Obstacles To Customer Service

Are there obstacles between you and your customers? Are you putting processes in place to slow down or muffle your ability to provide a quick solution to your customers? If the answer is yes; then Stop!


Too many companies get caught up in checks and balances at the expense of their customers and their own ability to respond to a customer’s needs. I see this everyday in the business world. CEOs and CFOs are so worried about setting processes in place to control their own employees that they retard the ability to react in the event of an emergency. Please don’t misunderstand my point. Checks and balances are important, so is safety, internal controls, inventory, etc… However, if you have any processes in place that will stop you from being able to quickly resolve a problem for a customer, then you are missing the mark. Furthermore, all these processes cost money. From the personnel and time required to manage these processes all the way to the material costs of paper, ink, storage, etc… I have seen companies that have internal services that charge as much as 33% of the hourly bill rate. When you consider this, added to the division’s overhead, direct costs, direct and support labor, you can quickly price yourself right out of the market, building new processes and policies that do little to improve the overall operation of the company.

I have seen examples of companies that require Managers to get approvals for special purchases, overtime hours, safety requirements, even things as simple as stopping in at a local hardware store to purchase a two dollar item. While I understand internal controls, these need to be invisible to the customer. If we develop processes that require approval, while a technician is on site, this is slowing down our reaction time. If we require technicians to wait, or go off site, for specialized materials or tools, this is also impeding the process. Over and over again I see examples of reduced resources for the front line in order to have some fallacy of control.

I subscribe to the thought of putting the right person in charge and empowering them to make decisions that are within their skill set, then holding them accountable to the decisions they have made. I believe that if you hire the right team and provide them with the right training and support, then the rest will take care of itself and you will not need all these policies to police them, you will be able to trust them to make the right decisions based on experience and education. You still need controls in place but these are done on the back end where there is zero impact to the customers and zero impact to the team’s ability to react.

One needs to really look at the risk to reward when it comes to policies and processes. What is the real liability and what would it cost to implement this process. When I say cost I don’t just mean dollars and cents. What impact will this have on our ability to provide immediate and superior customer service to our clients? What psychological impact will this have on our team? Don’t be fooled! Trust is a big deal to most people and if they feel that they are not trusted by their employer they will move on. Finally, once you have balanced out this evaluation, if it makes sense to move forward, do so with zero impact to the customer. If this process or policy doesn’t pay for itself, then it probably isn’t a very good idea. Therefore it shouldn’t cost the customer any more for you to implement. Once fully implemented the new policy or procedure should not slow down your response time or the ability to handle a customer’s request on the fly, it should only improve your overall operation and support providing your customers with a better overall experience.

The service industry is about exactly that: “SERVICE!” When a customer has an emergency, or even just a need, it is our obligation to satisfy their need as quickly and efficiently as possible. We cannot afford to have obstacles and barricades in place to slow down or even stop our ability to respond. We need to react at the speed of light. We must never forget that it is because of the customer that we exist!