The Vice of Nice

Business majors will tell you there are three different ways a company can differentiate itself in a free economy: price, product and service. Rarely is a company ever able to command control of all three areas in the market. The lone exception I can think of right now is In-n-Out burger out here in sunny California. A few businesses are lucky enough to make their mark by offering a superior product or selling at a ridiculously low price; these are the companies whose brand names distinguish themselves: BMW, Charles Shaw wines. But in a world growing ever more competitive and linked, the vast majority of companies are left to win the consumer over with their service.

It’s no wonder then customer service has become such a critical concept and buzz-word in today’s economy. Companies are left to get nasty about being nice.

My employer has a corporate goal to exceed the member’s expectations in everything they do as an organization – a lofty, audacious goal that seems both admirable and absurd. The thinking on my employer’s end is that the only way they’re going to compete in a financial market where .25% points means all the difference is by making sure people feel taken care of and genuinely cared about. They want every teller transaction to be the member’s most pleasant experience of the day, which will then translate into the member telling other people about the exceptional service, which will lead to more members joining the credit union, which all leads back to the bottom line.

Now I have nothing against serving other people; the very Savior I confess to follow made service the cornerstone piece of faith and love. Service is a great goal.

Nor do I mind the goal of my employer is so audacious. The church would do itself well to have as lofty a picture of service as the business world often does.

The problem I have with my employer’s service-oriented goal is that it is determined by the consumer’s expectations and needs. When your goal is to please people, you open yourself up to exploitation from people whose expectations may be – and there’s no nice way to say this – flat out wrong.

Here’s a perfect example. I was assisting a member yesterday who had a legitimate concern and complaint about an ATM card. She had ordered it on Monday, been told it would be there by Wednesday and here it was Friday afternoon and no card had been sent. Add to that the issue of money, which inevitably ruffles peoples feathers: she had paid $18 to get the card early. I spent about five minutes assuring her the card would be delivered to her by Monday and she would not have to pay for the “express shipping” costs since the card didn’t arrive on time. I heaped generosity and compassion at her as though we were enjoying a cup of coffee instead of looking at each other through inch-thick bulletproof glass. Fair enough, this is the role of my job and the goal of my employer’s service oriented approach.

Thankfully, she seemed satisfied, and moved on to her next expectation: she needed temporary checks. I hurriedly began to get her temporary checks as I saw the line of people stewing behind her. I asked her what check number she would like to start with, and she coolly claimed she was up to check number 3000. A big alarm goes off in my mind. I suspect she’s been getting temporary checks every time she comes in instead of being like a traditional member and paying $10 for a box of checks. So … I ask her if this is what she has been doing. Yes, she replies, as though it were perfectly natural. I stare at her in disbelief. I tell her that it doesn’t seem quite fair for everyone else to pay $10 while she continues to bypass the fee and get checks for free. Then she hits me with it. She looks at me with all sincerity and claims, “That’s not nice.”

Nice. The consumer’s trump card had been played. She intended to put me on the defensive by latching onto “the customer is always right” motto. Did this lady not see the complete irony and hypocrisy of her claim? It’s not nice for me to give her something for free while she cheats the company. It’s not nice for me to stop short of making the world revolve around her.

There was also another member who had the nerve to tell me this week he didn’t want any record of his paycheck hitting his account. “I don’t want the IRS to see it,” he told me as he went on to explain that he’s currently trying to work through a problem with them. Again, I sat speechless in disbelief.

In my view, both of those customer’s had erroneous expectations. Their needs were either irrational or downright illegal. Yet, the way customer service has evolved, I was left with no option but to give them what they wanted.
The fact of the matter is that in some cases, the customer is wrong. There are times when nice can be a vice.

Wes