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Exceptions require exceptional customer service

Have you ever noticed the tendency of frontline employees to become defensive—even surly—when you bring a problem or misunderstanding to their attention?

Unless your business has chronic, unresolved issues (in which case, you may want to update your résumé), problems and misunderstandings are exceptions. By definition, exceptions do not conform to the general rule. This makes them infrequent. That’s why they’re exceptions.

When exceptions occur in your place of business, how are they typically handled?

In many cases, exceptions such as misunderstandings or unmet expectations, when brought to the attention of frontline employees, create a palpable communication barrier that neutralizes employees’ smiles, eye contact, and enthusiasm to serve.

It’s as if a customer’s misunderstanding, when expressed, drives a wedge between him and the employee. Instead of seeing the situation as an opportunity to serve, many employees recoil and judge the customer as being difficult or misinformed.

Here are two examples from guests of a leading hotel chain that I came across while trolling TripAdvisor.com:

As a [member of your loyalty program], I was on the Concierge Level with access to the lounge. My stay was from Thursday to Tuesday … the Concierge Lounge was closed from Friday 12 noon to Sunday 5pm. On top of that, nowhere were the hours posted on when any sort of food/service was provided (hours on when the lounge was open is posted, but who really cares if you can go there, without food?). Hours were not mentioned upon check-in, when visiting the lounge, or in the room. Two times that I went, I had just missed the food service. On both occasions, the attendants never once said, “Oh, I’m sorry you just missed our food service. Is there anything I can get you? So you know, we provide food between xyz hours).” Yes, I could have asked, but it made me feel a little cheap, to have to ask about the free food.

This feedback is priceless—especially the final comment about the guest being made to feel a little cheap. I can think of many different feelings hotels would like to inspire in their guests but “cheap” isn’t one of them.

Here’s the lesson I receive from this feedback: When a hotel’s Concierge Level guest misses the food service in the Concierge Lounge, it’s an exception. And exceptions provide opportunities for exceptional customer service.

Too often, employees view customers who “screw up” and misinterpret published hours of operation, pricing, directions, etc. as being difficult (i.e., “If only they’d read!”) when these customers should be treated exceptionally well. After all, due to a misunderstanding, their expectations have not been met.

In the case of the Concierge Level guest, why not make him aware of the Concierge Lounge’s hours of operation for the future (preferably by offering him a pre-printed card so he doesn’t have to try and remember them) and then provide a certificate for a complimentary breakfast in the restaurant?

And if he responds that he’d planned to take a plate back to his room to eat while working, then invite him to order room service and take care of the charge to make up for the misunderstanding. After all, when you consider the future spending of a delighted member of your loyalty program, all of a sudden $15-$30 seems quite negligible.

Now, some will say, “But what about the precedent you’re setting?” This concern, usually expressed by people who’d prefer to point to a sign or policy rather than go out of their way, never materializes. After all, it’s an exception.

Here’s another comment from a hotel guest that illustrates the same point:

We were very disappointed in the surliness of the [restaurant] managers both mornings… When checking in to our “breakfast included” room, we were told that breakfast was from 7 to noon. Oops – those hours were only for the [Thanksgiving Day] holiday, and Friday was ‘normal business hours’, which we discovered when we arrived at 10am on Friday for our breakfast. The male manager did not greet us with hello, but with a snapped “we’re closed for lunch”, but then allowed us to grab some food as they were still cleaning up the buffet. He directed us to “sit right here”, set some water without ice on the table, and we were scurried through the buffet under the watchful eye of a non-friendly female manager. No one offered coffee, juice, etc – yes, it was a tad late but we weren’t really causing them any trouble.

Once again, here’s a situation where guests are punished due to a misunderstanding. Instead of viewing this as an opportunity to make a positive lasting impression on their guests, the managers involved forgot their manners and treated them poorly.

In both cases, hotel guests experienced problems due to misunderstandings. Hotels, like most companies, have lots of moving parts and misunderstandings and unmet expectations are inevitable. And unless these problems are systemic, they’re exceptions and should be embraced as opportunities to pleasantly surprise guests.

According to a study by J.D. Power and Associates, when a hotel guest’s problem is resolved perfectly, it results in overall satisfaction averaging 80.7, compared to only 74.9 if there was no problem to begin with.

And the more satisfied a hotel guest is, the more he’ll likely spend. The same study found that guests who rate their overall satisfaction as a ten on a ten-point scale, on average, spend about 40 percent more on ancillary services (e.g., hotel restaurants, gift shop, business center, etc.) than guests offering a rating of six or seven.

So guests who experience a problem and have it resolved perfectly may be more satisfied than guests who do not experience a problem. And guests who are more satisfied tend to spend more money.

When frontline employees make this connection, guests who show up late for breakfast or question a room charge, will not be labeled as “difficult” and treated as such. Instead, these guests—these exceptions—will genuinely be seen as providing opportunities for exceptional customer service.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Enthusiasm at Work!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://RestaurantWorx.com Jeffrey Summers

    This is a great post! Recovery is just as critical a part of your culture as anything else. The stat you don’t mention though, is the one where the experience is exceptional and exceeds expectations vs a good recovery after a mishap. Why is that one never a part of the metrics?

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Jeffrey, I think customer relationships are a lot like relationships in general. Most of us have relationships ranging from casual to deep. Casual being the relationships where conversation topics include things like the weather or the performance of hometown sports teams. These relationships are rarely tested in any meaningful way. They’re pretty predictable – if not shallow – and loyalty and commitment don’t come into play. We also have relationships that are deeper and more substantial. In my case, these relationships are ones that have experienced highs and lows. I feel more of a responsibility to these relationships. There is greater loyalty and commitment.
    J.W. Marriott, Sr. had a favorite poem, “Trees,” which was inscribed on a piece of wood outside his office door: The tree that never had to fight for sun and sky and air and light, but stood out in the open plain and always had its share of rain, never became a forest king but lived and died a scrubby thing…Good timber does not grow in ease: The stronger the wind, the tougher the trees.

  • http://katenasser.com Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

    This post is an excellent reminder to never blame the customer and moreover see EVERY interaction with the customer as an opportunity to WOW them and create loyalty.

    “Screw-ups” as you put them, no matter who was involved in the event — customer or service provider — do give the service provider an opportunity to feature their true service abilities.

    A VP of operations sitting next to me on a flight told me that he judges ALL service providers based on how well they recover from service failures. I asked why? Reply: Because screw-ups will happen. You can be sure of it. We want to work with service provider who has the commitment and skills to fix anything.

    Here’s one checklist I put together — #11, 14, 15 & 16 especially relate to your post:
    —
    http://katenasser.com/the-best-csrs-act-this-way-in-customer-service/
    —

    Kate

  • Mark Gregory

    Nice post with clear insights. We call these occurrences Pinch Points. Most employees don’t get to experience what it feels like to be the customer. If they did they would realise sooner the shortcomings of their customer experience.

    Your examples demonstrate the opportunities that businesses have to build loyalty even when things initially fall short.

  • http://www.newport-enterprises.com Curt Newport

    When we can effectively teach our employees the difference between “taking” a complaint personally, and “handling” a complaint personally, then we have a big win. It is easy to feel defensive when a guest “attacks” (the perception). However, when we can teach the employees that it is not about THEM, and that THEY have an opportunity to be a HERO, and add a healthy dose of empowerment (reference the $30 breakfast you comped when comparing to future spending), then our employees will perform.

    great insights, as always, Steve!

  • http://www.worleyobetz.com Marc Bowers

    This was an excellent post Steve. I think all higher ups at companies should read this tip. I am amazed how many opportunities are missed by different companies with service recovery.
    More great advice on building loyalty with your customer base.

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Kate, thank you for your comments and for sharing your checklist. Your comment about seeing EVERY interaction with the customer as an opportunity to WOW them and create loyalty, brings to mind the quote by Cesare Pavese: “We do not remember days; we remember moments.” Similarly, our customers don’t remember meals, hotel stays, flights, retail transactions, etc., they remember moments during these events.

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Mark, yes that’s the key – to capitalize on those (inevitable) occasions when we fall short… Research suggests that most customers do not lodge complaints for one reason or another (e.g., don’t know the protocol for doing so, don’t think it will matter, fear of retaliation by the service provider, etc.). They just leave unhappy (feeling “pinched”)… It seems that companies would benefit by creating an environment that: a.) minimizes service failures, and b.) makes it easy for customers to report problems/service failures. For example, instead of shrinking from (potentially) critical guest feedback, a hotel could be assertive in the way it gathers feedback from hotel guests by engaging guests (who may be awaiting a colleague in the lobby) and asking focused-open questions such as, “If there was one thing we could do to improve the quality of your (e.g., stay, check-in process, guest room, meeting, fitness center, etc.), what would that one thing be?” Most guests will come up with something and, oftentimes, that something is GOLD!

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Thanks Curt. That’s a great distinction you made between “taking” a complaint personally and “handling” a complaint personally. I’ll need to remember that and use it in the future – with attribution of course! ; )

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Marc, I too am amazed. I used to have a boss at Marriott who was fond of saying, “It’s a simple business: Take care of people.” That applies whether your serving a customer (in a customer-facing position) or serving someone who does serve a customer (in a support position such as HR or accounting). Too often, managers get caught up with “management” (e.g., scheduling, procurement, productivity, budgets, etc.) and miss the basics of hospitality and modeling desired performance.