Understanding the Iceberg Issue in Customer Service

A customer emailed me with an unusual problem.

My first instinct was to help him quickly and move on. But I paused and wondered if this could be an iceberg.

Icebergs are hidden customer service issues that cost you time, money, and customers. It's something customer service leaders don't talk about enough.

In this article, I'll explain the iceberg concept, share an example, and give you some practical steps find icebergs in your own organization.

What is a customer service iceberg?

A customer service iceberg is an issue that seems small on the surface, but is really a much bigger issue.

Icebergs can be hard to identify. You might only receive a complaint or two. In other cases, the problem seems easy to fix but reoccurs without you noticing.

This makes iceberg-hunting a critical skill in any customer-focused organization.

What do customer service icebergs look like?

Icebergs are typically issues that are unusual or hard to explain.

For example, a Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber emailed me because he was having trouble subscribing.

The specific problem he described was something I hadn't seen before. Here's a video walk-through:

Icebergs can sometimes hide huge problems.

One customer service leader found a few errant lines of code created a billing problem that cost the company $50,000 per year.

A customer experience leader discovered confusing instructions were causing over $1 million worth of products to be returned every year just because customers couldn't figure out how to use them!

Yikes!

How can you find and fix icebergs?

Three steps can help you identify and fix icebergs before they get too big.

Step 1: Avoid Assumptions

It's tempting for customer service reps to focus on solving the issue for the customer they are assisting. You might assume the issue is now done.

Assumptions like that help icebergs avoid detection.

I know I was tempted to help the Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber get subscribed and then move on to something else. The unusual nature of the problem made me pause and look closer.

Stay vigilant for unusual or unexplained issues. Look out for problems that theoretically can't happen, but somehow happen anyway.

Step 2: Root Cause It!

Search for the root cause of unusual or unexplained problems.

I'd never seen someone encounter a broken link in the confirmation email for my newsletter. It took some digging to find the problem came from a seldom-used form on my website.

Fixing the link took a couple of minutes.

I also discovered this wasn't an isolated incident. My newsletter data told me at least 24 other people had encountered the same problem. They just hadn't told me about it!

Step 3: Get Proactive

It's time to spring into service mode once you find and solve the root cause of the issue.

I helped my Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber get squared away, and then made sure the other 24 people affected were subscribed as well.

You can't fix every iceberg. Some issues are outside of your control. When that happens, put a process in place to quickly help customers who encounter the problem.

My first book had a printing problem that caused the pages to fall out. The publisher reprinted the book, but many copies had already been distributed to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other book sellers. This process was completely out of my control, but I still needed a proactive service plan to help customers who bought a defective book.

Conclusion

Don’t let customer service icebergs wreck havoc. Find and fix them as quickly as you can. Watch this short video for a recap of this post:

Why strict procedures are the key to a great customer experience

I've spent a lot of time at the post office lately and it's fascinating.

My latest book came out in March, which means I've sent a lot of books to people I interviewed or who endorsed the book. The books require a special type of discounted postage called media mail, so I have to go to the counter to buy it from a postal clerk.

There are three clerks who regularly work in my local post office. All three have a different way of processing a media mail postage request, yet all the books arrive safely to their destination.

Why does this matter?

One of the clerks processes the transaction much faster than the other two. This makes the line go faster. (There's always a line.)

Put another way, two of the clerks take too long. They add unnecessary steps to the procedure. Taking an extra minute per transaction makes the line grow. More people have to wait for more time as a result.

Each visit to the post office is a reminder of a customer experience lesson that's often overlooked. Strict procedures are essential to great experiences.

Here's why.

Great experiences are consistent

Customers trust brands, products, and services that they can count on. We tend to take consistency for granted, because it's a little boring, but we'd surely notice if it wasn't there.

Picture a contact center where luck of the draw determined which agent you got on the phone. One agent could solve your problem in just five minutes, while another agent would require 30 minutes to get to the bottom of the same issue.

Imagine going to a Starbucks where each barista made your latte "their way." Some would taste good, others wouldn't. No two would be the same.

What if warehouse workers each had their own method for packing fragile items? Some shipments would survive the journey, others wouldn't. Extra padding adds extra weight, which means some workers would unnecessarily increase shipping costs without preventing any more damage.

All of these scenarios create waste, unhappy customers, and inconsistent experiences.

Customer-focused companies are incredibly consistent. Their products unfailingly work. Their services are dependable.

Think about that the next time you order something from Amazon. The company can deliver a dizzying array of items to your doorstep with lightening speed because every employee is taught to follow a strict set of procedures.

Can employees ever improvise?

Absolutely! There are many situations where an employee should add their own flair, make an adjustment, or deviate from a procedure entirely.

The secret is knowing when to improvise.

Hotel housekeepers neatly fold towels as part of the room cleaning procedure. Some add their own flair by folding some of the towels into fun animals.

A procedure can sometimes be improved. That's what the fast postal clerk did. She identified an unnecessary step and eliminated it, saving several seconds per transaction.

There are a few cases when the normal procedure doesn’t apply.

A medical device manufacturer needed to get a specific item to a hospital for a patient having surgery the next day. The normal ordering procedure wouldn’t get the device to the hospital in time, so a customer service rep decided to improvise. She called a nearby competing hospital, located the correct device, and arranged to have it delivered just in time for the patient’s life-saving surgery.

Many customer-focused companies even have procedures for handling special requests or unusual situations. There's a strict latte recipe at Starbucks, but the barista will customize a drink to your liking. You can even make changes to a standard item when ordering via the Starbucks app.

(Side note: some customers have gone way too far with their customization requests. It’s become an issue.)

People mistakenly equate empowerment with giving employees the authority to do whatever they want. That's not really the definition.

The real definition of empowerment is enabling employees to deliver outstanding service to their customers. This includes:

• Resources necessary to get the job done.

• Procedures that represent best practices.

• Authority to do what’s right or deviate from procedures when needed.

How do you get employees to follow procedures?

Just having strict procedures isn't enough. All employees need to follow them to ensure consistency.

The first step is to make sure there is a documented procedure. You can use this guide to write procedures your employees will love.

Next, identify potential obstacles.

• Are employees aware of the procedure?

• Can they access the procedure quickly and easily?

• Do they have the necessary tools and resources?

A hotel received a number of complaints about room cleanliness. A quick investigation revealed that employees weren't following the standard cleaning procedure because they lacked the needed cleaning supplies.

Finally, monitor procedures to make sure they are being followed.

Major League Baseball recently investigated allegations that its baseballs are "juiced," meaning they fly farther than normal. It turned out to be true. The baseballs are hand-sewn, and the balls had abnormal variations in seam height, causing some baseballs to fly farther than others.

That meant a fan's chance of seeing a home run had just as much to do with who made the ball as who was pitching and who was batting.

It turned out the problem had been happening for several years. The investigation, while enlightening, should have happened far sooner.

Take Action

Procedures aren't a one-way street. Customer-focused leaders spend a lot of time talking about procedures with their team.

• Why is this procedure important?

• What are the consequences of not consistently following the procedure?

• What obstacles prevent procedures from being followed?

• When does it make sense to not follow the procedure?

• How can we do things even better?

You can learn more about creating a consistent customer experience from my book, The Guaranteed Customer Experience. Download the first chapter to learn about a gas station convenience store that dominates the competition because it does one simple thing consistently.

How to write customer service procedures your employees will love

Updated: July 3, 2023

Customer service managers write a lot of procedures.

The big challenge is getting employees to follow them. Employees forget. They get confused. Sometimes, they just don't wanna.

This creates consequences.

Customer experience becomes inconsistent. Service quality erodes. The manager has to spend extra time fixing problems.

There is a simple solution. Here's a five step process for writing customer service procedures your employees will love. (And actually follow.)

Step one: Clarify the goal

Start by making it clear why you want employees to follow a procedure. Help them understand the "why" behind it.

These questions can help:

• What are the benefits of following the procedure?

• What are the consequences of not following the procedure??

• How does the procedure connect to the bigger picture?

A hotel parking operator was in danger of losing its contract with the hotel because valet parking attendants failed to consistently follow service procedures. The hotel used mystery shoppers to evaluate its operations, and the valets had earned a string of poor reports.

The manager used a simple strategy to turn things around.

He called a team meeting and revealed that the contract was in jeopardy. The valets had not known the client was unhappy. Now they knew the stakes involved in following procedures.

Next, the manager started sharing each mystery shopper report with the team. He posted them on a bulletin board in the office so they could see exactly how they were performing.

The scores instantly improved and the contract was saved.

Step two: Get input

Procedures that are ineffective, confusing, or cumbersome can frustrate employees. Avoid this problem by involving employees in the development process.

Associates at one retailer struggled to follow procedures for building product displays. The procedures were written by employees at the corporate office who assembled the displays in a conference room rather than in a store. As a result, they often missed critical steps or underestimated how much time it would take to create a new display.

Micah Peterson, VP of Product Management at ProcedureFlow, recommends having key stakeholders walk through a procedure and record each step they take.

"Mapping out the experience of senior colleagues, trainers, and policy creators in a visual way gives new users immediate access to expert knowledge. It's like having them right beside you, guiding you along!"

For the retailer, that meant having store employees build an in-store display and documenting the actual steps they took.

PDCA is a tool that can help you create more effective procedures. It’s an acronym that outlines four steps:

1. Plan. Get employee input on an initial procedure.

2. Do. Test the procedure on a limited basis.

3. Check. Verify whether the procedure works as intended.

4. Adjust. Make changes to improve the procedure before sharing it with everyone.

Step three: Write clearly

Employees are often in a hurry when following a procedure, so it's important to make procedures easy to understand and follow.

"You must write them in plain language," says Leslie O'Flahavan, owner of E-WRITE.

"That means you have to use terms even new employees will understand and make the steps easy to see and follow. When it comes to procedures, plain language means answering employees’ questions: What should I do? In what order? And where do I get more help if I need it?"

Imagine a new customer service employee on the phone with a customer, trying to explain how to return an item. They find the return procedure to guide them.

This procedure would be hard to follow:

Ascertain the reason the customer wishes to make the return. Click on the drop-down menu and select the return code that most closely fits the customer's expressed reason for making the return. Verify that the customer's email address is accurate or otherwise enter their address in the email field and click on the button marked “RETURN.” Inform the customer that you will be emailing them instructions to facilitate the return. Explain that they should take the return to the nearest UPS store and show the clerk the return email, which can either be printed out or shown on their smartphone. Inform the customer that the UPS employee will package the return and ship it back to us.

Big words, long sentences, and a lack of formatting would make that procedure difficult to read. Here's the same procedure with a few improvements:

1. Ask the reason for the return.

2. Select the best return code from the drop-down menu.

3. Confirm or add the customer's email address.

4. Press the "RETURN" button.

5. Tell the customer a return email is on its way.

6. Ask the customer to bring their return and the email to the nearest UPS store. (They can print the email, or show it on their phone.)

7. Ask them to show the email to a UPS employee who will take care of the rest!

Get more writing tips from O'Flahavan's excellent LinkedIn Learning course, Writing in Plain Language.

Step four: Make it accessible

Procedures should be easy for employees to quickly access when they need them. They shouldn't have to search through endless email updates or decide which version of the procedure is the most accurate.

Tracy O'Rourke, Co-Founder of the Just-in-Time Cafe, suggests creating job aids.

"Job aids help make procedures accessible, simple, and easy to understand. A guideline for the job aids is to use as many pictures as possible. Pictures are easier to process than long text documents."

Employees in a small office had trouble remembering the procedure for greeting visitors when the receptionist was absent or on a break. The solution was putting a small job aid at the front counter that illustrated the three step procedure.

Some jobs require employees to be aware of multiple procedures.

A great option is to create a knowledge base that puts all procedures in one searchable directory. Knowledge bases work well in contact centers or other places where employees work from a computer.

One company sold products to local governments. Each government customer had a complex set of procedures for verifying, shipping, and billing orders. A knowledge base made it easy for employees to quickly access each customer's requirements without skipping a beat!

Step five: Reinforce procedures

It's easy to develop bad habits if good ones aren't reinforced. Review procedures with your team on a regular basis to make sure they are following them.

One hotel was getting a lot of guest complaints about room cleanliness.

An inspection revealed rooms weren’t being cleaned correctly. The hotel had a proven procedure, but housekeepers didn’t have the right cleaning supplies on their carts. This made it impossible for the procedure to be followed.

It was an easy fix. The right supplies were provided and the cleaning procedure was reviewed with the team. Cleanliness complaints dropped as housekeepers began following the correct procedure again.

Conclusion

Proven procedures allow you to provide a more consistent customer experience. You can take it to the next level by offering an experience guarantee.

Guarantees can help you:

1. Earn new business

2. Win repeat business

3. Prevent lost business

The Guaranteed Customer Experience provides a step-by-step guide.

Download the first chapter to learn how a convenience store chain earns four times as many customers per location than their competitors by promising clean restrooms.

Quickly Solve Service Problems with Five Whys

New hires were struggling in the contact center.

The reason was a mystery to the customer service leader. Her company had a comprehensive training program, a dedicated trainer, and supportive supervisors. Yet it was taking new employees too long to get up to speed.

The leader and her team had been working on the issue for months. She finally asked for my advice, and was surprised when I helped her find the solution in just a few minutes.

Is it because I'm a wizard? 

No, not really. I simply used a problem-solving technique called the Five Whys. You can use it to quickly get to the heart of many customer service challenges.

Here's what it is, and how you can use it too.

How does the Five Whys technique work?

Many customer service challenges aren't clearly defined, which makes them hard to solve. Here are a few examples:

• We're getting too many complaints.

• Employee turnover is too high.

• We need to get everyone on the same page.

You need something much more specific if you want to solve the problem.

For example, why are we getting too many complaints? The solution will be completely different if the root cause is a defective product versus surly employees.

The Five Whys technique works by asking the question "Why," until you get to the real root of the issue. The average is thought to be five times, hence the name "Five Whys."

Here's how I used this technique to help the customer service leader diagnose why new hires were struggling to do their jobs:

Me: Why do you think new hires are struggling?
Leader: New hires are making a lot of mistakes.

Me: Why are they making mistakes?
Leader: They don't remember basic procedures.

Me: Why don't they remember basic procedures?
Leader: We don't spend enough time reinforcing basic procedures in training.

Me: Why don't you spend enough time reinforcing basic procedures in training?
Leader: Because we spend a lot of time covering exceptions and special processes.

Me: Why do you spend so much time covering exceptions and special processes?
Leader: Because we want agents to be aware of them.

The third question was the lightbulb moment. It was an insight that was only obvious in hindsight: new hires weren’t getting adequate training on the skills they needed most.

The fourth question brought a little more clarity and then the last question was the show stopper. 

The current training program inundated new hires with procedures they might use once every three months. By the leader’s own admission, this was more for awareness since customer service agents were likely to forget them.

The heart of the issue was these procedures were given equal time with more common procedures that were used on a daily basis. The result was new hires weren't getting a chance to master the basics. 

Armed with this insight, the customer service leader completely transformed the training program.

The new focus emphasized the basics so employees could master skills they would use every day. New hires were then taught to identify exceptions and ask for help, which is what they had been doing any way. Agents didn’t need to know what the specific exception was, only that it didn’t fit in with standard procedures.

The result was fewer mistakes, shorter training time, and better productivity.

Take Action

Try using the Five Whys technique to solve one of your own customer service challenges. Ask the question, "Why?" until you get to the heart of the problem.

Learn how to quickly diagnose and solve more customer service issues with my LinkedIn Learning courses, Quick Fixes to Attain Excellent Customer Service. Here’s a preview:

Welcome from Quick Fixes to Attain Excellent Customer Service by Jeff Toister

---

How to Improve Customer Service with Process Mapping

Elisabeth Swan, Managing Partner of GoLeanSixSigma.com

Process is more important than training.

That's tough for me to admit as a trainer, but it's true. You can give someone the best training and then give them a lousy process, and the results will be poor. Give that same person minimal training but a fantastic process, and they'll likely do just fine.

So if you want to improve customer service, look at the process you're using to serve customers before you send anyone to training. The root cause of many service failures is a process that isn't working, or people aren't following it.

Elisabeth Swan thinks about process a lot.

She's the managing partner of GoLeanSixSigma.com, a company that provides Lean Six Sigma training and certification. The company's mission is: Revolutionize the way people learn process improvement–making it easy for everyone everywhere to build their problem-solving muscles.

Swan is also the co-author of The Problem-Solver’s Toolkit, which is a wonderful reference guide full of immediately useful process improvement tools.

We recently had a conversation to talk about how process mapping can be used to improve customer service. (You can find more information about swimlane mapping, one of the concepts we discussed, on page 64 of Swan’s book.)

Here are some of our discussion topics:

• Creating an interactive process map with post-it notes.

• Using swimlane maps to prevent issues from "falling through the cracks."

• Maintaining customer-focus throughout the process.

• Verifying processes are working as expected.

• Identifying pain points in a process.

You can watch the full interview here.