May the Farce Be With You  

The title may be a bit misleading. You don’t want to be a victim of a farce. You want to experience a positive force. Before I go further, let’s give a shout-out to one of our Shepard Letter subscribers, Joe Emmet of Empire Marketing, who suggested the title, which activated the creative force that led to this article.   

We have all been victims of a customer service or experience farce.

A company makes a statement or a promise, and we are let down. The farce is something you want to avoid. To give you an idea of what they are, here are five common customer service and CX farces, and I’ll wager that most of you have experienced at least one, if not all of them:  

1. “Your call is very important to us” – When you call customer support and hear that recorded message, for a moment, there is hope. Maybe my call is important to them, and they might answer quickly … and then they don’t.  

2. “We value your feedback” – Some companies make a big deal about wanting you to fill out their surveys to get feedback, with the idea that your suggestions and comments will help future customers. The problem is that few companies acknowledge the feedback, and many customers wonder if their voice is ever heard. 

3. “We offer 24/7 customer support” – They may have 24/7 support, but it’s not live support. It’s supported by AI. If there is a complicated or personal issue, AI is not always the answer. If a company is going to offer 24/7 support, they should disclose what that means. There’s nothing wrong with sharing the truth about support during off-hours. And the good news is that today’s version of AI is far better than even just a year or two ago. So, for most issues, 24/7 support can work. Still, don’t hide that 24/7 support might include “talking” to a bot. 

4. Money-back guarantee – The intention of a money-back guarantee is to build trust. There must be conditions on the offer, or some nefarious customers will abuse the intent of the guarantee, which will eventually ruin it for other customers. There needs to be “reasonable conditions,” making an offer that’s reasonable for the customer to understand and expect. For example, L.L. Bean had a lifetime satisfaction guarantee. But back in 2018, it announced a new policy due to customers abusing its generosity. By the way, customers who were honest and fair didn’t argue or weren’t worried about this because it still met what the intent of the guarantee was all about.   

5. Free trial offers – Many “free trials” require a credit card and automatically convert into a paid subscription. Yes, they are free. But, if you are not careful, you will miss the end of the free trial and automatically be converted to a paid subscriber.  

Here’s your assignment.

I could go on with many more of these examples. Customers don’t want a farce. They want a force. Here’s your assignment. Sit with your team and share these five farces. Then, brainstorm with the team to determine if you’re guilty of these or others.   

Avoid the farce, and let’s close with a line from one of the most successful movie franchises in history, Star Wars. When it comes to customer service, “May the Force be with you!”

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.