We all experience it. We call a company with a question or complaint, are put on hold for seemingly forever, and then get a person who can’t help, is rude or simply doesn’t care.
In most cases when that happens, one would say the company representative is bad at his/her customer service job. But while this may be true, they also are a bad PR ambassador for the company; a larger issue.
Every person who works at a for-profit company or nonprofit agency represents their employer, whether they know it or not and whether they like it or not. When encountering a rude or unhelpful customer service representative, the customer doesn’t feel that person is simply bad at his/her job, it reflects on the entire company. “I called XYZ company and got this incredibly rude person, I’ll never use them again.”
In the public relations workshops we do for companies, we make the point that every employee, regardless of how invisible to the general public he/she is, represents the company. It is a mistake for a company to think that only the CEO and PR department are responsible for the company’s image. Image and reputation is projected by everyone in the company, whether it is their “direct” job or not.
From the person answering the phone, to the person shipping the merchandise, everybody plays a part in the customer experience. That’s what true customer relations is about, when every employee understands that their job is not only to do their job, but their job will ultimately finds its way to the customer.
This understanding starts at the top and is relegated and delegated down. Top management must understand the importance of every employee doing their best, and then instill that sense of responsibility in every person who collects a paycheck.