A Hidden Reason to Be Polite to Rude Customers

I distinctly remember the first time I apologized on behalf of America.

It was 1995 and I was living in Dublin, Ireland. I wandered into a gift shop near Grafton Street to purchase some Waterford crystal to send home to my mom.

As I walked around the shop, I observed another customer berating an associate. This lady was RUDE. She obnoxiously demeaned the employee while constantly stating that she was an American.

As if being American entitled her to treat people with utter disrespect.

The associate politely tried her best to help the customer. She was calm, patient, and kind, though I could tell she was unnerved by the customer's outrageous behavior. Amazingly, she kept her cool until the customer eventually stormed off.

The customer was an embarrassment. What if word got out that all Americans are this boorish? As an American, I felt compelled to apologize to the associate for the rude customer and assure her that we aren't all this way.

A study published in the May 2017 Journal of Service Research suggests the retail associate's reaction to the rude customer prompted me to be supportive.

Here's why that's a thing.

Our Instinctive Reaction to Rude Customers

Being polite to a rude customer is not easy. It's not even natural.

Most of us instinctively experience the fight or flight reaction. Our normal response to a rude person is to fight back (with words, presumably) or flee the situation. The norms of customer service don't allow us to do that.

We're supposed to smile and take it, just like the retail associate did when confronted by that rude customer.

It can get even worse when other customers are watching. A demeaning customer might trigger feelings of embarrassment that cause us to lash out in defense of our pride. It's a completely normal reaction, yet completely unacceptable in customer service.

The amount of emotional intelligence required to be good at customer service seems severely underestimated when you consider situations like this!

It takes a lot of effort to be polite to a rude customer, though my experience in Ireland shows there's an added benefit to making the effort to be polite in the face of rudeness.

The next customer will like you even more.

Why do customers think they can be rude?

There are a number of causes for customers’ rude behavior.

One is a basic bit of psychology. The emotional part of our brain can act as a sort of gatekeeper for the rational part of our brain. When people get upset about something, such as a frustrating service failure, our emotional brain takes over and clouds our rational judgment.

That’s why you can see a customer getting very angry over something that doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Another is the notion in American service culture that the customer is always right. Some people take this to mean the customer is superior to the employee, and people often act this way.

I did some research to discover the origin of “the customer is always right” saying. My discovery might surprise you—that’s not the original quote! It had been changed over time.

The original saying reminded employees not to argue with customers, even when they’re wrong.

The Best Way to Handle Rude Customers

Researchers have discovered an unexpected benefit to being polite, yet assertive while serving a rude customer.

The study was authored by Alex Henkel, Johannes Boegerhausen, Rafaeli Anat, and Jos Lemmink. They conducted a series of experiments to see how an observer reacted to a customer being rude to an employee.

In one experiment, participants watched a video of a customer service interaction where the customer was rude. The video showed the employee reacting one of four ways:

• The employee was rude to the customer

• The employee was polite to the customer

• The employee politely, yet assertively admonished the customer

• The employee asked the customer to leave

Participants were then asked to evaluate the employee's customer service. Compared to the rude employee, researchers found observers rated the polite employee 65 percent higher. The polite and assertive employee was rated 69 percent higher than the rude employee.

This shows that politeness in the face of incivility prompts observing customers to feel compassion for the employee.

So treating a rude customer with respect isn't just about serving that customer, it's about serving every other customer who happens to be watching!

 Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Recognize your own, instinctive reaction to a rude person.

2. Resist the temptation to act rudely back to the customer.

3. Calmly and politely assist the customer.

4. If the customer crosses the line and becomes abusive, assertively ask the customer to stop.

5. Remain professional at all times.

While this seems like simple advice, I’ll be the first to admit it’s easier said than done. When I did research for my book, Getting Service Right, I learned that negative emotions from rude customers can be highly contagious!

Take Action

It can be tempting to ignore rude customers who complain about your business online, but that’s a mistake. People observing your responses will like your business more if you reply in a polite and assertive way.

There are a few other ways that replying to online reviews can attract more customers.

The hardest part about serving a rude customer, whether in person, or online, is controlling your natural instincts. You can start by learning to recognize the Fight or Flight Instinct. This short video will show you how.

Recognizing your natural instincts from Working with Upset Customers by Jeff Toister and Madecraft

Serving rude customers isn't easy, but you'll find most other customers will be on your side if you handle the situation correctly.

How to Get the Most Out of Training Videos

The battery on my solar-powered keyboard died a few weeks ago.

Naturally, I searched YouTube for a video on how to replace it. A short video helped me learn how to remove the old battery, determine what special type of battery I needed to order, and install it.

Voila! My keyboard works again.

There's a good chance you've done something similar. If so, you've discovered the secrets to getting the most out of a training video.

Training videos work best when they are short and focused on something immediately useful. Yet most people take a different approach when using training videos to learn something for work.

They succumb to the popcorn method and just watch the entire video straight through. Here are some tips to help you learn faster and learn more from training videos.

Tip #1: Make it Immediately Useful

Most people watch a training video because it sounds interesting.

The problem is our brains tend to lose information that's not immediately applicable. So if you watch a training video that might be relevant someday, you'll probably have to watch it again when that day comes because you forgot the original lesson.

A better approach is to only watch videos that are immediately useful.

Taylor needed to create a screen capture video for a work project using a software program called Camtasia. She'd never used Camtasia before, so searched the LinkedIn Learning library for Camtasia courses and found one that fit.

The course walked her step-by-step through her project and she was able to complete it successfully.

Tip #2: Leverage Micro-Learning

Most people watch a training video all the way through. This can take a lot of time, with many videos ranging from twenty minutes to over an hour!

A better approach is to focus on one skill at a time. Learn that skill, apply the skill at work to reinforce the learning, and then move on to the next topic.

Most of the courses on LinkedIn Learning are divided into two to five minute segments to make this easy. For instance, imagine you wanted to improve your customer service survey. You might watch this short video on establishing a survey goal.

The best practice would be to create your survey goal before watching the next segment. This makes it much easier to remember the lesson.

Tip #3: Apply What You Learn

Most people will watch a video without any specific intention to apply the lessons. They just hope a good idea or two will stick.

It seems strange to consume training without having a plan to apply that training, yet that's what people do.

A better approach is to immediately apply what you learn in a video. Taylor learned the basics of Camtasia because she actually used the software to create a project. I changed the battery on my keyboard so I didn't have to buy a new keyboard.

Many training videos have exercises or worksheets that accompany them. I try to include an activity of some kind at the end of every video segment in my courses. 

You'll rapidly improve your learning if you use these exercises to apply each lesson.

Tip #4: Skip to Relevant Topics

Most people watch a training video all the way through, even when it covers topics that are not relevant. Frankly, this can be pretty boring.

A better approach is to skip over content that isn't relevant and go straight to the good stuff.

There are literally hours of training video on Camtasia in the LinkedIn Learning library. Taylor would still be watching those videos if she didn't select the most relevant segments that were applicable to her specific project!

All my training videos have titles and descriptions for each segment in the course so you can skip to the topics that are most relevant to you. This also gives you the ability to revisit key topics if you need a refresher.

Tip #5: Make it Relevant

Many people get hung up on the scenes shown in training videos. They'll say, "That video shows a restaurant scene, but I don't work in a restaurant so it's not relevant to me."

A better approach is to find a way to make that generic scene relevant to you. Don't get hung up on whether a particular scene is a precise match with your work environment. Focus instead on the skills and techniques being shared and then imagine how you can apply those in your own environment.

Doing this, you'll quickly find that customer service skills are essentially the same across most situations. You just need to adapt those skills to your specific needs.

Take Action!

I like to include a short movie at the start of my training courses that explain exactly how to get the most out of the video. Here's an example from my Serving Internal Customers course:

Welcome from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by

My suggestion is to do your homework before watching your next training video. Try to apply these tips and notice how they change the way you learn!

Lessons From the Overlook: Interview with Dr. Fred van Bennekom

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a monthly update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

You can get a false sense of security when things are going well.

Sally and I have owned The Overlook for a little over a year now. Revenue is up, guests are happy, and we feel like we've gotten a handle on operations. 

That's dangerous.

Right when you think you know it all, something happens to remind you that you don't. For us, it was a group of guests in December who did some minor damage and stole a few items including a bluetooth speaker from the game room.

The damage has been fixed and the game room has a new speaker, but I still used the opportunity to seek some advice.

I called Dr. Fred van Bennekom, a customer service expert whose company, Great Brook Consulting, helps companies listen to their customers.

Van Bennekom recently sold a vacation rental property in Harpswell, Maine that he had owned for more than ten years. (You can see photos and a short video tour here.) He had plenty of lessons to share.

Before the theft.

After the theft. Why was the picture off the wall?!

Interview with Dr. Fred van Bennekom

Q: How have customer expectations changed since you first bought your property?

"Customer expectations have changed dramatically in the past ten years. Ten years ago, house rentals were a cottage industry. People did it, but it wasn't widely known.

"If there were some rough edges in the property or the furnishings, people were okay with it. I think it reinforced the idea they were getting a bargain.

"Today, HomeAway has TV ads of a family renting this gorgeous house on the ocean with an in-ground pool so they can bring their dog on vacation. How many of the homes in HomeAway's inventory actually look like the house in the ad? Probably very few, but that ad creates a certain expectation.

"People today are less tolerant of rough edges. Even kitschy furniture that used to be a plus can now be viewed as a negative. People expect to rent a 3-bedroom house on the ocean at about the same price as a hotel room—but have the amenities and services of a hotel."

Q: Have you seen a shift in guest demographics?

"In later years, I started to have more guests who didn't really understand how renting a house is different than renting a hotel room.

"For example, we provide a set of linens and towels for each guest plus a few extra towels. In a hotel, the housekeeper will come each day and change your towels or you can call the front desk and ask for more.

"It's different in a rental house. You need to wash your own towels if they get dirty and we do have a washer and dryer. 

"I got a call one Tuesday night after 10pm. My guests had checked in over the weekend and now wanted to wash the towels but they were complaining that the washing machine was not working. 

"The washing machine worked just fine, but they didn't know how to turn on the water shut off valve. I think they rented an apartment and weren't familiar with how things work in a house.

"I put instructions for things like this in the house guide and even email a copy to guests at booking, but they don't always read it. By the way, two days later this guest called because the dishwasher wasn’t working. The kitchen is directly over the washer, and he had apparently turned off the hot water valve to the kitchen sink when trying to get the washer working and didn’t turn it back on."

Q: Did you do anything different over the years as guest expectations changed?

"When I first bought the house, it was not customary to provide guests with consumables such as paper towels, toilet paper, and dish soap.

"The next year, I went on a trip to Ireland with my family where we rented a house. The very first thing we had to do was go out and buy consumables; there were none in the house. I realized this was a hassle for guests so I decided to provide all the basic consumables at my rental property. You can buy these pretty cheaply in bulk at Costco. 

"That year, the Costco-size supply of toilet paper was left in plain view and someone took it all! People would also throw smaller bottles of laundry detergent into their car. After that, I started providing “starter supplies” of consumables. I put two rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom, and I bought a really big laundry bottle and kept refilling it."

Q: Speaking of taking things, what was your experience with theft and damage?

"The first year we had the place we outfitted it with cute little knickknacks, but we quickly realized things get lost, damaged, or stolen—not sure which. My wife and I played a game called, “What ever happened to the…?” You shouldn't put anything in your vacation rental that you really don't want to lose.

"The one I really remember was my Maine Gazetter—a large, detailed atlas of the state. I’d owned it for decades and had my own notations on the map, so I was really disappointed to lose it."

"One summer, someone once forgot to lower the umbrella on the deck table. There was a major windstorm and the whole table blew off the deck! I put a picture of that on the front cover of the house guide as if to say, 'this is why you need to know this information.'

"An off-season renter got into some sort of fight with her boyfriend and he broke four of the rugged dining chairs and damaged several walls. She tried to glue the legs back on one of the chairs but it completely fell apart. 

"I also found coins and sand in the dryer, as if someone had gotten their pants wet and then just tossed them in the dryer without cleaning them off or emptying the pockets. The dryer’s bushings died a few months later, no doubt from the sand.

"Those experiences reinforced the practice of communicating with guests and having your property manager inspect the place so you can charge the guest out of their security deposit when there is damage or theft."

Q: What was the toughest part about owning a vacation rental property?

"The stress of having to deal with crisis situations when you don't have resolutions and knowing at any time the phone might ring with some new crisis.

"I once got a call on Monday that there was no water at the house. I live 2.5 hours away, so I had to work with my property manager to diagnose the problem. We had guests arriving that Thursday for their kid’s college graduation, so I had to reach out and tell them I wasn't sure whether there would be running water when they arrived.

"It turned out that the well pump had died. Fortunately, I was able to get it fixed in 24 hours, but the work pales in comparison to the stress."

Q: What did you like best about owning a vacation rental property?

"I actually enjoyed interacting with renters during the sales process. It was nice having conversations with people about the local area and helping them make plans.

"Maybe only one out of ten guests was a major headache. The rest were really enjoyable. But, boy, those ‘ones’ wear on you after a few years. That’s why we sold."

How to Find Trends in Your Survey Comments

Updated: June 12, 2023

The Director of Customer Experience was proud of her company’s new customer service survey. She had been a strong advocate for collecting voice of customer feedback and now they were finally getting it.

"That's great!" I said. "What are you doing with the data?"

There was an awkward silence. Finally, she replied, "Uh, we report the numbers in our regular executive meeting."

That was it. The survey was doing nothing to generate insights that could help improve customer experience, increase customer loyalty, or prevent customer churn.

One problem was the survey had no comment section. Customers could rate their experience, but there was no place for them to explain why they gave that rating.

Comments are a critical element that tell you what your customers are thinking and what you need to do to improve. But having a comment section isn't enough.

You need to know how to analyze those comments. This guide can help you.

Why Survey Comments Matter

Comments provide context behind numerical ratings. They help explain what makes customers happy, what frustrates them, and what you can do better.

Let’s look at the Google reviews for a Discount Tire Store in San Diego. As of June 12, 2023, the store has a 4.5 star rating on Google from 482 reviews.

That's great news, but two big questions remain if you’re the store manager:

• How did your store earn that rating? (You want to sustain it!)

• What's preventing even better results? (You want to improve.)

The rating alone doesn't tell you very much. You need to look at the comments people write when they give those ratings to learn more.

The challenge is the comments are freeform. You'll need a way to quickly spot trends.

Analyze Survey Comments for Trends

The good news is you can do this by hand. It took me less than 30 minutes to do the analysis I'm going to show you.

Start with a check sheet. You can do this on a piece of paper or open a new document and create a table like the one below. Create a separate column for each possible rating on the survey.

Next, read each survey comment and try to spot any themes that stand out as the reason the customer gave that rating. Record those themes on your check sheet in the column that matches the star rating for that review.

For example, what themes do you see in this five star review?

I recorded the following themes on my check sheet:

Now repeat this for all of the reviews. (If you have a lot of reviews, you can stick to a specific time frame, such as the past three months.) Look for similar words or phrases that mean the same thing and put a check or star next to each theme that's repeated.

Once you've completed all of the reviews, tally up the themes that received the most mentions. Here are the top reasons people give a 5 star rating for this Discount Tire store:

• Fast service: 72%

• Good prices: 35%

• Friendly employees: 23%

There weren't many bad reviews. The few that had comments mentioned a long wait time, a lack of trustworthiness, or some damage done to the customer's vehicle.

You'll see a larger theme emerge if you look across all the reviews.

Some aggravation usually accompanies a trip to the tire store. Maybe you got a flat tire. Perhaps you're trying to squeeze in car service before work. There's a good chance you're dreading the cost.

When Discount Tire customers are happy, their comments tend describe some sort of relief. For instance, more than one customer mentioned arriving just before closing and feeling relieved to get great service from helpful and friendly employees.

Take Action!

The purpose of this exercise is to take action!

If I managed that Discount Tire store, I'd make sure employees understood they are in the relief business. (Perhaps they do, since their rating is so high!) Relief is one of the top emotions in customer support.

I'd also respond to negative reviews, like this one:

For private surveys, you'll need a non-anonymous survey or a contact opt-in feature to do this.

Many public rating platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and TripAdvisor allow you to respond publicly to customer reviews. A polite and helpful response can signal other customers that you care about service quality.

And you might save that customer, too. One Discount Tire customer changed his 1 star review to a 5 star review after speaking with the manager who apologized and fixed the issue!

You can watch me do another check sheet in this short video on LinkedIn Learning:

How to Keep Non-Desk Employees in the Loop

Sharing information with non-desk employees is a challenge in customer service. 

These are employees who don't sit at a desk in front of a computer to do their job. They may not even have a set work station and often don't have access to company email. Non-desk employees can work multiple shifts or even at multiple locations, making face-to-face communication difficult.

Here are just a few common examples of non-desk employees:

• Cashiers

• Servers

• Hotel Housekeepers

• Field Technicians

• Parking Attendants

• Security Guards

• Museum Docents

• Retail Associates

It's critical to share vital information with these employees. Here are some ways you can do it.

Two Bedrock Communication Principles

Attention and repetition are two key principles that should guide any employee communication effort.

We are much more likely to notice things that are unusual or capture our attention in some way. Our brains then use repetition to decide what information to keep front and center.

For example, posting a notice on a bulletin board might not capture your employees' attention or get them to remember something important. But employees will be more likely to read and retain what's posted if they know their supervisor will randomly quiz them about it.

This means the best communication strategies have multiple means of communication. 

It often starts with conversations between employees and their direct supervisor. Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, CEO of the internal branding agency Tribe, cautions against relying solely on the manager.

"Cascading information through the managers of non-desk employees is the default communication method in many large companies, but there really needs to be some communication directly from corporate as well. Our national research suggests that non-desk employees see a lack of communication from the top as a lack of respect for their contributions."

Communication Options for Non-Desk Employees

Keeping in mind employees need multiple means of communication, including some messaging straight from corporate, here are some ideas for different options to consider.

Company Newsletter. A professional-looking print newsletter can make a big impact when you have employees working multiple shifts in multiple locations. You can share company news, profile various employees, include messaging from executive leadership, and reinforce customer service concepts. I once edited a newsletter that went out to 4,000+ employees in five states and employees consistently told me they were excited to learn what their colleagues were doing in the parts of the company. The CEO also contributed a regular message which also made an impact.

Team Huddles. This is a short meeting that's often less than 15 minutes long. They are also called pre-shifts, stand-ups, or tailgates because the meetings usually take place daily to brief employees on important messages and discuss any pressing issues. Here's a guide on huddles.

Briefing Sheets. Many event-based businesses create daily briefing sheets for employees. For example, hotel managers often distribute a one-page update with information on where each meeting is located, VIP guests, and other special announcements. Associates use it as a handy job aid to give guests correct and timely information.

One-on-One Conversation. Years ago, I supervised a contact center training team that had two shifts (day and evening) in two locations. I quickly learned the best way to be an effective leader was to regularly spend time on both shifts and in both locations. While it's important to use multiple communication methods, nothing can replace regular one-on-one communication with your direct reports.

Visual Displays. A bulletin board or poster probably won't make an impact by itself, but it can be incredibly valuable when combined with other communication methods. One manager posted secret shopper reports on a bulletin board and then discussed the results with his team in pre-shift huddles.

Sasha is a hospitality executive who is an expert at creating impactful visual displays. She shared these suggestions for creating an impactful display board:

"Look at positioning it next to where team members visually see it daily (ex: by a time clock). The board should have color—a WOW factor but also a serious message. It should be easy to maintain and get changed up. Do not put too much information on the board so it gets lost. One month can have a focus on a specific area and change it up the next. Get your team involved."

Technology Solutions

There are a host of mobile apps on the market such as Beekeeper and Staffbase that are designed to keep employees in the loop. Employees can install the app on a company or private smartphone and use it to access communication, training, and other resources.

Alexandra Zamolo, Beekeeper's Content Marketing Manager, shared some of the benefits of using a mobile communications platform. 

"Beekeeper's mobile solution allows everyone access to real-time news and updates wherever they are and gives them the ability to engage in two-way communication. This centralized digital hub gives employees instant access to countless communication channels to help employee correspondence and workflows run more efficiently, while also connecting to crucial operations tools like payroll and scheduling."

Large retailers and other companies with remote employees often have internal contact centers to handle issues such as payroll, human resources, and IT. Giving employees an app to handle some of those tasks can save a lot of time.

A mobile app can also allow companies to respond faster during an emergency. Sina Lockley, Staffbase's Campaign Manager, shared a story where Adams Land and Cattle used a mobile app to keep employees informed during an ice storm.

Tell Me About Your Experience

If you've managed non-desk employees or have been one yourself, leave a comment or drop me a line and let me know what challenges you faced and how you solved them.

How to Share the Customer Service Tip of the Week

Updated: July 15, 2024

I send out an email with a weekly customer service tip each Monday.

It’s called Customer Service Tip of the Week and is available to anyone who subscribes.

Many customer service leaders share these tips with their teams. They use them for customer service training or to reinforce existing skills.

Here are several examples. Most take just five minutes.

Ariana Wharton
Customer Operations Manager, AVOXI

"We meet weekly with our CSR team to train on new processes and review existing processes. In that training, we always include a ‘soft skills’ portion and a team building section. Frequently your weekly tip is what we train on for our soft skills, and the activities you mention are also really great to tie in to our team building section as well."

My take: It's a best practice to have regular team meetings like Ariana does. The Customer Service Tip of the Week is a great way to generate discussion topics.

---

Mélanie Sprague
Technical Support Manager, Everbridge

"I am in charge of a technical support team (no face to face support). I forward your emails to my team when I feel the topic is relevant and when I feel it would be useful to them. You have a lot of great tips but they don’t always translate well to phone support with agents who have no authority to issue refunds or anything of that nature. If I forward your email, I often follow up with my team during our team meeting to see who has read it, what the post was about and how it can help them provide better support."

My take: We can easily get overwhelmed with information, so I like how Mélanie curates the most relevant tips for her team. The follow-up discussion also make the tips extra meaningful.

---

Amy
Vice President, Client Service Management

"I run a Service Management Team for a Financial Services Technology Company. My mission is to keep 'service' in the forefront of every associates' mindset regardless of their role within our company. We use SalesForce and within SalesForce, there is a tool called Chatter, which I use your weekly updates to share with all associates.

My take: A number of leaders have told me they share updates via Chatter, Slack, and other internal communication tools like Amy does. The advantage here is it allows for comments and discussion.

---

Carmen Gass
User Services Training Coordinator, Penn State University Libraries

"I share some of your customer service tips and blog posts in Pennsylvania State Universities' weekly blog posts and training emails."

My take: It's hard to come up with relevant content on a regular basis, so I really like Carmen's resourcefulness. You are free to use my weekly tips in your internal newsletters, blog posts, etc. All I ask if you attribute them to me or Toister Performance Solutions.

---

Marissa Franz
Visitor Services Manager, Muhammad Ali Center

"I usually forward the emails to my team and have them respond with one strategy they will incorporate into their workday."

My take: This is another great example of turning a piece of content, the weekly tip, into an opportunity for dialogue with the team.

---

Take Action

You can share these tips in just five minutes per week. Have your team subscribe themselves here: toistersolutions.com/tips

New Training Video: Serving Internal Customers

Finally, there's a training course geared specifically towards internal customer service.

Nearly 50 percent of my client requests throughout my career have been for internal customer service. This is a special type of customer service that involves serving internal stakeholders.

The new training video from LinkedIn Learning is called Serving Internal Customers. Here's an overview, a preview, and information on how you can access it for free.

On the set of Serving Internal Customers. Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Overview

An internal customer is an internal stakeholder you serve. This includes coworkers, contractors, and even vendors. Here are just a few jobs that are heavily-focused on internal customer service:

• Human Resources

• Finance and Accounting

• IT

• Facilities and Maintenance

• Security

Many large organizations with multiple locations even have internal contact centers established to support the needs of employees and managers in the field.

Serving Internal Customers focuses on the special skills required to be successful in these roles. Topics include:

• Distinguishing between internal and external customer service

• Creating positive workplace relationships

• Working with difficult coworkers

• Practicing active listening to uncover your customers' needs

• Managing internal customer expectations

• Anticipating problems

• Defusing angry colleagues

• Adjusting your workplace attitude

Preview

The training video has a few special features to increase learning impact:

• Realistic scenes

• Short segments

• Hands-on activities

You can see all of these special features in this short segment on active listening techniques.

Active listening techniques from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister

Resources

You can view the entire course on Lynda.com. LinkedIn Premium subscribers can watch the video on that platform.

A 30-day trial if you aren't already a Lynda member. This will give you access to the entire learning library. You'll be able to view all 17 of my courses plus training videos from other customer service experts such as Brad Cleveland and Leslie O'Flahavan.

The library also contains many other topics in addition to customer service. You can learn about leadership, marketing, programming, and many more. All of the courses are taught by experts in the field and professionally filmed and produced.

9 Ways Your Employees Waste Time at Work

Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Employees waste a lot of time at work. 

A 2014 Salary.com survey discovered that 57 percent of employees admitted to wasting at least one hour per day. These employees spend paid work time goofing off online, using social media, or shooting the breeze with colleagues. 

There's another hidden time waster. Many employees waste time through inefficiency. The result is we spend the day frantically working without accomplishing very much to show for it.

Here are nine common ways employees waste time without knowing it.

Common Productivity Killers

This is by no means a complete list, so please share other time wasters you've seen. You can leave a comment on this post or drop me a line.

Meeting Invites

You exchange emails with a colleague and agree to set a meeting for a specific date and time. "Ok," comes the reply. "I'll send you a meeting invite."

This approach doubles the amount of communication required to organize the meeting. There's the email exchange to schedule the meeting and then the meeting invite that comes after it.

A meeting invite is great if you are coordinating multiple schedules or are actually using it to invite someone to a meeting. Skip it if you already agreed to meet with just one person.

Meetings

We get a lot of meeting invites because we get asked to a lot of meetings.

A 2015 report from Workfront revealed that meetings are a huge time waster reported by employees in large companies, with 57 percent saying unproductive meetings were the biggest drain on their time.

Meetings should have a clear purpose, a set agenda, and a carefully curated invite list. Otherwise, skip it.

Formal Training

A lot of formal training classes are wasted.

Participants arrive without a clear idea of what the training is about, how it will impact their job performance, or what they need to do to implement what they learn.

Even worse, existing work procedures, old habits, and even the boss can counter what was learned in training, making it difficult to develop new habits.

You can dramatically improve training by using the 70-20-10 rule to create more consistent learning experiences. This works by aligning what's taught in training with feedback from the manager and the employee's actual work.

Useless Email

I once cobbled together a few email studies, ran the numbers, and discovered that the average U.S. worker wasted 24 percent of their day on useless email.

The problem comes from misuse. 

Many emails are incomplete and poorly written. People are in a hurry so they skim and scan messages, missing important information. That generates a ton of back and forth.

The email provider Front analyzed email boxes and learned the average email conversation takes 4.5 messages.

The counterintuitive solution is to slow down and give email more attention. It may take slightly longer to read and respond to each message, but you'll receive far fewer emails overall.

Checking Email Constantly

People tend to check their email constantly throughout the day.

This feels productive because you are really, really busy. It isn't. What's really happening is you are constantly starting and stopping tasks and not giving email your full attention. That leads to the useless email problem discussed above.

Timothy Ferriss has some pretty extreme takes on email management in his bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek. I've adapted some of them to check email just a few times a day and it's made an amazing impact on my productivity.

Multitasking

Constantly checking email is just one way we try to multitask throughout the day.

Customer service professionals in particular are guilty of running multiple software programs simultaneously for both personal and business. Many of us keep our cell phone perched on our desk, which constantly invites personal distractions.

Multitasking inevitably leads to more errors and less productivity even though it makes us feel busy. You can experience this yourself by taking a Stroop Test.

You can reduce multitasking by reducing distractions, such as pop-up messaging notifications. You will also make some progress through a conscious effort to focus on one task at a time, though many people find this initially difficult as multitasking can be addictive.

Software

There's a software solution for just about everything.

The problem is many of these software programs don't talk to each other. It's not uncommon for a contact center employee to have to use five to seven different programs just to do their jobs. 

All that switching back and forth between software programs creates a lot of multitasking. It also causes a lot of repetitive work, where employees have to enter the same information in multiple places to keep all the records up to date.

The best fix here has nothing to do with the employee. Smart companies are making their employees' jobs simpler by providing a unified desktop that puts multiple software programs in one interface.

Messaging

Email isn't the only form of communication that sucks up a lot of time.

Many workplaces have an instant messaging or internal chat app that allows employees to interrupt each other from across the room or even across the country. If we're honest, most of the times we "ping" a coworker we're really asking for something that's not urgent.

My controversial suggestion is to shut it down. Most workplaces don't have a real business case for instant messaging that overrides the negative impact of constant distractions. And if you really need someone's attention, there's other ways to do it.

Inboxes

I can still remember reading David Allen's time management book, Getting Things Done, way back in 2001. It truly was a game-changer for me.

One piece of advice that really stuck was limiting the number of inboxes we have. An inbox is any place you have to look for new information, messages, or assignments.

Examples include our email inbox, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, text, voicemail, physical mailbox, and a physical inbox. Most of us have more than ten. (Try doing your own count, it may be scary!)

You can automatically save time by eliminating or combining your inboxes. For instance, you can use the same software program to manage multiple email addresses so all of your emails go to one place.

Take Action

We're addicted to these time wasters for a variety of reasons. 

Take meetings for example. Have you ever tried to pushback on an unnecessary meeting that had no clear purpose and no agenda? People act like you are being some kind of jerk.

I suggest two things.

First, if you're the boss, you need to set an example. It's pretty hard to take your employees to task for wasting time if you are constantly sending half-baked emails and scheduling useless meetings.

Second, focus on incremental progress if you want to make a change or help your employees become more productive. Pick just one small thing to try and work on it for a few weeks. Make it a habit and then reflect on how it has helped you before taking on something new.

Over time, you'll be amazed at how much more productive your team can become.

Report: Small Banks Are More Customer-Centric

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with the CEO of a small local credit union. The credit union had hired me to conduct a customer service assessment and I had asked him about his vision for serving credit union members in the future.

The CEO remarked that his biggest wish was to have more branches. 

Members enjoyed the credit union's highly-rated service. The challenge was the credit union only had a few locations, which made it difficult to conveniently serve members who were on the go or who lived more than a few miles away from a branch.

A new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows branches and ATM machines are just about the only place where credit unions and community banks lag behind larger financial institutions.

The also report hints at some lessons for any business that's planning to grow in 2018.

ACSI Banking Report Highlights

Smaller is better when it comes to service quality, according to the ACSI report. Here's the breakdown of overall customer service ratings by size of bank. 

Some of this may be residual impact from Wells Fargo's fake account scandal. Yet businesses across all industries tend struggle with scaling a service culture as they grow. 

In banking, for example, there are fundamentally different challenges managing 100 branches than there are managing 10. Maintaining consistent hiring and training practices becomes difficult. Executive leadership begins to have fewer interactions with the front lines or customers.

The inevitable focus drifts to technology, policy, and process as companies get larger and more complex. 

The ACSI ratings for banks and credit unions bear this out. Notice the higher ratings for tellers and other in-branch staff.

The same held true for contact centers. 

The only areas where larger banks had a clear customer service advantage was customer satisfaction ratings for the number of locations of branches and ATMs.

Solutions and Takeaways

Many small businesses have a special community feel that's difficult for larger organizations to replicate.

A company in my neighborhood, Ideal Service, provides plumbing, heating, HVAC, and electrical service to customers like me. Each summer, Ideal sponsors a concert series in the local park where the owner, Don Teemsma, and his employees serve free hot dogs. 

(I captured some of Teemsma's service secrets in this 2017 interview.)

Big companies could certainly do something similar, though those company leaders might not think to unless the company had a clear customer service vision that focused on building ties with the local community.

A customer service vision is a shared definition of outstanding customer service that points everyone in the same direction. It's essential to have one if you want to keep things consistent as your business grows. 

Any business with multiple branches, stores, restaurants, or other types of locations can also take a page from small businesses by training employees to create a warm and welcoming environment.

Start with the 10 and 5 rule, where every customer within ten feet gets a greeting.

Give employees skills such as the Five Question Technique to help them build authentic rapport with customers and encourage your team to learn and use customer names.

One challenge in larger businesses is employees are not very observant. They consistently miss opportunities to serve because their focus is locked in on some task.

You can help employees improve their powers of observation with this short video from my Innovative Customer Service Techniques course.

You'll need a subscription to view the entire course on LinkedIn Learning.

Should Survey Rating Scales Be Even or Odd?

There's a long-running debate about customer service survey rating scales.

Some people think they should be even, such as a survey that asks customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-4.

Others think survey scales should be odd, making the customer satisfaction scale go from 1-5.

Let's take a look at both arguments where you'll see there's one clear answer.

The Case for Even Rating Scales

Proponents of an even survey scale argue this design forces customers to choose a positive or negative response.

There's no room for wishy-washy, neutral ratings. A customer is either satisfied or unsatisfied. Here's how that breaks down on a 1-4 scale:

1=highly dissatisfied
2=dissatisfied
3=satisfied
4=highly satisfied

Some people might even point to the simplicity of the thumbs up, thumbs down rating scales that many surveys now use. Even Netflix recently ditched its five star rating system in favor of this one. 

There's a glaring hole in this argument: bias. 

A good survey shouldn't lead customers to one answer or another. It should allow customers to give their actual response, even if its neutral. The whole argument for even scales is making customers adjust their rating.

This is why even scales made my list of nine underhanded ways to boost your survey scores.

The Case for Odd Rating Scales

This argument is based on math.

An odd-numbered scale contains a statistical mid-point. Here's how that breaks down on a 1-5 scale:

1=highly dissatisfied
2=dissatisfied
3=neutral (mid-point)
4=satisfied
5=highly satisfied

The neutral mid-point is the reason the creators of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) advocate a scale of 0-10 rather than 1-10. It's also the reason the inventors of the Customer Effort Score (CES) advocate a scale of 1-7 instead of 1-6 or 1-8.

Conclusion

A good customer service survey starts with a clear purpose.

Are you doing a survey to get actionable feedback or are you just trying to make your scores look good? My advice is to stick with an odd-numbered rating scale if you want unbiased customer feedback that will help you improve your company's customer service.