It happened to me recently on a flight from San Diego to Toronto.  I was running late for my 11:30 am flight – the only one of the day by that airline.  I ran up to the ticket counter.  I had checked in on-line and all I needed to do was drop my bag.  As I jogged up to the counter, I was relieved to see that there was only one person in front of me – a family checking in bags presumably for the same flight.

As I stood at the front of the line puffing, but otherwise quietly waiting my turn, the ticket agent looked up from her work and asked over the shoulders of the family she was serving, “Going to Toronto?”  “Yes, thanks,” I replied.  “If you’re checking that bag, you will have to go without it.  You’re six minutes past the cut-off time.”

My facial expression must have communicated the question that was formulating in my head because before I could say another word, she explained that the people she was currently checking through had arrived at the desk on time so she was able to process their bags even though it was past the arbitrary cut-off.

So, here I was in an airport, hoping to go home on the only flight that airline had that day, but unable to check my bag because of an arbitrary cut-off time.  And, to add insult to injury, the ticket agent was processing bags for the same flight, right before my eyes.  Apparently, the only reason she would not process me was not because she couldn’t, but that I was six minutes past the cut-off time.

By now the agent had finished processing the family and was able to dedicate full time to “helping” me.  “Is there nothing you can do for me?”  She shook her head.  “So what do I do?”  “Well, you can get rid of the bag and get on this flight or take the next one,” she replied.  “When is the next one?”  “Tomorrow, same time,” she replied.  I am sure she exhibited a small grin.  I was stuck and she knew it.

The next 20 minutes was a wild frenzy as I arranged to have my bag taken care of.  Fortunately, I had a business acquaintance who was staying an extra day at the conference and he willingly agreed to bring my bag back to Toronto.  I put my bag on a taxi bound for the hotel and headed back to the ticket counter.  As I reached the counter, the ticket agent greeted me with a smile and the same question she had for me 20 minutes earlier – “Going to Toronto?”

Argggh!  I understand that there are guidelines and that I was outside of them.  The agent was simply doing her job.  What annoyed me was her lack of the three critical components of dealing with a sticky situation.

Empathy – I had no feeling that the ticket agent had any concern for my welfare at all.  In fact, I think she enjoyed being in the position to be able to say “no”.

Creativity – She made no effort whatsoever to see if she could help me.  I am still convinced that she could have assisted me if she wanted to.  She could have made a quick phone call to see if they could make an exception in this case.  Even if the answer was still “no”, at least I would have felt she tried.

Common Sense – It is common sense not to inflame an already charged situation.  Pointing out that I was six minutes late, making off-hand comments about having to leave my bag behind and later asking me the second time if I was going to Toronto were not helpful and certainly did not endear me to the agent or the company she represented.

But I have to thank her.  There is a valuable lesson here.  This agent probably does a pretty good job of processing people through the airport when things are as they should be.  However, when things go out of the norm, she obviously does not have the skills or the knowledge to handle those exceptions effectively.

How about your customer facing staff?  Are they prepared to handle difficult situations?  Do they show empathy and use creativity and common sense to try to diffuse and ultimately correct the situation?  Or, do they act in a manner that sends your customers packing?

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

– Zig Ziglar

The post When the Customer Service person says “I Can’t Help” appeared first on jimbaston.com.

In 1990, professors from Texas A&M University identified the dimensions of exceptional customer service in their book Delivering Quality Service[1]. They found that there were critical dimensions that defined service quality and from their work emerged a customer service model called RATER, which focused on five. Their research indicated that a service firm that can deliver on all five dimensions contained in the model can create an exceptional service experience.

The name RATER is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five dimensions.  They are:

R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately

A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence

T angibles:  Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance

E mpathy:    The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers

R esponsiveness:     Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

This simple, yet practical model is extremely powerful because it provides service companies with the framework needed to define the service experience that they would like to create and to translate that definition into specific actions to be taken by every employee to deliver on it. The challenge is to ensure that each customer contact communicates each dimension in the manner intended and does so consistently and correctly through the everyday interactions of their employees.

Over the next five blogs we are going to look more closely at each of the service dimensions of the RATER model and the individual actions employees can take to deliver upon it.  We will discuss how, as service companies, we can work with these to define and deliver a sustainable, differentiated and valued service experience.

In the meantime, I’d love your feedback! Please leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site.

Until next time,

Jim

“You don’t earn loyalty in a day.  You earn loyalty day-by-day.”

-Jeffrey Gitomer

The post Transforming the Service Experience – 5 Dimensions of Service Quality appeared first on jimbaston.com.