customer Service article and post it here (edited slightly to remove the original's irrelevant Wikipedia-ness). It's somewhat stream-of-conscious, but I rather like it that way. (I may edit it for coherency when I get a chance.) I welcome any and all comments.

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What is the boundary between good customer service and unnecessarily "sucking up" to the customer and even "throwing money" at them? In my opinion, customer service consists of two parts: the attitude (friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, etc.) and the action (treating customers well, resolving disputes, etc.).

In my industry--rental cars--it is really easy for customers to be dissatisfied. Whether it's simple (and somewhat avoidable, although all put together it's nearly impossible to get everything 100% perfect 100% of the time) things like frozen windshield wipers, slightly dirty cars, or even the way the cars handle or large things that we have to do that can turn people off, like charging them for damage, their walk to the cars (my airport is HORRIBLY laid out, but we have no control over it), many people come back angry and claiming to never rent from us again. (Of course, all the other agencies do the exact same things we do...which may be why rental cars is consistently ranked among the lowest customer-friendly industries.)

Our franchise tries to offer the "attitude" part of customer service well--we try to staff our counters with friendly, outgoing, knowledgeable employees--but it's harder to find the balance with the "action" part of customer service.

Personally, I very much believe in the value of customer service. I believe that excellence in customer service will reward us in the long run with more profits due to repeat business and good referrals (although this is harder to do in a tourist-centric town like mine is, where people visit mostly once). I have a tendency--or so say many of my colleagues--to overcompensate customers for their complaints. (They say I'm too eager to "give away the farm.") If it were up to me, I'd try to make everybody happy. But realistically, there has to be SOME POINT at which you have to draw the line and say, "No more!" (Reminds me of the Dilbert comic where Dogbert is training managers: "Rule number one of customer service: The customer is always right. Rule number two: They must be punished for their arrogance!")

Let me try some concrete examples.

1. Someone comes in to us and complains that the car was dirty--they found an empty soda can in the back seat, and the back rugs weren't vacuumed. Our fault. They want compensation. What would be good customer service "in action"? Seems easy: perhaps a 5% discount. Or perhaps nothing, some argue--perhaps that's just one of those things that happens occasionally, and people shouldn't be so anal about it. I lean toward the former, but I can appreciate the management's point of view in that if we always handed back money for every little complaint, we'd eventually be broke and bankrupt.

2. Let's try a more difficult one. A customer returns the car after having to drag five suitcases through the snow through the 1/4 mile walk from the lot to the counter. Not our fault--we can't control where the airport puts us. They're angry and yelling, though. Should we give them a coupon for a free day? Everyone else says no. I waver. I know it's something we can't control, but I still feel bad for the customer having to suffer through it. Perhaps we could go to extreme measures and hire some more shuttle drivers to sit out in the lot and drive people up to the airport terminal where the cars are, but that could cost us close to $100,000 in wages, benefits, insurance, etc. for the four full-time shifts that would need to cover it. Can we afford that? No. Is that customer service in action? Yes. Is it worth it? That's a hard call.

3. How about when people claim they're never renting from us again because THEY crashed into the tree and crunched the front end of the car at a cost of $8,000 (after declining our "expensive" insurance). What is excellent customer service that exceeds the customer's expectations? Well, we can't just eat the $8000 because someone swore they were going to write the attorney general and tell everyone to never rent from us again.

4. I'm the only worker on premises. I can't leave the counter as I must be there to answer the telephone or wait to rent cars to anyone else who shows up. A customer who is disabled comes up to me. He says he cannot walk out to the car staging area (which, again, is 1/4 mile away). He tells me that I need to go out to the car and drive it closer for him. What do I do? I'd love to be of service, but I can't just leave the till for anyone to come in and steal. And of course someone else (a hurried businessperson, perhaps) is going to walk up and be miffed that I'm not there to immediately help them out. What to do in this situation?

These are the tough issues of customer service. It's easy to smile and point someone (or take them over) to the infant clothing section, but it's far harder to deal with dissatisfied customers who threaten to take their business elsewhere, whether it's your company's fault or not. What say you?