Show Them What You Can Do, Not What You Can’t

Posted on March 20th, 2008 in Customer Service by speedreading

Needs don’t go away when the answer is no. There is a story of a man who forgot his socks. It was 7 a.m., on a Wednesday morning and he was in Atlantic City, NJ at the Caesar’s Palace Hotel.

He was in his room preparing to give a seminar in front of hundreds of people. He put on his shirt, pants, and then reached into his suitcase where his socks always were and panic – no socks.  

For a brief moment he considered wearing no socks. Tacky. Then he thought to himself, “Hey, I’m in Caesar’s Place, I’ll call downstairs and someone will get me some socks.” He figured he couldn’t be the first person who ever forgot his socks!

The operator transferred him to the front desk. He said, “I forgot my socks, I need a pair of black socks. My presentation begins in an hour.”

The front desk person replied, “The gift shop doesn’t carry any socks, and the earliest that any store opens is 10:00 a.m.” 

“Does that mean I no longer need the socks?” he inquired.

 “Well sir, there’s nothing I can do, the gift shop doesn’t have black socks.”

And he repeated, “Does that mean I no longer need them?” “Can I speak to the manager on duty?” he inquired.

(He was afraid he was going to get the following response that he did.)

“I am the manager on duty,” she said. 

The man replied, “Then why don’t you use your managerial skills, and find me a pair of socks?” Start with your gift shop,” he said. “Maybe they know where to go. I expect a call back in five minutes.” 

The front desk manager was now certain that she was dealing with a jerk – and vice versa. (And the man is still sockless in Atlantic City.) 

Three minutes later the phone rings. “The bellman is on his way up to your room with a pair of black socks,” the manager said sheepishly. “It seems as though the gift shop had them after all.” 

The man said, “Do you get what happened here ma’am?” 

“Oh yes,” she said. “I apologize for not knowing that the gift shop had black socks.”

 “No, no” he replied. “The point is that I needed something, and the first thing you decided was to tell me every way that I couldn’t get what I needed. The fact that you didn’t know the store stock has nothing to do with the nonsense of your communication. If you would have simply said, ‘You have no socks sir? Oh that’s horrible! I’ll find you a pair of socks in the gift shop or another store, or I’ll call my dad and see if he has an extra pair he can lend you,’ you could have changed a frustrating hassle to a positive memorable experience.” 

The manager could have made him feel there was hope, and that she was willing to make an effort, to help, instead of making him feel frustrated. That was her choice. She started with “no” instead of “yes”.

OK, now let’s get to the heart of the matter. How does this affect you and the way that you deal with our customers? What are you telling our customers that you cannot do: Out of stock? Close at 5:30 p.m.? Don’t handle packaging of? There are millions of examples of everyday business transactions where the customer is told what cannot be done instead of what can be done. And every one of these transactions is wrong. When a customer has a problem, in more than 75% of the cases, a “CAN” response ends up as a memorable event.  (For the record so does a “CAN’T” response, but it’s a bad memory!) The bottom line is that the customer is only concerned with what you can do. It might be a good idea for you to add this simple “policy” to your thinking: No one is allowed to say what we can’t do without also adding what we can do!  Customers, when they call your company, are looking for answers and solutions – and so are you when you’re a customer. 

It’s not about socks, it’s about training. It’s not about apologies, it’s about corporate philosophy. It is important that you keep the customer loyal, and create positive word-of-mouth advertising. The “can’t” philosophy will drive the customer to the competition with one phone call (and the accompanying bad-mouthing).

 If you’re looking for a benchmark, go back to when you were 4 years old and your mother was reading you, The Little Engine That Could.  “I think I can. I think I can.”