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Wired and Dangerous
How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About it
Chip Bell (Author) | John Patterson (Author)
Publication date: 05/16/2011
Exposes a fundamental shift in the balance of power between customers and service providers that has been fueled by the Internet
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Exposes a fundamental shift in the balance of power between customers and service providers that has been fueled by the Internet
-
Provides a tested formula for restoring balance to customer relationships
-
Filled with real-world stories and practical examples illustrating successful and unsuccessful service models
-
Winner of 2012 Bronze Axiom Business Book Award & 2012 Silver Ippy Award in Sales
Customers today are picky, fickle, and vocal, and "all about me" vain. They now have an enormous variety of services and products to choose from, with unprecedented access to information and reviews. And--when they receive poor or impersonal service--they talk back, avenging perceived wrongs with a voice amplified to global proportions. Chip Bell and John Patterson, customer service industry veterans, analyze this revolution in customer relationships and provide a tested formula for restoring balance: transforming today's edgy customers into eager partners.
Today, a single snarky video or damning review gone viral can bring down an entire company. You can't ride this one out--that video or review will be up forever. To succeed in this new world, service providers must preemptively shift their practices to treat newly empowered customers not as cash machines but as collaborators. Bell and Patterson use real-world examples to provide powerful ways to bring harmony to a relationship that was out of whack even before the Internet.
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Exposes a fundamental shift in the balance of power between customers and service providers that has been fueled by the Internet
-
Exposes a fundamental shift in the balance of power between customers and service providers that has been fueled by the Internet
-
Provides a tested formula for restoring balance to customer relationships
-
Filled with real-world stories and practical examples illustrating successful and unsuccessful service models
-
Winner of 2012 Bronze Axiom Business Book Award & 2012 Silver Ippy Award in Sales
Customers today are picky, fickle, and vocal, and "all about me" vain. They now have an enormous variety of services and products to choose from, with unprecedented access to information and reviews. And--when they receive poor or impersonal service--they talk back, avenging perceived wrongs with a voice amplified to global proportions. Chip Bell and John Patterson, customer service industry veterans, analyze this revolution in customer relationships and provide a tested formula for restoring balance: transforming today's edgy customers into eager partners.
Today, a single snarky video or damning review gone viral can bring down an entire company. You can't ride this one out--that video or review will be up forever. To succeed in this new world, service providers must preemptively shift their practices to treat newly empowered customers not as cash machines but as collaborators. Bell and Patterson use real-world examples to provide powerful ways to bring harmony to a relationship that was out of whack even before the Internet.
Chip R. Bell is a senior partner with the Chip Bell Group and manages the office near Atlanta. He has served as consultant, trainer, or speaker to such major organizations as GE, Microsoft, State Farm, Marriott, Lockheed- Martin, Cadillac, KeyBank, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Pfi zer, Eli Lilly, USAA, Merrill Lynch, Allstate, Caterpillar, Hertz, Accenture, Verizon, Home Depot, Harley-Davidson, and Victoria’s Secret. He has served as an adjunct instructor at Cornell University, Manchester University (UK), and Penn State University. Additionally, he was a highly decorated infantry unit commander in Vietnam with the elite 82nd Airborne and served on the faculty of the Instructional Methods Division of the Army Infantry School
Chip is the author of nineteen books, including Managers as Mentors (coauthored with Marshall Goldsmith), Wired and Dangerous (co-authored with John Patterson and a winner of a 2011 Axiom Award as well as a 2012 Independent Publishers IPPY Award), Take Their Breath Away (also with John Patterson), Instructing for Results (with Fredric Margolis), Magnetic Service (with Bilijack Bell and winner of the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award), Managing Knock Your Socks Off Service (with Ron Zemke), Service Magic (also with Ron Zemke), and Dance Lessons (with Heather Shea Schultz). He has also contributed chapters to The Sales Training Handbook, The Training and Development Handbook, and The Handbook of Human Resource Development. The first edition of Managers as Mentors won the prestigious Athena Award for excellence in mentoring literature.
His articles on training and learning have appeared in such professional journals as T+D, Training, HR Magazine, Personal Excellence, Workforce Training News, The Toastmaster, Educational Leadership, Adult Training, Adult Leadership, Storyteller's Journal, and Journal of European Training (UK). Chip's articles on leadership and mentoring have appeared in Leadership Excellence, MWorld, Entrepreneur, Leader to Leader, Advanced Management Journal, Sales and Service Excellence, Journal of Management Consulting, Customer Relationship Management, Quality Digest, Staff Digest, and Today's Leaders.
John is a sought after speaker and consultant on the topics of creating consistently great customer experiences that drive customer loyalty and growing business by creating, leading and sustaining extraordinary service. He is the co-author of three books with Chip Bell including the award winning international best seller Wired and Dangerous; How Your Customers Have Changed and What To Do About It, the national best seller Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers and Customer Loyalty Guaranteed: Create Lead, and Sustain Remarkable Customer Service. John has appeared live on ABC and Fox Business. He speaks regularly on the “The Small Business Advocate Show” with Jim Blasingame and is a member of Jim’s “Brain Trust”. His articles have appeared in Leadership Excellence, Sales & Service Excellence, Assisted Living Executive, Energy World, Customer Relationship Management, Incentive Magazine, SBusiness, Quality Digest, Customer Service Excellence, and M World.
He is founder and President of Progressive Insights a member of the Chip Bell Group. He has over 30 years of executive leadership experience in the hospitality, business services, real estate and financial services industries. John served as a Supply Officer in the U. S. Navy and holds a graduate degree in business from the Darden School at the University of Virginia as well as a B.S. in Business Administration from The Citadel.
His consulting practice specializes in helping organizations effectively implement and manage the complex culture change required for service innovation and effectively delivering great customer experiences that drive loyalty, advocacy and growth. He has successfully completed engagements in a variety of industries including the healthcare, financial services, public transportation, senior living, insurance, quick service restaurant, utility, trade show management, wholesale auto auction, retail, technology, hospitality, commercial construction, real estate, education and business services industries.
He has served as consultant or trainer to such organizations as McDonald's Corporation, Dow AgroSciences, Eli Lilly, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., Rollins, Inc., Allstate Insurance, Manheim, Banco Popular, Turner Construction Company, The Arbor Company, Sodexo, Banco Continental, The Jacob Javits Convention Center, Freeman Companies and Texas Instruments.
"Wired and Dangerous can help anyone interested in delivering happiness to today's Internet-empowered customer."
--Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. and author of the #1 NY Times best-selling author of Delivering Happiness
" ¦provocative insight, an irresistible page turnings look at the empowered customer."
--Lou Dobbs
"Bell and Patterson explain how to master the new service paradigm--a partnership between you and your customers. Their rich stories and practical advice will prepare you to give up the control needed to make these partnership covenants succeed."
--Charlene Li, author of Open Leadership and co-author of the best-selling Groundswell
"As Chip and John relay in this book, a good customer relationship is governed by honesty, caring, forgiving, lack of judgment, flexibility, and a willingness to try again. If leaders brought these values to the workplace the world would indeed be a better place ¦.and customers would be happier too."
--- Cheryl A. Bachelder, CEO, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
"Wired and Dangerous should be mandatory reading for anyone with a customer! The only downside would be a reduction in the creation of viral YouTube Music videos!"
--Dave Carroll, singer/songwriter and creator of "United Breaks Guitars"
"When you include your customers in your business you build an army that grows your business for you. Using their mouse, voice and influence they will become your greatest megaphone! Chip and John show how the new normal customer can create the prosperity all businesses desire."
--Jeanne Bliss, author of Chief Customer Officer and I Love You More than My Dog: Five Decisions for Extreme Customer Loyalty
"Wired and Dangerous provides powerful, cutting edge solutions for turning today's restless customers into loyal advocates who ensure growth and increased profits. A must read!"
--Daniel Burrus, author of the best-selling Flash Foresight
"Chip and John have taught our company the power of turning satisfied customers into advocates. Their lessons in Wired and Dangerous lead to effective strategies for creating loyalty among today's demanding customers."
--Carrie Freeman Parsons, Vice Chair, Freeman
"Wired and Dangerous is a wake-up call to business leaders about how today's empowered customers can build or destroy brands in record time. Buy it and use the insights and tools to deliver loyalty-building customer service experiences."
--Bob Thompson, Founder and CEO, CustomerThink
"Serving customers has never been more challenging; new generations with different values; new channels; new technologies. Chip Bell and John Patterson argue that to make sense of this we need a new covenant with customers--as usual they are spot on."
--Shaun Smith, author of Bold: How to Be Brave in Business and Win.
"This will be on the test: If you want customers to come and play in your backyard, read Wired and Dangerous and then deliver what Chip and John will teach you." --Jim Blasingame, Host of the Small Business Advocate® Show
"Whether through personal anecdotes or insightful research, Chip and John have succeeded in providing the sobering truth--the consumer is more empowered than ever before and expectations for service have changed. They provide meaningful advice on how you can still succeed."
--Jay Karen, President and CEO, Professional Association of Innkeepers International
PART ONE: The Situation
Welcome to Turbulent Times!
Chapter 1: How the Service Covenant Became Corrupted
Chapter 2: Picky: Why Today's Customers Are Finicky
Chapter 3: Fickle: Why Today's Customers Are Capricious
Chapter 4: Vocal: Why Today's Customers Are Noisy
Chapter 5: Vain: Why Today's Customers Are Self-Centered
PART TWO: The Resolution
Manifesto: The Wired and Dangerous Link
Chapter 6: How the Service Covenant Can Be Rebalanced
Chapter 7: Grounding: How to Balance Yourself for Partnership
Chapter 8: Connection: How to Help Customers Feel Like Partners
Chapter 9: Bad Connections: How to Turn Angry Customers into Partners
Chapter 10: Wireless Connections: How to Partner with Customers via the Internet
Chapter 11: Congruence: How to Get the Service Setting in Balance
Chapter 12: Acumen: How to Keep the Customer Relationship in Balance
PART THREE: Suggestions for Partnering with Customers
Flash Drive: Tools and Favorites
Tools:
1 For Calming Customer Crackpots, Bullies, and Militants
2 For Serving When Customer Pain Must Be Involved
3 For Giving Great Lateral Service
4 For Service Leadership in Turbulent Times
5 For Crafting a Really Cool Service Vision
6 For a Great Emotional Connection with Customers
7 For Conducting a Truly Focused Focus Group
8 For Serving as an Expert
9 For "Serving in the Dark" Like a Partner
10 For Firing a Customer
11 For Conducting Customer Forensics
12 For Determining If Your Service Process Is Unwell
13 For Adding Decoration to the Service Experience
14 For Designing a Survey Your Customers Will Actually Complete
Favorites
Best Books on Understanding the Wired and Dangerous Customer
Best Websites for Understanding the Wired and Dangerous Customer
Favorite Service Quotes
Twenty Things Today's Wired and Dangerous Customers Really Want
Favorite Metaphor for Turning "Dangerous" Customers into Advocates
A Poem on Customers as Partners
Notes
Bibliography
Thanks
Index
About the Authors
CHAPTER 1
How the Service Covenant Became Corrupted
The service covenant has been around for centuries. It is grounded in the concept of the direct or implied pledge of fair bartering—a merchant provides a product or service in exchange for some type of remuneration. Energy might be spent on either side of the covenant as to the fairness of the exchange (server spending energy on promotion; customer spending energy on getting perceived worth), but the essence of the agreement remained intact. There was a promise implied on both sides of the encounter
The covenant for a product was different from the covenant for a service. Customers gave the product provider license to make the product without their participation, or even observation. You did not need to watch the maker of your basket or your dishwasher; you could trust it would be as promised. The tangible nature of an object made the determination of quality easier. As customers, we expected the product would be as described and we had recourse if it was not—typically the object could be returned for a replacement or our coconuts or coins would be returned if it failed to meet the value we were promised. Replacement meant another object like the one we purchased was taken from inventory and given to us. In this fashion the covenant could be restored.
The service covenant has some similarities. There were expectations of features and benefits, as for a product. Energy around promotion and price was also similar. However, since service was largely experiential, it could not be stockpiled, inventoried, or sent back for a replacement. Consequently, recourse for a broken promise could not be in kind. Displeasure with your haircut might get you a discount on your next one but there was no way to get your hair back like it was.
So, what was the recourse hardwired into the service covenant? The customer derived some comfort or security through the fact that service would be delivered through an experience which the customer co-created with the service provider. The inclusion of nods, clicks, sounds, and sighs both from customer and service provider during the co-creation process provided customers a way to be the guardian of their side of the transaction. As a haircut customer you could say “Not so much on the sides!” early enough in the experience to prevent the outcome from being a disappointment you were then forced to wear.
Unlike a product, a service is produced at the moment of delivery. You cannot create it in advance. You cannot send the customer a sample to be inspected and approved. Unlike a product, the receiver of a service gets nothing tangible, and value depends on the receiver’s experience and perception. As the service provider, you might be able to plan presentation, people-manners, and processes, but for almost all services it was not deemed a “service received” until it was experienced by (or with) the customer.
Should a product provider opt to change the way the product was manufactured or redo the manner that inventory was organized, it could all be accomplished with minimal impact on (or involvement from) the customer. However, alter the way the service experience occurs and the covenant is fundamentally changed.
Let’s examine a metaphor. When banks got the bright idea of using ATMs instead of a teller, they encountered sizable resistance. ATM use was less than 15 percent even ten years after the machines were introduced. Compare that to the speed of adoption of smart phones or Netflix. The ATM fundamentally altered the nature of the service experience. Now, don’t push this ATM metaphor too far by examining it in light of today’s use. We all know customers today enjoy the convenience of the ATM plus the warmth of dialogue with Peggy. ATM acceptance changed when tellers stood outside the bank and taught customers how to use them, allaying fears about the security of a deposit placed in an uncaring, automated machine.
Progress requires change, and change provokes resistance. However, customers do not necessarily resist change itself. They resist the perception or prediction of being controlled or coerced without their involvement. They accept change when they get a vote; they embrace change when they can participate.
The remedy for buying a faulty product that disappointed was getting to return or exchange it. The recourse for buying a faulty service was getting to stop it, influence it, or change it in the middle of the experience. Giving the service experience the features of a product is like putting lipstick on a pig. It may make the pig look better, but it doesn’t make ’em happy.
Alteration in the service covenant has been fueled by the push for cost cutting and efficiency. Migrating customers toward self-service, for example, brings an array of time-saving benefits to both service provider and service receiver. But the manner in which that migration typically occurs—without influence from customers—can be viewed as devaluing the co-creator, thus adding another spark to the flame of their opposition.
The Rebellious Customer
Customers today are picky, fickle, vocal, and vain. They are picky in that they are more cautious in their choices (and they have many more choices) than customers of yesteryear and are interested only in getting obvious value for their money. They are more informed about the choices available, smarter in choice-making, and more selective in whom they elect to join. They are fickle in that they are much quicker to leave if unhappy. They show a lower tolerance for error, and will exit even when the service is merely indifferent.
Customers today are vocal in that they are both quick and loud in registering concerns based on their higher standards for value and their expectation of getting a tailored response. They assertively tell others their views of an organization’s service; they also pay attention to fellow customers’ negative reviews and make choices without even giving the organization a chance. A 2009 Nielsen online survey of 25,000 consumers in more than fifty countries found that customers trusted friends, family, and peers for product recommendations 90 percent of the time. Finally, they are vain in that they expect treatment that telegraphs they are special and unique.
Now we know, as customers ourselves, that the picky, fickle and vocal parts are spot on. The vain label may seem harsh. Few of us look in the mirror and see a vain person looking back. But, the “Have it your way!” perspective we have acquired is the natural byproduct of pampering by service providers. Customer self-centeredness has been enlarged by our newfound muscle in the marketplace. Be honest. How would you react if you bought a product that turned out to be defective and the merchant refused to take it back? What if the McDonald’s counter clerk told you they would not “hold the cheese” on your Big Mac? We enjoy some degree of service personalization; we also expect it!
The picky-fickle-vocal-vain moniker represents a dramatic shift as we look at what is required to ensure customer loyalty—the stuff of growth and profits. Customer requirements for value are way out of sync with the tried and true methods organizations have relied on for years. When frontline employees deliver service that fulfils the customer’s stated needs, they are taken aback when customers give them less than satisfactory grades. When a small gaffe triggers volcano-like customer uproar, many frontline employees believe they have met a deranged deviant with an attitude problem, not just a typical customer acting on instincts honed from countless disappointments.
The more dissonance there is between what the server provides and the served receives, the more the problem exacerbates. Customers declare the organization’s frontline ambassadors are indifferent, difficult, and uncaring. Further, the connections customers now have with one another via the Internet and social media give them the power to transform an organization overnight from service champ to service chump. Customers formerly loyal to a particular brand now regard brand identification as just PR drivel or corporate snake oil. Add to this cacophony a global playing field, razor-thin margins, warp-speed change, and depleted staffing levels, and you have a recipe for employee wear-out and customer walk-out.
It is not that organizations are responding less but that they are responding incorrectly—out of sync with what new customers require. They are “efforting” but not achieving. Those who recast their engagement strategy in innovative ways are resonating with the “new” customers and winning their loyalty.
Take a look at award-winning Zappos.com, now a part of Amazon.com. They took a simple business—online buying of shoes—and added the experience enhancers that make them the talk of the neighborhood (and cyberhood). Sure, you can do all your buying without communicating with a soul. But, every Zappos web page has a deliberate invitation to interact. When the customer clicks to talk, they get over-the-top attention, customized communication, and a live rep who wants to be your new best friend. Zappos merchandise arrives at your front door way before you have a chance to wonder when it will. It is the perfect blend of self-service with full service that respects the service covenant while bolstering convenience and cost savings. And, how has the market rewarded them? Their profits went from zero when they started to over $1 billion 10 years later.
Customers are primed and ready for uprising. Some have already jumped ship to pursue a new service provider that offers greater value. Under the surface of picky-fickle-vocal-vain is a level of frustration (sometimes anger) that is fueling their mutinous and sometimes dangerous behavior. This book is about the tainted groundwater of customer discontent—and how to fix it. Addressing the symptoms while ignoring the cause is like taking an aspirin for bronchitis—it may make you feel better temporarily, but failing to address the real issue can lead to customer churn and, more devastatingly, a customer-led uprising trafficked on the Internet. Turning a potentially dangerous customer into an advocate is not only possible but it is also eagerly desired by those you serve.
The Museum of Customer Service
A stroll through a museum filled with artifacts of an earlier time can be enlightening; that trip down memory lane can teach us a lot about where we were. In the words of George Santayana, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The museum shows us how we have changed.
Pretend there was a Museum of Customer Service. You would see objects of the past, like fax machines and floppy disks. You would see hotels with phones in guest rooms that guests actually used for more than a request for a wake-up call. In the museum, plumbers cost less than dentists; all banks were open until noon on Saturday. Retail stores had sales clerks on the floor, not just at the register. Grocery stores had bakers, gas stations had a mechanic, and mail-order catalogues were all-purpose, not just specialty. Stores had layaway plans and returns clerks; banks had signature loans. Doctors made house calls and treated whatever malady they encountered, rarely referring the patient to anyone else.
Looking forward from the past, what has changed? The most obvious change has been a dramatic trend toward self-service. We skip the check-out counter with the long line and moving-in-slow-motion cashier to do self-checkout. We let our fingers do the walking, not in the antiquated phone book but through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, for what we want to buy. We look at Overstock and eBay for bargains, YouTube for entertainment, Wikipedia for reference, and Mapquest for directions. Buying online has altered the service experience as dramatically as the disappearance of the friendly elevator operator who could tell you that Housewares is on the third floor.
Self-service has had a positive side. Shifting the lion’s share of the service experience to the customer has lowered operating costs. It has freed up human resources to be used in roles and functions truly requiring a human touch. Self-service has also made the customer more self-reliant, as “do-it-yourself” has replaced “I’ll take care of that for you.” Learning to fend for oneself can trigger acquisition of both knowledge and confidence. Customers are less dependent and far more competent.
Let’s go back to our French history lesson for a minute. In 1789, reading Voltaire or hearing tales of freedom from French soldiers just back from the American Revolution were both double-edged swords. French commoners were inspired, but they were also emboldened. Similarly today, self-service is a tool for independence that has a “revolutionary” or dark side as well. That under-the-surface component, properly managed, can be an opportunity for service greatness leading to customer growth and bottom line profits.
Service is the act of giving assistance to a customer. When most of the “assisting” is shifted to the recipient by the provider, resentment often ensues: “Why am I having to do this myself?” As customers, we ultimately get over it, learning to pump our own gas, find our own size, and wash our own cars. We stop using tellers and librarians and go straight to a machine. But with the change of balance between serving and being served comes an alteration in the true meaning of service. Many years ago, if the elevator operator was out on break, we felt underserved. Today, an elevator is not even viewed as a context for service, it is just a functional device to move us up and down.
Self-service changes our standards for service. Obviously, when we “do it our way” we get highly tailor-made service. As customers, this changes how we view those who serve us. We assume they will know us almost as well as we know ourselves. We think they can read our minds. We assume that getting us what we want, the way we want it, will be as big a deal to them as it is to us.
Looking forward from the Museum of Customer Service also reveals a migration toward service isolation. There was a time when a call to a business yielded a switchboard operator on the other end who sent our call to just the right person. Not only did operators sound like neighbors but they also knew who in the organization did what. Today, an IVR (interactive voice response) computer screens the call. Insist on speaking to a live person and you are likely to get an operator in Mumbai or Singapore—someone who probably does not sound like a neighbor. The 2010 Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI) from the CFI Group found that offshore contact centers scored 27 percent lower in customer satisfaction than those based in the United States.
As social animals, we enjoy the experiential and interpersonal side of service. Removing the “assistant” leaves us going it alone. We rely on customer reviews since there is no helpful clerk to tell us the features we might have missed. We order online in silence without benefit of banter with the service provider. While the time-saving, service-at-any-hour components are very appealing, in our hearts we sometimes wish for more of a connection, even at the expense of less convenience.
A front page USA Today article highlighted the return of travel customers to travel agents from online travel sites. Quoted in the article, travel agent Suzanne Burr said, “Customers would push the button on some of these websites, and that was it. There was nobody to ask a question. Nobody to ask for help. When it comes to really spending money and wanting an advocate, people are turning back to agents because people care. A computer doesn’t.” To confirm the point, a study by Forrester Research found that, in the first three months of 2010, 28 percent of leisure travelers in the United States who booked their trips online said they’d be interested in going to a traditional travel agent.
The Museum of Customer Service also reveals that there has been a swing toward a reliance on experts or specialists. We often hear “We don’t carry that item, check with…” or “I need to refer you to … ” or, the unkindest cut of all, “You might look it up online.” The “all-purpose” has been stripped out of most service encounters. Where did you buy your last TV—at Sears or at Best Buy? How about the last book you bought—did you check out the book section of Wal-Mart, or go to a Borders bookstore, or log on to Amazon.com? We go for fishing gear at Bubba’s Bait Shop only for convenience. Otherwise, it’s Bass ProShops, Cabela’s, or—again—online. Most of our clothing comes from stores that sell only clothing, not from a J.C. Penney. Need a new bicycle? The specialist at the bike shop down the street probably takes care of the cyclists en route to the next triathlon.
So, there are mixed blessings. With specialists comes expertise not found in the generic service encounter. Service providers with unique competence give us confidence in our purchase or experience. Good ones mentor us, leaving us smarter than we were before; poor ones anger us with their arrogance and “hide the ball” tactics. With specialists comes the proliferation of “silos,” organizational turf boundaries put in place for the convenience of those who “manage” processes that supposedly serve the customer. In reality, these artificial boundaries can make the customer’s experience much more challenging.
John recently tried to refinance a home-equity line with a large bank where he has been a customer for thirty years. His loyalty to the provider mattered not! He was repeatedly subjected to the dreaded “That is not my department, you will need to call another 800 number,” making the process frustrating and cumbersome. All in the name of speaking with experts. Guess what John did? He went to a smaller bank that maintains the service covenant the old-fashioned way—face-to-face conversation with bankers who work to build a relationship, not service a transaction.
Chip recently purchased a television, sound bar, and receiver from Best Buy for his rather remote second home. Connecting the TV to the receiver was easy. However, connecting the sound bar to the receiver was not. Nothing in the three manuals covered the unique connection (sound bars typically are plugged directly into the TV, not a receiver). When he called Best Buy to ask “Into which receiver hole do I plug the sound bar cord?” he was transferred to tech support. Ready to explain his situation and get a quick answer, he was instead told that a technology professional would have to come to his house and show him where to plug in the cord—at a fee of $150. He had just spent $1,500! When he then tried to schedule an onsite visit by Best Buy’s notorious Geek Squad, after a 90-minute phone call he was finally told he was outside their service range. What would Sears have done, ten or fifteen years ago?
One annoyance that comes with relying on the expertise of specialists is the search for the right one. Being dependent on experts also undermines the classless nature of being served by someone “like us,” who has only slightly more knowledge than we have. Being served by a generalist was rather neighborly and egalitarian. There is now a potentially uncomfortable distance between customer and specialist. We sometimes miss the bond and wish for a richer relationship, not just a smarter one. We want to be a partner, not a patient!
Constantly dealing with experts has already altered our standards for the service provided by non-experts. Customers assume the competence of every expert and assume expertise in every service provider. Will customers now expect all frontline employees to be the smartest, best resourced, most empowered service providers imaginable?
The shift toward self-service with reliance on experts has taken the conversation out of service. Social media is filling the void. The twenty-something customer, skilled at text messaging, views a phone call as an interruption. For the teenager, being able to communicate “PAW” (parents are watching) to a friend via text, or just code number 9, keeps the cyberlog intimate. Yet the removal of all non-verbals (body language, facial expressions) from the conversation increases the risk of misunderstanding.
The foundation for great service is grounded not in the superficial tenets of contemporary service but in the core of the human condition when partnering is present. Even as customers enjoy the blessings of high-tech service, they want a high-touch partner when they need help. Partnerships with customers work if they are participative, egalitarian connections rich with compassion and humanity, filled with the collective capacity to personalize, and inspired by the nobility of giving assistance to another. The profits of companies like Amazon.com, Netflix, Zappos.com—companies that work to blend high tech with high touch—provide evidence that a partnership philosophy pays off.
Voltaire, a popular writer during the era of the French Revolution, was as prophetic as he was poetic. His line “Better is the enemy of good” has been oft quoted (and misquoted) but stands as one of the tenets of remarkable service. He also wrote (without realizing it) about the antidote to the woes of current customer service: “We are rarely proud when we are alone.” Viewing service as an economic watering hole is a critical path to remarkable service.
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