“Did I Solve Your Problem?” And Other Poorly-Timed Questions
Here are two email requests from merchants requesting feedback on interactions I had with their reps just this week:
“How was your email with Britney*” (*Not her real name.)
“Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?”
In both cases I had experienced a problem with non-delivery of items ordered on line. I called or emailed for help in straightening them out, and representatives of both vendors promised to follow up and get me the items I ordered. What immediately followed were requests for me to take a survey on how well they did when interacting with me.
Why were they asking me this now? I still don’t have my items and, no matter how friendly or knowledgeable their reps were, I can’t evaluate their performance until the job is finished.
AND THE JOB IS TO DELIVER THE ITEMS I ORDERED!
How many times have you had the beginnings of what promised to be a terrific customer experience, only to find it fall apart at the end?
- The waitperson in a restaurant takes your order, but when the runner arrives with the dish, it’s cold.
- A store salesperson helps you find what you’re looking for, but screws up the paperwork required to process the order.
- The sign-up screen for a web-based tool makes it easy to enter your personal info, but the onboarding team can’t get you started using it before your free trial runs out.
- You don’t get the package you ordered, but the rep of the courier service tells you their records show it was delivered.
Chances are, you’ve found that if you approached a manager about it, as soon as she asks “Did you get the name of the person who was helping you?” you start to feel bad that the salesperson or service rep is going to get chewed out for a foul-up that might not even have been her or his fault.
Are any of your customers having these kinds of frustrating experiences with your products and services? If so, do you have a process in place to handle them the right way — to find out and fix them fast?
WAIT! Do NOT start a “management inquisition.”
Nothing shuts people down faster than someone in management snooping around after a goof. Why? Because no matter how constructive the approach and benign the intention, the assumption is that they’re trying to identify a culprit upon whom to fix the blame. You’re not likely to get good information or constructive problem-solving from an associate who feels he or she is under attack.
Instead, train your folks to ask these questions themselves and report back to you with their findings along with a proposed solution:
- What was supposed to happen?
- What actually happened?
- What do they think went wrong? Often, they’ll find it’s one of these:
- Loss of focus. Customer rep got distracted, as by shifting attention to new transaction with another customer.
- Lack of training. Processing person wasn’t familiar enough with the system.
- Tech problems. System was down.
- Miscommunication. One person in the chain flubbed handoff to another who was supposed to finish.
- Process flaws. Gaps existed in the chain, making “ball-dropping” more likely.
You’ve set up a system and put people in it to start and finish transactions. Now charge your folks with identifying and diagnosing problems and coming up with a fix if something goes wrong. And make sure there’s an “amnesty policy” that assures them they won’t be sorry for stepping up.