When It’s OK to Ignore Company Policy
A few days ago, my wife got a new debit card from Wells Fargo, the kind with the chip in it for better security. When she used it at the grocery store, it was declined. Embarrassed, she came home and told me the story. I told her I would call the bank and find out what had happened.
When I called customer service, I pointed out that there was plenty of money in the account, my wife had activated the card properly, the account had been active for thirty-eight years, and I was joint owner of the account. But when I asked what the problem was, the customer service representative would not discuss it with me because although it was my account, it was not my card. She cited “policy” as the reason. I asked to speak with her supervisor, who parroted the same answer. It was “policy.” They could only speak with the cardholder.
A second story: Recently I was working through a problem at our upcoming STARWEST conference with Alison Wade, president of SQE Training. We evaluated the options and chose the one that we thought would provide the greatest benefit for the conference delegates. We then reviewed our policy and determined that it conflicted with our solution. Recognizing that policy is a guideline for making decisions, not an eternal absolute, we set it aside and did what we thought would be best for our customers. That’s the real meaning of customer service.
It occurred to me that appealing to policy is what drones do when they don’t really want to help. They feel safe within the walls of policy; they’re not really helping their customers, but they’re safe within a “don’t break the rules” mentality.
It is possible that the goals of an organization have changed so much that a policy does not support those goals any longer. A policy of having exempt workers clock in and clock out when those people work from home in a distributed organization may not make sense anymore. In that case, it is time to change the policy.
On the other hand, there may be specific contexts in which the policy actually goes against the organization’s goals. While maintaining privacy is admirable, treating a customer with a thirty-eight-year history as a potential for fraud seems absurd. In these situations, it’s important for employees to be able to use their own judgment and feel comfortable going to supervisors about making an exception to the usual rule.
We should remember that the policy was made for the organization, not the organization for the policy. Do you really want to let policy override serving your customers? The choice is yours.
