Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

When looking at mistakes that are made in managing customer service quality, one of the ones that stick out high above others is making promises that you can't keep.

One thing we need to instill in our employees is that in their quest to please the customer, they must be careful not to promise what they're not sure they can deliver. Remind them that they are always representing the company when they make statements to people.

I remember one simple issue that I've seen come up in the area of deliveries. A customer called the store one time wanting to know when the delivery would be in because it was getting late. The employee tried to talk the customer into having it delivered the next day as when he called the delivery drivers they said that they would in no way be able to make it that night.

The employee attempted to tell this to the customer and they insisted they come that night. Instead of explaining that there was simply no way that they could practically get there because of the delivery location, the employee made the promise they would be there, based upon hoping something would change, rather than the reality of the situation.

When the truck got back to the store, it was way past the time of being able to start on a delivery. The call from the customer the next day wasn't a happy one. Even though the customer wasn't happy with having to wait, they were infuriated that they waited up for the truck and it never arrived.

The employee was a good employee, but was intimidated by the forcefulness of the customer who had a hard time accepting the situation the night before.

The bottom line was that we told him that there are times when the only option that is left isn't always the perfect one. Choosing to promise something that couldn't be delivered was far worse than saying that they would not be able to deliver that night.

We must teach our employees to not promise more than the business can accomplish. Have you ever had something like this happen in your management experience?