Avoiding Scripted Customer Service: A Visit with Richard Branson
Micah Solomon - Customer Service Consultant
Customer Service Consultant, Speaker, Trainer, Author, Forbes Senior Contributor || Customer Experience (CX)
Before we get going: A low-key pitch to you from Micah Solomon - Customer Service Consultant , your author:
Greetings! I offer customer service and customer experience improvement consulting, customer service training, and eLearning creation. 483-343-5881 • micah@micahsolomon.com • micahsolomon.com
"We take an informal and antiscripting approach to customer service at all of our Virgin brands," Richard Branson tells me. "Customers enjoy doing business with personable employees who tailor service to the customer and the customer's situation."
By contrast, he says, some airlines "have service standards that are extremely high, but don't deliver the right style of service for customers today" with perfectly coiffed employees "who are only allowed to deliver scripted lines."
The Authenticity Demand
Here's what businesses are facing now: Consumers today are allergic to anything that strikes them as insincere, including a stilted, overly formal, or obviously scripted service style. They're looking for a candid, down-to-earth, even slangy style of communication from the businesspeople who serve them.
No matter how caring a service provider's actions may be, if the service style comes off as artificial, it puts a ceiling on how intimate and inviting interactions can be between employees and customers.
Eye-Level Service
Today's customers tend to be most comfortable with service staff being in a position of relative equality with customers, rather than standing below them in a subservient manner.
Think of it as a "peer-to-peer," "eye-level," or "side-by-side" style of customer service. The goal is for customers to feel that "we're all in this together," the server and the served.
Replacing Scripts
Instead of word-for-word scripts, replace these with a simpler punch list of points that need to be covered but that employees are free to cover in their own words.
This approach avoids running up against customers' innate dislike of being read to from a canned text.
The Dress Code Connection
The best sartorial approach is to have employees dress in a manner similar to, or just a little bit better than, how your customers dress. This tends to put customers at ease and can have a similar effect on employees.
If you're in a corner of the business world that is still reluctant to employ candidates with visible tattoos, piercings, or hair colors not found in nature, I suggest you outgrow your reluctance. Great customer-focused employees share key personality traits, but one thing they don't share is a particular look.
Stop trying to create customer service robots (unless, of course, that's your intention). Start empowering customer service humans.
LinkedIn Top Voice, CX and Contact Center Pioneer, Advisor, Author, Speaker, Innovator, Investor. 40+ yrs-of Award-Winning Customer Service, CX, EX, and Inside Sales Advice (12K+)
1moA script will only sound natural to the person(s) who created it. Frontline service staff must be given both parameters and autonomy to solve customer problems and issues. AI can support customers through delineating policies, narrowing options, and guiding customers toward alternative solutions.
Customer Success | Account Expansion | Upsell & Cross-sell | SaaS | B2B
1moThere’s this constant race for scalability, automation and digitalization — and yes, it makes total sense. But we need to apply it where it truly adds value: to streamline operations and simplify day to day tasks. That way we free up our people to focus on what truly matters, building real connections. We can't automate relationships. Those need to become even more strategic.