Retail expert and regular contributor to our Business Marketing program, Jurek Leon, has vast experience in the area of customer service. Jurek adheres to the slogan that ‘loose lips sink ships’ and recently discussed the dangers of what he calls ‘tearoom talk’.
According to Jurek, tearoom talk occurs when a member of the team has had a bad experience with a customer whether it is over the phone or face to face. As we all have a need to release stress, it is natural that the team member concerned would want to discuss the incident. The person concerned gets into the tearoom and typically will start a conversation with something like, ‘You wouldn’t believe the customer I just had…’
The team member will then proceed to discuss how rude and arrogant the customer was, complaining about how hard done by they feel, etc. Usually they don’t get any further before one of the other people in the tearoom cuts in and says something like, ‘Oh, that’s nothing, you should have heard the woman I had on the phone yesterday…’
This person will go through an account of what had taken place the day before, and then a third person in the tearoom interrupts. This person’s story will begin with, ‘You guys…that’s nothing…’
It then becomes a case of who can come up with the worst customer of the month scenario. This invariably means that somebody who is sitting there quietly, having a cup of tea and relaxing, recovering their spirits to get back into the fray, suddenly becomes de-motivated by this talk. This type of talk effectively undoes all positive customer service sessions that the team has been involved in and creates an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality at work.
The question is how do we then get a negative customer experience out of our system without creating negative morale at work?
Jurek says that it’s OK to discuss the experience but recommends referring to the customer by name and ending on a positive note. Ending the story with something like ‘You know I’m really pleased… I didn’t let that person upset me, I’m really proud of myself…’ will create a different atmosphere in the tearoom.
It’s all about getting on side with our customers.
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The “how’s things?” call is one of those techniques every businessperson should use. It works beautifully for anybody who is serious about making their business successful. In fact, if you’re not using it you should be. Want to learn more? Buy Winston’s downloadable discussion on the “How’s Things?” call here. “Part of the Winno’s Wise Words series”.
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