While at Starbuck’s this morning, I overheard this conversation between the person in front of me and one of the gals working the cash.
Customer: Would it be possible to get another tea? I accidentally put too much sugar in this one.
Starbuck’s Gal: Ah, well I don’t know. Hm. Let me get the manager.
Now in my perfect non-filtered world I would have screamed out, “Are you freaking kidding me. It’s a tea bag she’s asking for, not a new pony. Absorb the 10 cent cost and give her another one. She’s happy, even though it’s apparent that sugar dispenser technology is beyond her. You’re happy because you put your gray matter to work and actually made a decision that a 5 year old could have made. And I am happy because I’m not having this pretend conversation in my head.”
Of course, I didn’t say that out loud, mainly because I didn’t want to be that guy who was swarmed and softly beaten by a pair of female senior citizens. But it did get me thinking why a counter jockey at Starbuck’s can’t put herself “out there” and make a decision about excess sugar.
The art of customer service…
What most businesses fail to realize is that customer service is an art. And what’s worse, it is a misunderstood art.
Customer service is the first line of defense in most businesses and yet it is the last thing most businesses actually invest in, if they invest in it at all.
And the reason for this is that all businesses make the same mistake. They assume their product is the business. It is not. It is the people who buy that product that are the business. A great product with no paying audience is a failed product and subsequently a failed business.
What Starbuck’s doesn’t understand is it is not in the coffee business. It is in the people business and they provide coffee to those people.
Of course you need to have a great product to offer these people, but the most important asset in the equation is the people who buy the product.
When you understand that, then you begin to change who you hire. You look for and develop an interview process that seeks out people who excel at the ART of customer service.
The other non-essential skills like making coffee or working a cash register can be taught. But what you can’t teach people is the art of customer service because that art is an intelligence.
Yes that is right. It’s an intelligence. Howard Gardner has done some great work in this field and at last count he had identified 9 intelligences that people use to produce extraordinary results. We don’t excel at all 9, but we all have at least one dominant intelligence where we can exercise our genius.
And what is the intelligence required in the art of awesome customer service? Interpersonal Skills.
Businesses make the mistake of assuming anyone can master this intelligence. This is a fatal mistake.
It would be like thinking anyone can learn to be a great singer (an example of musical intelligence). Take me for example. My singing actually hurts people and, I suspect, any small woodland creatures who happen to be in the vicinity as well. Now I could certainly take lessons and become a better singer, but the reality is I will NEVER be a great singer-EVER!
Why? Because I am not gifted in the musical intelligence. Does this make me a stupid singer. Of course not. It’s just not my area of strength and I know it. But if a business hires me and erroneously puts me in a position where I must sing to the people I come in contact with, well, heaven help us. There are going to be a lot of unhappy people and business will take a beating. (I suspect I might take the occasional beating as well. In fact, I would beat me if I was subjected to my singing for a prolonged period of time.)
So what does this have to do with customer service. Companies such as Starbuck’s are doomed if they think they can toss any Joe (that is an intended pun) in front of their loyal fan base and think this person will succeed because he or she has completed the required training manual and attended a few conferences.
These people will fail miserably because they don’t possess the innate skills of this art.
You see, someone who excelled in interpersonal intelligence would have instinctively known what to do in the scenario I described at the outset of this post. They would not have had to consult a manager. Their art would have allowed them the ability too instantly come up with the perfect solution to the problem, just as a comedian innately knows how to deliver the perfect funny line at just the right time.
The gal today did not possess the innate skills required to be able to adequately deal with the situation. Sure, it could be hammered home that she has the ability to make decisions right there on the floor in real time, but it was clear she doesn’t possess the art of customer service.
She is the singing version of me and if companies like Starbuck’s don’t change their course soon, they, like me and my singing, will hurt a lot of people. And when that happens business will suffer.
So this is a wake up call to companies. It’s time to give your collective heads a shake and quit killing the art of customer service.
To an idea worth quitting,
Dean
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