“There is only one boss: the client. It can run anyone, from the owner down, simply by spending their money elsewhere. ”Sam Walton.
There are certain beliefs about the subject of service, which make many people think that it is easy to create a culture of service in an organization just by complying with some or many of them, but contrary to what it seems, these beliefs are just a myth and do not guarantee that the organizations that follow these harmful practices are subjected to permanent complaints as a result of the great dissatisfaction that they generate in their clients. That is why we say that these beliefs make up myths, which in many cases have become part of popular culture.
Many of these myths about service are so widespread in our daily environment that most people believe them to be true and even many times clients try to adjust their behavior to these beliefs, because sometimes, even knowing that they have a great dissatisfaction with the service, they feel socially obliged to accept the situation, so as not to be “in evidence” in front of those who have the obligation to serve them and in front of the rest of the clients, who when they are not the ones who directly suffer the situation, justify the facts, based on the popular belief that justifies it.
We are going to list these seven (7) service myths that, once and for all, must be abandoned by all those organizations interested in providing excellent service to their clients and turning the service into their competitive advantage.
Myth No. 1: Serving is servile
It was long considered serving as a servile activity, but that is definitely a far cry from reality. Serving has to do with being helpful, being useful, that is, putting our person, our time and our skills at the service of others, to help them meet their needs. Instead, being servile is only pretending to be helpful when what exists is some kind of specific interest in the person we are trying to serve. Servility is related to flattery and pure interest and not to a sense of usefulness to others.
On many occasions I have heard some people say (in some tourist places) that they do not have to be the ones who carry the suitcases to the tourists, because they are the same as them. Of course they are the same, but these people are starting from the principle that carrying suitcases is not a worthy and honorable activity. What these people must ask themselves is, how from carrying suitcases can they begin a process of personal growth that will allow them, in the future, to do things of greater added value and that will generate a higher level of personal satisfaction. At the end of the day, for loading the bags you receive a payment, which should be used to do something that allows you to be better and better, such as studying a career or learning a trade or language, for example.The difference between those who develop and grow professionally and those who do not is fundamentally what they are able to sacrifice and do today to achieve something better tomorrow and do it that way every day of their lives. It is key that management teach this to each of its workers so that they do not remain in a permanent state of resentment, which only keeps them thinking that others can do the things that they cannot do.that only keeps them thinking that others can do things that they cannot do.that only keeps them thinking that others can do things that they cannot do.
Learning to love the things that are done, whatever they are, allows us to connect with our future and develop a path of growth and permanent personal development. In the end we must be clear that "not serving is being vile."
Myth No. 2: The customer is always right
For any service organization, the customer must always be the inspiring reason for his work and there should be nothing more important than serving and satisfying him. From this fact, a popular saying has emerged with great force that says that "the customer is always right", which is not necessarily always true, but what is true is that this is absolutely irrelevant, since nobody can beat him never an argument to a client, because the moment he wins it, he stops being his client. To apply well the concept that the client is King as many experts say and that without him client, our work does not make any sense, we must be very clear that we satisfy the client's needs and expectations, but we do not necessarily satisfy him your wishes.A customer may wish to receive products and services at a value below their real value or aspire to some type of service that is not included in the organization's value offer and if we do not have this clearly, we could fall into the trap of becoming highly accommodating, with the consequence that we could create great confusion in our workers who would not understand why we violated our own service rules and policies due to pressure from some client.with the consequence that we could generate great confusion in our workers who would not understand why we violated our own norms and service policies due to the pressure of some client.with the consequence that we could generate great confusion in our workers who would not understand why we violated our own norms and service policies due to the pressure of some client.
On the other hand, every service worker must understand that there is no point in arguing with clients, since they have needs that they want to satisfy and sometimes when they cannot, they feel frustrated and upset. The annoyance that a customer may express to a service worker about any dissatisfaction should not be considered as personal, but as a sign that we must do something to satisfy that need, or make the customer see that they can satisfy it in a certain way. different or somewhere else. There is never any point in trying to argue with a customer, because after all, they always have the last word on how and where they spend their money. However, we should not give in to the temptation to indulge any desire, for that,in the medium and long term it could create a crisis situation in our business. Clarity in the objectives and vision of our business is the only guarantee we have to be able to clearly establish our clients, a limit between what we can and cannot provide them, that is, the limit between the satisfaction of their needs and expectations and the satisfaction of your wishes.
Myth No. 3: Service workers must have "Service Vocation"
It is very common to hear employers say that what happens in their company is that their workers do not have a vocation for service and that is why the service they provide is ordinary and poor. However, this is a rather harmful myth that we must discard once and for all. In a service business, who should have a vocation for service is the company and from there must encourage their workers to develop it. The problem is that the vocation of service is not a generic concept as many claim, but depends on the needs, abilities and preferences of each person.
Some people have a great vocation to take care of other people's health problems, others stand out for advocating for those who are threatened or accused of justice, others like to provide food for others and so on. Each of these cases is about those who have a specific and specific vocation of service; that is why each worker is required to identify in what type of activity they would like to be useful to other people. It is the company that must promote this and who must prepare its employees to develop that vocation that each one possesses. It is unfair to blame your workers for a problem that is the responsibility of the company and do nothing to adequately address the situation.
We know that many organizations that have never invested money in the training, education and development of their workers, complain that they do not have a vocation for service. To these businessmen and managers we say that a company with a vocation for service has a management with the vocation to serve its workers, training them to discover what that vocation is that will lead them to be exceptional servers capable of providing superior service to their customers and related.
Myth No. 4: Every company must have "Service Heroes"
An organization that provides customer service, must have all its servers prepared to provide this memorable experiences, but only through teamwork, since if not, there is a risk that the customer becomes a customer of some individual employee and not a client of the organization as such. That is why we firmly affirm that there should be no “service heroes” in organizations that serve the customer, as some think.
An example of how inconvenient these "service heroes" are is commonly seen in Banking. We know the case of many managers of bank agencies, who are stars in customer service, however, the day one of them receives a good offer from another bank and changes; the next day the process of migration of clients from that agency begins, towards the agency of the new Bank where our “hero” now works. Another very common example is the one that occurs in hairdressing salons, where a star hairdresser (stylist), whose clients fight over their attention, one day changes his hairdressing salon and takes his entire clientele with him.
In these cases the question we ask ourselves is: were they clients of the company or clients of that worker? That is the problem of "service heroes". Customers end up being customers of the employee and not customers of the organization and that is definitely not the way we should run a business. Anyone who excels in customer service must be able to assemble a powerful team around the best possible customer service, so that they can truly be considered a service star. Service stars must share their knowledge and skills with the rest of their team to elevate it and make it highly competitive.It is essential that these workers become the mechanism that allows creating a service culture that privileges team spirit and connection both internally and with customers.
The "heroes of service" must be converted into team leaders, so that they can contribute to all their members developing the level of skills required so that anyone can provide the same quality of service. It is not a matter of not recognizing the work of those who make a superior effort, but of turning this effort into an example for service teams to function at a higher level.
Myth No. 5: Smiling and greeting are the cornerstone of excellent service.
Many people believe that telling their workers to smile and say hello is enough to provide good service, but while smiling and greeting are important, they are only the beginning of the path to service excellence; but a smile and a welcome greeting are only effective, if the worker expresses them from within and not as a simple cosmetic condition. Having said this, we can say that the most important thing is not the smile and the greeting as such, but the conditions that allow the worker to smile and greet in a warm and sincere way.
Now the question is: do you think that a low-paid worker, with family or relationship problems, who lives in an inappropriate place and hardly eats, can smile and greet with warmth and pleasure? Definitely not. To smile and greet warmly you need reasons.
This is why we say that a company that wants to make its workers smile and say hello, must work very hard to make this happen. It is not that the company should solve the problems for its workers, but rather that it prepare them so that they can assume their particular situation and giving them tools so that they can work to solve it. This merits strengthening self-esteem and promoting the personal development of each worker, working hard to develop values and principles, allowing each of them to find the meaning of their lives so that they can create their own vision of the future, allowing them to align with the business vision and strengthen relationships with clients and teammates.Only in this way can we generate the bases of an excellent service that our clients remember as memorable occasions in their lives.
Myth No. 6: When we make a mistake, justification and an apology is enough
Most companies believe that when they make a mistake, they should give their customers a good justification and apologize to mitigate the damage done. This is absolutely false, because if their clients have other options, in the future they will try with other companies to see if they get a better service next time and in case the client does not have those other options, it will generate a feeling of rancor in he, who will manifest himself as soon as any new service alternative exists.
In case of making mistakes (which happens very often), management must act to moderate negative customer perceptions, which may undermine the positioning and image that is desired to obtain in the market. It is necessary to make great efforts to correct the mistakes made by resorting to the so-called "service recovery factors", which are actions to add value to the customer, which make him rethink his response to the mistake his organization made with it. Although an error gives us the opportunity to improve our service processes, they can also become a factor of withdrawal or loss of many of our most precious clients,so having clear rules and guidelines for service recovery is a fundamental mechanism for service workers to know what to do once a failure occurs.
A bad service in a restaurant, for example, in which an error was made with the plate (an insect in the food, for example) that was served to some diner, can be corrected, changing the plate and not charging the customer and also giving him a dessert around the house. Is it expensive? Yes, but it serves to dispel the bad moment of the client and to prevent the client from deleting our business from his list of preferences.
The solution of each case must be connected with the client's need and it is not a magic formula that is applied the same in all cases. In the restaurant example, many times the client rejects any dish we offer him because he felt some kind of revulsion or discomfort. In that case, we must allow the client to spend their time of discomfort to offer them some gratification that compensates for the error and this is not necessarily the offer of a specific dish (it could be a free invitation to dinner at another opportunity, for. Any service recovery solution must have a cost for the company (it must “hurt”), otherwise its clients will never perceive it as a true solution but as a simple “golden pill”.
In conclusion, we can conclude by saying that, if your organization makes a mistake during the service process, both management and workers must be prepared to develop a spectacular service recovery that leaves your customer highly satisfied with what they want. offers, or very likely will end up losing your client and irreparably damaging the image of your business and jeopardizing the positioning that your business requires to continue to be considered a valid alternative for your clients.
Myth No. 7: A good service must be "efficient and productive"
One of the most common errors that are made in the service, has to do with the parameters that we use to measure the quality of service. Many organizations establish service time standards and through these standards measure the efficiency and productivity of their servers. For example, call centers establish that a customer call must be answered in a maximum standard time of 20 seconds, so if an operator takes longer than the standard, this will influence the productivity bonuses that should receive at the end of the month. This indicator is even called a service level.
Time indicators in the measurement of quality of service are widely used worldwide, but unfortunately, time is not a good indicator of quality of service; Why? The fundamental reason is that in the evaluation of the service, only the client's criteria is valid, since it is a perceptual process. A customer can spend 5 minutes on a service and think that it was an hour, or spend an hour and feel that only 5 minutes passed, this should make us understand that what is important is not the amount of time the customer spends on the service, but the quality of that time. In Venezuela there are even laws that establish the maximum time that a client must spend in a queue at a Bank agency (of course this is a law made not to comply with it),Well, people are supposed to want to spend as little time as possible in any queue.
Throughout my time working on the subject of service, I can mention that I have seen cases of companies that by eliminating their queues have resulted in great failures, simply because their queue was a social meeting place where people fraternized during the wait. As there was no queue, the social experience diminished and many times the attractiveness of the business was lost. The issue is in the customer's perceptions. The standards assume cold and mechanical behaviors that do not necessarily reflect the reality of what is happening in the system. However, the most important thing here is to understand that the size of a queue does not depend fundamentally on service workers, but rather depends on the parameters with which the system is fed.
Queuing Theory learns that if you want to reduce the size of a queue, you must, or reduce service time, or reduce the rate of arrival of customers or increase the number of servers. The problem of reducing service time is that it could be affecting the system's ability to solve the problems of customers requesting attention, which in the end will affect the image and positioning of the company, so that only It remains to explore the other two options, that is, the option of reducing the number of arrivals, which can be done by attending with great care and dedication to the service elements that lead the customer to seek care to resolve service problems, or modifying the customer segment to reduce the target population,or the option of increasing the number of servers in order to serve more clients, making them faster to serve. In this last alternative, it is necessary to take into account the physical limits of the system, since no company has infinite resources to add more service stations, nor does it have all the space it would like to place these stations, nor does it have all the trained personnel that requires. In the end, the best solution ends up being a suitable combination of all these options, but adding elements that allow the client to perceive the queue as a moment of relaxation, learning or entertainment, in order to work on the perceptual aspects, rather than on the merely physical aspects of the system.In this last alternative, it is necessary to take into account the physical limits of the system, since no company has infinite resources to add more service stations, nor does it have all the space it would like to place such stations, nor does it have all the trained personnel that requires. In the end, the best solution ends up being an adequate combination of all these options, but adding elements that allow the client to perceive the queue as a moment of relaxation, learning or entertainment, in order to work on the perceptual aspects, rather than on the merely physical aspects of the system.In this last alternative, it is necessary to take into account the physical limits of the system, since no company has infinite resources to add more service stations, nor does it have all the space it would like to place such stations, nor does it have all the trained personnel that requires. In the end, the best solution ends up being an adequate combination of all these options, but adding elements that allow the client to perceive the queue as a moment of relaxation, learning or entertainment, in order to work on the perceptual aspects, rather than on the merely physical aspects of the system.It does not have all the space it would like to place these stations, nor does it have all the trained personnel required. In the end, the best solution ends up being a suitable combination of all these options, but adding elements that allow the client to perceive the queue as a moment of relaxation, learning or entertainment, in order to work on the perceptual aspects, rather than on the merely physical aspects of the system.It does not have all the space it would like to place these stations, nor does it have all the trained personnel required. In the end, the best solution ends up being a suitable combination of all these options, but adding elements that allow the client to perceive the queue as a moment of relaxation, learning or entertainment, in order to work on the perceptual aspects, rather than on the merely physical aspects of the system.more than on the merely physical aspects of the system.more than on the merely physical aspects of the system.
On one occasion he was in a queue at a supermarket, waiting to be attended, when suddenly a cashier supervisor came to see how long the queue was getting, she began harangued the cashiers saying: "move your hands." The cashier in the queue where I was, nervously began to pass the products of the lady who was being attended, throwing them quickly and forcefully towards the end of the box, with very sudden movements due to the speed with which she did it and the lady Annoyed with this situation, she said: "Excuse me, daughter, but that merchandise, at the moment the pitico sounds, is already mine and I demand that you treat it with great care and consideration." Upon hearing this, the cashier supervisor quickly disappeared from the place and the cashiers continued working normally as they had been doing.
The moral of the previous example is that, although it is very easy to hold the worker responsible for the size of the queues, it is more a consequence of the design of the system, than of the activity carried out by the server. It is necessary to think well about the design of our service system and understand that customer satisfaction is produced by a combination of factors that affect their perception, rather than by the physical factors of the experience. A server should be evaluated more by the perceptions of its clients about the service it provides, than by factors such as time, efficiency, productivity, mechanical failures, etc. Some companies, for example, evaluate their cashiers for the shortages and surpluses they present at the end of the day and not for the way they serve their clients.I prefer a cashier or cashier who serves me well as a customer a thousand times, than one who may have shortages or surpluses in his work, after all, it is easier to correct the technical problems of cash management, than the problems of customer service. client. In any case, unless the cash error is made with me, the truth is that what interests me is that they treat me well, with kindness and good attention.
I have seen cases of cashier staff, who are excellent in serving their customers and who, with their work, encourage customers to prefer to go through their cashier, even if it takes a little longer. In many opportunities these workers are negatively evaluated because their queues are longer than normal, without understanding that the length of their queue is directly related to the quality of the service they provide to their clients. You can not blame the client for wanting to be well served, nor can we blame that server for serving their clients well, however, the efficiency and productivity indicators could generate an unfair evaluation of that worker, causing an effect contrary to that we should generate.
Service standards are a good option to establish quality parameters in customer service systems, but it is necessary to remember that the quality of service should only be measured in a perceptive way, asking each individual customer for their opinion about which ones have been their perceptions about the service received. It is not a good practice to measure only productivity and efficiency, if this is not compared with the satisfaction expressed by customers. Otherwise, those who provide customer service will be receiving a wrong and confusing message that only contributes to worsening the quality of the service provided.
conclusion
The issue of service is a highly sensitive issue, the policies and rules of which cannot and should not be handled in a merely intuitive manner. It is necessary to analyze all the conditions of the service and be clear about what are the objectives that we must achieve and how we can generate the best possible perception in the client. Not always what popular wisdom proposes, works properly on the subject of service. It is good to get adequate advice and training on a subject that turns out to be so delicate that it can even destroy your organization. Not everything that shines is gold, nor everything that seems to be geared towards providing good service is.
"Your clients do not like you to give them a bad service but your competition does" Kate Zabriskie.
