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The people providing the service aren't paying attention to me. They are not considering my needs as a customer. They are taking the quickest way to the solution without concern about my experience as a consumer.

It happens to all of us, all of the time. Consider this example, you pull up to your local fast food restaurant, and even though you know you will regret it, you order French fries and a drink. As you pull away from the window, and reach into the sack to snag a fry, you discover that your French fries are old, cold and limp. They are as unappetizing as they can be. Your window service was fast, the clerk was friendly, and yet they didn't consider you as a consumer. They didn't ask if you would mind waiting the few minutes it would take to prepare fresh fries, they assumed that your need was primarily speed of service and so delivered inferior product.

As a consumer when I actually break down and purchase French fries that I know are bad for me and are breaking my diet, I want them to be fresh, hot, crispy, Lightly salted and delicious. I will wait for those fries.

For my second example I would like to point out my recent experience with my technical support help line. I was having a software conflict that was generating an error and called into the support line to see if they could help me resolve the conflict. When I explained the problem the support representative asked me to reboot my computer. I had already tried that solution several times before giving in and calling technical support, but I faithfully rebooted while on the phone. Next I was asked to uninstall and reinstall the software from the control panel. Again a solution I had tried prior to calling technical support. The representative was very friendly, seemed knowledgeable and walked me faithfully through a list of interventions to resolve the software conflict. The call lasted more than an hour and we were unable to resolve the conflict. Not once did the agent ask me what solutions I had already tried. He didn't ask my about my prior computer experience, what other software applications I was running, or offer alternative solutions to resolve the problem when he was unable to help me.

I purchased software for my pc that was distributed by my PC manufacturer. In doing that I believed (naively perhaps) that I was getting software that would generate the least amount of issue upon installation. When I had a problem, instead of the agent being solution oriented, I was provided the accepted list of canned answers and then abandoned to my own resources.

Are consumers having this experience in all of our customer interactions? Is this the reason for the accolades companies receive for customer service excellence when their employees actually seem to own issue and care about solutions? We have learned not to complain when our fries are cold, or we don't get resolution from technical support. We calmly walk away from the problem and search for customer service in other areas.

What would happen if we changed the dynamic of the interaction? Would you be more loyal to your local fast food restaurant if the clerk at the window told you that the fries were a little old, but if you didn't mind waiting for a few minutes they would prepare fresh ones for you? How would you feel about your computer company if the technical support representative spent the first five minutes of the conversation asking you about the attempts you had already tried to resolve your issue and then tailored their response to offer real solutions? Would you be more loyal? Would you promote their product or service?

Maybe great customer service starts with acknowledging me, the consumer, as an individual and it ends with asking me questions to tailor the response to fit me individually?

Great Customer service Really is all about considering ME!

By Carole Sue Jones