This wonderful article covers A LOT of customer service territory, but its bottom line is that good customer service can only be provided by employees (and management, perhaps?) who care about what they’re doing and the people they are trying to serve.  When confronted by angry customers waiting to be served, one clerk mentioned in this article simply said, “I don’t care what you think. I won’t be here in 10 years.”

It may be a good thing, then, to have programs in place to measure employee satisfaction, as well as customer satisfaction.  A mystery shopping firm such as Customer Perspectives can be hired to begin the process, at least, to determine if employees are serving customers well. In those interactions, it may be revealed that employees are apathetic because something in the process or the product isn’t right, or isn’t seen as “worth it” for the employee’s trouble.   Perhaps more training is needed? Or different training? Or perhaps there’s something amiss in the hiring process that produces only employees with a negative attitude.  In any case, a mystery shopping campaign such as those conducted by Customer Perspectives may be the thing that reveals the problems so that management can fix them.