Get Your Stuff and Get Out!

Why Customer Service Sucks and How We Can Make It Great Again!

Bryan Horn

• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781649903440
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Customer Relations
• Index: Business

Being good is not good enough anymore. Being mediocre is even worse. Being great makes or breaks companies. Customers can get anything from anywhere. How people are treated from the moment they walk into the doors of a business, visit their website, or contact a call center determines how much money they will spend.

Every company has a slogan or tagline touting how much they care about customers. Interestingly enough, that commitment to the customer is usually tacked up on the break room wall and touted with little importance. Saying you care about your customers won't win you any special points. Showing them you do is what brings in the money.

Customer service needs a lot of work. Frankly, customer service sucks. Corporate culture sucks. Both are designed to favor the companies themselves, not the hard working employees who make it all happen or the customers who keep them in business.

It hasn't always been perfect, but today's standards are far from what we expect or deserve. They are, at best, just good. It is time to raise the bar and take the treatment of customers from good to great! Can we reverse the negative corporate cultures that have crept into the business world? Can we implement practices that tell customers we value them and want them to return?

We can, and we must.

PART I

Treat Employees Like Garbage; That's Exactly What You'll Get!

“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't have to.”

– SIR RICHARD BRANSON

An employee of a large company went to his boss and asked for an emergency day off. His mother needed immediate and major surgery to remove part of a lung due to the effects of cancer. She was a strong smoker prior to her surgery, a fact the boss knew very well. The boss did not approve the day off because he already had made personal plans. The employee respectfully said that he needed the time off to be with his sick mother. The boss responded, “Show up tomorrow, or don't show up at all.” The man chose to tend to his mother's needs and the boss fired him the following day. The boss followed up his termination with a demeaning text that read, “Has your mother been able to go a day without smoking?”

A woman worked for a company who advertised a great company culture, amazing benefits, and a solid work/life balance. Within two weeks, she quit. Just the opposite was true of this company. There was extreme micromanagement and employee degradation. They demanded she be on call 24/7 and gave her a formal warning for leaving at five o'clock to pick up her children from daycare. They patronized and belittled her for not knowing certain terminology in an industry she never touched before.

A large western region bank had one centralized training center in Salt Lake City. They didn't provide remote or telecommuting training for employees working in distant locations. This bank required all new employees to attend mandatory classes as a condition of employment. However, the bank refused to pay for gas or hotels.

A newly hired teller did not have the money to stay in expensive hotels for a week. He lived four hours away in Wyoming, so commuting was out of the question. The bank fired him for “failure to uphold conditions of employment.” They might as well have fired him for being poor.

When a business fails to invest in their employees, the financial losses are extreme. When a business refuses to treat employees right, the business will suffer. When employees are treated like gold, the business will prosper. This isn't rocket science; it's a documented fact.

Show Genuine Care

In my previous book, I shared several examples about seeing the soul of a person. I shared the importance of viewing employees as actual people and not emotionless robots who clock-in and clock-out each day. It is difficult to get along with everyone. Some people are mean. Some are manipulative and even vindictive. Some will stab you in the back to get ahead every chance they get. Finding the right people who will live your company's culture is half the battle. But we can all do our part to make the world a better place, and that begins at the places we work.

Jeff James, General Manager of the Disney Institute explains,

Demonstrating genuine care means showing real concern for the well-being of each person in the organization. It's about deliberately paying attention to employees as human beings and as unique individuals. This kind of genuine care must be built directly into the company culture—not as an extra benefit, but as a foundation.¹

Human resources have departed far from human development. Maybe the reason for this is that it's easier to pretend to care rather than caring. It is more convenient, time-efficient, and better to the bottom line to be robotic. It is emotionally safer to manage through a predetermined set of procedures rather than take the time to understand someone's dreams, hopes, and desires. It is easier to never view someone's humanity if you never acknowledge their existence.

As a roving banking manager, I worked in many offices and had the opportunity to interact with many wonderful front-line employees and managers. However, there were occasions when I worked with employees who did not like me. They did not respect my authority and would make things hard on me.

I worked with an individual who had been an employee of the bank for over 35 years. He was one of the most tenured managers within the entire financial institution. He was also one of the most difficult people to work with. New tellers would report on their first day at breakfast and would be out by lunch. His banking partners, namely commercial lending officers, private bankers and business bankers, all requested transfers. The support tellers refused to go to his office. He complained regularly about his personal life and how much he hated being at work. His staff was rude and condescending like he was. They yelled at each other and in front of clients. It was a very toxic culture.

I did not know about any of this when I was assigned to work with this manager. When I arrived he immediately told me I was not welcome there. He told me he was only working until his retirement benefits were available. He would often leave in the morning and come back for an hour in the afternoon to bark orders. On one occasion, he made some very inappropriate statements about certain ethnic groups. I reported his behavior, yet they did nothing. I joined the long list of bankers and managers who refused to work in such a place.

Many months later, this man finally got his retirement and left the company. A new manager was brought in. He completely transformed the office from top to bottom. He released every single employee and hired new talent. He transformed the culture, and that office is one of the busiest and most productive within the footprint of the bank. The night and day difference he brought amazed me.

So, what is the point here? When you allow a toxic culture to prevail, your customers will reap the consequences. Production will come to a halt. No one will want to work for you. It's quite simple. Treat your employees right, and they will shine for you! Do the opposite and they will respond accordingly.

Employees are people first! They will gladly go somewhere they are appreciated and needed. Believe it or not, I felt some sympathy for this manager. He took out his personal frustrations on everyone. Something was always wrong in his life: his health, his kids, his wife. I am sure that, if everything he said was true, it would cause tremendous emotional pain and panic. But I respectfully contend that there is no excuse to treat people with that level of animosity and rudeness. This manager spewed a nasty toxicity everywhere he went. He openly told his employees they meant nothing to him, and he was only working because he had to be there. Talk about a complete lack of leadership or care for a team!

I could see why this office culture was the way it was. These employees had never heard a positive thing from this man. They were never commended. They were never told they were valued. They were never even given a simple gesture of thanks for a job well done. So, they not only took out their frustrations on each other, but on their clients. The other bank partners couldn't bring in new business deals or commercial loans because of the pernicious spirit fostered there. The only way to fix it all was to tear it all down and start from scratch. That is exactly what this new manager did, and it paid off.

Maribeth Bisinere, Senior Vice President for Walt Disney World Theme Parks, states,

It [an exceptional customer experience] requires people, but more importantly, it requires people who care. When you develop an entire population of employees who care and are empowered to create memories for Guests, continually exceeding customer expectations is buying into your culture.²

A good friend of mine is the director of human resources for the fastest growing city in the state of Utah. He shared a story about an employee dealing with some tough personal issues. His wife was very sick and mentally not well. The employee was physically and emotionally exhausted. He had written a letter with detailed instructions on how to tend to his wife along with a long manifesto concerning the pain in his life. His coworkers found this letter and immediately reported it. They took the employee to a hospital, and they placed him on suicide watch.

My friend called me and asked for advice on what to do. He knew that I suffer from debilitating depression which has led to suicidal thoughts more times than I care to admit. He thought I would know what this employee was feeling.

I told him the man was reaching out for help and that he did not want to die. He needed some real genuine love from caring colleagues. I advised my friend not to sugar-coat the issue. Often, well-meaning people will try to lessen the traumatic experiences of others with a “sun will come tomorrow” way of thinking.

Life can be difficult and cruel. I told my friend to bring his employee's situation out into the open and acknowledge the realness of it. I told him to be truthful, that this issue will not simply go away. There was help, but it would be a very long and tough road for everyone involved. I asked him what resources were available to him. My friend listed several areas of help being offered, including a private nurse and time off from work as needed to handle the trials plaguing this poor man. Finally, I advised my friend to tell his employee no one is at fault and his job is not in danger. So often, employees are afraid to confront their personal issues for fear of losing their employment. This is a tragic but sad fact about the modern workplace.

A few days later, the employee returned to work. His coworkers showed genuine concern for him and wanted the best for him. They held several private meetings, and the outcome could not have been better. I was told he accepted the help offered and is doing a lot better. While he will have many dark days ahead, the end of the tunnel looks closer than ever before. This man is fortunate. He works for an organization that places a human's worth above job duties. Many are not so lucky. Had he worked at a place where he was just another number, I think this story could have turned out much differently.

I'm a Big Boy Now!

I am sick and tired of how employees are infantilized in many corporate cultures. They are treated as if they are not responsible adults who aren't allowed to have a personal life. I don't care if you are late now and then. I don't care if you leave early either, so long as it is not a consistent and chronic issue. If your kids are sick, spend a day with them. If your spouse/partner needs help, then go help them. If you need to go see your son play baseball or your daughter play the piano, then go! As long as clients are happy and the work is getting done, then I am happy. As long as customers are being treated right, then all is well in my book.

Companies have fostered an employee experience to the dystopian world of George Orwell's 1984. They are not allowed to have a life of their own. They are stripped away of all personal freedoms and reduced to foot soldiers who serve their masters. They are there for one purpose and one purpose alone. Anything else is secondary and expendable.

Utah is home to the “greatest snow on Earth”, at least according to our state license plates. When you are warm in bed, snow falling is a beautiful thing. When you have to drive in it, it can be a disaster. Every winter, the skies over Utah will open up and layer our roads with slushy snow at the start of the busy morning commute or end of work rush hour.

I was a director of finance at an auto dealership. Under normal driving conditions, I would arrive to work in less than twenty-five minutes. On snow days, it would take upwards of an hour to go the same distance. I was honest and ethical in my work. I arrived early and worked on my days off to accommodate customer needs. The owner of the business, however, was a very deceptive and micromanaging individual.

During one of these storms, fourteen cars piled up, shutting down the one major freeway into Salt Lake City. It took two hours or longer to go a few short miles. It was a disastrous wreck, which sadly claimed the lives of a young family.

I left my home an hour and a half early but could not arrive until two hours after the dealership opened. The weather situation worsened in the evening. I asked the owner to leave thirty minutes early to get home at a somewhat reasonable time. The dealership had not seen a single customer that day, and the phone rang twice. This particular business owner lived five minutes away while I lived twenty-five on a good day. The manager left early while I was told to stay. It was the “nature of the business” he said. It was one of most unprofessional acts I have experienced working for others. These acts drove me to leave this company and never look back.

When you treat your employees as anything but actual people, you will lose them. Mostly, adults are responsible people. They don't need to be babysat and treated like children. Extend some basic professional courtesy and treat others how you would want to be treated.

Empower Your People

Empowerment makes everything happen within an organization. It is enabling employees to do the right thing without executive approval or drawn out procedures. It is allowing people to do things right for the sake of doing things right and trusting them to get the job done.

Jeff James, Vice-President of the Disney Institutes, states,

Going the extra mile is not about working harder or longer—it is...