Communicating Authentically

Introduction

Customer service is the lifeblood of any business that requires paying customers to survive. If you are employed by such a business, and your job requires you to deal with customers, your behavior toward those people is one of the most important roles in that company.

It probably doesn’t feel that way to you, though. Customers can be difficult, and customer service jobs typically don’t pay well. So why should you care about customer service?

I’ll answer that question with a question.

How much do you want your job to suck?

Honestly. If you want your job to be an absolute vacuum of misery, then by all means, treat your customers like dirt. They will hate you and be rude to you. Your boss will regret hiring you, assign you the worst shifts, and give you bad reviews. Your coworkers will resent you and make your work shifts miserable. You’ll probably eventually get fired or quit.

But if you want to get at least a little bit of enjoyment out of going to work, doing even the absolute bare minimum when it comes to customer service will make a huge difference.

Follow the advice in the next few chapters, and you’ll find that, for the most part, your customers will be grateful, your boss will appreciate it, and you may get a promotion or a better job.

Now, if your boss is a total jerk and the company you work for doesn’t care about its customers or its employees, you may still wind up quitting. In fact, I highly recommend it. But you might find, by doing the bare minimum of customer service, that most of your customers and coworkers actually appreciate you enough to make going to work worthwhile, at least until you find a better job.

Of course, every so often, you’ll get a customer who is just a jerk and won’t be happy no matter what you do. But honestly, those people are the minority. Most people are happy just to be treated like a human being. Which brings us to Chapter One.

Chapter 1: Say Hello

You’d be amazed how much nicer and more understanding your customers will be if you simply greet them with a friendly, “Hello.” 

If you want to take it a step further, ask them how they are, or how you can help them, or say “I’m here if you need me.” If you’re busy, say something like, “I’ll be right with you.” 

Humans have a need to be acknowledged, so the absolute bare minimum you should be doing in a customer service position is to acknowledge that your customers exist when they walk into your establishment.

If you’re on the phone, instead of answering, “Please hold,” say something like, “Hello, you’ve reached (Company Name). We’ve got a few callers ahead of you, so I’m going to place you on a brief hold.” Lots of companies have automated systems that do that very thing, but if yours doesn’t, that doesn’t mean you should act like an automated system. Be a human and acknowledge the humanity of the person on the other end of the call.

Once I walked into a sandwich shop at lunchtime with a friend. We were the only people in line, but the phone was ringing off the hook. We got it. It was a busy shop with lots of phone orders.

But here’s the thing. The two women behind the counter, who were answering the phone and making sandwiches, didn’t even acknowledge us for ten minutes. 

We left and went someplace else. 

And neither of us will go to that sandwich shop again. 

It wasn’t just the inconvenience of wasting ten minutes of our time – more, because we had to get back in the car and drive someplace else, it was the sheer rudeness of how we were treated. As though we didn’t exist. As though we didn’t matter.

No one wants to be treated that way. 

Also: if they care so little about their customers, I don’t think I want to eat whatever they’re making.

If one of those women had taken five seconds to say, “Hi there, we’re super busy right now but I’ll be there to get your order in just a minute,” we would have stayed and would probably return. 

All they had to do was say hello.

Chapter 2: Serve the Customer in Front of You

You’re at work and you’ve got a customer in front of you and a ringing phone you’re also responsible for answering. What do you do?

Answer: Always, always, always help the customer in front of you. Usually, once you acknowledge the customer (see Chapter One) and determine what they need, you can say, “Do you mind if I answer this call and place them on hold?” Most customers won’t mind.

Then do that. Answer the phone and say, “Hello, you’ve reached (Company Name). We’ve got a customer ahead of you, so I’m going to place you on a brief hold.” 

Believe it or not, the phone is a convenience. The person on the phone is probably sitting at home or work, in a comfortable spot, with plenty of things to keep them occupied while they wait. The customer in your establishment actually had to get dressed, leave their house, and get to your place. They come first.

If you have a store full of customers, waiting in line and the phone is ringing, your boss probably expects you to do everything all at once. But trust me – your boss should be glad to have a store full of customers. If they want to keep those customers coming in the store, you need to provide good service to those people. 

In the example I gave in the last chapter, that’s exactly what was going on. My friend and I stood at the counter of the sandwich shop as the woman behind the counter answered phone call after phone call, taking their orders, but ignoring the people who had driven to the shop and were standing right in front of her. This is why we left and won’t go back.

If you need to pick up the phone, do it between customers or when you have downtime, such as waiting for the customer to do something. Then, briefly answer the phone and explain to the caller that there are several customers ahead of them, and give them the option to hold or call back. 

If you frequently have the problem of a store full of customers and several callers, your boss should invest in either more workers or an automated system for the callers. If they won’t, invent your own system for helping all the in-person customers first, and as many phone customers as you can afterward.

Chapter 3: Basic Hygiene

No one expects you to be a supermodel. But here is the bare minimum for showing up to work: 

• Clean hair
• Clean body and hands
• Clean clothes
• You don’t smell

Now, body odor is something that you may not know you have. Most people don’t smell their own body odor unless it’s extraordinarily bad. 

So ask your coworkers or your boss. “Do I have body odor?”

If the answer is anything less than a resounding, enthusiastic, “No, you always smell just fine,” assume that you do, in fact, have some body odor.

If there is even a glimmer of a possibility that body odor is an issue, you should shower right before your shift. With soap. Apply a strong antiperspirant/deodorant. And maybe bring some antiperspirant/deodorant with you and apply it on your break.

If you get dirty and sweaty at work, do your best to clean up – at least wash your hands – before you need to deal with customers. 

Some functions will get a pass at this: mechanics will always get grease under their fingernails; people who work in sewage plants or pick up trash are going to get smelly. People who work on construction sites will often get dirty. These are necessary jobs and you should take pride in your work. When you show up for your shift, show up clean.

Chapter 4: Remember You’re Getting Paid for This

Unless you’re a customer service volunteer, your paying job is to serve customers. 

It isn’t to joke around and gossip with coworkers.

It isn’t to talk on the phone or text with your friends.

It isn’t to monitor and post to your social media accounts.

It isn’t to flirt or joke around with that one attractive/cool customer you like and ignore everyone else.

If part of your job description includes serving customers, remember that you are literally getting paid to serve customers. Do your job.

Chapter 5: Leave Your Personal Biases at Home

All human beings have subconscious biases; most of us typically prefer interacting with people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, etc. To the degree that you can learn about and familiarize yourself with people who have different lives and backgrounds from you, the less pronounced these biases become.

If that’s your goal, customer service is a great way to be exposed to all different types of people.

But maybe it’s not your goal. Maybe you like your biases and intend to cling to them beyond the grave. Fine, whatever. But if you work in customer service, keep them at home.

The bare minimum in customer service is treating people equally. If you’re grouchy, be equally grouchy to everyone. If you’re kind, be equally kind to everyone.

But don’t be kind and helpful to the people you’re more comfortable with and then be suspicious and stingy with others. 

If you think you’re hiding it, I can assure you that you’re not.

And if you’re not even trying to hide it, then you shouldn’t have a job in customer service. Because even if you personally feel entitled to your biases, the law is not on your side here. Discrimination based on protected classes such as race, gender, gender identity, age, ability, religion, country of origin, and potentially others, is illegal. If your customer has the means to prove that you treated them differently from another customer, they could file a complaint or a lawsuit that might harm your business.

So, since legally, you need to treat customers equally, why not make it fun? Be friendly to people who aren’t like you. While you don’t want to ask intrusive questions, strike up a conversation about something innocuous, like the weather or traffic. Or just ask them how you can help them today. You might learn something in spite of yourself.

If you encounter customers who don’t speak your language, or don’t speak it well, consider it a fun challenge to find a way to understand what they need and to be understood by them.

Note: If there is a language barrier, raising your voice and repeating the same thing you just said will only frustrate everyone involved. Instead, try different words, or communicate with hand gestures. Work with the person, not against them.

Second note: If there are two or more people in your establishment speaking to each other in a different language, that is their right as human beings. Mind your own business.

Chapter 6: Listen to Them

Disclaimer: If a customer is being verbally abusive or harassing you, of course, you don’t need to put up with that. The following advice is meant for customers who are well-meaning and doing their best to ask for what they need.

A few years back, there was a recording of a customer’s call to a cable company to cancel their service, and no matter what the customer said, the service rep just kept pushing them to not cancel; asking why they would want to cancel; telling them their reasons for wanting to cancel didn’t make sense – in short, doing everything but what the customer asked for. The customer started the recording ten minutes into the call, and the recording went for eight long minutes after that. The cable rep spent eighteen minutes harassing a customer who just wanted to cancel their service.

We’ve all been on the wrong end of a conversation in which the other person refused to listen to what we wanted and just kept pushing their own agenda.

Don’t be like that. Even if you have sales quotas or are penalized when people cancel service, it’s not going to help you to be a jerk. 

When you’re dealing with customers, don’t push your own agenda and don’t assume you already know what they want or what their issue is. Greet each customer with a fresh start. Say hello, ask how you can help them and then listen. Simple.

Most of the time it will be a simple transaction, and the customer will go away happy.

If a customer is frustrated, this is a sign to you that you need to put everything aside, focus all your attention on that person, and listen to them. Ask them what’s going on, and what is the outcome they want, and then listen without interrupting.

Once they’ve told you, and you think you know what they want, repeat it back to them and say, “Is that right?” Listen again and repeat the process until you have it right.

Is there a way that you can deliver that outcome? If so, do it. 

If not, is there someone else in your organization who can work with you to deliver the outcome? The operative phrase here is “work with you.” Unless the other person (such as your manager or someone in another department) prefers to take over the interaction, stay with the customer until the issue is resolved. Either way, be transparent with the customer about what you can do, what you will do, and what you need from them, if anything.  

Making it easy to do business with you is what makes customers happy, and happy customers are nicer customers, and nice customers make work easier for you in return. It’s a happy little cycle and it all comes from listening.

Chapter 7: Do What You Say

This one seems simple. If you tell a customer you’ll do something, then do it. Boom. You’re done.

Except – maybe you told a customer you’ll do something that actually needs to be done by someone else.

Maybe you told a customer you’d do something, but you forgot to write it down and then forgot to do it.

Maybe you told a customer you’d do something, but when you went to do it, there was a problem and you couldn’t it complete it.

And so on, and so on.

The back seat of my SUV has a lever you can pull to flatten it and increase the cargo space. The lever broke, so I brought it in for a replacement. The mechanic didn’t stock the lever and needed to order it, so I asked him to do that. 

I called back the following week to see when the part would be in. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “I still need to order that.” I told him never mind and went to a different mechanic.

And that’s what happens when people don’t do what they say. Their customers go elsewhere, and business suffers. You could forget yourself right out of a job if you’re not careful.

Doing what you say is actually a three-step process – but the steps are simple:

1. If you commit to doing something, write it down in a planner or calendar, or make an electronic task for it so that you’ll remember.
   • a. Take the customer’s contact information so you can get in touch with them if there’s a problem. 
   • b. If needed, schedule time and resources to do the thing you said you’d do.
2. Do the thing you said you’d do. (See step 1b if this is a complex process.)
   • If you run into a problem, contact the person to let them know and get the information or assistance you need to resolve it. (See step 1a.)
3. Once the thing is done, contact the customer to tell them it’s done. (Again, see step 1a.)

Boom. Now it’s done.