Use Good Judgment, Policy Be Damned

I have worked retail and other customer service since before it was legal for me to be employed. I grew up in a retail establishment, and I worked for over a decade on the front lines and in supervisory roles of various organizations. I've also trained staff in customer service best practices. I think it's fair for me to call myself an expert in customer service. 

There is a philosophy that leaves no room for service agents to evaluate a particular circumstance and determine that policy is inappropriate. "Consistency" becomes the Promised Land, and POLICY becomes the almighty.

I don't disdain rules, but slavish adherence to them can undermine the purpose they are meant to serve. It is crucial that anyone working in customer service have both the freedom and the self-confidence to thoughtfully apply rules and policies to circumstances. Customer service requires good judgment.

Why, of course this post sprung from an experience. 

My husband is currently suffering from a severe gout flare-up, and yesterday it was at its worst. He couldn't walk at all without crutches, and even with crutches, walking was excruciating. It was too painful for him to drive, so I took him to the post office and the bank. Running these simple errands exhausted him.

At the last stop of the trip, I needed to run in and buy one thing. I pulled up in the fire lane in front of the store, put the blinkers on, and ran in, leaving my Jeep running and my husband half-asleep in the passenger seat.

Less than two minutes later as I completed my transaction at the register, through the window I saw my husband hobbling along on his crutches, face contorted. I thought out loud, "Why is my injured husband out of the car?"

"Because you can't park in a fire lane," a woman, whom I later found out was the supervisor on duty, snotted at me.

I raced outside, helped my husband back in the Jeep, and hurried home as fast as I could in 15-35 MPH speed limits. My husband was nearly in tears with pain. I learned that the supervisor lady had come outside to tell him that it was illegal to park in a fire lane, and he was too exhausted to protest. 

Once home, I called the store immediately after helping my husband get comfortable. Of course, the supervisor was technically in the right that it is illegal to park in a fire lane. Maintaining order and enforcing policy certainly fall within the purview of a supervisor's duties.

But she failed to show good judgment. 

She got worked up about a car in a fire lane when less than two minutes had passed. We're not talking passenger pickup at JFK airport for heaven's sake, we're talking about a small-town store where, should an emergency arise, the relevant customer on the store's 5,000 square foot floor would reach the car in seconds. 

Once outside, the supervisor decided to approach the car even though the blinkers were on and the car was running, clear indicia that the car's operant intended to be away for a very short period of time. How far away can the car's owner be if the car is running and the key is in it?

Even if the stick up a customer service agent's ass is so enormous that she will insist the passenger immediately move a vehicle with blinkers on and engine running, good judgment should advise backing off once she realizes that the passenger is barely conscious and on crutches.

She did apologize after I called and chewed her out, and I have no doubt that the store employees had a good grieving session about what an entitled bitch I was to get pissed at a woman for doing her job. I don't blame her, but I'm not sorry. One of the ways one acquires good judgment is by collecting experiences.

Despite yesterday's annoyance, good judgment in customer service does occur. I wish I could remember the name of the company or agent in this story; unfortunately, I think the company might have gone out of business. Nevertheless, this is what I'm talking about:

I had to call this online company's customer service because I'd messed up my login too many times and they'd locked my account. In order to verify my identity, the customer service agent asked for the last address I had on file, which was an apartment I'd last lived in about four years earlier. Due to my brain being filled with torts and civil procedure and whatnot, I could not remember the exact address. 

"Crap," I said, "It's in Boulder. On Broadway. Twenty-something-something-something Broadway number twenty-six? Or two-dash-six? It was on the second floor and I'm pretty sure it had a six in it. I can probably figure it out from Google Earth."

It was 2845 Broadway number 206. A customer service agent who had learned slavish adherence to policy would have told me I was out of luck. One who lacked self-confidence might try to give me hints, but ultimately would have made me figure it out one way or another before letting me pass.

This customer service agent had good judgment. The purpose of requiring the caller to give the last address on file is to verify that the caller is who she says she is. The information I gave was not only close enough to serve the purpose, but the exact kind of non-specific that would only come out of the mouth of a person telling the truth. She chuckled that she believed me and let me into my account. I gave my family some pretty cool Christmas gifts.

I don't believe that anything is absolute. It's always or never until it isn't. It's fine to rely on "it's policy" as a reason to enforce the right thing over unreasonable demands, but it shouldn't keep a person from evaluating specific circumstances and acting accordingly. This is especially true when half your job involves keeping the money-spenders spending money in your particular establishment. The customer isn't always right, but you don't want to piss them off, unless you no longer want them as a customer. And in order to figure that out, you use good judgment.