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Ineffective Management Undermines Great Customer Service

By James A. Baker
Founder and Chairman
Baker Communications, Inc

If you are a regular reader of these articles, you know that I can sometimes be pretty hard on customer service representatives who deliver indifferent, ineffective service to their customers. However, there are countless CSRs out there who want to do a great job for their customers, and the only thing that is stopping them is poor support from their managers. Let me give you a couple of recent examples.

Right after Christmas, I called the waste management provider for our subdivision to see when they would be coming around to pick up Christmas trees for recycling. The person I spoke with politely informed me that they didn’t provide that service, and suggested I call another agency. When I pointed out that they had, indeed, provided that service last year, she again politely informed me that she had worked there for three years and she was not aware that this service had ever been provided (I knew she was wrong, but I didn’t want to waste time arguing).

Imagine my surprise, then, when I read an announcement in our community newspaper announcing that trees were going to be picked up by none other than this same waste management provider; all you had to do was call and get your name on the list to be picked up on a certain day. So, I quickly made the call, and talked to another young lady who again informed me that they did not provide this service! When I informed her about the announcement I had just read in the newspaper, she put me on hold (with a slightly exasperated tone) and went to consult with her manager...

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