The Philosophy of Customer Service

Monday night’s dinner conversation revolved around many topics, one of which was customer service. A friend had experienced an issue with a company from which he had purchased some materials for a home improvement project that had turned out to be unsuitable for what he needed. He described a situation in which his call to the customer service department to arrange a suitable refund for his purchase had been escalated by unresponsive staff, until he had to become rude in order to get anything accomplished.

We’ve all had those experiences: when the company involved obviously owed us a refund or a replacement for a defunct item that we’ve purchased, and seems to put up a fight in an effort to keep their money. I remember making a similar phone call to request a replacement for an item that I had purchased that had essentially arrived un-functioning, and Karen telling me in the background that I needed to become more firm.

“Honey, you weren’t angry enough.” she told me after the call.

Now, I don’t even pretend to have any sort of business savvy. Making a decision based upon whether or not I can earn a profit is sort of an alien concept to me. I would think, however, that, for a business, a good reputation and an attempt to avoid a “once bitten, twice shy” response on the part of any customer would be more important than the price of a single retail item. I feel like the issue is one of placing the profit or money in a position of priority over the person in question. The issue isn’t a “customer is always right” mentality, because that’s about doing business. The issue is about recognizing that the person is a human being, and deserves to be treated well. The issue is also about accepting responsibility for the problem potentially being on your end, which is an act of courage.

I’m sort of concerned that both of these look to be notably absent in much of our interactions with each other, both business interactions and interpersonal interactions. The idea that anyone would have to enter a mentality that involved being angry or rude with the person on the other end of the phone disturbs me. Perhaps the entire issue is one of placing someone else’s best interest above your own.

I suppose that’s a bad business choice. I think, though, that its a good life choice.

Photo Attribution: Sun DazedĀ 

2 Comments

  1. Could being non-responsive as a business or rude as the customer relate to bullying? Seems like none of us ever left middle school.

  2. Still trying to assert our power over the other? You have a point. Both stances sort of assume a “might makes right” justification for asserting their power.

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