The Top 5 Customer Service Mistakes Companies Make

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Dennis Snow

A client recently asked, "From your observations and consulting work, what do you think are the top customer service mistakes companies make?" I thought about it and listed five organizational mistakes that I feel are at the foundation of most service issues:

  1. Not clearly defining what the customer experience is supposed to be.
  2. Designing processes for the company's convenience, not the customer's.
  3. Hiring the wrong people.
  4. Not making customer service a significant part of new-hire training as well as ongoing training.
  5. Tolerating poor service performance from employees at any level within the organization.

There are certainly other mistakes companies make, but these five seem to show up over and over. Any organization that successfully addresses these five mistakes will set themselves apart from ninety-five percent of the competition.

I'll focus on each of the mistakes individually in my next five blog posts and offer solutions. In the meantime, assess your organization's performance in the five areas and ask others to do the same. Where do you feel your organization's greatest opportunities lie?