There's customer service, and customer service

I was recently in Melbourne and Sydney this month, and was baffled at the inconsistent levels of customer service being offered by both city and urban establishments. It became painfully clear that there were two types of customer service transactions happening, both with very different outcomes. Delivering great service is easy when things are smooth, but once things become difficult, that's when standards drop.

While finding amazing customer experiences was difficult on my trip, there were unfortunately plenty of examples for sub-standard service delivery; everywhere from train stations to cafe's and restaurants; even a luxury hotel in the heart of Sydney!

What was most evident to me was how predictable the service level would be if my transaction was "off the menu", so as to speak. Ask for something slightly different from the norm, and suddenly demeanor and politeness were swept aside and replaced by rudeness and arrogance. What concerned me was whether these companies were measuring the effectiveness of their customer service based on how well they handled straightforward robotic transactions (which I know the majority of front line staff prefer because it's easier), or the more difficult non-standard ones?

The sign of a robust customer service process is it's ability to effectively deal with any request the customer makes. This isn't easy, because humans are inherently unpredictable beasts; a major reason why strategies like Six Sigma don't do any justice for CS processes. You can map as many processes as you like, but eventually a customer will come along and throw a curve-ball, and your frontline people need to deal with these professionally.

The major hurdle here isn't the business, it's the human. Dealing with non-standard transactions has to mean engaging your brain with the customer, turning off robot mode, and activating the intelligent parts of your experience; something any human finds hard to do at the best of times. You can only achieve consistency if the customer's experience is the same regardless of whether the request is simple or not, and the responsibility for this begins with the person serving the customer.

If you work in the frontline, remember this: it's all too easy to label a customer as "fussy", and to drop the level of service you provide. Not only is this lazy, it's a missed opportunity to deliver outstanding customer service. Yes, it'll require more time and more of your energy, but it's what your paid for, and the repercussions for your company could be long term and ultimately come back to bite you.