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What Would YOU Do In This Situation?
By JLP | November 14, 2007
While thumbing through my old copy of The Leader In You
The story:
As Bill Geppert says, “Take care of your people, and the business takes care of itself.” Geppert is general manager of Cox Cable, Inc., in New Orleans, a position that makes him responsible for three hundred employees. One of them is a young technical construction specialist name Brian Clemons, who works for Cox in suburban Jefferson Parish.
Clemons was on vacation one morning, and he happened to stop in at a Home Depot store to buy some lumber. While waiting for his lumber to be cut, he overheard a man complaining about Cox. As the man spoke, eight or nine other Home Depot customers were gathered around, listening to this tale of cable-television.
“Now, Brian could have done a number of things,” Geppert said later, recounting what happened next. “He was on vacation. He had work to do, and his wife wanted him home. So he could have just gone about his business, ignoring what was being said. What did Brian do? Brian Clemons walked right up and said, ‘Sir, I couldn’t help but overhear what you were telling these folks. I work for Cox. Would you please give me an opportunity to make the situation right? In fact, I guarantee we can take care of your problem.’
“Well, you can imagine the looks on those eight people’s faces. They were astonished. Brian, who wasn’t wearing his uniform, walked over to a pay phone, called the office, and dispatched a repair crew to the house. The repair crew met that customer as he arrived home and took care of the situation to the customer’s satisfaction. In fact, we found out later that Brian even went a step further. He followed up when he came back to work to make sure that the customer was satisfied with the result. And he gave the customer two weeks’ credit on his account and an apology for the inconvenience.”
Awesome story!
What’s sad about this example is that this employee was simply doing his job and yet his actions are so rare that we are amazed at his level of customer service. As sad as that is, it does offer an opportunity for employees (sorry, the more appropriate word is “associates”) to really stand out by just doing their jobs! If they go above and beyond just doing their job, they’ll REALLY stand out!
If you haven’t read The Leader In You
Topics: Books, Personal Growth | 10 Comments »
November 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
That’s great and all, but 99% of customers end up talking to a $7/hr CSR who cares about their quotas and calltimes, etc, not customers and can do little but what their computer allows, surrounded by supervisors who punish them if they send to many calls their way.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Chris,
I suppose you’re right but that’s the pessimistic way of looking at it.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
@chris
You are putting a lot of blame on the CSRs. Trust me, the only reason they care about their quota is because they get fired if they don’t. I know a lot of people who would love to help customers more than they are allowed to, but need to pay the bills. The guy on the phone isn’t going to pay your rent when you get fired for spending more than 5 minutes on the call. And its not the managers fault either. Its corporate. They sent the call time standards. When call centers don’t meet those, managers get fired. So the way managers save their jobs is to fire the CSR ruining the averages.
A lot of how customers get treated has to do with the customer as well. I have worked in roles for both customer service and technical support over the phone, and if the customer starts the call by screaming at me, I guarantee they will not be getting the same service as the person who is being nice. People need to remember that the person on the phone is not the person who caused their problem, but in many cases can fix it. Don’t yell and scream at them, explain the issue, be nice, and you will get better service. When I work with customers I like, I go above and beyond for them. I wont transfer them to a manager, Ill take the issue up with the manager my self. Why is that better? because I know the manager, I know how to spin things so they will go along with it. You want an employee going to bat for you. thats is twice as important if its your fault that something broke. I can’t count the times I have had people call screaming about something THEY broke and “demanded” it be fixed. I can guarantee you have just made it to the lowest priority on my list the second you demand I do anything.
What would I do in a situation like this? the same thing he did. I have done the same thing they have. I hear people complaining about a service I provide, and I can usually get something done, unless the customer really is at fault (which isn’t rare), then there is less i can do.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Sometimes it’s hard to go above and beyond. I think it’s great whenever we have a chance to do so at work, makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
That said, sometimes people are idiots so I can understand (some) jaded workers. I’ve actually gotten calls from engineers saying “Close that work order for burned out bulbs–put ‘Engineer flipped the light switch.’” One wonders how these people survive.
In such a climate, it’s very impressive when people go above and beyond and actually provide good service!
November 14th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
@ Mrs. Micah
I cant count the times where my fix was “plugged computer in” too many people think “I dont know how to do this” = “product is broken”
November 14th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
A lot of times, the problem is due to corporate structure. Either the people you get on the phone are clueless about how to help or know how but cannot navigate the bureaucracy of the system in order to help. I’ve gotten wonderful service from USAA, GEICO, and NavyFCU but nightmarish customer service from Verizon, Hewlett Packard, and any company who outsources their customer services. When I worked for a well-known tax preparation firm, preparers were quite limited in their abilities to handle certain problems and had to wait for the district manager to authorize corrections or coupons (and the poor preparers usually got griped out later about how they were costing the company soo much money– but would you rather piss off and lose clients?). It was very frustrating when you tried to go “above and beyond” but smacked your head firmly on the corporate ceiling. The outfit I’m most closely affiliated with right now is a lot better in allowing volunteers more leeway in helping the clients, and most of us are motivated enough to help make the difference in people’s lives.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:52 am
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November 17th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
..it does offer an opportunity for employees (sorry, the more appropriate word is “associates”) to really stand…
Employees is the correct word. Don’t ever by sorry for the way you phrase a sentence. People who advocate Politically Correctness are the ones who are contributing to the demise of our society.
Stand up and be proud, never bow down. Everyone will never like what everyone else has to say. The benefit of being human is our ability to stop listening and change the channel.
December 7th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I’m a Cox employee and have heard Geppert tell this story before…always with a different twist. He’s a politician more than a leader. Take his advice and what he says with a grain of salt.
December 7th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Cox Employee,
Why would you say that? Are you saying that taking care of the customer is the wrong thing to do?