Barry Moltz, author of BAM! Bust-A-Myth: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World, answered that question while a guest on my radio show recently.
Who better than Barry to answer this? His book, a great book, lists 19 customer service myths. Oh. And he discusses how to overcome them to make your customer service serve the customer. Really.
I asked him:
You list 19 customer service myths in your book. What are your favorite three myths? ( With emphasis on your...)
Here's what he said:
1. The customer is always right. This was started in the 1900s by a French hotelier. Guess what, they are not always right and it is not good for business if we treat the customer like they are always right.
2. Customer service is just plain common sense. That is just plain ludicrous. Just like any other skill, it needs to be trained and developed. I think this is why Zappos does so well. They train their people.
3. Under promise and over deliver.My Thoughts
Customer service remains a passion, a fascination, for me. I have had a few months to look at these three. I've looked at them often.
Here's some follow-up thoughts of mine.
1. The customer is always right.
That first one may sound like heresy to some. These days every customer is precious. And many of us know it.
However, one of the quickest and smoothest paths to business failure is to believe this myth with all your heart. AND...try to implement that myth in your business operations.
No business can make every customer happy with their services. That would you mean your business is all things to all people. Never works.
All things to all people means nothing to no one.
Operationally, it's impossible to finance. Branding-wise...what are you? What do you stand for? If you want to be all things to all people, look at Congress. Look at their ratings, too.
2. Customer service is just plain common sense.
For me...it is. I came up through the ranks of customer service. Customer service seemed...natural and obvious to me.
What really was natural was acquiring the skills to deliver, communicate, what appeared obvious to me. Sometimes I thought I was...smooth on the phone. Then I would go to a training class and see...I could be so much better.
Recently I saw a series of Tweets about this:
I liked this. Customer service is about caring. It's about heart. However, those qualities are built-in from childhood, at home, with the guidance of parents and the knocks and love of their siblings.
A business can only build on that foundation of caring and heart an employee brings. If you have a heart, if you care about others, then customer service can be seen as common sense. A business can offer training and skills. But without the attitude...the heart, the caring, the desire to serve others, to make others happy....those skills will never be learned.
3. Under promise and over deliver.
You'll hear Barry's thoughts if you listen to the show. ( This is not a tease to listen.) You have to hear him say...What!? Why not over promise and over deliver.
I've used the under-promise and over-deliver wisdom often. And I bought it. My audience bought it.
It's about building expectations. Under-promising is about lowering expectations. It arises from a fear-based mindset. Maybe that mindset is developed in cultures where failure is punished, where humanity is squashed, where honesty is something to rarely shown...
But if you want to wow your customer...over-promise and over-deliver. Look at Zappos. That could be said to be their whole brand message.
You can read more highlights from my conversation with Barry Moltz.
You can listen to our show.
You can follow Barry Moltz on Twitter.
You can, should, buy his book.
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