We often see customer service through the lens of things we can do to improve the customer experience—things like staff service training, new ways for people to pay or pay, and techniques to close a service call. But what about the opposite? What we can remove or change in our processes, procedures and operations that will do better customer experience?

For example, take any retail establishment. After doing some shopping, you get to the counter and the cashier asks, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” While this seems harmless and is a very common practice in almost every retail transaction, is it useful for customer service? Is this the right question, in the right context and at the right time?

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Consider the question further. When you're shopping at, say, a large retailer, your controller can't act on the question they ask. If you say, “No, I couldn't find X, Y, and Z,” what can they do? They can get on the phone and call another person, asking you to repeat your need, and they have to go to sleep to find those items. If they decide to search for them to see if they are in stock first, you have to wait until they identify that they are available or not and still waiting for them to receive them. The flow of the checkout process is interrupted, if not derailed.

Besides, you have a line of people behind you. If you stop asking this question and that process starts, the next one customers are now late, and their collection process is interrupted. Their customer experience is affected. Alternatively, you could mention that you couldn't find the brand of shampoo you were looking for, and the cashier might simply respond with a shrug or “That's too bad, I'll let my manager know,” as they're still burdened with a string. of customers and have no method or mechanism to report it. The likely scenario is that the information never reaches the manager.

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Maybe the product was out of order. Maybe the store doesn't carry it at all. But at the time of being in the checkout line, there is no way to immediately identify, which is true, or if there are alternative products that the store carries that might address the customer's need. In addition, there is no way for the store to identify and track these repeat requests and identify how to add these items to the store shelves. Basically, it's a pretty pointless question. This example, among many other examples of terrible customer service habits that have turned into autopilot activities, is one that you can simply pull off inexpensively and dramatically. improve the customer experience.

Consider the large number of questions and other frivolous actions we undertake in the spirit of providing “great customer service”. For example, saying: “Your call is important to us – we will be with you soon.” Or discussing on a phone recording all the ways customers can pay a bill online while waiting on the phone for a representative because they have a question about their bill. Or when a customer gives their information to an automated phone system, simply giving the same information back to a live human.

Instead of considering all the things you can add to make the service experience amazing, start by identifying the things you can take away. Why does a cashier ask a customer if they found everything they needed? It may be best to have someone on the floor near the cashier's counter, asking customers if they have found everything they need before starting the checkout process. Instead of telling customers that their call is important, don't tell them at all. Inform them of the current length of the wait time, with the option of a call back at a time of their choosing.

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When we consider what can be removed, it helps us focus on customers OBSTACLES and frustrations, which likely involve actions we can do automatically because they've always been done that way. Looking at the steps and elements we can remove from the customer experience also helps us focus on improving the things that matter. We are not confused or wrapped up in protocol-driven gibberish, but actions and behaviors with a real, utilitarian impact. By eliminating rote responses to customer needs, we enable our staff to become more honest, have leeway to solve problems, and identify creative ways to impress and delight.

In short, we need to empower customer service staff to think actively and provide them with the tools and opportunities to act on their real-world observations and insights. We need to allow employees to identify actions that don't work or add value and trash them. We need to look not only at what we think might be polite, but also at what is the most helpful statement or action for the client's context. By applying the simple hack of eliminating actions that aren't helpful to customers, we can make the other things we do to deliver a great experience shine more.