Here I am, Tuesday night at a major retailer. I’ll be in and out in a jiffy, I tell myself—just need one thing, that’s all.
“Can I help you find anything, sir?” a young employee asks me as I enter the store.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” another employee asks me twenty seconds later.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” Another employee.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
It was at that moment—thirty seconds before another “Can I help you find anything?”— that I asked myself “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” I think, the managers at this retailer and this particular location must take a lot of pride in servicing customers well. They definitely understand the importance of the customer experience and employee accessibility and attentiveness. They’ve trained the staff well…and the staff is following through. I should be proud. This validates the work we do every day at Questar.
And yet my answer to that question “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” A resounding yes!
Because if another employee asks me that question…well, I don’t know what I’m going to do but I’m not happy about it.
All too often, I think we get so caught up in creating best practices and turning those best practices into standard operating procedures at the store level—it’s how you turn data into action—that we forget to actually listen to what the customers are saying. Typically, most customer satisfaction surveys will ask some variation of “were the employees attentive?” My answer to that question based on my experience above is yes, they were every attentive. But if given the opportunity to provide open-ended feedback at the end of the survey I would probably say something like “Employees were friendly and attentive, but I don’t need every employee in the store to ask me if I need help, especially when I’m in a hurry and already know what I want.”
So when you’re turning data into action, be sure to listen to all sources of customer feedback. Try to ease out the underlying sentiment in order truly understand not just the behaviors that make for a positive customer experience, but the intricacies that make every customer experience a great one.
I leave you with this cliché: silence is golden. Got it, young lady about to approach me in the aisle? You can’t help me with anything, okay? I already know what I want.
– Joseph Stanton | Vice President
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