in most cases, is it more important to you that customer service is "friendly" or that it's "efficient"?

Question

i know, i know, it depends on the circumstances of what product or service you're trying to buy. but on the whole, do you think customer service should strive for friendliness over efficiency? or productivity over nicety? why?

extra credit:: can you give an example from your own experience?

Answer 1

Efficient with a smile. Don't be overly friendly to compensate for your lack of efficiency...it makes it that much harder to be irritated with you for providing a less than par service...and then I'll feel bad when I have to complain to your manager. This will also deter people from complaining to the manager at all because the incompetent employee was "really really sweet"...and they will just accept mediocrity....continuing a cycle of bad service that goes unreported.

Answer 2

Well customer service is about people interacting with other people. If you work in retail you quickly find out that that part of your job is sales. In order to make a sale both components - friendliness and efficiency (in the form of product knowledge, or if you are a cashier, in the form of a proficiency in running your cash register). I can tell from experience that a customer is more likely to buy from a friendly person than one who is just concentrating on the mechanics of stocking a shelf or running a person through the check out at high speed. For example when I was working in retail I found out early that the customer comes first. You drop everything to wait on the customer. I was working in a pet shop which was a department in a local retail store. I did not know much about the animals, fish and products I was selling. I found that if I was just friendly to my customers that they would share what they knew. Most people love to tell you what they know. By being friendly and talking to people they helped me by educating me on the fish and animals. For example on man told me how to tell the difference between male and female on live bearing fish. Another person told me which fish needed to be in school and that they should be bought in even numbers. If I had just gone through the motions of my job I would not have gained the huge amount of information that helped me help other customers. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

I think that friendliness wins hands down over efficiency. I mean, I think anyone can make a mistake or be hurried and not as efficient as I would like. A good attitude and smiling face can make up for any mistake. Of course productivity does matter but is not as important as feeling good or happy. I cant think of any specific example but I do know that my day has been made many many times by smiling service workers.

Answer 4

If I have to choose, I'd want efficiency. But these are hardly mutually exclusive.

People should also remember that customer service reps are people too - don't yell at them, particularly over things that aren't their fault. After particularly long waits on the phone, I say to the person answering something like "Gee, you must be overworked - seems like they need to hire more people" and usually get a friendly response and GREAT help. I also try to preface my complaint with "I know this isn't YOUR fault...." since normally it's not. If you call and start out by yelling at the person, you can't really expect much.....they'd have to be a saint to want to go out of their way for you.

Answer 5

I used to quality assurance for a customer service call center. We had some representatives that were very personable and courteous, but lacked knowledge. When customers spoke with them, they were usually very satisfied when they hung up, but they would have to call back (and wait on hold) when they discovered the answer they received was wrong.

I'll take accuracy over soft skills any day, but the best would be a nice balance.

Answer 6

The customer expects your service to be efficient. It is called NON-MOTIVATING.

For example, when a customer enters a bank or a restaurant with clean floors, he/she is most likely not to notice it.

When your customer service is friendly, it is called MOTIVATING. You will get repeat business and enhance your brand image because you went the extra mile than expected - being efficient.

Cheers

Answer 7

Efficiency!

You can be friendly but forget to put the articles in a bag....or when I was in the grocery store, the clerk was friendly, gave me my cash and started to wait on the next person, who yelled excuse me......and started to push me out of the way.
I had my cash in my hand, and they were not finished putting my goods in the bag yet.

So I yelled loud enough for the people to hear, since when does excuse me, mean get the heck out of my way, because I'm here now!

So later I called the ACME and reported the clerk to the manager, who cause the problem. The manager agreed that he will teach his clerks to stop this "cattle handling" of people! ...It's more efficient to handle one customer at a time, and not cause customers to bump in to each other!

Answer 8

In my job I have to be friendly (always smiling) no matter what,even if the customer is horrible..
My job is to be quick and efficient swift and diligent and always friendly and aware of everything..I work at a casino...every thing is timed...the more you do the better you look ..I don't like people that DF...it picks me...

Answer 9

Efficiency is far more important. I am quite tired of sweet idiots who cause me to lose so much time fixing their screw ups. It is hard to get mad at them or ugly about it because they are sweet, but they really piss me off.

Rude isn't cool, either, but I'll take it over sweet and stupid.

Answer 10

I don't see why both cannot be achieved, after all, I spent my money, which will wind up in the CSR's paycheck, so what's so hard about doing one's job with a smile and some courtesy?