How good intentions could be hurting your customer service…
My wife and I have some friends, a couple, who moved here from Australia. Over beers one time, we were talking about some of the differences between the US and Australia.
People like to think of the US as very achievement and success oriented. Striving to get ahead, we want to be the best.
But apparently in Australia, it’s not always like that. They have something they call the “tall poppy syndrome.”
Imagine a field of flowers, all growing at the same height. One flower grows up to be much taller than the rest, not blending in, obviously sticking out. The other flowers get together and chop it off at the base, destroying it.
And our freinds were saying that in Australia, the social structure is like this. Someone stands out as being too smart, too successful, too wealthy, etc, and the rest of the population chops them down to side.
Keep you head down, don’t get noticed, fit in. That’s the message.
Australians are great people, and I don’t mean to generalize here, but this metaphor got me thinking…
The next day, I had to call customer service at a major company.
Some minor issue that they made impossible for me to fix on my own (I’ve talked about this before.)
And as usual, after screaming swear words at a computerized phone system that pretended to be a guy, complete with a recording of typing sounds while “he” “looked that up for me,” I was connected to the usual low level call center NPC.
These days, I help businesses get their customer service right. But less than 10 years ago, I was that NPC. My wife and I met working in the call center at a mutual fund company during the 2008 crisis. Fun.
And the connection hit me…
Call centers are like Australia.
Or at least like the highly simplified version of Australia in the poppy metaphor.
Everyone is there, doing the same thing, trying to fit in, trying not to be noticed.
Obviously differing from the norm in a bad way is punished. But even more than that, any attempt to differ from the norm in a positive way is also punished, in one of two ways.
First off, the other NPC’s don’t like it. You’re trying too hard. Kissing ass. Making them look bad by comparison. They make fun of you in the break room, or behind your back. You eat lunch alone.
Second, going “above and beyond” is barely recognized in these environments. Agents are judged by a specific set of metrics and guidelines.
If they adhere exactly to the guidelines, that’s good. Basically neutral, because nothing happens except the absence of punishment. If they fall below the guidelines, punishment.
But the guidelines don’t recognize any sort of “going above and beyond.” In this narrowly defined system, this is the same thing as deviating from the norm. Doing a thing other than what they tell you to do.
At best, it will be tolerated.
But if they can find a “rule” to say you broke, they’ll cut your tall poppy off before you even know what hit you.
These places have entire teams of nerds dedicated to nit-picking over tiny details. Seeking things the agent did wrong.
They call it a “coaching opportunity”, but really it’s a not so subtle reminder.
Keep your head down, do what you’re told (and no more), don’t get noticed.
The problem is the over-corporatization, over-reliance on metrics, and over-systematization of what used to be a very fluid, human interaction based job.
The results show in the dismal, but predictable, customer service that all these conventional businesses offer.
Customers know what to expect when they contact a big company, and they don’t expect anything good.
By cutting off the tall poppies, the entire industry has regressed to a very low mean. Exactly what’s written in the “Procedures Guide,” sometimes worse because people make mistakes, but rarely better.
I’ve argued for years that there is a better way.
And there is. It wasn’t entirely clear to me at first.
But the more I thought, worked in the industry, and experimented with (sometimes radical) changes, the more I saw that the whole model was broken beyond repair.
Something new was needed. And that’s what I’ve spent the last few years developing.
This stuff works, and next week, for the first time, I’m releasing it to the world.
Pre-order today and save 50% off the regular price.
And I’ll send you the first chapter right now.
Here’s that link again: https://gumroad.com/l/rkbth/preorder
— Mark
