How Poor Customer Service Can Destroy Your Company, From the Inside

Customer service conjures up images of customers, and for good reason. A company’s customer service is the public display of how it views customers. People – investors, customers, reporters – see a company with excellent customer service as a “customer oriented” company – and vice versa. But, what often gets overlooked is the effect that the inability to provide excellent customer service has on employees. Poor customer service may be destroying your customer base and eroding your company from the inside.

Low Engagement Levels

Employees don’t enjoy providing poor customer service any more than customers enjoy receiving it. But, in many cases, employees are bound by out of date rules and systems that force them to deliver sub-par experiences. We may be angry when we’re dissatisfied with our experience, but our anger subsides. Employees can’t avoid unhappy customers. They withstand the brunt of the anger day in and day out. This quickly leaves employees disenchanted with their jobs and eager to seek employment elsewhere.

Poor Opinion of the Company

Employees will quickly come to the conclusion that the company does not care about customers if they must continually deliver poor customer service because of company limitations. It’s impossible for employees to see their employers in a positive light if they are continually taking verbal beatings from unhappy customers, with no recourse in sight. They will feel abandoned on the front lines, continually under fire, while executives enjoy the fruits of their angst.

Some of the most powerful referrals a business can receive are from its own employees. People know that someone on the inside has a first-hand look at company operations so their recommendation carries a lot of weight. But, an employee who has a poor opinion of the company will usually tell friends and family to avoid their employer at all costs. Your business can become the victim of a high-stakes “telephone game,” with stories becoming exaggerated for the worse as they travel from prospect to prospect.

Every business claims that its customers are of the utmost importance and their employees are their number one asset. But, you may be sabotaging both by turning a blind eye to basic customer service needs. Customer service isn’t deemed effective in a boardroom, it’s the customers who declare whether they are satisfied or not. The only way to truly know what your customers think about your customer service is by deploying a customer survey. The recommended approach is to deploy a customer service survey to determine your baseline scores, and then resurvey periodically to measure the effectiveness of your improvement initiatives. Contact us today to get started!