A couple of weeks ago I was cycling along one of the quiet country lanes on my journey to work when a young deer appeared from within one of the hedges. Startled, the deer took one look at me slowing on my bike, began panicking and rushed hurriedly down the lane looking for the nearest escape from the road back into one of the fields. I began to worry as the deer was failing to leap over any of the hedges and was jumping into gates and bushes to no avail, and was getting ever closer to a busy road. I put my bike down and tried to help the deer by opening gates into fields and clearing openings for it to get into. This only spooked the deer further and it tried harder to get away from me.
Eventually, the deer managed to leap over a barbed wire fence and scarpered through a field towards a wooded area, before it got to the road. My mind works in mysterious ways because, somehow, this got me thinking about the customer experience and that startled look in the eyes of the deer reminded me of how I have felt as a customer at times.
It’s programmed in the nature of the deer to fear humans and as such the deer didn’t want my help. As humans, we are programmed in far more complex ways and we are all different. As customers we are all different too, some of us enjoy human interaction in service environments, but there are also those of us that shy away from it and want to be left to their own devices. Add to this the fact that we all have different moods, different motivations for purchases and different expectations and it can sometimes be difficult for customer service representatives to spot who wants help and who doesn’t.
As a staff member in a service organisation it is your duty to spot these differences though. It is your duty to treat every customer as an individual and ensure that every customer receives a level of attention appropriate to their mood and their preferences. As a customer it is extremely frustrating when we receive a level of service and attention below our needs and expectations, that much is obvious, but it is also worth bearing in mind the opposite can be true.
Have you ever been into a shop and been followed by an overzealous customer service assistant and wished they would just stop talking? I have, on several occasions, and it has caused me to walk out of a shop too. I’ve walked into a mobile phone shop and had a sales assistant try to sell me every phone I have looked at. I’ve been browsing clothes shops and had a retail assistant comment on every item I pick up. I have even been followed around a gift card shop when looking for a personal gift card for someone.
Sometimes a customer simply wants to browse without the pressure of being talked to constantly. Perhaps they are in an unsociable mood. Perhaps they feel shy about the lack of product knowledge they have. Or perhaps they feel that they might be pressured into a purchase they don’t want to make. Whatever the reasoning behind the customers preference for interaction, it is the service reps duty to read the signs and deliver an appropriate level of interaction. And there are many cues, eye contact (or lack of), open or closed body language, whether they are pre-occupied with children or on the phone, or whether they are slowly browsing or looking for something with purpose, to name but a few. Service personnel also need to be in the best position to read these signs, they need to be open, friendly and approachable but not too pushy.
As an advocate of exceptional service, I am not saying a customer should always be left alone. I personally love the interaction and attention that is showed to me by some exceptional service providers, such as Apple for instance, but on some occasions it can go too far. Also, I appreciate that often the overzealous staff member will have the best intentions in the world but haven’t given consideration that some customers, just like the deer, simply do not want their help.
Do you have any examples of a time an over-enthusiastic or pushy service representative that has detracted from the service experience? What advice would you give to these staff members to stop them making the same mistakes again?
Thinking about all this reminded me of two of my favourite fast show characters, which illustrate my point perfectly (Well, sort of! 
) Enjoy!
