“We Don’t Serve Customers”

As I passed through security for a recent flight to Washington, DC, I placed my tube of toothpaste and bottle of hand cream in the metal tray only to be told by a security officer that they had to be placed in a clear zip lock bag. “Madam, the bottles are in clear view for your inspection. What is the difference if they are in a clear bag?” I asked. Despite my pleas, the officer angrily insisted that I retrieve a clear bag or she would throw my items away. After quickly deciding that I did not want to wait on line for another thirty minutes, I declined the officer’s “generous” offer at which point she confiscated my items, threw them in the trash bin and saved America in the process.

“We just follow the rules” was the laconic response of her supervisor. The supervisor’s response could have been “we really do not care what you think or feel or even what is logical. Logic and common sense are not our job.” Her response and attitude reminded me of a much larger and more common problem that we face as we design and deliver customer experiences.

There are many people in many organisations that do not see themselves as working with customers. For the security officer and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supervisor I encountered, there is no such thing as a customer. The millions of passengers that pass through their security inspections each year are not even deserving of courtesy and respect. In their eyes, each one is a terrorist, unless proven otherwise. Customers do not fit into their equation (despite the fact that their taxes pay TSA salaries).

This problem of “not being in the business of serving customers” is pervasive throughout many government bureaucracies where the notion of citizens as customers is a foreign concept. However, what is more surprising is the pervasiveness of this concept in the private sector. Lawyers work to protect their clients from the customers that their clients so aggressively pursue. A wide variety of functions such as accounting, operations, IT, governance and HR do not see themselves as having any customers and therefore do not interact with and serve customers. Moreover, this attitude and perception is common in shared services organisations despite the fact that their customers are employees for the very organisation they serve. The inability to differentiate between internal and customers leads many organisations and functions to erroneously believe that they are not in the “customer business.”

This attitude is wrong and dangerous. For every action there is a reaction – by a customer. This customer may be internal or external, paying or non-paying, or direct or indirect. These people are all customers nonetheless. As customers, they are entitled to be treated with dignity and to receive quality service in a timely manner in accordance with their requests.

The danger in this attitude is its impact on the total experience foundation – as any customer experience is only as good as its weakest link. While an organisation might launch a great marketing campaign and provide exceptional customer service, a single employee in the shipping department who only sees boxes and not customers has the ability of destroying an otherwise wonderful customer experience. Customers view organisations as a single entity and do not distinguish between customer-facing and non customer-facing employees. For customers, they are all part of the customer experience promise and delivery. All it takes is one misaligned employee to destroy the organisation-customer relationship.

In a world of many choices and growing customer impatience, organisations simply do not have the luxury of employing people who are not in the “customer business.” Each employee impacts the customer experience, and each employee action will ultimately determine the overall quality of the customer experience delivered by the organisation. To deliver high quality customer experiences, organisations must align their people accordingly and assign every function with their exact responsibilities as part of the total customer experience.

As for the security personnel I encountered, it is time they also change their attitude. Aside from the fact that passengers pay for the security they provide, they are also victims. Millions of passengers are subject to unnecessary hassles every day in the name of security. While I’m not asking the TSA to abandon tough security procedures, I am asking for a modicum of respect – and the occasional display of common sense.

Related articles by Lior Arussy

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• What do you call your customer?
  
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• Customer surveys – What's the purpose?
  
• Part 2: Redefining the Self Service Experience – The Tribal Customer
  
• Part 1: Redefining the Self Service Experience – The Utilitarian Customer
  
• How Captive Customers – Reality or Fiction?
  
• How To Create A Great Customer Experience
  
• Delighting customers - Where do you start?
• Delighting Customers One Clip At A Time
  
• Products as a Personal Expression
  
• A Question Of Execution


• Why aren’t they selling more?


• Passionate employees - The fast track to revenue growth


• Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to do them Right


• Decisions at The Moment of Truth

Lior Arussy is the president of Strativity Group and the author of several books including his latest, Passionate & Profitable: Why Customers Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to Do Them Right! (Wiley, 2005). He can be reached at Lior@StrativityGroup.com