Be Careful Who You Condemn

A management article
By: Scott Brown

We all know customers are not always right – in fact – often they’re completely wrong. But if we allow our customers’ “shortcomings” to be the focus of our employees’ attentions we’re destined to fail.

The inclination to complain about a customer happens to all of us from time to time. After a customer irritates us in some way and eventually walks away or hangs up the phone, we immediately look for a nearby co-worker so we can share our negative experiences.

“Hey Bob. You won’t believe this jerk that was just on the phone…”

It becomes a bonding experience for co-workers, but unfortunately it alienates the customer. And when a frontline worker sees a manager dismissing a customer as “stupid” or an “idiot” it becomes clear to them that it’s okay to classify customers. Some customers are good and some are just plain dumb. They then feel that they have the ability to determine which customers are worth their time and which ones are not.

This can be a very destructive culture for a business.

So as a manager, you can’t allow your employees to see you disrespect a customer in any way. As I have already mentioned customers can be wrong – and yes, sometimes even dumb. But that’s not our concern – at least not in this article. It’s your job as a manager to keep your employees focused on finding new ways to keep customers happy and to look for problem areas that upset customers so you can prevent problems in the future.

It’s no secret that you and your employees are going to have problem customers, but it’s your responsibility to keep your employees focused on the fact that they have a job for one and only one reason – to serve the customer. Without customers, no one has a job.

Keep employees focused on what’s important. The good news is that YOU are the one who decides what’s important.

About the Author
Scott Brown, is an insightful and entertaining speaker on management and customer service and creating a culture of service in organizations throughout the country. He is also the author of “Who Cares? Creating Service The Right Way – The Only Way.” You can subscribe to Scott’s FREE newsletter by visiting www.SBServicePro.com

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