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We just had an experience that illustrates just how important good customer service was. Here's the short version: We (that's the editorial "we" there, not the whole OS team) are on our way to Columbus today to visit our grandmother on her 80th birthday. Due to some unforeseen circumstance, our airline had to use a different (smaller) plane and, in the process, cut 30 people off the flight–and bump them to a flight that wasn't leaving for another 28 hours.
This, as you might imagine, was unacceptable for a lot of people. Your typical angry mob descended on the gate agents, and what happened next is where our lesson lies. One agent (whose name we don't know) dealt with one customer at a time, did what he could (which usually wasn't much) and called for the next person. He wasn't lazy, he wasn't rude, but that didn't matter: the customers felt screwed, and we're certain that more than a few of them will write nasty letters, blog about their experiences, boycott the airline, etc. The airline will lose customers and suffer (at least) a minor hit to their reputation. The other agent didn't accomplish that much that the first agent didn't (although she did seem to solve a few more problems) but the feeling on her line was overwhelmingly positive. Why? Because she cared. When you have a throng of furious people who are blaming your reps for something that's not their fault, there's no faking empathy. Trained lines ("maam, I understand your upset and I'll do everything I can to take care of this") are worthless if the person delivering them is clearly just restraining himself from saying "so calm the hell down because you're seriously being irrational." The first guy was being "polite" because it was professional and because he was being paid to be polite. This agent was being caring because she obviously cared that people were being inconvenienced. Some of the things she did you could train–like noting the personal problems people had ("I'm missing a family reunion") and trying to tailor solutions around those problems–but most of them you couldn't. You can't "train" a tone of voice or a facial expression or body language (at least not efficiently). What's the lesson? Well, first of all, there's no substitute for a customer service rep who actually cares about people. Empathy is a heck of a motivator when you're trying to solve other people's problems, and it makes people a lot more grateful when you solve their problems (and a lot more understanding when you can't) if they feel like you tried to help them because you cared and not because you had to. If you're hiring a customer service rep, try to find people who have a demonstrated sense of empathy–for example, try to find people who do volunteer work extensively. Ask questions that will give you a sense of how the person reacts to other people's hardship (eg "Talk about a time something bad happened to someone you know, how did you help?" And don't listen to what they say, watch how they say it. Oh, and if you're just looking for one really awesome rep, maybe try to steal away Jenn H. from Gate A29 at Sky Harbor.
