Numbers are highly overrated

I’ve done several blogs about how misdirected the focus on customer service has become in America.

Don’t misunderstand me: I think good customer service is in line with the golden rule. You remember that one? “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” The world would be such a better place if everyone treated everyone else nicely.

Today my wife and I were at a store. As she was looking at different items, I sat down. On the table next to me was the following picture:

(If you look close you can see a reflection of me taking the picture.)

There are 7 different rating scales, yet numbers 1-5 all have a frowny face—the same one. 6 and 7? Smiley faces—the same one.

I know enough about how these customer service scores work to know that this means anything 5 or lower is considered “bad.” 6 or 7 is “good.” So, are there really 7 different levels of service, or just 2?

Maybe I don’t understand how numbers work. I thought 1 was different than 2. And 2 was different than 3. And so on and so on.

I shouldn’t be surprised when I come across something like this, but I am. Maybe the optimist in me hopes that one day someone will realize just how stupid this is.

Or perhaps, the people who invented this way to measure an employee’s performance are the descendants of the people who created this ad back in the day:

This is a real ad. Here’s what the text says:

“For a better start in life start Cola earlier!

How soon is too soon? Not soon enough. Laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during that early formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance and “fitting in” during those awkward pre-teen and teen years. So, do yourself a favor. Do your child a favor. Start them on a strict regimen of sodas and other sugary carbonated beverages right now, for a lifetime of guaranteed happiness.

Brought to you by The Soda Pop Board of America.”

Give me a 10!

First off, I’m all in favor of treating people nicely. You know, the whole golden rule concept. There are certain establishments that are considered “service” businesses.

The first one that comes to my mind is restaurants. My wife and I classify restaurants in two different ways: fast food and sit down. The difference? With sit down, you are expected to give a tip at the end of your meal based on your service.

I’ll admit that I tend to tip on the generous side because I understand how hard the employees are working.

Once in a while, the service will be really good—to the point where I’ll seek out a manager to compliment the employee. On the other hand, if the service is poor, I’ll just give them a lower tip and leave it at that.

I heard of a story where I guy was so upset at the service that on the receipt under “tip” he wrote, “-$2.00! The service was terrible!”

However, I’m seeing a trend where the focus on customer service is getting out of hand. I understand businesses are doing whatever they can to find an edge. One of the ways is to provide excellent customer service to employees. Yet, I disagree how they are going about it.

Recently, I took my car into the dealership to have the oil changed. I had a coupon. I was treated very well, and they did a wonderful job. Not only did they give it an oil change, but they also washed it and vacuumed the inside.

When it came time to pay, the service rep was very nice and explained what he did. That took about one minute. For the next two minutes, he explained how I’d be getting a call about my service experience. He showed me their banner they had “won” for the best service in the region. He explained how if I scored them lower than a “10” on any rating, they would fail.

Over the next couple of days, I received a call from the dealership reminding me to give them all 10s on the survey. I got an email reminding me. When we got the call, we gave them all 10s—which I would have done anyway because they did a great job.

So what is my point? Here’s a crazy idea. Stop the completely unfair rating systems. Instead of spending time and money telling me and reminding me how great the service was, spend it on, oh I don’t know … service?

Customer service ratings--to the extreme!

I've noticed as a consumer that there has been a bigger focus on customer service surveys recently. I guess it makes sense. In an economy where jobs are hard to get and money is tight, businesses are doing whatever they can to make sure they retain their customers.

I'm all for receiving excellent service. If I go somewhere, I want to be treated nicely, not talked down to and certainly not treated like I'm a nuisance.

However, just like many things happening in corporate America, things can be taken too far. Think about the last time to went to your bank. Now, if I were to ask you the following questions, how would you rate your experience on a scale from 1 to 6 (6 being the best):

1. They went out of the way to please

2. They did things right the first time

3. They treated you like a valued customer

4. They made your business their top priority

5. They followed up and kept their promises

All right, have you figured out what you would have rated them? How many of you gave a perfect "6" in all the categories?

Now, did you know that if you scored anything less than a "6" in any of those categories, the person you "graded" would have a black mark given to them?

Now, let's take it to the next step. Let's say in any given month, 14,000 people go to a certain bank location. Of those 14,000, 10 people are randomly called. Of those ten, the minimum goal is 80%, or 8 out of 10 have to grade their visit with all perfect 6's across the board.

Any math whizzes out there that can figure the margin of error with those numbers?

I, sadly, have worked in such an environment. In my opinion, it is completely unfair--especially when the employee is held accountable for the non-perfect shop, even if they did all they could to take care of the customer.

Need more proof? Here is a true story that happened to me:
I was at a training class for a couple of days. When I returned to my store that I manage, I'm told that a customer came in while I was gone. He was very upset because another store, a good hour away, had messed up his accounts and caused him fees. My team fixed the issue, refunded the fees, and escalated the issue to the area manager--because the man was that upset. I was contacted by the area manager and asked to buy a gift card for the customer to "make it up to him". I was also told at the time that I needed to update the man's zip code in the system.
So, I did as was asked. I even called and left a message for the customer apologizing for what he had gone through and told him the gift card was on the way.

When out next surveys came in, this customer had been called and scored us very low. What was worse? The survey pinned me as the person who got the bad survey. How could that have happened? I had never even seen or spoken to the man. The survey was triggered when I updated the man's zip code in the system.

The result? Not only did I lose a big chunk of my bonus for that month, but I was also written up for the low survey--because it was policy that anytime that low of a survey is received, the person had to be written up.