The heart of the matter

There are two common misconceptions which can lie at the root of many customer care problems: the first is that being a manager means that you must make all the decisions, and the second is that staff can get a bee in their bonnet and moan on about small things which they should get over. Being a manager does mean you are ultimately responsible and have power – but often it is the hands-on staff who really understand the nuts and bolts of a problem and have to deal with the immediate consequences of poor customer care procedures. Having a cross-departmental, cross-hierarchy team who diagnose problems, consider possible solutions and then implement customer care changes can give you the following advantages: the staff dealing with the problem will have an acute view of exactly what is going wrong, and, if they have had a hand in proposing the solution, then it is in their interest to make it work.

Joy and pain
Niggling things which staff complain about are quite possibly the most important things to tackle. Just because something keeps cropping up does not mean that it stops being important. The impact on staff morale when dealing with unresolved customer care problems can lead to: feeling powerless; feeling as though you are giving poor customer service and it is not your fault (it’s not fair!); feeling ignored; dread at knowing that you will have to deal with angry and annoyed customers; and feeling let down by your organisation. Making changes is difficult and a hassle, and in order for you to want to make changes the following equation must stack up:
Unhappiness with current situation + Joy at how good it could be post change = Perceived pain of change
Your current unhappiness + potential joy must be greater than the pain of change.
Different people within the organisation will obviously have different views of the impact and size of a problem. But do consider that your front- line staff are working with customers all the time and may well have the clearest view about what is actually important. The best way to encourage enthusiasm and joy about the future is to foster an atmosphere of listening – considering possibilities, broadening horizons and generally getting people excited. Facilitating and encouraging the change is exactly the bit where managers can make all the difference.
Boosting morale
Sometimes I am asked to help organisations deal more effectively with angry customers. Firstly you must explore why they have angry customers in the first place. In the case of one fairly recently built theatre, the problem was that front of house (FoH) staff had got to the point of refusing to man the ‘booster seat’ booth. The architects had designed the main auditorium with smooth, flowing, wide fan-shaped seating – the only catch was that kids would probably need booster seats when sitting in the far side seats.

[[Often, very small actions made at the right time by confident happy staff completely defuse a tricky situation]]
So, parents were instructed to pick up booster seats upon arrival when sitting with children in these seats. Of course, the moment that parents realised there were booster seats, they always hurried to pick up booster seats for their offspring, regardless of where they were sitting. (I would!) So, the booth always ran out of booster seats. Parents got angry. Eventually FoH staff started refusing to work there. We got together a team of all the key FoH and box office staff (junior as well as managers) and thought the problem through, and at the start it seemed almost insurmountable to them. We talked through the possible solutions. The team considered that the Box Office could give out booster seat vouchers to only those children sitting in the designated areas of the auditorium. They considered the FoH team walking through the auditorium only once people were seated distributing booster seats to the ‘right’ children. A casual box office assistant finally quietly muttered that as the booster seats were in such demand and were only £15 each, they could just buy some more. It was a moment of clarity and the team got excited. In order to work out exactly how many more they needed, the team decided to have the person on booster seat duty keep a tally sheet of how many people they had to turn away. This had the following immediate impact: the staff knew something was going to happen and they were instrumental in working out what (and felt much better); they could tell the disappointed customers that something was going to happen (and of course one of the things a disappointed customer wants, is for you to do something and for their unhappiness to not be ‘wasted’); and tangible systematic evidence was being gathered about the reality and extent of the problem. They had empowered the staff, spent £200 and fixed it in a month.
Change management
Plan your approach towards making changes. You don’t want to back people into a corner. They often come out fighting, and you don’t want a fight, you want agreement and co-operation. Find out what information or proof is needed in order to make any changes or spend a little money. Challenge people to become involved – stop moaning and start thinking of ways to fix the problem. Be prepared that there may be some things which are so politically highly charged that they have genuinely become taboo (rather than just ignored – which are exactly the things you can influence) – in which case, consider dropping it for a while and move on to something you can improve. Consider setting up a small (£600 per year) customer service budget which is spent at the discretion of the customer-facing staff. Often, very small actions made at the right time by confident, happy staff completely defuse an otherwise tricky situation, but monitor it by all means.
I have a trite but pertinent fable to conclude. The sun and the wind were arguing about which was more powerful. They could not agree. Then the wind spotted a man walking along in a coat. They agreed that whoever could get the coat off the man would be the most powerful. So the wind blew and blew and the man buttoned up his coat tightly and wrapped his arms around himself. The coat did not budge and eventually the wind blew out of breath. Then the sun started. The sun shone bright and warm and then hot. And the man unwrapped his arms, then unbuttoned his coat and finally, took it off. Apologies Obama, but “Yes, we can.”