Changing face of customer service

Consumer Reports magazine recently did a survey on customer service and found that 64 percent of people within a 12-month period actually left a store because they perceived service to be bad, while another 56 percent became angry at being transferred multiple times over the phone before reaching the right person.

Although many companies still turn a deaf ear to what their customers are saying or how they are reacting to bad customer service — if such companies still have any customers — the smart businesses are listening intently, taking notes and constantly fine-tuning how they not only fulfill customers’ needs, but how well they treat people during business transactions.

Valley Bank of Nevada is one local organization that prides itself on providing what it calls a “homey bank” experience for its customers. It doesn’t have an 800 number. When a person calls the bank, a real person answers the phone within three rings and the caller is routed to the right person immediately without being placed on hold.

“If a customer wanted to talk to the president of the bank, we would direct the call to the president’s office,” said Ron York, senior vice president and retail banking manager. “We provide very personal, live service.”

York added that a bank official would even go out to a business to have documents signed if a customer couldn’t make it to the branch in North Las Vegas. (Valley Bank of Nevada currently only has one branch but plans to open others in the near future.)

Inside the bank, York said customers are treated to fresh baked cookies, Starbuck’s coffee and Wi-Fi service. Online banking and mobile smartphone services are also provided.

The bank also provides a unique service of sending small water bottles through the tubes to customers waiting at drive-up teller stations. And the bank waives ATM charges five times a month, even when customers use ATMs from other banks.

“An unhappy customer will tell 10 to 15 people that they are unhappy, while a happy customer only tells between one to five people,” York said. “And if a customer gets real mad, they may put something on Facebook or Twitter.”

Bank of America maintains a special social media team just to handle customers’ mobile business transactions, according to Edgar Velazquez, vice president and consumer marketing manager. The bank immediately refers a customer to the right specialist when a Twitter message or email is received.

“Get one point of contact and get to the right person in the right time,” Velazquez said in reference to the bank’s business model. “We give customers the name of our people who will help them and give them a tracking number (to follow up).

Velazquez added that customer service is not just being nice and friendly, but listening to what customers need and making their transactions flow easily.

Both Velazquez and York pointed out that good customer service starts with a company’s employees and how well they are trained and treated by the company. Tellers at Bank of America go through three weeks of training before they are assigned to a teller’s station, and then managers are constantly on hand to supervise them during continual on-the-job training.

“I have an opened-door policy if employees want to come in and talk to me,” York said of how Valley Bank of Nevada treats its staff. “We take employees to the 51s (baseball) games or the Rebel (basketball) games. We do activities for employees to make them feel they are part of a hometown bank.”

York said the bank’s management thinks that if employees are happy, they will do a better job. Likewise, when tough decisions have to be made affecting employees, it’s important to keep them informed and get them involved by asking for their suggestions.

“Your best resource for good customer service is your employees,” York said. “They are the ones on the frontline. You need to keep them happy and informed.”

To further enhance good customer service, Velazquez said Bank of America has developed what it calls “teller-assist ATMs.” These are ATMs where a customer will be able to talk to a live teller via a video screen embedded in the ATM.

The machines were developed to meet customers’ needs after hours. The ATMs are scheduled to be installed at Las Vegas banks sometime next year, Velazquez said.

“We want to ensure that we are not only providing the technology but are still keeping the human aspect in the transaction,” Velazquez said.

Zappos, one of the nation’s largest and most successful online clothing companies, ranks customer service so important that it blazingly placed this statement on the company website:

“Customer service isn’t just a department! We’ve been asked by a lot of people how we’ve grown so quickly, and the answer is actually really simple … We’ve aligned the entire organization around one mission: to provide the best customer service possible. Internally, we call this our WOW philosophy.”

“We want to make sure we solve people’s problems and do it in a timely manner with as much transparency as possible,” said Kelly Wolske, senior trainer at Zappos.

Zappos has been able to accomplish this goal by empowering its frontline employees, the ones who answer the phone, to make decisions in solving customers’ problems. Company policy requires that calls be answered within 10 to 11 seconds and customers aren’t routed to different departments to answer their concerns.

Wolske said that when dealing with an angry customer to remember that anger is a secondary emotion. If you let people vent, aren’t afraid to apologize and sincerely try to solve their problem, anger can usually be defused successfully.

“It’s also important for consumers to give feedback to companies,” Wolske said in reference to tracking customer service. “We feel customers are first, and everyone is a customer, including employees.”

“If you say you are a customer service company and you are not paying attention to your employees, how can you say you are providing good customer service? Your employees are No. 1.”

Wolske said it’s important for managers to not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and work alongside their employees. This policy is a good company morale builder, she said, adding that companies need to share as much information as possible with their employees regarding goals to promote transparency and not secrecy.

A well-informed employee base that is empowered to make decisions will go along way to promote a company’s good customer service record, Wolske explained. It’s important to remember, she pointed out, that a consumer has a variety of avenues to pursue if he or she is unhappy with a company.

Mobile devises allow consumers to post product and buying experience reviews on companies instantly via Twitter, Facebook and Yelp. Companies concerned about their customer service need to follow and answer consumers’ posts on products, Wolske said.

Consumer Reports found when it surveyed nearly 1,000 customers nationwide for a July 2011 article that women were more upset than men when they couldn’t reach a company representative by phone, and men were upset with company representatives who pitched unrelated goods and services to them. And consumers age 50 and older were more upset by confusing voice-messaging systems.

These voice-messaging systems, where you are bounced from one recorded message to another, are referred to as “trees,” said Gillian Naylor, incoming chair of the MIB Department in the Lee Business School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Whether you get caught up in the tangled mesh of branches in these trees is based on your financial worth to companies, she said.

“People want great service but don’t want to pay the price,” Naylor said. “Every company knows how valuable you are. You will get a different experience based on who you are.”

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. As Naylor said, if companies are getting good revenue from you then you will get great service. Once the revenue stream stops flowing, or is reduced, then personal service tends to dwindle.

“More companies are willing to fire customers if you have a ‘lead’ or ‘bronze’ ranking,” Naylor said. “But the customer is always right — if you have a ‘platinum’ ranking.”

So what can you do if you don’t qualify financially for “platinum” service, but still want good service? As stated in a Consumer Reports March 2013 article “Speak up to resolve complaints,” Amy Schmitz, a professor at the University of Colorado School of Law and author of the study “Access to Consumer Remedies in the Squeaky Wheel System,” said it’s important to assert your rights.

Schmitz said that companies know most complaints won’t go far because the average consumer doesn’t have the time, patience or knowledge to pursue them. Companies play the odds that most consumers feel obligated to comply and will let their complaints drop. Schmitz said the runaround consumers get on complains is deliberate.

The key to successful resolution if a company is stonewalling you is to know and understand your rights, be persistent and, remember, businesses don’t want to be slammed by consumers to friends, relatives or perfect strangers.

Yet, attitudes are different with respect to customer service based on the ages of customers, Naylor said.

“My college students don’t want a lot of interaction. They want convenience, speed and reliability,” Naylor said. “People who are retired want more human contact.”

But companies need to remember, regardless of these generational views when it comes to customer service, the Internet has greatly empowered everyone. Bad service doesn’t go unnoticed today. It receives an instantaneous response via Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, chat boards and through a host of other electronic media currently being used or yet to be developed.

So to those companies whose only goal is pure profit, ignoring or placing customer service on the back burner (Are you listening?), with the rapid advancement of mobile devices, you should hear us now.