Have you ever contacted a company for tech support, and gotten one of those anonymous responses that ends with something like “Sincerely, Acme Corp Tech Support”. I’m not talking about the email address — lots of companies legitimately use a single mailbox for that. Rather, I’m referring to cases where there is no name whatsoever in the correspondence — not even a first name.

When responses are handled with this level of anonymity, I believe the tech support or customer service reps are much more likely to provide poor service. There’s something about attaching your name to a phone call, chat, or email that makes you more invested in it. Take that away, and you’re more likely to quickly disregard the customer’s concerns. After all, you’re just a nameless cog in the machine.

Fixing this is easy: always require employees to provide at least their first name in customer correspondence. You don’t need to give out a last name or other private info. The simple act of personalizing the interaction should make your staff more accountable to their own internal standards as well as those of your company. This means employees will care more about what they’re doing, cut fewer corners, and deliver better service.