"It's not my policy. It's the company's."
That is one of the most frustrating things I can hear when I'm talking to someone. Yesterday, I had the need to call a company with which I've had a long (decades) relationship. (I won't name them because I still love them and know they are overall excellent at #CX .) After some frustrating back and forth on a "required" piece of data that actually wasn't required, the agent told me that they weren't responsible for the policy.
"It's not my policy. It's the company's."
The #CustomerService alarms went off in my head. I've seen this company give keynotes at #CustomerExperience conferences. I know this is a key element of their brand. Yet, it all fell short with one phrase from one person.
Any person or process or system that faces the customer IS the brand of the company. To the customer, there is no distinction between "the company" and the employees of the company.
Thoughts:
1. When your company DOES create a customer-unfriendly policy, consider how that affects your front-line employees. If you expect them to be your brand, consider what your brand is saying with that policy.
2. If you MUST (really consider the word) keep the policy in place, equip your team to handle customer frustration with empathy...not defensiveness. They must know how they are the brand to the customer.
3. Over index on coaching and training of the front-line team. Their job is HARD...make sure you are supporting and growing them.
4. Make sure your closed loop feedback is in place to receive customer feedback and make changes as a result.
5. Consider how you are listening to employee/customer interactions and how to use that to both coach (not castigate...coach!) employees and what policy/process/system changes to make from what you learn.