Rules are designed for the absence of thinking. Rules assume your staff are idiots. Rules do not work. Then why is our first inclination when solving a problem to create a new rule?

Of course, some rules are necessary for safety or specific industry/legal/regulatory requirements that will get the company in trouble and are fireable offenses. Every company has these. Rather, I’m talking about the rules for customer service or other areas that require a ‘no matter what’ application for staff members. These are the rules that negate creatively solving problems and show you don’t trust your employees. Now, if you really don’t trust your employees that’s a different problem.

Let me give you an example. I travel to a client a few times each month and use a rental car to get there. I use the same rental location each week. They know me there. A new manager showed up a few weeks ago. He’s young and eager to do a great job. You can tell.

I noticed that each time I turn my car in he asks two questions: “How was our customer service for you?” and, “Is there any way we can improve?” These sound like great questions, right? Well, they annoy the heck out me. Mainly because the robot asks me the same thing every single time. Last week when he asked me if there was anything he could do to improve I told him to stop asking me the standard, habitual, make me feel like a number, rote questions. He had a stunned look on his face.

On my next visit we talked about it. He said, the location was ranked very low on customer service so he is setting an example for his employees to ask these silly questions EVERY time. I know the guys who work behind the counter. They’re rolling their eyes. Success in improving customer service scores (at least as measured by customers vs. how many times you recite the catch-phrase) is very unlikely.

This is a perfect example of thinking about a problem rather than thinking through a problem. For example, if the rental car attendants would instead learn to make eye contact when speaking instead of staring at their computer screen, and identifying the reason the customer is at the counter – business rental, insurance repair, etc. they will go so much further than enforcing a catch-phrase be muttered at the end of each transaction.

Photo Credit: Phillie Casablanca

View Jim Canterucci's Profile      Subscribe via RSS