There’s a particular paradox that experts in customer service discover early on. (And by “expert in customer service” I mean to include anyone who takes to heart the day to day lessons available to us from those often delightful, often frustrating human beings we work with every day, the ones who keep us in business. By “expert,” in other words, I mean, in all likelihood, you.)
Here’s the paradox: The people who look like your worst customers may in fact be your best customers.
Who returns the most stuff? The customers who buy even more stuff than they return.
Which customers find (and bitch to you about) the typos and dead links on your website? The customers who care about your website.
Which diner lets you know the butter is too hard to spread? The one who actually cares about the meal she’s about to eat. (And who will likely return to dine with you again and again if you’ll take the time now to find her some butter that has been brought to a human-friendly temperature, and do so in a way that shows caring and interest in this “troublesome” guest.)
Business would be a lot less trouble without customers. There is absolutely no question about this. But as Zorba remarked in Kazantzakis’ great novel, life means loosening your belt and looking for trouble.
Or, at least, in customer service, it means knowing the good that trouble can represent.
