Beware of Customer Service Snake Oil and Silver Bullets

Every now and then someone presents me with the latest and greatest ‘cure all’ customer service program, idea, or system.  There is no silver bullet in Customer Service.

I am the founder of a Mystery Shopping Company but do not purport it to be the silver bullet to solve all your service ills. It is a critical part of the solution, but not the sole solution.

Just doing training is not the answer, because it needs to be measured.

 Customer complaint cards are not the answer because they are not frequent an tend to measure extremes.

The latest trend of Social Media listening posts (we started doing those two years ago) are also only telling you part of the picture.

Combining all the metrics in the one place is also not the only answer, because it misses the important point of mentoring, leading and managing staff.

Next time someone gives you the ‘cure all’ solution, don’t bite. But likewise, if you are only using one or two programs or processes, then equally you remain exposed.

 It is unlikely you can do it all, but likely you can do more.