As President and CEO I am proud of the customer-centric team we have developed at OTEC and wanted to share the following blog by Paula, OTEC’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator.
Earlier today I was eating lunch with my colleagues, discussing our weekends. As we were chatting, my one colleague brought up this horrendous story about going to the gas station and receiving THE WORST customer service complete with vulgar language and irrational harassment. Feeding off this topic the rest of us launched into our own customer service stories including the good, the bad and the ugly.
Why can’t service be consistent?!
I’ve gone to certain places for years and had wonderful experiences and then, all of a sudden, terrible ones. Or there are times when you never know what you are going to get; a smile, a scowl or worse.
Don’t all employees go through the same training when they begin?
Isn’t the goal in the service industry to retain and increase customers by creating an outstanding experience?
I did some research and according to the “experts”, inconsistent service is worse than consistently bad service. And we all know consistently bad service is not great, so why on earth do either of these issues persist? Some of the justifications companies provide for lack of consistent customer service include:
- Different trainers – due to geographical distances and availability, organizations employ a variety of people to train their employees resulting in inconsistent training.
- Different trainee learning styles – some trainees are visual, some kinetic or audio oriented and the training provided does not accommodate this.
- Changing environment – both internal (management) and external (environment) have a huge impact.
These are all legitimate and understandable things, however, as a member of the training industry, I know of one solution that effectively responds to each issue – good quality Service Excellence Web Based Learning! Trainees can learn from the same person, or system, incorporating a variety of learning styles in a standard format. I honestly don’t understand why companies who face these issues don’t take logical action. Especially when these types of tools are so accessible with leading providers frequently promoted by industry associations.
I think these things are important to note because everyone endures poor or inconsistent customer service on a regular basis – and it’s frustrating! I encourage any readers to check out what your firm is doing, and if nothing, or nothing effective, suggest doing something about it. Taking action benefits everyone. Retain customers and increase their loyalty with consistent service excellence!
… at least you’ll gain my loyalty that way
-Paula Lanza
And by the way, OTEC has just launched an engaging, interactive eLearning course called Service Excellence Dynamics. It does the job that those companies can’t do so I encourage you to check it out!
-Victoria Behune
O-Talk 