Customer service trips companies up. Calling Comcast is terrible. I assumed that an experience with the DMV would be the same – but like most assumptions. . .

I just had a 6 day quest to get a Virginia drivers license and overall it was annoying, but not because of the people. The people were awesome.

One reason I have a writer-crush on Penelope Trunk is that I completely relate to her inability to deal with things like the DMV and other real life annoyances. Only I don’t have kids or Aspergers as my excuse. I simply find other things a lot more important and don’t have much left for this stuff.

Because of this, and because I move around so much, my driver’s license was from Arkansas until last week. I haven’t lived in Arkansas since 2005. . .

About 3 weeks ago, I lost my license and Arkansas doesn’t have a handy-dandy ‘replace lost license’ via website option.  A replacement could be mailed, but wouldn’t have a picture and would take a month.   I wasn’t incredibly concerned about this at first, but needing to renew my passport made it a bit more urgent.

After my mom failed to get the local Arkansas DMV branch to give my license to her – it was a long shot, but because I’ve walked into a DMV that was not near my ‘home’ in Arkansas and got a new license with no identification, I thought it was worth a try - I decided to get a Virginia license. This caused an entirely new set of headaches – like resolving a ticket in Pennsylvania, driving to Pennsylvania, proving residence in a state that I’m moving out of in a week, etc.

Throughout the entire ordeal – talking to DMV people in three different states (Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) and visiting the DMV in two (Virginia and Pennsylvania) – everyone was so incredibly nice. It was like being in the Bizzaro DMV world, not the hell on earth I imagined. I’m not going as far as saying that I would like to go through the 6 days again – but it was much more pleasant than being on the phone with Comcast for any length of time at all.

What was the difference and how does it apply to your business?

1. Real people, just talking

I’m all for scripts – sales scripts, customer service scripts, movie scripts. There is a reason they exist. But scripts can be over-relied upon.

Scripts are great for providing fast service, and as a knowledge base, but robotic sounding voices aren’t warm and friendly. Its weird and un-human. Its bad enough to be stuck in an automated phone system cul-de-sac, but when you FINALLY get out, talking to someone with no decision-making ability or who sounds like C-3PO isn’t a fun time.

2. Relate to your customers and find common ground

This is the opposite of treating customers like are retarded, annoying, miscreants, which is what I was scared of finding at the DMVs. I’m guessing being rude part of your company’s training videos. Even the store GASP has come around. Relate to customers as real people.

3. Give employees some decision-making ability.

I had an awesome experience with Amazon last week. My Kindle was frozen, and wouldn’t unfreeze. I’m in love with my Kindle, so this made me sad. After a week of reading from the Kindle App on my phone, and ignoring ‘call Amazon’ on my to do list, I chatted with an online customer service rep.  This was at about it 7 pm on a Thursday. I had a new kindle delivered to me by about noon the next day, no questions asked. AMAZING.

The dude I talked to was obviously typing from a script, English wasn’t his first language, and he probably wasn’t in the United States. But he had the power to make what I wanted happen REALLY FAST.  You can apply this to your business by allowing employees to  make decisions up to a certain dollar amount and give them parameters to please customers. Even if pleasing the customer means ‘bending the rules’ a bit. Rules ARE meant to be broken. Every customer likes to feel they are a special case and concessions are made for him (if needed). Make service personal.

Once, I did not do this. I was working as a server at a restaurant that had paper straws instead of plastic. Better for the environment, which is awesome, but terrible for your mouth. After using a paper straw for a bit, you can’t taste your drink because you of the wet cardboard taste that won’t go away. Gross.

I’m sure every customer wanted regular straws, but one was brave enough to ask for one.  She me to go get it from a restaurant next door. I was nice about it, but refused – because I was swamped and had about 5384903842 customers than needed real things – like silverware, drinks, and food. I would like to think I would handle this different next time. Or just carry a stash of my own contraband plastic straws.

Apparently there are laws and regulations surrounding who gets to drive in the US , and the DMV employees were taking those quite seriously, so there wasn’t a lot of rule bending at the DMVs, but each employee went out of their way to take care of me.

4. Adopt the philosophy that everyone works in marketing and sales.

This one is my favorite.  Realize that everyone in your company works for the marketing and departments. Most especially customer service. It is not something that should be outsourced to people who don’t care. It is not an entry-level position for robot wannabes. It is, however; a great place for new sales people to prove their worth and learn about the company.

5. What is most important? Genuinely care about your customer.

Everything becomes more real and genuine when you really care. It gives customers warm, fuzzy feelings. If that is asking too much, care about your business. Without customers you don’t have a business. So at the VERY least, be selfish and care about yourself. Realize you take care of your customers or you don’t eat.

How does this relate to you if you aren’t the CEO of Comcast or GASP? If you are a freelancer, or run a small company consisting just of yourself, this is even more important. You don’t have a company name to hide behind. You are just yourself. And if the DMV can provide great customer service – you can too.

As a side note – my new drivers license should arrive in the mail any day. It’s really the little things.

As a second side note – you might be wondering why it took 6 days – it was because of unresolved tickets, not having proof of residency, difficulty getting my driving transcript from Arkansas, etc. Pure awesomeness.

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