The First Line of Reputation Defense

When it comes to a business’s reputation in the consumer’s mind, a lot of weight comes from consumer experiences with employees in the first position of servicing the customer. If the employees do not know their stuff, and do not possess excellent people skills and traits, the customer may respond negatively.

We all know this typical scenario. A young, fairly inexperienced representative seeks to deal with a customer’s issue, and instead just frustrates the customer, who eventually says, “I want to speak to a manager!” Managers tend to have a bit more experience and authority to satisfy customers. The point is, the first tier of service, the employees that have first contact with the customer, should be trained well enough to possess skills to handle things better from the start. 

I've walked into small stores with few customers, and spent good lengths of time without being asked if I needed assistance. It is one thing to leave a customer to wander around actively, but when a customer appears to be intently studying a section in the store for some time, that customer may need some help. If the customer has to track down a customer service rep to ask for help, the customer may mentally strike a negative mark against the service. Too many negative marks equals a bad view of the service and company overall. With a ton of customer service related material available, how often do companies require their employees to study and learn from them? How often are companies training their employees to deal with customers in various scenarios?

The first tier of any company’s customer service is the frontline defense for its reputation. If that frontline is weak, the company will suffer. Many businesses give minimal training to their first tier, and more to those above in the chain. The philosophy has seemed to be to let the front tier handle the easy situations, and go up from there as needed. This can be a good when it comes to positions like technical support, but not face-to-face service. Put the best types of people on the frontline, especially those with the personality skills that can handle complaints, and train them well with the necessary skills to make sure they have what it takes for the company reputation to shine.

With so many options between local competition and online purchasing, a failure to bolster your frontline of customer service could easily lead to a decrease in business. I know from personal experience, and from comments from friends, that people take negative customer service seriously, and even stop patronizing stores because of bad experiences with service. In today's economy, it's important for companies to reconsider the training they're giving to their front tier.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net