Customer service begins with accountability
February 10th, 2010 | by Shaun |A case study of a dysfunctional customer service environment is happening in Canada right now. The TTC - Toronto Transit Commission - is the organization that provides Toronto’s public transportation - buses, subways, etc. They’ve been under fire recently for their customer service levels, and the public have begun to fight back by publishing photographs and videos of their experiences.
Rather than having the courage to take responsibility, however, and begin the process of fixing things, both the management and union have taken to the finger-pointing game. The union president, Bob Kinnear, was quoted as saying: “We’ve got 13 and 14-year-olds that feel that they have an entitlement to film our operators in the performance of their duties, and that’s not acceptable.” The management has decided to lay most of the blame straight on the backs of the front line, with TTC GM Gary Webster saying, “We’ve allowed ourselves to shift to an environment that is unacceptable. All of us have to accept responsibility for allowing this to happen, me included.”
Both men have missed the point by a wide margin.
Bob Kinnear has forgotten that those thirteen-year-olds are TTC customers, and yes, Bob, like it or not, employees are accountable to their customers. Full stop. Period. End of conversation. Scolding the public for identifying poor performance is like blaming someone who’s been mugged for the mugging. You can’t blame the victim.
Gary Webster has forgotten that the responsibility for an unacceptable environment doesn’t include him, it rests solely with him. The quality of working attitudes and environments are a direct reflection of leadership. Every single time. Blaming employees for a systemic attitude issue is like blaming cold people for shivering. It’s the person who controls the thermostat that needs to step up.
The bottom line is that customer service begins with accountability, and nothing can or will change until individuals are willing to accept their roles. TTC Riders are the transit workers’ customers (including the thirteen-year-olds). Transit workers need to accept the responsibilities that come with that. Similarly, the transit workers are the TTC leadership’s customers, and the leadership must be accountable for their level of satisfaction and performance. It all begins with attitude.
I tried to do a rough head-count the other day of how many people our company has seen in our customer service training programs over 20 years, and it came out to about a half-million people. I’ve come to categorize them into three very broad categories. The first (and largest) group are those who are interested in delivering great customer service, and are willing to try new things and develop new skills. The second are the incredibly keen superstars who don’t want to be just good - they want to be the best. They’re the most fun to work with. The third, and fortunately the smallest group, are the ones who already believe that they are doing fine, and that there is no point in trying to improve.
The difference between the first two groups and the third is profound, and the area where we see the greatest division is in accountability. People in the first two groups are willing to accept, to varying degrees, their contributions to customer service problems that arise. They are willing to be critical of their own performance, and take steps to improve. The third group wants to blame the customers for their issues. They are absolutely unwilling to take any responsibility for their own actions. It’s actually quite scary to hear them, when they start on their rants about how horrible their customers are.
Until the TTC leadership and union leadership are prepared to move out of group 3, nothing will change
