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“I’ve Got Your Back.” Really?
By: Patrick Maguire
Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service
Posted: 09/14/2010
Business owners and managers talk a big game when it comes to supporting their employees, but unfortunately, many of them cower during moments of truth when customers are dead wrong. Smart leaders treasure great employees because they are much more valuable than horrific customers.
Workers who have left their jobs consistently tell me their departures stemmed from superiors who failed to support them in the face of encounters with out-of-control customers. Neither money nor lack of advancement led them to quit. They departed environments plagued by low morale, distrust, and weak management.
In addition to being poor leaders, a lot of owners and managers operate without a crisis management plan, leaving them unprepared when unruly customers act out. Many of them simply don’t know how to respond to inappropriate customers. Competent leaders, however, consistently train, rehearse, and role-play scenarios to ensure their readiness for circumstances requiring courage, confidence and decisive action.
Retaining top employees requires strong leadership. When weak leadership persists, quality employees seek greener pastures. When you (owners/manangers) enable and cater to abusive customers at the expense of staff, here is what you lose:
1. Credibility with your employees and other customers: Abusive, sexist, racist, condescending, entitled, horrible customers demoralize your staff and alienate your valued customers when you tolerate, or worse, encourage them. The ‘collateral damage’ can devastate a business.
2. Respect and Trust: Employees and customers alike recognize an employer’s true character by their consistent actions, not their rhetoric. “It’s all good” doesn’t get the job done when push comes to shove (sometimes literally). Leaders who over promise then under deliver at crunch time undermine themselves in the long run.
3. Employee Ambassadors: Great employees attract like-minded, high-quality employees and loyal customers. Businesses with high employee retention rates cultivate loyal, repeat customers. Think about the businesses you patronize regularly; you count on seeing those helpful, familiar, friendly faces every time you visit. Conversely, disgruntled former employees can be your worst PR nightmare.
4. Time: Replacing great employees requires advertising, recruiting, interviewing, hiring and extensive training. New employees often don’t come as advertised, and many don’t fit in or last long. When stellar employees quit, managers get bogged down filling in for them and attending to damage control within the organization and with their customers.
5. Money: Great employees are one of a company’s most valuable assets. Simply put, it’s bad business to lose a great employee over a really lousy customer.
Here are a few contributions on this topic from readers:
RM, Plymouth, MA: Having worked as an outside sales representative for more than eleven years, I had some customers who were fantastic and some who were complete assholes. But I also think that employers are a big part of the problem. They often expect sales reps to treat impossible customers like royalty, no matter what. It is an archaic way of thinking that eventually wears on an employee’s self-esteem and self-respect…
BG, Boston, MA: One thing you mentioned in the Boston Globe interview that really jumped out at me was the part about managers backing up their staff. What’s happened to good managers? In the last few years I’ve met more men and women afraid to do their jobs than I can ever remember. I know management isn’t easy because I’ve done it, but I’ve also had the guts to stand up to customers that have mistreated my employees.
MC, NYC: If our customers were disrespectful to any of our customer service people, we did precisely what you recommend (fire the customer). We would ask to hear the customer’s side of the story, and ask them also to think more carefully about the feelings of our service people, and to remember how hard they worked to perform for them. Anyone can have a bad day, so we would tolerate one transgression. Our employees felt we supported them even if we forgave the customer, as long as we took notice. If the offensive behavior persisted, we would fire the customer. It happened only 3 or 4 times in my career, and at times it came as a considerable sacrifice to our revenue, but we earned that back many times over in the form of increased loyalty from our customer service staff.
Business owners/managers: Where do you stand on this issue? Do you support your employees when they encounter abusive, disingenuous customers? Do you tend to placate the customer even if it risks damage to the relationship with a valued employee?
Workers: Does your current boss have your back or are they all talk? Have you ever quit a job because your boss had no spine? What was the last straw?
I spoke with a server over the weekend who had a customer in a high-end Boston restaurant pick up his steak with a fork and plop it down on her bare hand as she reached for his plate. The customer had just informed the server that his steak was over cooked. The server refused to return to the table of 13 guests, and the manager on duty did nothing except reassign the table.
Please join the conversation. Thank you.
18 Responses to ““I’ve Got Your Back.” Really?”
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Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 18 Comments »
This is the result of “the customer is always right” being applied too liberally. A customer is right if their food is under or over cooked to how they requested preparation. They are not, however, right once they start to berate or belittle the employee or anybody else for that matter. What people don’t understand is that the key is not respect but a mutual courtesy towards another human being regardless of their “station.”
About a month ago, I had a table come in and sit in my section. I walked over to say hi and get drinks started, and before I can say hi, then tell me they want breadsticks IMMEDIATELY… ok, what can i get you to drink? Their drinks (Coke, Sprite, Shirley temple xtra syrup and xtra XTRA cherries, and a peach tea xtra syrup no ice) my bartender had to make. So I go to get the breadsticks. Of course, there are none. I come back to the table and tell them it’ll take three minutes, and the mom starts cussing at me, saying I’m a horrible server and her kids are starving and it’s my fault. I go and get drinks and drop them off. Then go and tell my manager about the table. He makes me keep the table, cuts me off the floor three hours early, doesn’t let me close, writes me up, and suspends me for my next shift, saying that I can’t take care of guests. I still have my job, but I have no respect for him at all.
There are times when you are given the standard line to give a customer about a return or some other policy and you try to make the customer understand without being confrontational, but when they DEMAND (as if I would refuse) to see the manager and the manager gives them whatever they want, it makes you feel like a punching bag, but it doesn’t always happen.
I work for a BIG company (a lot of you would recognize it) and have been able to work my way into a job where customer contact is minimal. Purposely. Most contact I have had w/customers was great, I did my best to make them happy, but those few were a nightmare. That said, until 2 months ago I had a manager who was clueless about the job AND how to treat employees. As happens in a lot of big companies, he was not working out, so he was promoted. Good for me, really bad for my company. When are upper management and the bean counters going to realize that bad management skills equal lost revenue? If a manager is disrespectful, racist, sexist or just plain dumb, he is a detriment and should be treated accordingly.
I was working in a fast-casual restaurant, one that becomes more of a nightclub atmosphere after 9pm. I had observed that one of my guests was getting a little more intoxicated than was safe and slowed down his alcohol service. I brought some complimentary chips and some water to him. The guy managed to get another beer from another source; I alerted the manager on duty that service was suspended. The young man then demanded another beer from me, and was verbally refused. He grabbed the front of my shirt and was about to push me backwards when other male guests in the immediate vicinity intervened. Shaken, I again went to the manager, whose only response was, “You shouldn’t have overserved him”. Huh? He didn’t even come out of the back of the house to try and diffuse the situation.
The police are called to the restaurant at least once a week, there have been multiple incidences of violence, and there are no security cameras. The company has invested tens of thousands of dollars in HDTV’s and a wall jukebox, has cut salaried managers from 5 to 4, has heavily promoted the club atmosphere, yet has taken no steps to ensure the safety of guests or employees. The managers at the store are perhaps too overwhelmed to have the interests of the employees at heart, but what does this do for the people in the trenches? It’s been a fear of servers and bartenders there that it will take a fatality to facilitate changes in “company policy”.
I’ve worked in customer service all my working life, (coming up on 20 years now – sheesh), and several of those years in retail service. This is where the weakest managers were always found. I could not possibly remember all the times we the customer service reps would try to follow “the policy”, got demanded by the irate customers to call the manager, and then have the manager override the policy. It would undermine any power we “underlings” had.
Too many times the young workers would be almost in tears from being berated by irrational customers, only to be told later by the managers that we should have handled the situation differently.
Too many people out there think just because they have a certain type of college degree, they are qualified to be a manager. I’m sorry to say that is not always the case.
In the nineties, I worked at a large retail chain, (where there is supposedly More For Your Life), and I had a customer try and return a home sewn dress. She’d attached the tag from a dress in the Juniors department, trying to pass it off as something she bought in the store. I said, “That’s not from this store.”, and she started screaming. She demanded to see the supervisor. I called the supervisor, who didn’t return it, but who then berated me for using an “improper tone” with the “customer”. Hello? Not only was HE NOT THERE to hear the tone, he took the story of the one TRYING TO COMMIT A CRIME as gospel. I cried over the incident, then quit about a month later. On my exit review paperwork, I completely dressed down the management. Management was the reason I quit, not the 5 dollars an hour, the working nights or the physical labor.
There is a regional airline in Australia that actually has in its “value statement” that the customer is not always right and they will stand by their employees. I really admire that – I’d love to work for them but alas I think I’m getting too old to be considered for a flight attendant. Customer service can be fun, but it can really suck too. Tourists can be so dumb and ignorant, but most are great.
Loyalty is a major core value of mine. As a college professor, so many times I am “let down” by weak deans, Dept. chairs, etc. One example, I was having a dispute w/a colleague and chair called me in and said he really needed me on his “team,” that he relied on me, I was a key player, etc.
He resigned a week later…no communication, nothing.
When I was studying for a Hospitality Management Degree it was always drummed into us that the customer is always right, no matter what. Well, after working in the Hospitality Industry for several years, I realised that the customer is not always right. When I was a Restaurant Manager I would always defend and support the employees if I felt they were in the right.
Patrick, I think your book should be required reading for all Hospitality students.
Fred was not everybody’s cup of tea. And remarks to the effect that I was “built like a brick shit house” would probably garner him a sexual harrassment suit these days. But not from me, ardent feminist that I was/am. Fred was old school on some things and sui generis in others. Because Fred absolutely “had your back” and front for that matter. Working as a clerk for him in his small florist shop was an eye opener. For many reasons, but that is a longer story.
Back to who has who’s back…
His orientation went like this: “We don’t take any shit, see? If anyone gives you any crap. Tell them that their feet weren’t nailed to the floor. The door was not locked when you came in.”
He was just great!
Fred did send obnoxious customers packing. Little old Boston Brahmin Ladies with attitude? Out the door, in a huff. Or a taxi – he did not care. And if I didn’t know the name of a plant he instructed me to use the “latin” term for all unidentifiable plants: besideof theroadia
I have two kind of horror stories to share when it comes to managers.
The first was for a store I once worked at in a local mall. On two occassions within six weeks of each other, the store was robbed. The first time it happened, I was at the helm the night it happened, and it was a quick change scam where the customer tries to buy a $5 item with a $100 bill. The second was an actual break-in that occurred overnight. Both times, the owner of the store pinned it on the clerks working the night of the incidents. Now me, being 19 and going through a particularly rough time mentally and medically, I just accepted the fact he was going to essentially rob me of the $100 I lost that night because I wouldn’t quit until I had another job; but the girl who was working the night before the break in just upright quit – he was going to make her to pay back the approximately $500 cash that was lost.
My second round of experiences are not malious, per say, just embarrassing. I’ve worked for a couple of major telecommunications companies as a inbound customer service representative; and whenever someone calls to receive credit or something extra ordinary, as a front line agent, there is rarely room for me to be generous and customers end up insisting to speak to managers. Before it ever reaches the point of esclation, I’ve usually asked at least one manager or someone in a position of support about the issue and they always assured me the customer cannot recieve such-and-such because of whatever policy and there’s no way I can stray from it. I end up assuring the customers that my manager will probably say the same thing I have said, and yet when the manager takes over the call, it’s more than likely the customer is going to get almost exactly what they’re looking for. It would be nice if managers in such lines of business would either follow the same policies we do, or if they do have the ability to bend the rules, the rules do not allow for a complete 360 on what I’ve informed the customer because it sometimes feeds into a stereotype that customer service agents don’t know what they’re doing. Well, we do – we know what we’re doing to make sure we keep our jobs!
While I was working as a hostess at a national chain, one of my co-workers was berated by a customer because his table wasn’t ready when she said it would be. She assured him that she hadn’t forgotten about him and continued to take names. The customer, apparently not happy with her answer, grabbed her by the arm to get her attention. Our general manager saw this happen and asked the customer to leave and never return. I miss him. He really did have our backs!
WOW!!!!! How true that some managers “Talk a good game…..” but through their lack of action clearly show that they do NOT give a damn!!!!! It is so disheartening, disturbing and so so demoralizing!!!
I am currently doing the job of at least 3 people and management is fully aware of it. I love it when they suggest that you leave on time.. even though the work volume is beyond beyond…. Are you supposed to be stress free coming in the next morning when the work….has piled up to an unmanagable level again?
Talk about low morale and weak management?
And how about when they suggest that you visit the EAP (Employee Assistance Program) for your stress level because you are working yourself into the ground trying to barely stay afloat??
Are you kidding me?
Have my back?
Respect is a two way street. You earn your managers respect, and they earn yours. BUT … poor middle & lower management can cripple small businesses, and huge corporations alike. So, I feel its imperative companies really, really view who they hire to manage their companies. And train them well!!!! For the good of employees, patrons, clients, and their own success.
My own experience tells me ‘nowadays’ in this economy, very few work places have bosses that have my back. Even though they speak a good game. Its dog eat dog world, even moreso now, and quality trained managers are less and less. Afterall, there is a vast surplus to replace anyone who isnt managing a profitline.
So, I think the trend these days is “No, Management is more concerned with keeping their own jobs, less with setting their employees up for success”. Lack of training, lack of selection, lack of quality management tips the scale badly.
I ALWAYS have my employees backs and they certainly know it… i have proven it several times. I kicked a man out for insulting a gay server. Told him to get out of my restaurant and NEVER come back. Told him dinner was on me because I hated the thought of any of his money ever getting supporting me, my staff or my restaurant. I have kicked a man out for inappropriate behavior towards a female bartender. I have asked someone to leave for using racist comments before too. But even for the NOT SO OBVIOUS… I have backed servers when I KNOW the guests are lying or exaggerating about something and I have backed up the kitchen too. I have been blown away at the lengths people will go to. My staff works hard to make me successful and they know I will always be there for them.
I quit Starbucks because of this stupid policy.
People would come in and rip us off.
I was raised to stand up for myself when someone threatens me, so I’d call them out on it.
I got written up for ‘my attitude’, even though some of the customers were downright barbaric.
That and being sexually harrassed and stalked by one particular customer.
The ‘customer’s always right’ policy has got to go.
My boss definitely doesn’t have my back. I had a customer who DEMANDED to speak to the manager about something and you know what I was told? Take their name and number and someone will get back to them? WTF?! How is that going to help me get rid of the customer who is verbally abusing me by screaming for a manager? I agree with Lambcat. The “customer is always right” policy is used way too loosely and must go. Customers take advantage of that phrase. Some customers suck!