Synopses & Reviews
“Remove the obstacles that get in the way of providing excellent customer service. With multiple strategies supported by real-life examples, Jeff Toister teaches how to avoid service failure and provide service success.”
— Shep Hyken, New York Times bestselling author of The Amazement Revolution
“Service Failure offers a very personal and deeply felt discourse on an important topic: improving (and avoiding failure in) customer service and the customer experience.”
— Micah Solomon, author of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service and business keynote speaker
Are you endlessly trying to improve your organization’s customer service efforts, but getting so-so results? There may be a culprit in your organization that you’ve never considered.
Service Failure reveals ten hidden obstacles that prevent employees from delivering great customer service, including:
• Overly strict standards that make it hard for employees to adapt to customers’ needs
• Corporate cultures that unwittingly encourage deficient service
• Ineffective procedures that routinely anger customers and frustrate employees
• And supervisors who unknowingly encourage employees to focus on tasks at the expense of serving customers
These unseen problems are frequently overlooked in the rush to launch another quick fix that inevitably fails to improve customer service.
Using examples from well-known companies, real stories from frontline employees, and the latest scientific research to highlight the challenges customer service employees experience every day, Service Failure delivers straightforward solutions for overcoming these obstacles. From redirecting coaching efforts to revisiting policies and procedures to clarifying roles and responsibilities, the book’s powerful, sometimes counterintuitive insights can be applied at the organizational, departmental, or even the individual level to help the entire team deliver outstanding customer service.
JEFF TOISTER is president of the consulting firm Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., and has worked as a customer service trainer, manager, and frontline employee for over 20 years. He lives in San Diego.
Synopsis
Customer service goals have been articulated, messages drilled, and incentive programs created. But many employees still deliver lackluster service. What does it take to get them functioning as stellar frontline representatives of the company?
Rather than offering another set of tactics for improving customer service, this book takes a novel approach by rooting out the real reasons employees aren’t delivering the service they should. The results can be both surprising and illuminating, such as:
• Company culture doesn’t always support service excellence
• Over-emphasis on cost reduction often increases the cost of service
• Employees are torn between doing the right thing for the customer and following policy
• Poor products and services can make helping the customer nearly impossible
• Employees’ interests often don’t align with company goals
Once core problems are identified, the book offers corrective solutions, including redirecting coaching efforts, revisiting policies and procedures, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and more. Filled with inside stories from well-known organizations and the latest scientific research, Service Failure helps people overcome the obstacles preventing them from doing their very best.
About the Author
JEFF TOISTER is president of the consulting firm Toister Performance Solutions, Inc., and has worked as a customer service trainer, manager, and frontline employee for over 20 years.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
PART I: UNDERSTANDING OBSTACLES TO OUTSTANDING
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Chapter 1: Customer Service Doesn’t Come Naturally: 7
Hidden Obstacles to Serving Customers
The Service Consistency Challenge 10
The Customer Service Disconnect 12
Natural Obstacles to Service Greatness 16
PART II: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO OUTSTANDING
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Chapter 2: The Customer Is NOT Always Right: 19
Equipping Employees to Handle Challenging Customers
The Customer Is Often Wrong 21
Customers Have Varied Expectations 26
The Self-Sabotaging Customer 29
The Abusive Customer 31
Solution Summary: Overcoming Challenging Customers 33
Chapter 3: They’re Your Customers, Not Mine: 35
Aligning Employees’ Interests with Those of the Company
The Principal-Agent Problem 36
The Problem with Financial Incentives 41
The Unexpected Side of Employee Recognition 43
Customer Service Standards That Backfire 45
Solution Summary: Getting Employee Buy-in 48
Chapter 4: Your Employees Are Double Agents: 51
Bridging the Gap Between Doing the Right Thing for the
Customer and Following Company Policy
The Double Agent Problem 53
Weighing Risk vs. Reward 57
Getting Employees to Do the Dirty Work 60
Solution Summary: Avoiding the Creation of Double Agents 64
Chapter 5: Mutually Assured Dissatisfaction: Getting Beyond Broken 67
Systems That Cause Employee Disengagement
Broken Systems Lead to Disengaged Employees 68
Learned Helplessness Arises from Broken Systems 72
The Dangers of Employee Disengagement 75
Leaders Blind to Reality 78
Solution Summary: Avoiding Mutually Assured Dissatisfaction 82
Chapter 6: Conformity Is Contagious: Creating a Company Culture 85
That Encourages Outstanding Customer Service
Social Pressure Influences Behavior 87
Culture Is What We Do 93
Solution Summary: Creating a Customer-Focused Culture 99
Chapter 7: Attention Is in Short Supply: Getting Employees to 103
Notice What Customers Really Need
The Curse of Multitasking 104
Paying TOO Much Attention Isn’t a Good Idea, Either 110
Listening to Customers Can Be Difficult 113
Solution Summary: Helping Employees Pay Better Attention 116
Chapter 8: What Role Will You Play Today? Emphasizing the 119
Primary Responsibility to Delight Customers
When Tasks Define Our Roles 120
Extreme Role-Playing 126
Blind Obedience 130
Solution Summary: Helping Employees Establish the Right Roles 134
Chapter 9: The Problem with Empathy: Encouraging Employees to 137
Empathize with Their Customers
The Source of Empathy 139
Communicating on Different Levels 142
Self-Centered Behavior That Leads to Poor Service 148
Solution Summary: Helping Employees Demonstrate Empathy 151
with Customers
Chapter 10: Emotional Roadblocks: Helping Employees Overcome 153
Their Own Emotions
“Don’t Take It Personally” Is Bad Advice 155
Emotions Are Contagious 160
The High Cost of Emotional Labor 163
Solution Summary: Helping Employees Overcome 167
Emotional Roadblocks
Chapter 11: Casualties of Cost Consciousness: Seeing Customer 169
Service as a Profit Generator Rather Than a Cost Center
Fuzzy Math 171
Less Is Often Less 175
Short-Term Gains That Spread Customer Ill Will 179
Solution Summary: Positioning Customer Service as a 183
Profit Generator
PART III: PUTTING LESSONS INTO ACTION
Chapter 12: Getting Started 187
What to Know Before You Get Started 188
The First Three Steps in the Journey to Outstanding Service 191
A Final Note: Your Worst Employee Might Be Your Best 194
Index 198