“You have a look of consternation on your face,” I said.

“Correct,” Adriana replied. “I just got back our survey results on my customer service team. Not so good.”

“What do you understand from the survey?” I wanted to know.

“I know we have the best trained team in the company,” she started. “We constantly go over the process, the rules, the disclaimers. We role play situations to make sure we are following the training. The team does great. They do exactly what they are supposed to do.”

“Where’s the rub?” I asked.

“One of the survey questions asked ‘Did we solve the problem?’ We only solved the problem 23% of the time. So 77% of the time, the customer said no.”

“So, you have very strict guidelines, and your customer service team follows those guidelines with a high level of compliance. Tell me, do you think the guidelines were created to solve customer problems? Let’s look at the first two steps. First, smile when taking a call. Second, use the customer’s first name.”

“Yes, those are important,” Adriana defended. “We want the conversation to be friendly. We want the customer to feel like they are talking to a real person.”

“But, just because I am friendly and know the customer’s first name does not mean I have a solution to their problem.”