Serving your customer service people C.R.A.P.

Why do so many corporate editors run silly ‘Tips for Better Customer Service’ articles in their employee publications?

This week’s C.R.A.P. (Corporate Rhetoric Awards Program) award goes to editors who run customer service “tips” in their employee publication.

Lots of editors do this. The “stories” are usually accompanied by a staged photo of an “employee” supposedly talking into a “phone.” Said employee always has a big, phony “smile” plastered across her “face” as she deals with a “customer.”

And the headline is almost invariably some rendition of: “Going the Extra Mile for our Customers” or “Putting Our Customers First.”

What’s the problem with these stories? Simple: They don’t deal in reality. Customer service people rarely, if ever, have a big smile plastered across their face. Why? Because they are dealing with ticked-off people all day. If they are smiling, it’s because they are smoking pot on their lunch breaks, which many of them have to do in order to come back to work in the afternoon.

French soldiers in the trenches of World War I smiled more than your average customer service person.