CUSTOMER SERVICE
ATTACK THE SERVICE / SUPPORT POINTS OF PAIN DOING SO IS WIN-WIN-WIN FOR CUSTOMERS , EMPLOYEES , AND ORGANIZATIONS .
BY JOHN GOODMAN , CCMC
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE IMAGES
The 2023 CCMC National Rage Study had three findings that should give every service director concern . The study , which made the CBS Evening News , found that 43 % of Americans admitted to yelling at a service person and 21 % thought that physical threats and taunts were acceptable , in at least some situations . Further , 9 % had attempted to “ get revenge ” against a company in the last year .
While it has been a year since we published that study ( we produce it every other year ), we continue to see customer rage worsen .
A substantial part of that is the angry , selfish , dominating “ me first / you last ” with little-regards-to-others attitude accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and seen visibly in air and road rage and in restaurants and stores . But there are often legitimate reasons for upset customers that organizations need to address .
In most service environments , both B2C ( business-to-consumer ) and B2B ( business-to-business ), between 20 and 30 % of serious points of pain ( POP ) for customers are also POP for service employees .
Examples of poor internal service and support include ineffective guidance and empowerment for service reps , stale or incomplete websites and knowledge management system ( KMS ) data , and service staff ’ s inability to get answers from Sales , Marketing , and Operations .
All three of these issues , in turn , cause their poor response to the customer . But if the internal service problem is rectified , you also immediately fix the external response POP as well as reduce the cost of staff chasing answers they should have had . Attacking one joint problem can make you a hero with customers , the service staff , Marketing , and Finance .
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