Poor customer service is a management problem

......and not only a marketing problem

Recently my 1st year International Business students here in Jyväskylä had to write a report on Michael LeBeouf's book "How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life." One task was to reflect on an incident or two of either good or bad customer service that they personally have received. It was no surprise that most of them mentioned incidents of bad customer service. This should tell us something - we tend to remember incidents of bad service better than the good. No surprise there. However, I also noticed that many of them complained that the poor service was due to the person delivering the service, such as a store clerk or waiter. However, on further reflection many of the students came to the conclusion that the real fault was in the way the business was run. Nothing could be more true!


Many Finns, and especially foreigners living in Finland, constantly complain that customer service is generally poor here in Finland. Some complaints are not justified as Finland is one of the world's leading countries in adopting and utilizing technology to improve customer service. Where the complaints usually come from is in regard to the human element. Personalized customer service in Finland is seen by many as being cold, impersonal and often outright non-existent. Of course this outlook may reflect one's own cultural or personal viewpoint. However, if we look at the customer service question from a managerial standpoint, the problem becomes very clear.


For example, last weekend I was having dinner in a restaurant. It was a normally crowded Saturday evening. Unfortunately, after placing my order I had to wait approximately one hour and fifteen minutes for my food to arrive. Now it would be easy to blame the waitress. However, she and the rest of the staff were working their tails off. It was obvious the real reason was that the restaurant was understaffed. Management is to blame. Actually, when you think about it, management needs to take the blame in nearly all instances of poor customer service:


1. The waiter was rude or incompetent - Who hired the person? Who failed to provide proper training?

2. The service was slow - Who is responsible for staffing and organizing the workflow?


When bad things happen, it is management who is responsible for making things right. Or better yet, management should attempt to prevent as many bad incidents from happening as is possible.


The same is true in business to business, industrial and high tech markets. Unfortunately, management often fails to see the effect that customer service has on the profitability of the firm. In later posts I hope to touch on these issues in more detail.