Excellent Customer Service in Malaysia | BE FLEXIBLE
Be prepared to break the rules and bend the system in favor of customers.
While on assignment abroad Sharon Tan, a trainer with a computer company, went shopping at a local supermarket to pick up a few grocery items to keep in her hotel room. When she went to pay, she found long lines of customers waiting at each counter. Then she noticed two “fast track” checkouts where no customers were waiting. The checkout sign said: “Fast track: for 10 items or less.” As her basket was not too heavy, she went to one of these empty counters. The assistant looked at her with a frown and asked her how many items she had in the basket. Sharon didn’t know, she hadn’t counted them. He then began digging through her basket, counting each item. He discovered, as she feared, that she had 12 items. Instead of a three- pack of yoghurts (which would have counted as one item) she had three individual yoghurts. The assistant reprimanded her and told her she would have to go and queue at one of the other counters. At that point Sharon left her basket on the counter and walked out. She hurried to the 711 shop nearby, where she had no such problem. She will not return to that particular supermarket.
While it is essential to have rules, it is also essential to flex them from time to time if it makes sense. The risk is that when you comply rigidly with the rules customers become alienated. Rules are designed to help serve customers.
Here are some other illustrations of where you can be flexible in creating a buzz for customers:
Opening the doors (to the bank or store) before the official opening time when customers are queuing outside in the rain.
Not keeping strictly to warranty deadlines. For example, not charging a customer for a repair if the product is returned one day after the one-year warranty expires.
Providing service at the table when the rules say self-service.
Rounding down the price. For example, when the bill adds up to $11.05 only charging $11.00 and letting the customer off five cents. (In certain countries like Cyprus this happens frequently.)
Giving the customer extra. For example, giving the customer a large portion when they have ordered a medium one.
Agreeing to compensate a customer who is demanding the cost of a train fare for returning a defective item, even when the rules don’t permit this.
Allowing three people to visit a patient in a hospital ward when the rules only permit two, and permitting visitors outside official visiting hours (provided that they don’t interfere with nursing and medical treatment).
Allowing some deviation from the specified special offer.
Giving clients more time than they have been charged for.
Extending opening hours for the benefit of customers (“No problem if you can’t come in before 5.30 p.m., we’ll keep the doors open and wait for you”).
Flexibility is a principle of mind by which front-line employees put customers first rather than adhering strictly to the rules and regulations set by their bosses. In fact, in the best companies—such as Nordstrom or TNT Express—the rules are minimal, so that front-line people have no option but to use their common sense in finding flexible and satisfactory responses for customers.
Flexibility means training people to exercise their judgment without fear of retribution from their bosses if a rule is broken. In the end there is only one rule, which obviously is: “Do your best to please customers.”
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE PRACTICE
Review your rules for serving customers and explore the boundaries that could be broken. In other words: “If this happened, how far could we go in breaking the rules?” If both the customer and the company benefit from a flexible approach, the answer speaks for itself.
EXCELLENCE CUSTOMER SERVICE QUOTE
When rules relating to customer service are unbreakable they will break the company.
