Applying Lean Principles to Customer Service

A streamlined approach doesn’t have to seem aloof, impersonal, or dismissive

Find out what the customer wants without pestering them. Photo by Isaac Owens on Unsplash

When you think of good customer service—particularly the barriers to it—two factors generally come to mind: timing and wording. Imagine walking into a store that sells soap and bodywash products and immediately being bombarded with, “May I help you?” “Looking for anything today?” or the dreaded, “Just so you know, we have a deal going on today. Buy any of those two items on those shelves (motions to left side of store) and get one free.” It’s overwhelming and frankly a bit of a turnoff. You don’t have to be an introvert to feel an urge to run out of the store. What’s off there is mostly timing.

In an alternate scenario, imagine that you’re looking through items and checking prices, clearly doing more than simply walking around for a visual survey of products. You’re engaged, sending those nonverbal cues that you’re a bona fide, potential customer, not just a random passerby biding your time as you wait for your family member or friend in the store nearby.

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Comments

Better systems vs. friendliness

This is so true. All the focus on being "nice" and "friendly" to customers is just an excuse for laziness in setting up systems that make it easy for the customer to get what they want. Your example of Sephora is a good one.
For any aspect of customer service that involves a website, that should be your first place of improvement. UPS has made terrific improvements to their site, everything is clear, simple, and easy. It wasn't always that way, for something as simple as scheduling a shipment, especially for customers that don't ship often and aren't familiar with all the options.