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Dave, an account manager for a company that sold uniforms, was a good example of what can happen to customer service employees when their managers are blind to the root causes of poor service. His job was to take orders, provide customer service, and find ways to increase sales with each of his customers.
Business hadn’t been very good for Dave and his coworkers. Sales were down, customer complaints were up, and many customers were taking their business to competitors. Like many of his coworkers, Dave began to exhibit signs of learned helplessness and disengagement. He spent a good part of his day commiserating with coworkers about slumping sales, taking extra-long breaks, and finding ways to avoid work altogether.
Dave’s manager knew he needed to turn things around. When he looked at the department’s sales reports to find the answer, it seemed to jump out almost immediately. The company’s phone call tracking software revealed that Dave and most of his coworkers were making far fewer phone calls than they had been just three months earlier, when the sales figures were much better. The manager knew that taking care of customers required frequent contact, so the solution seemed obvious. The account managers needed to make more calls.
The next Monday, the manager announced a special incentive program. Any account manager who made 125 phone calls by the end of the week would earn a $100 cash bonus. The plan worked wonderfully. All the account managers made at least 125 calls and earned the $100 bonus. Dave, whose calls had gone down significantly in recent months, reached 125 calls by Thursday! The manager patted himself on the back as employee after employee complimented him on a great incentive program.
The only problem was that sales didn’t go up during that week. In fact, sales actually went down from the week before. Dave’s manager was convinced the incentive program was a great plan, so he couldn’t understand what had happened. Dave knew why. Dave earned the $100 bonus, but not by calling customers. Instead, he called friends, family members, and even dialed his own number a few times to make sure the call tracking software recorded 125 phone calls.
Dave didn’t call many customers because he knew there was nothing to talk about. His customers had been upset for the past year about long lead times and quality issues. The last straw had come three months ago, when the company significantly raised its prices. Now Dave’s products were more expensive, took longer to ship, and had more errors per order than those sold by his competitors.
Dave began exhibiting signs of disengagement and learned helplessness as more and more customers defected and sales declined. He made fewer phone calls because he was tired of fielding complaints about high prices and poor quality. Dave had gone to his manager for help, but the manager didn’t seem to listen. In a typical disengagement pattern, Dave began spending most of his day complaining to coworkers while waiting for things to somehow get better.
The manager never questioned why a successful and experienced account manager like Dave suddenly stopped making calls. It never occurred to the manager that the increase in prices had taken away Dave’s last remaining competitive advantage. Now the company’s customers were leaving in droves to buy better-quality products that were delivered faster for less money.
Managers who remain blind to the big picture aren’t likely to solve the systemic problems that drive customers away. Too often, leaders fail to dig deeper when they encounter the symptoms of poor service. They try simple fixes—such as offering incentives, trying to script employees’ behaviors, or even threatening employees with disciplinary action or termination—which only create more problems. What these leaders don’t do often enough is carefully examine the real root cause of the problem before creating a solution.
Successful customer service leaders approach problems by first asking questions. They resist the urge to assign blame, jump to conclusions, or dismiss the problem altogether and instead try to understand what’s really going on. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy process; they are just careful to face reality before designing and implementing solutions.
Jeff Toister is the author of Service Failure: The Real Reasons Employees Struggle with Customer Service and What You Can Do About It, a book that reveals hidden obstacles to outstanding service. His company, Toister Performance Solutions Inc. helps clients identify these obstacles so they can improve customer service.
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