July/August 2010 Parking - 10

On People and Parking Charlie Munn
Seven Reasons for Customer Service Failure
It’s a busy day, deadlines are looming, and your patience is stretched thin. The phone rings. You are tempted not to answer but reluctantly you do. After all, it could be about that Powerball ticket you bought last week. You pick up the phone and no sooner say hello when you are deluged with loud and fast-paced complaints from an angry customer. The customer is riled because he’s been forced to work his way up a gnarled chain of command to speak to you about a problem he thinks is important. Nobody in your organization seems to want to do anything about it. The garage attendant did nothing when he complained, the customer says. He’s complained about this before, several times, in fact he says. He wants something done now. All the attendant did was shrug, say he was sorry, and explain that the garage procedures mandated that he could not leave his station flagging cars into the deck. Frustrated, the customer called the supervisor—several times—before airing his complaint. He was polite but offered no real help. Now enraged, you sense the customer wishes to get his hands through the phone wires and around your throat. Now your time and energy are involved. You apply your efforts and come up with a solution. Problem solved—your job here is done—but is it? Whenever there is repetitive breakdown in front-line service like this, a post mortem is in order. By looking at possible failure points along the way you can not only prevent recurrence of the problem but possibly enhance the overall performance and efficiency of the operation. Service guru Ron Zemke, author of the “Knock Your Socks Off Service” series of books, proposes seven possible front-line service failure points (the order of the points has been altered slightly to fit a timeline):

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1. Role/Person Mismatch
Not everyone is cut out for front-line customer service. It is critical in the hiring process that you identify individuals who fit a service profile consistent with your organizational culture. You can start by studying your best service providers and build your profile from there. But it’s also important to identify your worst service providers and take stock of their profile as well. Likewise, not everyone is cut out for management; the terrific cashier becomes a gladhanding, back-slapping, platitude-spitting manager like the one above who ducks problems rather than taking ownership of them. If the person in a position is mismatched at hire, service failure is more likely.

2. Task Clarity
One of the most predictable answers to the question, “Why do you do it that way?” is, “Well…hmmm… that’s the way we’ve always done it!” Perhaps in this case, the attendant has been told to stand in the entrance and flag cars; and that’s all he knows and he hasn’t been told this has anything to do with service.

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National Parking Association PARKING July/August 2010



July/August 2010 Parking

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