January 2025 Some New Year Notes on Customer Service and Civility

It’s still the New Year to me, all the more with having a snow day today, so as we get going on the year 2025 and our own businesses, it’s giving me pause to reflect a bit on my own behavior and experiences with customer service received and provided, as well as those times when calling it service is a stretch.

And yes, I’m saying most of you in the Buoyancy PR community are running some kind of business, whether that’s a well-established venture of some kind, the smooth-running process of a successful author, or a fledgling wanna-be author just trying to figure it all out. Those are all legitimate business stages, because even an author is running a business.

Back to the customer service musings.

Not too long before the holidays, I was reminded what a true difference one interaction with someone can make in our day—for good or bad–and it challenged me to pay better attention to my own behavior and started the thinking on this topic.

It wasn’t dramatic, but within a few days, I had one encounter with a staff person who was borderline rude and dismissive of me as a customer at a business where I am a regular, known-by-name customer. This treatment was not typical, and maybe she had her own problems that day, but her treatment of me left me feeling kind of hurt, wondering what I had done. It took me a while to shake off the feelings. I didn’t like it.

Conversely, in another setting, quite unexpectedly, I had a random and generous conversation with a stranger that was just delightful and left me smiling and feeling encouraged for hours.

How we treat others matters.

So, under the more formal category of customer service, here are a couple of thoughts.

One of the things I have been noticing more and more in recent years is how in a customer setting, business representatives no longer apologize when something has gone wrong.

I’m dumbfounded sometimes how the representative of whatever organization just goes on and assumes all is just fine with you even though they failed to provide a promised table, discount, timely service, or made a mess you have to clean up. I understand we all make mistakes, and I believe we move forward better if someone just admits that and then does something to make it right. Are people afraid they will suffer some kind of consequences by admitting error? No idea.

And while clearly the most important part when contacting the Airbnb manager about missing toilet paper and paper towels is of course getting the missing vital items — and more or less immediately — I don’t believe the responsibility ends there. If you are the one getting the text from the renter, you don’t have to explain how Amanda the cleaner was supposed to have taken care of it, but you do need to apologize for the inconvenience to the renter. Just fixing the issue isn’t enough. Taking responsibility and apologizing elevates the encounter and provides an opportunity to actually make it a pleasant interaction.

People want to be seen and noticed. I believe a lot of bad behavior of in many settings by people of all ages is people just trying to be seen.

I learned a lesson about that a number of years ago from a formal program my employer introduced to their thousands of sales associates, a program no doubt backed up by expensive research on human behavior, and some common sense.

This was during the years I worked in corporate PR at the headquarters office of a major national department store retailer. When the company rolled out a new nationwide customer service program, they shared the details with all the corporate office employees.

Brilliantly simple, but since I also shopped at the stores where I worked upstairs in the offices, I soon learned how effective one particular element was.

Sales associates were trained to pay attention to their surroundings, even while busy with a customer. If another customer arrived and was waiting, the sales associate was to immediately look up, notice the waiting customer, smile and make eye contact, then say, “I’ll be right with you.” Sounds so simple, but changes the waiting experience.

Some of you may remember when this was a common practice of good salespeople, but that practice had to be taught to younger workers. It paid off in great dividends for both associate and customer.

People want to be seen.

In my own business now with clients, I’ve learned sometimes the hard way, that I need to listen better to my clients and hear and respond to their questions.

One of the things that continues to surprise me is how differently my clients often perceive something than I do, and the questions and concerns they have because they are doing something for the first time. We all get used to the steps involved in the work we do for others and forget there had been a time when it was new to us too. Clients have concerns that seem monumental to them but to me are so small I didn’t think they were worth noting.

I’m always wrong to feel that way of course, because their feelings matter to me, and perceptions are one kind of reality and deserve my attention.

And finally, there’s the matter of declining civility. There’s chatter all over about the decline, and whether that’s just an American thing or worldwide, I don’t know.

But people seem to get away with being rude, disrespectful and dismissive of others in ways that would not have occurred even less than a decade ago. We’ve all gotten a bit desensitized and read [and write] a lot of palaver on social media. It’s to the point that I’m convinced some children and youngish people have no idea that they don’t have to express every thought or opinion they have of another person, or ridicule people whose behavior is offensive or absurd to them. Come to think of it, there are plenty of full-grown Christian adults who need this reminder also.

None of us would treat a customer like this, but today I’m also gently reminding all of us that whether or not someone is or would ever be a customer, they are someone God loves who deserves some respect. Not justifying all behaviors of course but calling out those seeking to ridicule.

What doesn’t change with the times is that people have feelings and get them hurt.

But it’s all too easy to forget that and get caught up in the tide of negativity.

Whatever we do for a living, in one way or another we’re in the people and relationship business and being aware of customer service and kindness is a great thing to add to the list of ways we want to improve in 2025.