Mark Bradley: Abject leadership has Britain trailing in customer service happiness stakes

He thinks something similar happens with customer service – the weaker the economy the worse the service – until I point out to him that if it is deteriorating, then that implies that at some previous point in time it has been good (or at least better). I’m not convinced.

Customer service in this country is still way behind many other countries and, let me make this absolutely clear, this is mostly down to abject British business leadership and an internally fixated culture. Believe me, if you think the ineptitude shown in surrendering our manufacturing industry was embarrassing; don’t bet your pension on the services industry lasting much longer (if you have one).

The issue is quite easily illustrated with a few truisms that never fail to have a business audience squirming.

Take the positive, customer-focused employee who customers love to visit and who clearly enjoys their job, knows the value of service and is a credit to the organisation. How are they rewarded? By being promoted away from customers.

The new recruit, on the other hand, is thrown straight into the action, face to face with customers, quite rightly concluding that this must be the most menial of tasks and one to jettison as quickly as possible.

Our language demeans service. UK businesses aspire to “standards” (but if I offered you a standard night out in Brighouse, for example, how excited would you be?).

Our businesses obsess with satisfying customers where, in reality, the desired differentiation is only achieved by being, er, different. Our managers talk of going back to the front line to inspire the troops. A military analogy? I’m feeling motivated already...

Most of all, our businesses have forgotten what it’s like to be a customer. And that is where my five-point plan to improve British customer service begins.

1. Business leaders should spend time as “customers” of their own business. The most valuable talent a leader can have is the ability to see his or her organisation objectively through the eyes of their customers. Not only does this highlight lots of “quick wins”, but the epiphany of discovering the distance between customer expectations and the reality of the experience can be the wake-up call that compels leaders to re-think the customer relationship.

I wonder how often Leeds Station car park managers actually speak to drivers. I mention this since I have spent most of 2011 trying to exit it. Were it not for the weekend deal of £4 a day (which almost makes the hassle worthwhile), I might have taken an oxyacetylene cutter and re-built the exit lane myself. But I can console myself with the fact that the experience has honed my driving skills to the point where I can now perform a three-point turn in my own garage.

2. Start a two-way dialogue with customers.

American researchers uncovered an interesting fact lately: the simple act of asking a customer for feedback improves their perceptions of your organisation – regardless of whether or not they love your service.

And yet, in the UK, some companies seem to be reluctant to start the conversation. Those that do (and who regularly pepper us with post-event surveys) often create bad faith by forgetting to close the loop: not publicising feedback and being shy about the improvements they’re going to make.

3. Make it easy to do business.

On the face of it, the internet should have made the customer experience easier. After all, isn’t the decline of the high street somehow founded in the fact that there’s a much more hassle free alternative these days? But all is not what it seems.

You want to contact your bank? Visit the website, click on “contact us” and spend an hour on the phone listening to Julian Bream and negotiating a series of choices that would lead a Quaker to random violence.

Not all of us want to transact online. Why not use your website to promote your call volume stats, like the insurance company WPA, so that we can see when we’re more likely to get through?

4. Take complaint handling seriously.

Isn’t it interesting that the only time some organisations rush to resolve a complaint is when there’s a chance it might appear in a consumer column of a national newspaper?

This is curious, since a well-handled complaint has been shown to create more affection for an organisation that any amount of advertising or marketing.

5. Most importantly, look after your employees.

A friend pointed out that present British management attitudes have their origins in the Dark Satanic Mills of the 19th century. Our Victorian forebears had to find a way of controlling large numbers of workers, so British Management was born (and, in my view, hasn’t changed much since).

The likes of Prêt a Manager, First Direct and Apple thrive because they understand that people work better when they feel good about themselves. They only recruit people who share their own values, they let them take control of their working environment (one IT company even lets them design their own work wear, for example) and they keep asking them what support they need to do a better job for customers.

Having said that, do you know what the most common reason for spontaneous celebration in the British workplace is? When someone leaves. What a wonderful testimony to the UK working environment.