Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my! How to navigate common challenges in Customer Service Leadership

Leading in Customer Service can feel like navigating a dark forest, filled with challenges that seem daunting. Fortunately, many of these challenges are common and have well established solutions

In this post, I cover three of the most common challenges we come across in our Customer Service training work with Leaders.

By the end, you’ll:

See how the lack of a clear Customer Service Vision holds your service delivery back
Understand the importance of defining what abusive behavior ‘is’ and exactly what your people can do in response to it
Recognize that ‘industry standards’ need to be taken with a grain of salt

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!

I love the classic 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz”.

I admire how Dorothy and her companions face their fears throughout the film and the overall tone of resilience and hope.

At one point, the group walks through a dark forest on their way to the Emerald City.

They even begin naming their fears – Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!

Just like Dorothy and her friends braving the dark forest, Customer Service Leaders must face their own ‘Lions, Tigers and Bears’ — common yet daunting challenges in their journey toward excellence.

Here are three common Customer Service challenges we come across in our work with Leaders.

Common challenge #1 – Lack of a clear Customer Service Vision

Out there in the real world we see that the best Customer Service Leaders are startlingly clear.

They bring tremendous clarity to how we do things and why we do those things.

In part because they’ve mastered the discipline of Customer Service – and use that mastery to educate others.

The best Customer Service Leaders craft a clear Customer Service Vision

As part of the wonderful clarity they bring, the best Customer Service Leaders craft a clear Customer Service Vision.

A Customer Service Vision is a short and specific statement that describes the kind of service we deliver around here.

Not just a bunch of vague words from a wall plaque of values or the company mission statement.

Think of it like ordering ice cream

When you go into an ice cream shop and order ice cream, you are ridiculously specific.

You will say, “I want vanilla chocolate ripple.” Or you’ll say, “I want cookes and cream.”

You don’t just say you want ice cream. The poor Counter staff won’t have a clue what you want.

Because it’s too vague.

It’s the same for your Customer Service people.

If they get vague 5,000 feet-in-the-air advice or ‘fortune cookie wisdom’ about how to interact with Customers, it can be hard for them to bring it to life.

Because even when such advice sounds good, it lacks the substance and clarity needed to be actionable.

https://www.omnitouchinternational.com/how-to-present-better-by-overcoming-fortune-cookie-wisdom/

Imagine if everyone on your Team could tell you exactly what kind of service we deliver around here.

With the same degree of specificity as ordering a flavor of ice cream.

Here’s a vision example I like to use when we teach

When we teach courses in Customer Experience Management and Quality Management I often use the example of DBS Bank in Singapore and their ‘CX Vision’.

After six months of study and immersion, they refined their CX Vision into the acronym RED.

We will be respectful, easy to deal with and dependable.

And part of their remarkable transformation story is how deep, far and wide they’ve inculcated RED into their company culture and the way they do things.

Where even the IT Team says, “Well to be respectful we will create mobile apps that don’t suck up all your phone battery.”

The well established solution here is to invest the time and effort it takes to craft a meaningful and relevant Customer Service Vision.

So much else flows from that step in the process.

Including your selection of Performance Standards and the kinds of conversations you’ll have when you coach your Team Members.

Common challenge #2 – Unclear definitions around Abusive Customers / abusive behavior

We teach a popular course called “How to Manage Difficult Customer Situations”.

Dealing with difficult Customer situations is simply part and parcel of working in Customer Service and it’s a dark forest challenge that is not going to go away.

Early on in this course, we talk about how to categorize difficult situations.

So that Frontline folks can better diagnose the situation in front of them and use the right approach and tools to work through that situation.

We cover three different categories and recommended approaches –

The Abusive Customer
The Irritating Customer
The Unhappy Customer

For this article we’re focused on the category of the Abusive Customer.

Or better said, what constitutes abusive Customer behavior.

We always want to be careful not to label people but rather label the behavior.

So we ask Participants to share their examples of abusive Customer behavior.

And – perhaps surprisingly for some of you – the answers are always all over the place.

Here are some examples –

The Customer is abusive when they won’t listen to me and let me talk.
The Customer is abusive when they use red font in their email or too many exclamation points.
The Customer is abusive when they use a bad word.

The word abuse is a very serious word. It needs to be defined seriously – and taken seriously.

Using all caps in an email hardly qualifies as abuse.

But Frontline folks, who haven’t been provided with a clear categorization approach, might label a behavior as ‘abusive’ when in reality it fits better in the category of ‘irritating’.

Like using all caps in an email for example. Or a Customer who repeats themself many times.

It’s up to Customer Service Leadership to define exactly what Customer behavior is abuse and exactly how to deal with it

You’ll hear lots of Customer Service Leaders tell you they care about their people and they will do whatever they can to help their people.

But at the same time, there are often no clear guidelines as to how your Organization specifically defines abuse.

And from there advises your people on exactly what to do when faced with clearly defined abuse.

I remember one insurance company CEO joined his people in our difficult Customer situations course.

Which was super and he was welcome.

And at this point in the course discussion he said, quite openly, that specifically defining abusive behavior and appropriate responses was something that they had not done.

But to help their many hundreds of Frontline people, he was making this an action item for them to take back and sort out.

Hearing a CEO suggest approaching abusive behavior as an action point for the company made my day.

Common challenge #3 – Thinking that ‘industry standards’ are the way to go

At the beginning of our Contact Center Management workshops I give people time to think about and share what they hope to learn in the course.

Now and then folks will share that they hope to learn what the industry standards are.

And by the end of the workshop, these same people are usually the first to say –

“Ah, now I get it. There really aren’t that many industry standards after all. I need to apply what I’ve learned in ways that are meaningful for my Customers and my Organization.”

For example, an airline’s response time for its first class and VIP passengers could be faster than the defined response time for its economy class passengers.

Or in a revenue driven environment like high end hotel reservations, abandonment rate tends to take more precedence on the KPI dashboard than abandonment rate in a tech support environment.

Quality standards should also be specifically selected based on your Customers and your Organization’s brand and personality.

Just revisit Common Challenge #1 in this article – the lack of a clear Customer Service Vision.

As you’d expect, the Customer Service Vision for In N Out Burger – a cult hamburger chain – is going to look entirely different than the Customer Service Vision for the UK Post Office.

For nearly 25 years I’ve seen folks flock to benchmark studies and presentations.

But simply copying what everyone else is doing – or thinking that once you hit some set of mythical industry standards your Center is performing -could actually diminish your brand – and the promises you make to your Customers.

My Mom used to say, “Would you jump off a bridge just because everyone else did?”

Instead of chasing industry standards, think about what really matters to your Customers and your Brand.

And apply your know-how to that sweet spot where it’s both good for your Customer and good for your Organization.

In closing

By addressing these common challenges with clarity and a focus on what makes your brand unique, you can lead your Team out of the dark forest and into the light of exceptional Customer Service