Commandment No. 8 – Thou Shalt Take Responsibility

Next up on our review of Ten Commandments of Superior Customer Service by Shep Hyken at Forbes, is “Thou Shalt Take Responsibility”.

As Hyken explains, “In customer service, taking responsibility means you own it.” As he further adds, “It may not be your fault, but now it’s your problem (to solve for the customer).” Indeed, that’s the crux of this idea: taking ownership of a problem, whether it’s genuinely the fault of that specific employee (or even the fault of the company generally speaking), is crucial to demonstrating how you value your customer and his concerns.

That doesn’t always mean that you have to give the customer what he wants, importantly: sometimes a customer’s problem cannot be fixed in the exact way he expects. Instead, your employees must be able to listen, empathize, and look for an equitable solution, if one exists. Sometimes that means just listening and then explaining the situation.

For example, if you own a cellular phone store, and a customer comes in complaining about the lack of call service within a canyon, you’re not going to be able to “solve” his problem in any literal sense. After all, radio waves can’t penetrate solid rock, and you can’t do anything about that. But the wrong answer would be to dismiss his concern and blame the laws of physics. Instead, hear him out so that he can vent his frustration. Empathize with his desire to have service in a place he doesn’t now. Then explain what’s causing the problem so that he understands the situation. Lastly, offer to forward his concern to the company that’s responsible for building towers (even if this isn’t likely to result in anything)—or investigate whether you can tune his monthly plan since he won’t need a big plan if he doesn’t have access to the service all the time.

These situations appear in every industry. For a restaurateur, there’s only so much you can do if you’re out of shrimp and your diner really wants Shrimp Carbonara—again, own it. Listen, empathize, and then offer an alternative. Surely your chef can make that dish with chicken, right? As Hyken says, “you have presented yourself as the one he or she can count on.” You may not be able to conjure up shrimp when you have none, but your flexibility otherwise will make the situation that much better. You don’t want the customer to think your attitude is “too bad” or “oh well”.

Responsibility starts with the front line, with your servers, your salespeople, or your support staff—those are the folks that need to “go to bat” for your customers where and when possible. And when a decision is outside of their control, those employees should have access to a manager who can take the solution the distance it needs because you don’t want the customer to think you’re entirely powerless either.

Instilling the notion of responsibility is more complex than training: it requires constant testing and re-evaluation, as this is a skill that you use or you lose. Contact us today to learn more about mystery shopping, as well as for advice on how to build a best practices guide for your staff. Together, we’ll help you develop your staff to be the responsible leaders you want representing your company.

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Commandment No. 9 – Thou Shalt Lighten the Lines
Commandment No. 7 – Do What Is Necessary, Not What Is Comfortable

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