What a bad customer service experience can teach us about doing it better

As Project Managers, we are also customer service agents. We are delivering a service to our stakeholders and sponsors. The quality of that service can be as important as the quality of our project delivery. The bad customer service we all experience every day, can educate us how to deliver better customer service during our project delivery.

Sonos messed up

I was so excited about ordering a home theatre sound system from Sonos, that I was tracking its every move through the delivery system… isn’t technology amazing?

But the package just seemed to pause. It spent 4 days in the same place without moving. Then it was given a “package damaged” moniker - time to reach out to Sonos and see what is going on. I fill in the customer service form on their website, receive the obligatory automated email response with a disappointing addition that my query will be responded to within 7 days. Hmph. I call the customer service 0800 number on their website. Customer service is closed and only available during business hours. It’s 945am on a Tuesday, I would have thought that was business hours. Hmph 2.

When I get an eventual email response, Sonos had no idea the package was damaged and would get in touch with the courier to see what they could find out. Hmph 3. When I informed Sonos that the package was showing as damaged on their own website so they should know, they re-iterated that they were getting in touch with the courier. Hmph 4.

Relating this to your projects

There are lessons here for how we should serve our customers as Project Managers.

• Be available. Waiting for a response when you perceive a problem is not a nice feeling. Make sure you are available and your stakeholders know where you are and how to get hold of you, all the time.

• No surprises. You should not be surprised by what your customer is telling you. Have the communication networks set up so you get to hear the news first. Build a culture of “no blame” to encourage active communication to you.

• Be the 1st to deliver the bad news. If there is bad news to deliver, make sure your customer is hearing it from you and not finding it out themselves. This creates a feeling of trust and “you’ve got this” vibes. If they find out the bad news from somewhere else it creates feelings of “what’s my Project Manager doing?”

When things do go wrong, put them right

Of course, things will go wrong. How you respond in that moment, what you do to put them right, is equally important.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer - what would you like to happen if you were in their situation? The old adages are always the best - treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Have a solution, or a couple of solution options ready for when you deliver the bad news. Bad news will seem less bad when there are solutions ready to choose from.

Ask your customer what they would like you to do to put the situation right. Listen to what they need. Show them that you care and that you are intent on doing what they would like to remedy the situation. Most customers are reasonable in these situations.

Improve your processes to minimise the chances of the same thing going wrong again. Learn from what went wrong. Most people are accepting that things go wrong, but they’re a lot less accepting of the same thing going wrong more than once.

As for Sonos, I gave them 2 options. They can either send me out a replacement product now, or they can issue me a full refund. I guess I’ll find out what they want to do within 7 days. Hmph.