Lesson: "How can I help you?" The question you NEVER ask twice.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're the customer.

You're frustrated, angry, and busy. You call Customer Service and after being asked "How can I help you?", you spend 10 minutes explaining the problem you are having. The person who took your call, while very polite, has not effectively resolved the matter. You ask to speak with a supervisor.

You wait on hold for several more minutes. You think about the time you had to set aside to deal with this and the time wasted on hold. You hope that the representative is briefing the supervisor on what the problem is, what was proposed, and how the supervisor will offer a more amenable solution to fix things. Then this happens....

"Hi, Mr. Holtzman, my name is John. How can I help you?"

Now I've gone from a customer with an issue to an angry customer in five words. Why? Because you've wasted my time, disrespected me, and now expect me to repeat myself- which only causes me to feel more anger and frustration. You should already know what my problem is. Respect me as a customer and learn what the issue is. Respect my time as well.

In fact, I bet you are so used to this that many of you have "normalized" the behavior and come to expect it. You shouldn't. Great companies, under great leaders, respect and value their clients. Asking this question twice exhibits a lack of appreciation for the client and his/her time.

One of my favorite leadership lessons is to "inspect what you expect". Nearly every business has to take calls from clients who are having issues.

If you're the leader responsible for that team, then sit there. Listen. Observe.

If the same client is being asked "How can I help you?" a second time, you have an opportunity to improve the client's experience.

Short Term Solution

Try something like this-

Get on the phone and say, "Mr. Holtzman, I want to be respectful of you and your time. I wanted to acknowledge that you are waiting and to apologize for both the wait and for the issue you are experiencing. So that I don't keep you unnecessarily, is there a good time that I can call you back? I want to fully understand the issue and be able to offer you the best solution, and I want to be respectful of your valuable time. May I have you permission to call you back in within 15 minutes with a solution?"

You did not prevent the original issue from occurring, but you prevented the client from growing more frustrated- that's under your control.

Long Term Solution

DEMAND that your team eliminate that second question and have THEM develop the system needed to do so. Get your managers/leaders together and have them workshop how your company will respond to these escalated issues going forward.

As always, I would love to hear if this rings true for you, and how you and your team took action to improve the handling of escalated issues, so that you continue to Provide Exemplary Service.