The world of IT is different when it comes to giving great service. And not just because IT appears to be a strange cult of mumbo jumbo from the outside. Though the Zingerman’s way of service is world renowned and very, very useful, it does not exactly translate. And this is fine - that’s part of the challenge of great systems is applying them.

When we receive a cry for help from one of our customers (the staff of Zingerman’s) should we take that as an opportunity to provide great customer service or as an opportunity to handle a customer complaint? Should we acknowledge their complaint, apologize, make it right, thank them for letting us know of the problem, and then document the complaint? Or should we figure out what the customer wants, get it for them (accurately, politely, and enthusiastically), and then go the extra mile?

On the surface the first one, handling a complaint, seems to be the best fit of the two. But when applied we find it often doesn’t fit - in almost all cases the customers are not complaining - they are looking for help, asking for service. In that case the latter option seems the best. But in a lot of situations that doesn’t fit either - it’s too simple and direct for the complexity of many of our issues.

Here’s what we do. When it’s a complaint we use the 5 steps to handling a customer complaint. When it’s a simple request for an item we use the three steps to great customer service. In the middle land of most of our issues we use a little of both. The elements we have in play are: Respond, Resolve, Document, Follow up, Extra Mile.

1. RESPOND
- Respond within 24 hours
- Ask questions (helps solve and communicates engagement)
- Feel free to apologize if they are inconvenienced
- Provide a time assessment for a solution

2. RESOLVE
- Accurately resolve bigger issue
- Politely (use your social skills)
- Enthusiastically (cheerful - never cynical or blaming)
- Communicate (make sure they know the progress and when the issue is resolved)
- Resolve within time period estimated or renegotiate before deadline

3. DOCUMENT
- Send an email to client and IT saying what you did or enter in tracking system

4. FOLLOW UP
- After resolving the issue check back with the client
- This may restart the process!

5. XTRA MILE
- Find an imaginative way to go the extra mile.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.