Customer service

When speaking with people it is very common that we let our priorities dictate what we do for the people that interact with us.

The idea for this article, and the example I'll use, began at San Jose's airport, in the US. I was in a connecting flight, and there were two flights going to the same destination (Seattle), from the same airline, with a bit more than one hour between flights.

Trying to optimize my schedule — and being tired due to when I started my journey — I went to the person in charge of the earlier flight.

Immediately she seemed to be bothered to have to talk to someone and was very rude. Let me say that one of her duties is dealing with the public, so I wasn't asking her to do anything beyond what she should be doing.

Anyway, I started talking, and she immediately interrupted me, saying that she was really busy and that I should phone customer service. She didn't even hear what I had to say besides “good afternoon” and “please, could you…” (yes, without finishing my phrase or asking anything at all).

The tone used with me was kind of a “get out of here” than a “help me help you” speak. If she listened and pointed me to the folder, I would have a totally different impression of her.

I was handed a piece of paper with some scribbles on it — not related to my ask — and had to guess where the information was, and what was the best channel to work with the customer service. Even though a person from the company was standing in front of me, I was asked to phone and ask someone else (or some AI / robot) about my doubt.

I got the information I needed. And as a customer, I also got annoyed to the point that I had thought about using this particular case as an example of what we should not do in customer service.

Customer service, many times, is just listening to the customer. You can provide the default answer and everything, but if the customer feel that someone listened to him/her and paid attention to his ask, he will feel taken care of. It will be a more positive impression and contribute to his/her satisfaction with the services received from the company.

In a busy world, we must learn to slow down for one minute and be attentive to people. From people, to people.

We can use AI and everything for automated tasks, but there’s still a lot of room for human interactions.