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A Tale of Two Customer Service Representatives

I just had a problem with my computer monitor. It intermittently was creating all kinds of interesting colors. As cool as it looked, it wasn't good for reading what was on the screen. I called the manufacturer, who is known for customer service. After an hour of being transferred from one person to another, the screen on the monitor had returned to normal. We were forced to call back when the monitor began acting up again. To our surprise, the second experience was totally different than the first....

I just had a problem with my computer monitor. It intermittently was creating all kinds of interesting colors. As cool as it looked, it wasn't good for reading what was on the screen. I called the manufacturer, who is known for customer service. After talking to a two people and realizing this was going to take some time, I turned the problem over to my assistant. It took an hour of our time as we talked to four people to finally get to a person who could help, and by that time the screen on the monitor had returned to normal. The "customer service person" said they would like to help us with our problem, but we would have to call back when the screen was acting up. We were frustrated, to say the least.

Well, the monitor started doing its "thing" again, so my assistant quickly called and got right through to someone else who was very helpful. As soon as he heard about the problem he said that the monitor was obviously going bad, and they would send a replacement that we should receive in two to three business days.

Wow, what a difference! And, why the difference?

The answer is simple and has two parts. The first is technical training. I'm assuming that the second person immediately recognized what our problem was and knew we had a broken monitor. The first person made us go through all kinds of "tests" to determine that since it wasn't acting up, that there must be nothing wrong with the monitor.

The second part is attitude. The first person didn't seem very interested in helping us. He was just interested in what was going on with the monitor. He didn't realize that he was dealing with a customer, not a piece of equipment. When the monitor started acting up again, we were not looking forward to calling back, but we reluctantly did. We were pleasantly surprised at the difference, not just in the attitude of the customer service rep, but also in how they handled our problem.

There are two types of customer service reps out there. Those that try and take care of a technical problem and those that take care of the customer. Which one works for you?

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep's customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.