“Yes” is an extremely important and valuable three-letter word in customer experience. Providing a positive response to a customer request or responding with agreement are essential parts of the day-to-day work in CX. But not every yes is created equally. In fact, there are some “yes” responses that genuinely need to be avoided.
Agreeing prematurely without fully understanding the details can be extremely costly. For example, a major airline incurred millions of dollars in penalties because it agreed to customer refunds before assessing the actual cost or confirming its infrastructure could handle the commitment. Similarly, the cost of uninformed, empty, unethical, unintentional, or management-induced responses can lead to multiple problems, financial penalties, or even legal challenges.
While everyone wants to go the extra mile to please the customer, Customer Experience practitioners must remember to be discerning while understanding and managing expectations. Ultimately, it is not about saying yes to every request, but about working for win-win outcomes that will not undermine or compromise the overall customer experience.
Responses to Avoid in CX:
Yes, but
Have you ever heard the yes, but? It sounds a lot like the legal disclaimers that appear at the end of an extremely promising pharmaceutical or product commercial. The “yes, but” includes a yes in the response body, and also a thousand caveats, preemptive statements, exclusions and restrictions, and requirements that follow. The net result is that the response, for all intents and purposes, becomes a “no”. Avoid the “yes, but” as much as possible. Or as the Apostle Matthew writes, “let your yes, be yes and your no, be no.”
When you use a “Yes, but” and hide customer fulfillment behind walls of paperwork, delays, and friction, this can lead to extensive fallout. Trust, reputation damage, financial penalty, legal actions, and customer churn are real results of providing a “Yes, but.”
Avoiding a “yes, but” can be accomplished by researching the request thoroughly, asking clarifying questions, looking for suitable alternatives, and being clear and concise in your reply.
An Unscalable/Unsustainable Yes
Avoid providing a yes response to situations that would be unscalable or unsustainable for your organization and the customer. If agreement will cause issues with long-term sustainability and continued service of the request, the customer should be clearly informed before consent and agreement are rendered. For example, if your customer is requesting a feature that cannot be made to scale or sustained due to the cost, it would be unwise to agree to such a provision carelessly. Otherwise, when the scalability issues surface, your customer may be forced to go with a different vendor.
As VP of Customer Experience, a customer requested assistance with verifying software compatibility between our products. Initially, we saw no problem with the simple request. However, after further inspection of the customer’s release schedule and the realization that the tests would be manual, our team realized there would be a significant problem with agreeing to weekly verification. Saying yes would have been both unscalable and unsustainable between the teams.
Before agreeing to a provision that would be unsustainable, be sure to think about the long-term impact. Assess the level of required commitment of existing and future resources, cost to the business, including potential reputational and lost customer costs. Finally, check with your leadership team and double-check your thinking.
A Dispassionate or Insincere Yes
“Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” we’ve all heard this type of agreement, or their near cousins, “okay,” and “I guess it will be okay.” A reluctant yes is often a sign that something more needs to be discussed and understood before wholehearted consent and agreement can be established. Dispassionate agreement generally leads to a slow decline in agreed-upon services, or outright neglect and abandonment.
Another family relative is the Insincere Yes. We all know what it feels like to receive an insincere apology, the kind where you realize the person is not truly sorry before the last syllable. All of their body language, tone, and other key indicators reveal that what is being said is insincere at best. When you provide an indifferent or insincere response to a customer, it can be truly damaging. Insincerity undermines the customer’s trust and can cause them to become reticent about the reliability of future responses. Likewise, indifferent responses with no empathy or show of concern can create poor customer experiences.
Whether your customer or your team is the one providing it, be sure to dig in and uncover concerns. Listen to the team’s body language as well as their tone or silence. Ask questions. Provide safety for team members to raise concerns, express potential issues, and even offer alternatives. When you provide the time to listen to underlying issues, you avoid a dispassionate or indifferent yes and produce a stronger agreement and more resounding response and commitment.
A Surrendered Yes
As a parent of a very persistent sweets enthusiast, I know the signs and dangers of a surrendered yes. This is the type of yes that is uttered in exhaustion and exasperation, surrendered after an initial onslaught of emails, inquiries, pressure, or other factors. However, a surrendered yes should be avoided. After a long case or customer issue, the urge will exist to say yes to any request or question in order to quickly bring the case to a close. But surrendering might create more cases downstream, impact team morale, or increase the cost to the company, such as additional refunds or lawsuits.
Recently, I observed a case where a customer repeatedly requested support from their vendor on an out-of-support item. Initially, the vendor clarified that the item in question was not covered by the support agreement. The clever customer dismissed the response and instead repeated their request several dozen times, slightly altering keywords and phrases in an attempt to gain coverage. After dozens of new cases, cleverly opened by several individuals at the same company, a white flag emerged from the vendor’s side. The requested services were provided free of charge, and the case was closed. However, the impact of the surrender was soon felt both in the bottom line and team morale.
Some warning signs that you may be approaching a surrender instead of an informed yes include:
- Increased customer cases or time spent
- Persistent pushback from the same or similar segments and sources
- Emotional outbursts from involved professionals or managers
- Higher than normal visibility for the caliber of issue within the organization, including executives
- Increasingly drastic requests for resolution
- Apprehension with respect to legal action
- Increasing apprehensions among internal stakeholders concerning potential reputational or financial harm
- Visible signs of physical or mental fatigue or physical illness among internal CX professionals associated with the case, issue, or customer
- Lack of internal stakeholder support or stakeholder threats, such as “Just get it handled.”
- A consistent trend of soft peddling the issue or retreating from the agreed-upon good faith
As the warning signs increase, it is important to help internal stakeholders and team members process their emotions and fatigue, as well as understand the downstream risks and costs of a surrendered yes.
Avoid agreement by surrender or fatigue. Establish norms, processes, escalation points, and exit options that help your team navigate repeated customer requests, bad actors, and the bevy of cases designed for eliciting surrender. Decide in advance, wherever possible, how out-of-scope scenarios will be handled. For new items, look for win-win options that provide the best outcomes for both the customer and your organization from a position of intentionality, not forfeit.
An Empty Yes
Giving a “yes” without any intention to follow through is another response type to avoid. An empty yes is another way of saying it was a token response. Providing a response with no discernible actions, follow-through, or ability for the customer to make good on the answer can lead to poor customer experiences and trust issues. For example, when Mark, not his real name, said yes to providing an elite-tier customer with a direct number, it seemed like a positive response. However, if the customer receives a “disconnected and no longer in service” message, this would immediately signal that Mark’s answer was an empty yes.
As a customer, I experienced the unfortunate situation of an ‘empty yes’ when my previous internet provider damaged my home. The technician assured me that he would return to fix the damage, but he never returned, and the number he provided was invalid.
When providing a response to the customer, ensure that you provide clear messaging and concise actions with expected timelines, milestones, or follow-up dates. Validate that any email addresses and contact information being provided to the customer are in working order. Lastly, notify related groups and parties within the organization to make sure everyone is moving together towards the common goal.
An Unintentional Yes
John, not his real name, was asked by Katie, not her real name, if it were possible for John’s application to support a new use case needed by her organization. Without much thought or investigation, John responded that he saw no reason why it wouldn’t work.
A few weeks down the road, John’s accidental “yes” resulted in complications within Katie’s organization’s rollout. The untested application that was casually endorsed by John failed, and Katie’s team lost a lot of time creating workarounds. In John and Katie’s case, saying the use case was untested and setting Katie’s expectations on the next steps would have been better.
Avoiding passive agreement helps customers decide better and prevents future complex support issues.
A Forced/Compelled Yes
Avoid giving agreement solely based on the rank and authority of the one asking, whether it is internal, such as an executive account manager, or external, such as a high-ranking or large customer. An agreement that is forced, coerced, or compelled by authority, customer profile, internal/external titles, or organizational connections can be short-sighted and lead to long-term failures and loss of team morale or morals.
As VP of Customer Experience, I’ve noticed that in high-stakes, critical cases, high emotions often lead to misunderstandings. Misunderstandings often lead to increased frustrations. As frustrations mount, the probability for strong, forceful, or unrealistic demands increases. It’s vital to resist the temptation to make or give in to demands when emotions are running high. Instead, by skillfully managing the emotional dynamics, you can ensure that neither party feels pressured, compelled, or resentful.
To avoid a “forced yes,” Customer Experience leaders must help their teams remain calm, uncover the core issues, and collaboratively pursue realistic, win-win solutions.
An Unethical Yes
Providing an approval, or a positive response to the customer in exchange for kickbacks, perks, impermissible benefits, or to avoid requirements is unethical, immoral, and in many cases illegal.
Providing timely and sincere responses to customer requests is essential for healthy customer experiences. While we all want to respond quickly and positively to customer requests, “saying yes more than we say no”, we must not be cavalier or insincere with our answers. Being accommodating is a virtue, but knowing how and when to say no (and do so tactfully) is just as (if not more) important. It is essential that our answers be well-informed, thoughtful, appropriate, sustainable, backed by the organization, aligned with the short and long-term needs of our customers and organization.
Remember, thoughtful approvals are required for sustainable success!