Customer Service Management Training Required.

In my blog on Customer Service in Belize I mentioned a number of instances where it was clear that poor customer service at the front line is not necessarily caused by the customer service representative (CSR) as the lapse in service may be from the lack of support from the back office or upper management. My conclusion in some cases is that perhaps Management don’t know that they don’t know. Let me share an example.

On Monday December 23, 2013, I had the opportunity to visit the newly opened offices of Servi-Tech, a division of Unicomer with other subsidiaries that also include Courts and Tropigas. The purpose of the visit was to inquire and arrange for a technician to provide service to my Whirlpool washer that was not functioning up to par. The service at the front desk was pretty good considering that they were new and I was the only one at the front desk. A date was set for the technician to visit my house and I provided them with my telephone numbers.

The issue with Servitech which supports my previous position is that while the support system clicked in with numerous calls,  I did not answer the calls. Why? Should I have known better? Not sure. However I did get a number of calls from the numbers 5001, and 5002. Now considering the number of reports about scams on the cell phones, I refrained from answering and after a number of those repeat calls from the same numbers I became convinced that they were scammers.

Thus I once again called Servitech only to be told that they had tried to call me a number of times and I did not answer my phone. I then mentioned that I had received no calls except from the 5001, and 5002, and that is when I was informed that they like Courts and Tropigas are all linked to Unicomer and that they do not have direct numbers to call out but rather extensions. In the end after the exchange of information it was agreed that they would come tomorrow (January 7, 2014), so I will be waiting for the call.

My analysis of this case of poor customer service is that it was not the fault of the CSRs at the front line who were nice in their contact with me, but rather a missing element that should have been in their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) so that the customer (me) would be aware of this key communication item. If the front line people knew, it was their job to inform me, however if they didn’t the Manager of the Customer Service Department is fully responsible for the lapse in the delivery of excellence to the customer in this case. But again, what if the Manager doesn’t know that he doesn’t know?