This post is the second in a series that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The second obstacle is insufficient employee training.

Recently a large family entertainment complex, Celebrity Lanes, had its grand opening. It boasts 40 spacious bowling lanes, VIP suites, an arcade, and a 40-beer tap house.

I attended the grand opening with my family earlier this month. At a kiosk near the arcade, I purchased a set of cards that were loaded with $10 each worth of game tokens. Not long into playing, my oldest son had a problem with his card.

When I approached one of the arcade employees standing behind the counter, she pointed to another employee outside the arcade and said, “I’m not in charge of those. Talk to the woman in the pink shirt.”

Well, the woman in the pink shirt had a line of customers in front of her and a line had also formed at the lone kiosk in the arcade. So I asked the employee, “Can I just buy a replacement card from you and sort the problem out (with the woman in the pink shirt) later?”

She replied, “I haven’t been trained on the cash register.”

Interestingly, I had met a Celebrity Lanes employee at a social event prior to my visit and asked her what she thought of the pre-opening training. Her response: “What training?”

She went on to describe how her orientation and training consisted of an icebreaker activity, Two Truths and a Lie, and group bowling.

Unless one of my children is invited to a Celebrity Lanes birthday party, we have no plans to return. There are just too many family entertainment options available that don’t leave me with a feeling of buyer’s remorse.

So, what can we learn from this experience? Here are several clues that may indicate your new-hire employee training is insufficient:

• When an employee is approached about a common problem that directly pertains to her job role, she responds: “I’m not in charge of those. Talk to the woman in the pink shirt.”
• When a counter employee in a retail environment is asked to ring up a sale, she responds: “I haven’t been trained on the cash register.”
• In response to questions about the quality of her pre-opening training, an employee responds: “What training?”
• Your pre-opening training consists of an icebreaker activity and bowling.

The remedy for inadequately trained employees is simple: Offer effective job-related training.

Many employers neglect training because they feel that it is too costly. This shortsighted perspective tends to focus on the operating statement over the next 30 days and does not take into account what happens in the months thereafter.

If you have failed to rehearse customer service scenarios in advance through formalized job-related training, then you are practicing on customers. This is a recipe for disaster. Here’s why:

Every single customer is irreplaceable.

Recognize that when one of your customers defects because of a poorly trained employee, that customer is irreplaceable. And his or her lifetime contribution to your business—including future spending, feedback, and referrals—can never be replaced. Ever.

So even if Celebrity Lanes manages to attract another customer to replace me, I am gone forever. And forever is a long time.

This morning I stopped by my local King Soopers to pick up a few groceries. One of the items on my list was a pound of sliced turkey from the deli counter. Sometimes I pass on deli meat if there’s a wait but today I was in luck as there was no line!

One aspect of my business involves mystery shop services, so I’m in the habit of evaluating wait times, employee behavior, cleanliness, and other aspects of customer experience. I started my watch.

As I stood in front of the deli counter, I noticed there were four employees present: a butcher preparing the display case in the meat department adjacent to the deli counter and three deli employees busily performing their job functions.

This is an important observation. As I waited, not one of the four employees was goofing off, sending a text, reading a newspaper, or talking with a coworker. All were on task.

While one employee had his back to me, the others were all facing forward. At six feet tall and 200 pounds, I am not a small man but no one seemed to notice me. I waited. Two minutes went by, then three minutes. As I continued to wait, a blog post began to form…

Consumer behavior is fascinating. There are a variety of ways that different customers might choose to deal with this situation. Some customers, in the absence of a bell, will wave their hand or call out to get an employee’s attention. Others, giving the employees the benefit of the doubt and being sympathetic to their side duties, will patiently wait to be acknowledged.

Personally, I’m inclined to walk away. Why should I reward poor customer service with a sale when there are three competing supermarkets within a mile of each other?

After three and a half minutes, I made eye contact with the butcher who smiled and nearly disappeared from view before he halted, recognized that I had been waiting a while, and called out, “Counter!”

The deli employee who approached me did not smile. Perhaps she was annoyed that I had interrupted her side work? She conveyed indifference as she prepared to execute another deli transaction: Take the order, slice the meat, weigh the meat, bag the meat, price the meat, and deliver the meat… “Next?”

Because of her demeanor, I made the decision not to reward King Soopers with a $6.99 sale for a pound of Private Selection Oven Roasted Turkey and decided instead to just pick up only the essential items on my list.

While in another part of the store, I encountered the assistant store manager, Ronnie, and shared my experience at the deli counter. She listened to my description of events, apologized on behalf of the deli employees, and made the comment, “It’s because you’re wearing a white shirt. You blended in!”

Ronnie was good natured and having a little fun—and I appreciate that. I did explain to her, however, that the reason I was overlooked had less to do with my attire than deli employees focusing exclusively on their job functions (the duties and tasks associated with their job roles) and neglecting the essence of their jobs (their highest priority): To create delighted customers.

She listened patiently, then offered to go to the deli counter and pick up a pound of the sliced turkey for me free of charge. I told her that was not necessary but she insisted.

While she was away retrieving the turkey, I checked-out and asked the cashier to charge me for one pound of Private Selection Oven Roasted Turkey and be sure to make Ronnie aware that I had paid for it.

The reason I did that is because there are many cynical employees who believe customers only complain to get something for free. That’s simply not true. Most customers complain because their expectations (for quality, accuracy, timeliness, etc.) were not met.

Ronnie met me at the store exit with the deli meat, smiled, and apologized again. Like many customers in the same situation, I thanked her for her help and left the store.

What happens next is entirely up to me. Will I put the experience behind me and return to King Soopers as I did following this incident or will I vote with my feet and shop across the street?

Of this I’m certain: If I choose to return, the quality of customer service I receive will be determined by whether or not employees choose to view me as a priority rather than an interruption—not the color of my shirt.

This post is the first in a series over the next 10 weeks that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The first obstacle is apathy.

Apathy takes many forms, including: neglect, indifference, and unresponsiveness.

I took the photo to the right at a small strip center in my neighborhood. The center contains a nail salon and a dry cleaner. Both businesses will succeed or fail based on their ability to improve the appearance of their customers—whether nails or attire. Yet neither business seems interested in improving the appearance of their stores’ exterior.

Now some will say, “If I’m the tenant, it’s not my responsibility. Certainly building maintenance, landscaping, and snow removal are included in the lease.”

“It’s not my responsibility?” That’s just another way of saying, “It’s not my job.”

This sentiment plagues customer service everywhere. I’m confident most of us have heard an employee say, “It’s not my job” or “It’s not my department” in response to our questions or concerns.

While I haven’t read their leases, I have formed an impression about both businesses—and it isn’t positive. Why should I have confidence that the dry cleaner will pay careful attention to detail with my garments when it so egregiously neglects the appearance of its storefront?

The opposite of apathy is initiative. And initiative simply requires a choice. Many service providers choose the well-worn path of least resistance. This results in predictable, routine, and indifferent customer service.

But exceptional service providers make the conscious choice daily to accept personal responsibility, take initiative, and make positive lasting impressions on their customers—even if that means doing something that’s “not my job” like, say, pulling weeds.

The statistician W. Edwards Deming once said, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.”

When I begin a project, the first thing I do is gather data to assess the current state of service quality. I do so by interviewing stakeholders such as managers, hourly employees, and, when possible, actual customers.

I also pour through customer feedback on review websites like TripAdvisor, Priceline, and Yelp. And, when available, review proprietary data such as customer satisfaction survey results, customer verbatims, and mystery shop reports.

The purpose of this analysis is to gather data that will objectively point to advantages that are contributing to customer satisfaction as well as obstacles that are hindering satisfaction.

For the next 10 weeks on my blog, I’m going to highlight 10 different obstacles that have emerged from the data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business?

In addition to identifying obstacles, each post will contain one or more ways to mitigate these obstacles—with the goal of improving the experience of your customers.

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 perfect ten on a ten-point scale, on average, spend about 40 percent more on ancillary services—like hotel restaurants, gift shop, business center, and other offerings—than guests offering a rating of six or seven.

It may seem counter-intuitive for satisfaction to increase when a hotel guest experiences a problem but when you think about the different relationships in your life, it begins to make sense.

All of us have relationships with others ranging from superficial to deep. Superficial relationships are those where conversations revolve around “safe” topics such as the weather, pop culture or the big game. These relationships are rarely tested in any meaningful way. Instead, they are predictable. Loyalty and commitment do not come into play.

We also have relationships that are deeper and more substantial. These are relationships that have been tested—experiencing both highs and lows. We tend to 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.

This poem reinforces the connection between tension and growth. Although it’s human nature to label problems as bad and try to avoid them at all costs, it turns out that the conflict we often encounter as a result of problems experienced may actually reinforce relationships.

A solid relationship, like good timber, does not grow in ease. When customer relationships are tested by the inevitable setbacks that occur in a complex business with lots of moving parts, reframe these problems as opportunities to strengthen relationships.

And be encouraged by the poet’s conclusion: The stronger the wind, the tougher the trees.

It occurred to me that rain and customers have a lot in common.

Rain is required to sustain physical life. Customers are required to sustain corporate life.

We want rain on our terms, when it’s convenient, so that it does not interfere with our plans. In business, we’d prefer that customers arrive on time and prepared, so as not to disrupt our operations.

Weathermen track weather patterns in attempts to accurately forecast rain. Revenue managers monitor consumer trends in order to anticipate customer demand.

Rain is taken for granted—unless it’s in short supply. Similarly, customers are treated indifferently—unless they’re in short supply.

We try to shield ourselves from the rain using raincoats and umbrellas. Many businesses attempt to ward off customers by using barriers such as elaborate phone trees and terms and conditions that insulate them from responsibility.

Over the years, humans have tried to influence the rain by using a rain dance whereas companies have long tried to manipulate customers by using a song and dance.

I could go on but you get the idea.

It’s ironic to me that many companies use terms like “guest” and “partner” to convey the intimacy they have with their customers but the reality is that most employees, when given the opportunity, do not behave as though they are serving a valued guest.

Instead, many of the frontline employees I observe appear to be simply going through the motions—treating each customer like the last customer. And so on…

This may explain why 68 percent of consumers surveyed claimed to have quit doing business with a company due to perceived indifference towards them as customers.

Just like rain, we recognize the value of customers but then try to elude them.

I’ve tapped my Irish roots in order to craft the following limerick:

Customers, they are like rain:

An aggravation that many distain.

The irony the two share,

Is that, unless they are rare,

About them, most will complain.

And lastly, here’s something else I noticed: After much rain, a rainbow appears. After many customers, a pot of gold appears.

Mmm… Maybe there is something to that Irish myth?