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Lesson from Chipotle: Customer Centric Agents Recognize, Then Act

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Brian Cantor
Brian Cantor
02/09/2016

Photo Credit: miosotis jade

Chipotle nearly became the victim of a Call Center IQ customer service rant.

During a recent visit to a New York City Chipotle, I was blown away by the utter absence of a line. I certainly anticipated customer nervousness to develop in the wake of their recent health and safety issues, but I was surprised by the degree of nervousness. A New York City Chipotle line with fewer than five customers truly is the living embodiment of Hell freezing over.

The shock I had regarding the lack of a line, however, paled in comparison to the shock I had at the poor quality of service. Here is a company that is A) trying to rebuild its reputation in the wake of negative (and justified) press and B) accustomed to dealing with considerably greater customer volume. These employees typically run hundreds of customers through the line each hour, yet a line with four people was at a complete and total standstill?

My first impression was one of an organization that had given up rather than decided to rebound. Many of the food items needed to be replenished. There was one woman "operating" the entire line (by "operating," I mean standing there and not taking or fulfilling orders) while there seemed to be agents in the back doing little, if any, work.

Ideas for a "My Bad Experience at Chipotle" article were running through my head.

Suddenly, an employee changed my mind.

He put on his gloves, greeted everyone in line, and seemed determined to right the wrong that had been occurring.

The customers in line were actually being acknowledged – and served.

The employee did not simply apologize for the delay; he backed it up with an aggressive commitment to making it right. He injected an absentee combination of speed and cordiality into the ordering process.

He also offered extra meat as a compensation for the delay and poor initial treatment.

To be clear, apologizing for a delay and offering extra meat – especially given the absence of demand for said meat – are not themselves incredible acts of customer centricity. They do not excuse the earlier delay, and they are not independently enough to counteract the brand’s recent reputational issues. They are "nice," not iconic.

They do, however, represent signs of optimal individual agent behavior. That individual behavior speaks favorably to the organization’s core agent culture, and that culture provides valuable customer experience lessons.

While the other customers and I may have conveyed anxiousness on our faces and in our gestures, we were not complaining. We were not ranting and raving. We were not threatening to go home and voice our displeasure on Twitter.

The agent, therefore, was not forced to respond to customer vitriol. He instead detected the possibility of vitriol and acted before it could escalate. He did not extinguish a fire; he prevented it from emerging.

In doing so, the employee spotlighted two key components of a customer-centric agent culture.

1) Agents are conditioned to think – and care. They do not robotically execute tasks within a vacuum; they think about customers and detect changes – or potential changes – in their sentiment.

2) Agents assume accountability for acting – and are empowered to do so. Customer-centric agents do not offer excuses for poor performance. They do not absolve themselves of blame by attributing services issues to "their business." Regardless of their specific culpability in the matter, they hold themselves accountable for making right.

Once they make that decision, they are free to do so without going through the time-consuming process of seeking manager approval. The Chipotle employee did not ask his manager for permission to offer extra meat; he just offered it. Your agents should not have to ask you before issuing make-goods to customers; they should always be permitted to do what is right for the customer.

Are your customers positioned to behave similarly? Do they respond to complaints or do they proactively offer superior service? Do they follow procedure independent of context or do they make decisions based on the context of the interaction and of the customer’s specific needs?

Organizations that answer yes to the latter have developed a customer-centric approach to agent engagement.

It remains to be seen whether Chipotle can fully rebound – and recapture its rapid rate of growth – in the near-term. Failure to do so will not, however, be due to an inhibitive agent culture. Chipotle’s employees are not all perfect – some of the ones I encountered in my experience clearly need to go – but the culture clearly produces (and welcomes) agents who understand what it means to think like a customer and then act for the customer.


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