Are You Providing "Zombie Customer Service"?

If you don’t collect customer feedback in your call center, how do you know you’re getting it right? The answer is: you don’t. A new term for doing the same thing day after day without soliciting opinions from customers has a new name: it’s called “Zombie Customer Service.”

Customers may have a whole host of problems you don’t know about: your Web site may be unworkable, your products or services may have flaws, and your interactive voice response (IVR) may be driving them insane. In reality, you may be driving away a significant portion of your potential business without even knowing it.

This YouTube video demonstrates the concept of Zombie Customer Service in the setting of a restaurant. A couple, receiving terrible customer service, debates the idea of leaving a tip even when service is bad. The woman explains to her companion that leaving a tip for lousy services merely reinforces the same-old poor customer service. She suggests that instead of leaving a tip, they leave a lizards sticker on the bill and explain that bad service means no tip.

The video was produced in conjunction with a new book by Perry J. Ludy called “No Lizard in My Shoes.” Ludy is a senior-level executive and consultant with more than 30 years of experience large companies including PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. The book is his effort to educate customers in the best ways to motivate good people to bring back great customer service. The book contains a marvelous anecdote about customer service at a Caribbean resort, and involves a chamber maid’s positive initiative to keep lizards from crawling into guests’ shoes.

The point is that if customers continue to accept lousy service without vocalizing their opposition, they will continue to receive such lousy service, perpetuating the “Zombie Customer Service” mentality.

So how do companies ensure they are receiving actionable feedback from their customers? Customer surveying is key: it’s a step that simply cannot be skipped for a company that wishes to give its customers their very best.

Many companies simply don’t have the time and resources to survey customers, which is why they turn to third-party quality monitoring companies. These companies, such as New York City-based BPA Quality, are the solution for “Zombie Customer Service.” Their professional efforts to survey customers, gain feedback and provide reports to contact centers can help organizations pinpoint precisely where they need to work on their customer service. BPA Quality does the listening, the reporting and the analysis, and contact centers can reap the rewards – in process efficiencies, cost savings and increased sales – of an improved customer experience.

Edited by Blaise McNamee

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