I believe in the US too many employees believe lying is good customer service. Their focus is to make customers feel happy instead of telling them the truth. It appears to happen more in the US than other countries.
Rather than telling the truth and having an irate customer too many employees lie to cover up the truth. They know the customer will never remember who they talked to. They go to extreme measures to avoid the pain and confrontation.
In my opinion this is terrible customer service. All employees should master Handling Irate Customers and Difficult Situations and Service Recovery. Lying is NOT part of this. You lose all trust and confidence with customers when your brand is built around lies. (In the US many people call these little White Lies).
I rarely believe employees. I think about 80% of the time they are lying. I come from Minnesota. Integrity is strong here and “Minnesota Nice†is part of our culture. Learn to be honest. Solve the problem. Learn the 4 steps of Service Recovery. Become a service leader.
Customers are generally pretty good at telling the difference between tainted tactics and honest communication. As an organization, you should attempt to be as honest and transparent as possible in all situations. Even if it isn’t what the customer wants to hear, you’ll come out looking credible and believable in the future.
Don't lie. Ever. End of story. Lies not only damage your ability to communicate with customers, it can also result in a complete communication breakdown that is difficult - or even impossible - to repair
