I’ve heard it so many times. A customer gets what he wants the first time. He calls back and gets a different agent. This time he gets someone who follows the rules and processes. He’s not happy and the call escalates. A supervisor tries to fix the issue, the call takes an hour and we’ve just lost a customer, perhaps forever.
It is okay to say no to a customer if they ask too much or their request is unreasonable. Sometimes we have to say no to protect the customer. Understand that there are processes in place to ensure delivery of service is consistent. This is the reason why we can say no but remember to offer options. The outcome and solution may be different but at least it’s something that the company can deliver. This reminds me of a client that taught agents to say, “What I can do is….” instead of saying “no”. It worked like a charm.
Okay, I’m hearing some of you thinking, “Customer Satisfaction”. We are still accomplishing this. Experience has shown that if the level of excellent service was the same, satisfaction is a sure thing.
But, why is it difficult to say no in the first place?
I think the kind of people who are successful as call center agents (inbound or outbound, service or support) tend to like helping and solving rpoblems for people. Also, the culture of most IT organizations (including the "help desk") encourages the technical cowboy to ride in and save the day. Saying "No" is often viewed as a personal defeat.
You make a good point about customers expectations. I think it is one of the universal rules of customer service that the best service they ever got becomes the minimum they are willing to accept the next time. Add a demanding (but no abusive or inappropriate) customer and an agent who is inclined to go the extra mile to "solve" the problem, and "No" becomes very hard to say.
Posted by: Steve Murtagh | September 15, 2006 8:26 AM | Permalink to Comment