Shoestring Marketing: Resolve service issues like fighter pilot

I'm trying to stop my griping and whining about bad customer treatment. It only contributes to a heart attack and the offending providers don't seem to care anyway.

The daily abuses that we all suffer are not generally a result of contemplated malfeasance on the part of the provider. Instead, they tend to be thoughtless actions that result from lack of front-counter training, and an operating environment where the offending staff have not been provided with the authority and leeway to take action on the customer's behalf.

In a recent letter to a major airline, I complained about an incident where the customer service representative refused to help me in a situation that required breaking the company rules; in this case, waiving the fee for changing a non-refundable ticket.

Even though I am a heavy user of the airline, the representative was adamant that he would not "break the rules and lose his job just for me." Incidentally, I was seeking special treatment, but only because that same airline had caused me major inconvenience the same day because of equipment failure.

Train your staff to be saboteurs

I am a fundamental believer that within the bounds of reason the "reasonable man" test so to speak you can never do enough for the customer, particularly when the customer is bent out of shape. All too often, provider environments lack a mechanism for dealing with the disgruntled party. The poor staff members who interact with the customers don't know how to handle the situation.

A prescription for action

Fighter pilots make instantaneous decisions. If they don't, they die. Ditto with customer complaints. If they're not solved on the spot, the customer will probably never return. This is another form of death. Give those employees who deal directly with the customer the freedom and authority to break the rules when the situation demands it.

In most organizations, it requires an act of Congress and a string of e-mails to get authority to give away a $10 voucher. That shouldn't be the case.

The best organizations give their employees the discretionary authority to spend a reasonable amount in solving the customer complaint at the time of the complaint.

Empower your employees to take responsibility for solving the problem themselves. Teach them to resist the urge to pass it along to somebody higher up. That takes time and involves the risk that the complaint will be sucked into a corporate black hole and never be resolved.

If you genuinely want to know what your customers are thinking, provide them with an easy channel to voice their thoughts. Front-counter employees should always wear name tags for easy identification. Others, including managers, should always have business cards on hand.

In-store signage should promote the fact that management wants to hear from the customer, whether by e-mail or a 1-800 hotline.

I love the signs on the back of the 18-wheelers that ask "How's my driving?" More than once, I've called the number to complain about a driver barreling down the highway at 85 miles per hour, threatening the lives of all those around him.

We've become a nation of pussyfooters. We've encouraged staff to behave like wimps. It's time to empower our employees to buck the consequences, to take a stand to let them know that they can never do wrong by doing right for the customer.

(Alf Nucifora has spent the last 10 years as a professional speaker. His column, "Shoestring Marketing," is syndicated bi-monthly in more than 50 business publications in the U.S.)