Don't Play the Customer Management "Blame Game"

It goes without saying that some things are out of the customer-facing brand’s control. Suppliers fail to deliver goods on time. Manufacturers err in developing the products the brand is distributing. Weather crises bring unavoidable power outages. The realities of life and its businesses processes tend to relegate brands, no matter how accountable and authoritative, to the passenger seat.

If a restaurant runs out of orange juice on a given day because the supplier’s truck broke down, it is not like the brand can reasonably be accused of fostering a culture of apathy or disregard. It just fell victim to circumstance.

These unexpected, yet potentially-significant issues can affect any brand at any time. No matter how well-intentioned and prepared the organization, it cannot stop the world from spinning and thus cannot be sure its operations will endlessly roll without hitting the occasional speed bump.

And yet the second a brand gets caught up on its lack of blame for a situation is the second it demonstrates its lack of overarching customer-centricity.

Customer management is not about serving as a link extending the supply chain to the customer. It is not about being a middleman to facilitate customers getting what they want. It is about owning relationships with customers and treating their needs as one’s own. It is about accepting responsibility for delivering the goods and services customers expect in the manner they desire.

Those who purchase your products and engage with your brand are your organization’s customers. They are not simply people you serve when the stars align.

When something gets in the way of making good on that commitment, the responsibility for delivering for customers does not suddenly shift to other participants in the supply chain. Your ongoing, personal relationship with each customer does not embark on a Sabbatical while you work on your back-end issues. Every bit of accountability you have promised your customers remains perpetually intact, crisis or no crisis.

As such, when a problem arises, your customers are going to be counting on you to right the wrong. No matter how exempt you are from fault in reality, you represent the customer’s key connection to the service they hope to experience. You are their touch point for achieving expectations, and you must take that commitment to heart.

Does that mean you can be expected to solve problems that legitimately are out of your control? Of course not. But it also means your organization cannot sit on its hands as the truly-empowered party works its issues out. You need to keep an open line of dialogue with customers, understanding the motivations for their dissatisfaction and contextualizing their expectations for resolution.

The customer does not want to hear or read that the ongoing problems are "out of your control." He wants to see that you are doing everything that is under your control to make the issue better for customers.

In the case of a supplier or manufacturing issue, they want to see their brand of choice operate like a customer. They want the brand to translate their own high stakes towards achieving a resolution; this should mean, at the very least, putting extensive pressure on other supply chain members to get their cards in order. In some cases, it could mean finding a replacement supplier or corporate partner, just as disgruntled customers make good on the threat to switch to a competitor when a brand disappoints.

This strategy of accountability should be easy enough, but when it comes to the execution, far too many organizations struggle to get past the "right vs. wrong" element. The futility of the debate eludes them, and they obsess over the need to inform customers that they are not to blame for the particular issue, often at the expense of locating a swift, desirable, customer-friendly resolution to the challenge.

Reputation matters more than ever in this social era, but brands need to be cognizant of how they perceive reputation. Yes, taking unnecessary heat for a service issue totally outside the brand’s control is undesirable, but if the choice is between "assuring customers we did nothing wrong" or "assuring customers we are doing everything we can to make it right," no brand should even think about prioritizing the former.

And yet, with so many brands mistakenly getting behind that former option, it is no surprise that so many customer service cultures produce ineffective front-line agents that refuse to accept accountability. Just as many businesses will blame natural occurrences or inefficient suppliers for their inability to immediately solve customer needs, customer service representatives will bring up "our policy" or "the system" as a means of diverting the blame for a poor customer engagement.

Customer management is about winning the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, not winning the debate. If you’re an agent dealing with a difficult call, focus on what you can do to solve the problem, rather than the "can’t" clauses that will give you an excuse to transfer or hang up the call.

And if you’re a brand going through an uncontrollable crisis, focus on what will make the situation right rather than what led to the issue going wrong.