All Rules Were Meant to Be Broken (Including This One)

Rules are everywhere. We encounter formal rules in the form of laws and policies—No right turn on red, Returns must be accompanied by receipt. Other rules are informal, taught by custom or experience—When you bump into another person, say “Excuse me.” Allow extra time when driving during rush hour.

We all live and work with mountains of rules, regulations and standard operating procedures. There are a lot of reasons for rules—some good, some not so good. Some rules have a lot more to do with the convenience of the inventory control or accounting department than the convenience of customers. For example, a movie theater concession stand that counts drink cups at the end of each shift in order to monitor and manage soft drink sales might have a rule warning: Do not give out drink cups for water.

Other rules are designed to keep things neat, straight, and running smoothly: Would the person who drinks the last cup of coffee please make a new pot.

Still others are created to ensure employee and customer safety: No one is allowed on the construction site without a hard hat.

Don’t expect your customers to know your rules, much less understand them. That’s your job; be clear and up-front about what the rules are, and know when you can and can’t allow exceptions to them.

Rules should share a single purpose: to make life run more smoothly, more efficiently, in a more organized and orderly fashion. We sometimes call this purpose the spirit of the law. But rules don’t always fulfill their spirit. In fact, sometimes they work against what we’re trying to accomplish. That’s why it’s important for service professionals to understand the rules that direct their efforts.

Rules vs. Assumptions

We are so used to rules in our lives that sometimes, when we don’t know the answer or aren’t comfortable making a decision of our own, we’re tempted to make a rule to fill the gap. Or, in the stress of the moment, we may borrow a rule from another setting that seems to fit our current situation.

For example, imagine you’re a new cashier. A customer comes in and asks to write a check for $20 more than the amount of purchase. You don’t know what your store policy is, and there’s no one nearby to ask. What do you do?

• You might assume that cashing checks for over the amount is against the rules and say “no.”
• Or, you may borrow a rule from your last job and allow the customer to write the check for $5 or $10 more.

Either option is tempting because it puts you in control of the situation and keeps you from having to say, “Gee, I don’t know if you can do that.” But not knowing all the rules is natural! In fact, not knowing and finding out—for you and for the customer—is one of the best ways to learn on the job. Instead of assuming there must be a rule that will make you say “no”, find out how to say “yes.”

A friend of ours remembers a business trip to Kansas City where she was working particularly long days. Back in her hotel room one evening, hungry from having skipped lunch, she reviewed the room service menu. Nothing appealed. She called down to room service and asked if she could have a plain broiled chicken breast with a small salad. “I don’t see that on the menu,” the room service waiter responded. “It’s not,” she replied, “but it’s what I’d really like to have. Can you make it?” Silence. Then again, “Well, it’s not on the menu.” To make a long story short, our friend didn’t end up with a room service meal that night, though the room service personnel at many hotels since then have easily and cheerfully accommodated similar requests. Guess which hotel in Kansas City she tells people to avoid?

Red Rules vs. Blue Rules

Rules are important when they protect the public safety or reflect experience that says dire consequences will occur if the wrong things happen. But other rules are simply habits and customs with hardened arteries—systems that grow inflexible with age and take on a rigidity never intended.

A helpful technique for getting a better handle on the rules that surround the work you do is to classify each rule as red or blue.

Red rules cannot be broken. They have life-or-death—or at least, employment vs. unemployment—consequences. They are the “laws” that govern the way things are done.

Blue rules, in contrast, are important guides for doing work. They may be bent or broken. If a rule is blue, an exception may be considered.

In health care, Red rules are there to protect the life or well-being of the patient. An example of a Red rule is, No smoking where highly combustible oxygen is in use. Blue rules are designed to make the hospital experience run more smoothly for patient and staff alike. A Blue rule example is, Incoming patients are processed through the admitting department.

Health care workers have to know when a Blue rule, such as Fill out the admission forms first, should or must be broken. For instance, in the emergency room or when a pregnant woman arrives in labor, the paperwork can wait.

Red rules may be set by the government in the form of laws or regulations, or by your company’s management. Blue rules may evolve from department policy or past experience. You need to understand where the rules come from and why they exist and be able to explain them to your customers so they in turn know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Apply What You Learn: Organize a Discussion Group

Organize a meeting with your co-workers to discuss your organization’s Red rules and Blue rules.

The objectives of the meeting could be to:

• Become familiar with rules and policies that affect customer service.
• Learn which rules are Red and which are Blue.
• Learn the reasons for the rules.
• Discuss ways to explain the rules to customers.

• Propose the idea to your supervisor or manager.
• Decide who will attend.
• Select a date, time and meeting room. Keep the meeting short—no more than an hour. It’s more productive to have several short meetings on the subject than one lengthy one.
• Ask someone who is good at keeping meetings on track to chair the session.
• Invite a speaker who is knowledgeable about Red and Blue rules.
• Select two or three rules to focus on for your first meeting. Introduce other rules or relevant topics at future meetings.
• Allow time on the agenda for group discussion.

Breaking vs. Bending the Rules

Know your own limits. If you believe an exception should be made but aren’t sure you can or should do it, ask a more experiencd peer, your supervisor or your manager.

Making Exceptions

If a rule is Blue, an exception may be considered. Knowing exactly when and how to make an exception to the Blue rules, like many things, is easier said than done. There are three flavors of exception; the little favor, the big favor, and the "special" customer.

• The Little Favor. Little favors are exceptions to Blue rules that are no big deal to you or the company but that can mean a great deal to customers. They are generally easy, but you do need to proceed with caution. If customers perceive your "little favor" as a normal business practice, they will expect it every time.

TIP: As you discuss Red rules and Blue rules in your own organization, there are bound to be disagreements about which is which. That’s okay. A key outcome of your Red and Blue discussion is learning why a rule is a rule in the first place. For example, some employees at a large insurance company were upset to learn that using personal software programs, such as screensavers and games, on company computers was a violation of a Red rule—actually a firing offense. After a very public e-mail dialogue with the information services group about why the rule existed, most employees came to understand that there was indeed a danger of introducing a computer virus into the system. Now, the color of that particular rule makes sense.

• The Big Favor. At times customers want to be excused from rules that have greater impact for you, your co-workers and the organization as a whole. When deciding whether to bend or break a Blue rule, there are three issues to consider:

• First, will this exception cause too much delay in serving other customers?
• Second, will it inconvenience another department in an unacceptable way?
• Third, is this a request you should pass along to a supervisor?

Bank customers frequently become tangled in rules, policies and procedures. A common confusion involves the length of time banks hold a deposited check before making those funds available for withdrawal. Customers may know that the bank reserves the right to hold the deposited check for five days but may, in practice, rely on the fact that checks drawn on local banks are usually available in only one or two days.

"I don’t understand how I got an overdraft notice on my checking account. I deposited my paycheck Monday, but when I called the bank-by-phone line, they told me I have a negative balance."

The decision to make an exception to the rules for this customer—to release the funds and reverse the overdraft charges—is generally handled by a senior service specialist and may depend on several factors. The service specialist may discover that this customer honestly misunderstood the bank’s “funds-available” policy. In that case, the bank may “forgive” the customer:

“I can understand your confusion. I’ll send you a flier explaining our funds available process. The money you deposited on Monday will be available to you tomorrow. In the meantime, I will make a special exception and reverse the overdraft charges and make sure no checks are returned for insufficient funds.”

A look at the notes attached to this customer’s file may suggest that this customer was trying to play the rules to his or her advantage—again. In this case, the bank may be much less flexible about the policy:

“I am sorry but those moneys won’t be available until tomorrow. As you know, we hold your check deposit for up to five days—until we have cleared it with the other bank. I will, however, make sure no additional overdraft charges are made between now and tomorrow.”

• The Special Customer. Some customers invariably seem to act as if they are the only customer we have, or the only one that counts. And they are—to themselves. We may, and do, talk frequently about treating all customers equally. Every customer should receive equal respect and courtesy, but it is the nature of commerce that you will go to greater lengths for some than for others. You have to—it’s good business sense. And some customers know it.
  
  Your best approach is, first, to know what the client was promised. Don’t get angry because some clients have ultra high, “treat me special” expectations—they may have them for a very good reason. Because they were told your company—and you—would deliver. Find out who the key clients are for your organization.
  
  Second, know how far you can go to serve key clients. The service manager for a Detroit-based metal fabrication company told us, “Hupmobile is our number one client. They provide 75 percent of our revenue. Whatever they ask for, and I mean whatever, we will find a way to do it.”