Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

It took 12 emails to get a resolution.

I was having a problem with my scheduling software, but the support rep couldn't replicate the issue. My guess was the problem was caused by the latest iPhone update. The rep insisted she was using the same version of iPhone operating software, so that couldn't be the reason.

It took several more emails until the rep finally checked her iPhone software and realized she was running an older version. This new information quickly led to a solution.

The rep's overconfidence had caused unnecessary friction.

The rep is not alone. Many employees provide the wrong answer without stopping to verify a simple detail, often with disastrous consequences.

Here's why it happens and what you can do about it.

The Overconfidence Problem

In November of 2017, Belen Aldecosea was flying home to Florida. She called the airline ahead of time to verify her emotional support hamster, Pebbles, was allowed on the plane. The airline's customer service rep assured Aldecosea that Pebbles could fly.

That was wrong.

The airline's policy prohibited rodents from flying. The overconfident rep hadn't bothered to verify the policy and simply gave Aldecosea what they thought was the answer.

When she got to the airport, Aldecosea discovered Pebbles wasn't allowed to fly. The story ended tragically when she flushed Pebbles down the toilet in an airport restroom.

Controversy ensued. Aldecosea claimed an airline employee told her to do it. The airline denies it. The one area where there’s no disagreement is Aldecosea brought her hamster to the airport because an airline employee gave her the wrong answer.

There are smaller problems caused by employee overconfidence every day:

• Problems take longer to solve

• Customers receive inaccurate information

• Employees create service failures

Why would an employee be overconfident?

There are many causes of employee overconfidence. This is different than laziness or apathy, where an employee simply doesn't care. An overconfident employee is wrong even though they firmly believe they're right.

I detailed some of the causes in my book, Getting Service Right, and in this blog post. Here's a summary:

Inexperience

A lack of experience can cause employees to overrate their abilities. Here's a short passage from Getting Service Right that explains it.

In a series of experiments, David Dunning and Justin Kruger discovered that the less someone knows about a topic, the more they tend to overrate their knowledge. Dunning and Kruger discovered that only people in the top quartile in terms of knowledge typically avoid overrating themselves.

I've run a similar experiment many times with consistent results. I ask a room full of customer service reps to rate the customer service they personally deliver on a scale of 1–5, with 5 being best. Next, I ask the reps to look around the room and assign a rating to the entire team. On average, the reps rate themselves a 4 while rating the team a 3. The math doesn't add up—and it shows that most reps believe they're better than their peers.

Experience

Too much experience can also cause overconfidence. When our brains spot a familiar pattern, we instinctively stop listening and fill in the blank. For example, how would you complete this sentence?

Singing in the ________.

There's a really good chance your brain instinctively came up with an answer without giving it very much thought. I'd wager that most people reading this will instantly fill in the blank with "rain," as in "singing in the rain."

No doubt, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not the answer I was looking for. It might be the correct answer most of the time, but the word I was thinking of was "shower." 

Now go back to customer service. It's easy to imagine a rep instinctively jumping to an answer that's right most of the time, but not always.

Ego

Some customer service reps simply want to be right.

Being absolutely confident in an answer makes them feel like an expert. Having to pause and look something up can feel like weakness when your ego is on the line.

Overcoming Overconfidence

The technique I like to use is pause and be sure.

I wish I had a catchier name for it, but the name describes exactly what you should do in any situation where you can't be verifiably confident in an answer.

1. Pause

2. Verify the answer to be sure.

Here's an example. 

A friend of mine has a poultry allergy. When we dine out, she always has to ask if what she ordered has any poultry in it.

Let's say my friend orders steak, potatoes, and glazed carrots. An overconfident server might look at the menu, see no mention of poultry, and confidently tell my friend the dish is poultry-free.

A server using the pause and be sure method would double check with the kitchen, where they might be surprised to discovered the glazed carrots are made with chicken broth. Not a good option for my friend with a poultry allergy.

Take Action

Customer-focused reps think about the consequences of being wrong.

• An upset customer.

• Wasted time.

• Something worse?

Verifying the correct answer rarely takes an inordinate amount of time. Checking a recipe with the kitchen, searching a knowledge base article, or pausing to ask a supervisor all typically take just a moment.

That slight pause can save you a lot of time in the long run.