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AOHT Delivering Great Customer Service

Lesson 4Guidelines for Great

Customer Service

Student Resources

Resource Description

Student Resource 4.1 Script: Customer Service Scenario

Student Resource 4.2 Reading: The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Service

Student Resource 4.3 Reading: Three Rules for Great Customer Service

Student Resource 4.4 Assignment: Customer Service Encounter Script

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AOHT Delivering Great Customer ServiceLesson 4 Guidelines for Great Customer Service

Student Resource 4.1

Script: Customer Service ScenarioDirections: After observing the following script played out in class, decide with your group whether the scenario depicts good customer service or bad customer service. Defend your position with examples from the scenario.

CHARACTERS

Sofia, a hotel customer

Hotel desk clerk

Narrator

Bell staff member

NARRATOR: Sofia, her parents, and her uncle have traveled halfway across the country for her sister’s wedding. They checked in to the hotel where the wedding reception is being held, and they all got rooms on the same floor. But the first night they are there…

(SOFIA calls the front desk. CLERK answers.)

CLERK: Hello, City Lights Hotel. May I help you?

SOFIA: Hi, I’m staying in Room 302. There are a bunch of guys in the hallway being really loud. They’re yelling and making a lot of noise. They’ve been doing it for about 15 minutes. I just arrived and I’m really tired. I need to get some sleep. Could someone come up and ask them to quiet down?

CLERK (sincerely apologetic): Of course, Miss. I’m sorry about that. I’ll send someone up to check.

SOFIA: Thank you.

(SOFIA and CLERK hang up.)

NARRATOR: The clerk sent a bell staff person up to check on the complaint. The bell person came back and said…

BELL PERSON: Hey, there are a bunch of loud guys up there, but they’re on that pro soccer team that’s staying here.

CLERK: Oh, great. And the manager told us to keep them happy no matter what…



BELL PERSON: Yeah, I remember. I didn’t even say anything to them—I just came back downstairs. I didn’t want to make them mad.

CLERK: All right. I think in the morning we’ll send a fruit basket up to Room 302 with a note, apologizing for the disturbance.

NARRATOR: And that’s exactly what happened. Sofia was glad to receive the fruit basket, but she still got very little sleep. So she came down to the desk to talk to someone in person…

SOFIA: Hi, I’m the one in Room 302 who was calling last night. Thank you for the fruit basket, but I’m still really upset about this. I wasn’t the only one who was disturbed—my family is in four different rooms on the same floor, and none of us got any sleep. We’re going to be here for another week, because my sister is having her wedding here at the hotel. Could we get rooms on another floor? Because we really can’t handle all that noise again.

CLERK: I am really sorry, Miss. I understand how frustrating it must have been, but I’m sure it won’t happen again.

NARRATOR: Sofia wasn’t convinced, but the clerk kept promising her there wouldn’t be any more problems, so she finally agreed to stay in her same room. But the next night…

(SOFIA calls the front desk. CLERK answers.)

SOFIA (angry): This is Room 302 again. Now there is a really loud party going on down the hall from me. I think it’s those same guys that were so loud last night. I cannot put up with this anymore.

CLERK: I’m sorry, Miss. I’ll send someone up to ask them to quiet down.

NARRATOR: The clerk sent a bell person up, but told him not to make the soccer players mad. The bell person could hear the soccer players while he was still in the elevator, and he knew they were making a lot of people upset. So he knocked on their door and when it opened, he smiled.

BELL PERSON: Do you need anything sir?

NARRATOR: The soccer player yelled above the voices of his buddies—“No, everything’s fine!” The bell person took a deep breath.

BELL PERSON: Okay then, when it gets to be a little bit later the guests on either side of you would be so appreciative if you could keep the noise down.



NARRATOR: The bell person had to repeat himself loudly in order for the soccer player to hear him. The soccer player said, “Oh sure! No problem!” And the bell person went back downstairs. But of course the noise didn’t stop, and the clerk wasn’t surprised to see Sofia come downstairs and right over to the desk.

SOFIA (openly irritated): The noise from that party hasn’t quieted down at all. Why are you letting those guests make so much noise?

CLERK: Well, Miss, they’re a professional soccer team that’s in town for a game next Saturday.

SOFIA (really upset): Saturday! That’s when my sister’s wedding is! We can’t put up with this noise for that whole time! You have to move us to another part of the hotel—or move them!

CLERK: I’m sorry, Miss, but the entire hotel is booked up. There’s nothing I can do.




Reading: The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Service

Today we will learn about “The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Service”—that is, the seven biggest, most common mistakes people make in customer service situations. We will also consider why these mistakes happen and how to avoid them.



Perhaps it is because many people do not feel comfortable calling a customer back if they don’t have an answer or new information. Unfortunately, this leaves the customer feeling forgotten and/or ignored. On the other hand, simply returning a call or following through with whatever was promised can go a long way toward customer satisfaction. Even if the problem isn’t fixed yet, calling the customer back to say “We’re working on it and we expect it to be solved soon” would help. Customers want to know that they haven’t been forgotten and that their issues matter to the company.



Using an argumentative tone of voice with a customer is always a bad idea. It can be hard not to sound defensive. It can be even harder not to argue if the customer is being rude or accusing you of doing something wrong.

Even if you are certain that the customer is being unreasonable, don’t take the bait. Stay calm. Otherwise, you will probably lose that customer for good. Keep in mind that the situation is not personal. The customer isn’t really mad at you—the customer doesn’t know you. The customer is mad at the situation.

Telling the customer that there is nothing that can be done to solve a problem is just as bad. Instead, listen to the customer. Take notes and review them to make sure you heard everything that the customer said. Offer a genuine apology for the inconvenience and focus on fixing the customer’s problem without arguing about whose fault it was. Follow up with the customer afterwards to make sure everything has been taken care of.



To avoid committing this sin, many companies require employees to wear uniforms or at least have some kind of dress code. If a uniform or dress code isn’t established, employees need to ask themselves: what kind of image does my appearance create? Is it positive or negative?



This sin can be difficult to avoid sometimes, but customers expect employees to have, or get, accurate information. It’s better to admit you do not have an answer and promise to call back (and follow through so as not to commit sin #1!) than to guess and get it wrong.

Managers hold a lot of responsibility in avoiding this sin by training all employees in a consistent manner. Thorough and standardized training can prevent two employees giving two different answers to the same question.



It’s very important to find the appropriate time and place to work out disagreements. It should never be done in front of a customer! If it’s extremely urgent and pertinent to the customer, it’s best to ask the customer to wait a moment. Discuss the problem with the co-worker out of earshot of the customer. Then you both return to provide the answer or solution as a team.



Most customer-contact employees, over time, can identify common customer complaints and issues. This can lead to the employee becoming desensitized to these needs.

However, letting this attitude show in your response is a big mistake. Avoiding this sin is mostly about attitude and tone and addressing the customer as a unique individual with important needs. Listening carefully and being respectful of what the customer wants and needs is key to delivering great customer service.

Even worse, sometimes an employee ignores customers! If customers walk in, try to greet them right away. If you can’t help them immediately, let them know you will get someone to help them very soon. If you’ve had to keep them waiting, apologize.

Sometimes customers get ignored after the service has begun. Have you ever gone to a restaurant, been seated at a table, and then waited a long time for someone to take your drink orders, to bring your food, or to bring the check? How do you feel? Sometimes it’s easy for waitstaff to think they know what the customer wants, but the customer can end up feeling taken for granted or unimportant.



This is another commonly committed sin. If a problem requires someone else to step in to help, it’s important to complete your part of the assistance before stepping out. For example, transfer the call for the customer (rather than telling the customer to call a different number) or assist the customer in whatever way necessary to make the connection with the other employee. Also, explain the issue to the other employee before he or she talks to the customer. The customer should only tell his or her story once. You are the new owner of resolving and satisfying that customer.

“Owning” an issue is very important. That means that even if you can’t fix the problem yourself, you take responsibility for making sure somebody does fix it. Let’s say you’re working at the front desk of a hotel and a guest calls down and says her toilet is broken and it’s overflowing onto the floor. You can’t fix that by yourself – you can’t leave the desk and you don’t know how to fix the plumbing. But you can send a maintenance person up to the room to fix it. You can arrange to move the guest to another room. You can send a housekeeper to the room to clean up after the plumbing is fixed. And you can let your manager know about the broken plumbing and the inconvenienced guest, in case the guest complains later on. Now you have owned the issue, and hopefully the guest feels better about your hotel, in spite of the broken plumbing. Some of the top customer service organizations in the world, like Disney and Marriott, train employees to own problems.



Many people think that providing excellent customer service is easy. It isn’t! It takes a lot of training, effort, and self-control to deliver great customer service all the time.

If you’ve had a bad day, or you had to deal with a customer who was really difficult, you might slip and commit one of the sins of customer service.

This happens to everyone. But the more you know about customer service, and the more you practice providing the best service possible, the less often you will commit one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Service.




Reading: Three Rules for Great Customer Service

Rule #1: The Platinum RuleAs you have learned, the Golden Rule is to treat other people the way you want to be treated. It’s a good rule, but it doesn’t take into account the fact that we’re all different, and we might not all want exactly the same thing. So the first rule of great customer service is the Platinum Rule: treat others the way they want to be treated. This rule is based on customers’ expectations.

Remember that in order to act on the Platinum Rule, you have to figure out what the individual customer wants. This requires being observant and thinking about his or her wants and needs. Once you’ve figured these out, you can meet, or exceed, the customer’s expectations. Your customer will be satisfied, which makes him or her much more likely to be your customer again.

Generally speaking, older customers want more attentive service because all customer service used to be more personal. It’s what they grew up with and what they expect. They also grew up treating their elders with respect. As you’re figuring out what a customer wants, pay attention to his or her age. If a customer looks old enough to be your parent, or looks older than that, treat him or her very respectfully.

Expectations can also be influenced by other circumstances. For example:

Repeat customers want to be recognized. They bring a lot of business to the company and they expect to be treated well because of that.

People who are spending a lot of money for a product or service expect to be treated well.

In both of these cases, customers are helping the business owner stay in business. Therefore, they expect to be treated well. People eating at McDonald’s also have every right to expect good customer service, but what that service looks like is different from what you receive in a 5-star restaurant.

People also expect good service if they make special arrangements for something. If they took the trouble to inform your company of something in advance, they expect you to be prepared for it. So if they told you they were coming to celebrate a birthday party for a little boy and your restaurant not only doesn’t give the birthday boy a complimentary dessert, but doesn’t even have the table ready for them when they arrive, they are going to be upset.

Rule #2: The Rule of First ImpressionsThe second rule of good customer service is: it’s important to make a good first impression.

A good first impression creates what psychologists call a “halo effect.” You learned about this when you were studying the psychology of customer service. Remember that the halo effect can work for you if the customer’s first impression is excellent. In fact, the halo effect means the customer continues to feel good about you long after that first moment has passed. Consider these two different situations:

On Friday night, you go out to eat with some friends. You walk into the restaurant and the hostess greets you right away. She is smiling and is really warm and friendly. She seats you at a table and your waiter immediately greets you and takes your drink order. The drinks come quickly and the waiter takes your order for your meal. But you end up waiting a long time before your meals arrive.

On Saturday night, you go out to eat with your friends and try a different restaurant. When you walk in, nobody notices. You stand around waiting for almost 10 minutes before a hostess shows



up. She doesn’t apologize, but tells you, “You’ll have to keep waiting. We’re short-staffed tonight.” You wait another five minutes before she takes you to a table. Once you’re seated, the waiter walks over and says, “What do you want?” even though you’ve barely had a chance to look at the menu yet. You place your order, and it takes a long time for the food to arrive.

If you’re like most people, you’d probably be more upset about the delayed dinner at the second restaurant. Why? Because the first restaurant is making an effort to treat the customer well. They did several things right, so when something goes wrong, you may be more inclined to cut them some slack. That’s the halo effect in action.

How would you describe your experience at the first restaurant? Most people would say, “The service was really good, but we had to wait a long time for the meal to come.” And how would you describe the second restaurant? “The service was terrible!” Even if the second restaurant had good food, most people probably wouldn’t want to go back there.

That doesn’t mean that you can make a good first impression and then treat your customers badly afterwards. But a good first impression helps to get the customer on your side, feeling good about you and your place of business. That’s a big advantage. It buys you some good will in case there are any problems—customers will believe that you are trying and be more likely to stay patient.

Also keep in mind that last impressions are very important. That’s what customers take away with them. So customer service employees need to greet customers when they enter and say goodbye to the customers when they leave—and thank them for their business.

Rule #3: The Rule of Skills and ServiceThe third rule is: attitude isn’t enough. You also need the right skills to guarantee good service.

The first two rules are about your attitude as customer service employees—how you speak to customers, interact with customers, and behave in front of customers. And your attitude is very important. But if you have a terrific attitude and no job skills, you will still have customer service problems.

Imagine this: you get a fancy new cell phone for your birthday, but after a few days, it stops working. So you take it back to the store. When you get there, a really nice, friendly employee greets you and says he can definitely help you. He listens carefully to your problem, apologizes and sympathizes with you about how frustrating that must have been. He starts up a conversation about the phone, what a great phone it is, and how great it is that you got it for your birthday.

So far, so good, right? He has a good attitude and good customer service skills.

But then he hands the phone back to you and says he doesn’t know what’s wrong with it, he can’t fix it, and he can’t replace it.

Are you a happy customer? Of course not.

This rule of good customer service is a joint responsibility of the employee and the company. The company needs to hire the right people, give them good training, and emphasize the importance of excellent service. Businesses need to reward great service and also need to make sure that employees have the tools they need to be successful.

Another way to say this rule: customer service employees need both soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills are the attitudes or personal qualities that make a person successful—being polite, being friendly, being able to empathize with customers, being able to listen. Hard skills are the specific skills and knowledge an employee needs to do the job.

All jobs have both soft skills and hard skills. Imagine you work at a fast-food restaurant. You need soft skills—you need to be able to talk to the customers appropriately and be polite. You also need hard skills—you need to know how to work the cash register, place orders, and make milk shakes. Teachers,



doctors, politicians, scientists, and businesspeople all need great hard and soft skills in order to succeed.




Assignment: Customer Service Encounter ScriptStudent Names:_______________________________________________ Date:___________

Directions: Choose one of the scenarios listed below, or make one up and get it approved by your teacher. Then create a script for a realistic customer service encounter. The employees in your script must commit between three and five of the seven deadly sins. Someone in your script also has to use one or two of the rules for great customer service.

Choose a ScenarioHere are some scenarios to develop into a script.

A restaurant customer gets served something she didn’t order. She sends it back but it shows up on her bill.

A young man takes his aunt to the movies to celebrate her getting out of the hospital after a long illness. A group of teenagers sits in front of them. They are loud, rude, and constantly talking on their cell phones during the film.

A college student is waiting at the bus stop to get to community college, where he has to take a final exam. For the third time that semester, the bus is so late that he might miss his final.

There is a really long line for a ride at the amusement park. Friends of the ticket taker keep cutting in line.

A teenager wants to rent a Jet Ski to take out on a lake in a park. The order form online keeps erasing all her information, so finally she calls the number for Jet Ski rentals. The person on the phone tells her to place her order online.

Write a brief plot based on one of these scenarios. Look at the example to see how to do this.

EXAMPLE:

The example scenario: A family with two teenagers checks into a hotel. That night the teenagers want to watch movies in the room. You can rent movies for $10 each or you can watch the free ones, but the picture for the free ones is so fuzzy you can barely see what’s going on.

Example plot based on this scenario: The parents are in the hotel gym working out. The teens don’t have $10 to spend on a movie, and besides, they should be able to see the free ones. They think the free ones are fuzzy on purpose to try and force them to buy a movie. One of them calls downstairs. The desk person says there’s nobody around to look into it. The teenagers suggest getting a different TV in their room. The desk person, who is a teen himself, doesn’t feel like taking any suggestions from the teen on the phone. He pretty much blows the teen off. By the time the parents return from their workout, the teens are furious and tell them all about what’s going on. One of the parents goes to the desk and demands an explanation.



The scenario we choose is:

The plot for our scenario goes like this:

Our CharactersList the characters you need and give them appropriate names. Your skit should have between two and five characters in it.

Character #1:

Character #2:

Character #3:

Character #4:

Character #5:



The Deadly Sins We Want to Include1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Rule(s) of Great Customer Service We Want to Include

Make sure your assignment meets or exceeds the following assessment criteria: The script is written using typical conventions and formatting for scripts.

The plot is realistic and includes a problem or dilemma that a customer service employee has to resolve.

The script includes an accurate depiction of at least three of the deadly sins but not more than five of them.

The script includes a good portrayal of one or two of the three rules for great customer service.

The script is written neatly and has almost no spelling or grammar mistakes.


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