Service That Doesn’t Serve

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I want to share a recent experience with a community sport facility that tried to do the right thing, but got it so wrong that it alienated clients.

I swim with a bunch of good ol’ boys, more distinguished by their girth than their speed in the pool. In early 2010, in an effort to streamline customer access, our local pool installed a swipe card system.

But it was not a success, failing so often that we stopped trying to use it and just checked in at the desk each day. This was not a major experience drama, since we backed the pool for trying and secretly had missed the human touch.

After six months a new system was installed, but with a sting. Those of us who’d lost the old cards, were asked to buy a replacement for $10; far enough below our pain barrier, that we purchased them without much complaint. Only mine malfunctioned from day one. And when I tried to get the desk staff to replace it, they were unable. Apparently they were “authorised to sell cards, but not to replace them”!

I started to get frustrated, but calmed when they offered to get their new customer service team to call me…nice touch! Got a call from a very pleasant young lady we’ll call Jenny (when she turns 40 that’ll be Jennifer) who offered to:

“Replace the card at no cost (!?). Just come in between 10 & 5 Tuesday to Friday.”
“But Jenny, I’m at the pool from 6.30-8am, can’t we meet then?”
“Oh no, that’s outside my working hours.”
“OK Jenny, can you leave a card for me with the counter staff.”
“Oh no, they’re not authorised to handle replacements.”

Now I’m really aggravated. To my surprise, her supervisor supported this and went a step further, threatening to have the counter staff present me with a form to fill in every day I present the broken card. This from the head of customer service!

I marvelled at how a process that started with the most laudable of intents – to reduce bottlenecks and improve customer data collection, had ended up delivering such a poor experience. Later I discovered the root cause. The manager of the pool is reportedly an unreconstructed bureaucrat. While her team is keen to move to a modern customer mindset, she still views pool users as invaders who despoil her pristine facility, challenge her Five Year Plan and must be controlled.

She had supported the change passively because her bosses in Council had been looking for evidence of some customer plan. But when push came to shove, her old beliefs and behaviours prevailed. Arguments at the front counter became commonplace, even leading to a near punch-up and the departure of one of our team members who couldn’t contain his frustration.

So why share this? While a folksy setting, it’s another potent example of how critical it is to have the business head champion any customer change. No matter whether its a Fortune 500 company or a local council facility, without the leader’s support, even the most well intentioned change efforts will fail.

So what did I do? The counter staff took a common-sense approach – of course they didn’t ask me to fill out a stupid form (would recreate the bottlenecks they were so keen to avoid). A few months down the track, as new staff replaced the old and discipline wavered, I found a staff member quite happy to replace my card on the spot with no issues. I got myself on the committe member of the swim club and am now in a position to influence change.

Not a good journey, but salutory reinforcement of a key change principal.

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