There are hundreds of articles written about customer service; how to attract them, how to impress them and how to appease them when they are mad. But this article is about how to be a good customer!

When I am the customer and I have a problem that I need help with I get varying levels of service. I figure that I usually get great customer service 5 % of the time. I get good customer service 20% of the time. I get poor customer service 50 % of the time. I get horrible service 25% of the time.

However when I make contact as the customer and I am happy and friendly the above numbers change. The happier I am the nicer the person is who is servicing me. If I am anything less than happy and friendly it is reflected in the attitude of the person dealing with me.

Try this for yourself and see. Next time you call a customer service number and finally get to speak to a person start the conversation in the friendliest tone you can muster.  If you then explain your problem or complaint, no matter how big, in a generally friendly way you will notice that the staff member you’re speaking to will be friendlier. And helpful. When I am calling with a complaint and I am seriously pissed off I start the conversation by saying: “George (or what ever the customer service person just told me their name is) I am calling because I am not happy with ___________. And from the start I want to make it clear that I am not mad at YOU. So, please as I explain how angry and upset I am don’t take any of it personally.”

What does this tell me? Well for one it tells me that if I want good service then I have to be friendly and kind. Not always an easy thing to do when the repair technician is 6 hours late in getting to your home or business or when you discovered that your credit card company just increased your interest rate to 28%.

One of the most important things to remember is that is almost all cases the person you are speaking to is NOT the person whom is “guilty” of whatever ill deed has come your way. Yelling at the receptionist because the doctor kept you waiting for 45 minutes or being nasty to the cashier because the ATM doesn’t work right are likewise wrong. No one likes to be wrong-targeted.

Now if we can convince all customers to be kind and patient then all of our customer service problems will be solved! However this is not very likely!

I have written many articles and trained hundreds of customer service staff in handling of irate customers. The first most important rule is: don’t take it personally; never get angry with the customer.

Unfortunately we all tend to mirror the emotions that we get from others. Do you get irritated when someone is angry with you? Defensive? Do you ever get teary eyed when talking to another who is crying about a loss? This is a normal reaction when dealing with people, but is not a good thing when dealing with angry irritated customers. The only way to remain effective is to not let their anger or irritation have any effect on you.

But it works both ways, doesn’t it?

The next time you are irate and want to get a problem solved try being nice to the person who answers the phone. I can almost guarantee that you will get your problem solved faster.

One of the hallmarks of free market capitalism is deregulation.

The idea is to do away with all those pesky, confining rules. A company should be able to follow whatever course it deems profitable. The theory is that if the company veers too far astray it will go out of business because customers will avoid it. So in place of government regulations we have the consumers “setting the rules” by deciding where to go to buy products and services.

This doesn’t sound too bad at first. The idea of “freedom” and “no rules” is alluring. But in practical application it is not a very good idea. It tends to be rather hard on the customers.

If you have a company with large customer base and let’s say that they implement a policy to automatically sign up every customer for a service that costs $9.00 a month. They decide they won’t ask the customers, just start billing them for the service. Of course this is unethical and possibly illegal. But that does not stop many large companies from doing this exact thing. Some of the customers don’t even notice. Some call to cancel the service. Some are very irate. But the company’s bottom line improved and that’s what it is all about!

How long does it take for this action to drive them out of business?  It could take a very long time. And how many customers will be cheated out of $9.00 a month in the meantime? It has been quite clear for many years now the tobacco companies falsified their “scientific studies” about the dangers of smoking costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, yet they are still there making money selling cigarettes. Banks and credit card companies are guilty of calculatingly cheating their customers. They purposely change the due dates on credit cards hoping that the consumer will be late and so be charged a late fee. They arbitrarily raise your interest rate to its highest limit.

Many companies driven blindly by a desire for bigger profits come up with more and more brazen ideas to rip off their customers. Companies that “have you over a barrel” tend to take more liberties because they know that you don’t have any place else to go. Or it’s hard to change service providers. Cell phone companies and banks both often practice predatory customer policies designed to make more profit knowing that it’s difficult for the customer to jump ship easily.

There have always been airlines that charge extra for each bag checked. But more and more you see bigger airlines resorting to this sort of mis-representation to get sales. When you go on line to check for flights and prices you see the price, decide to buy, and when you get to check out you find out that there will be very substantial additional fees for each and every little thing. These “extras” used to be included in the price (as they should be!).

Buying services or products on the internet is often a tricky game. For example with camera gear there are many sites that advertise name brands at very low prices. You try to buy, and soon find out that it was all lies. They ship a different product. They change the price. They pull a bait and switch. Many of these companies will send you the most basic part of the product, in the case of a camera, just the body. Then if you want the battery, or a strap, or a memory card, or a lens, etc these cost WAY more than they should.

So, in the end really what does it mean “Free Market”? Who is free? Who benefits? Certainly not the customer, that’s for sure! The customer is stripped of any protections and basically fed to the wolves! Only the corporation benefits from this system. They are free. Free to do what ever to make a profit. Yes, the customer is free to go somewhere else, that’s true. But the question is how many customers will have to suffer before the market forces in changes?

What does all of this have to do with customer service? All of the companies who engage in these anti-consumer acts, large or small, have plenty of customer service staff. They try to be friendly when the irate customer calls or comes in. They have to listen to the same complaint over and over again from customers who find the company is ripping them off. But the customer service employees cannot change any of it. The decisions to take advantage of the customer come from the top. When the customer service staff make it known at the top what is causing the customers to complain it all falls on deaf, uncaring ears.

Most of the regulations needed to afford protection are simple. In most cases you wouldn’t think that you HAD to regulate against this or that action. You would think that common sense and the desire to deliver the best possible service would have been enough.

Companies that take part in misleading, predatory or dishonest practices should not be allowed to use the term “customer service” at all! Because obviously if they had intention to provide good service then they would never have engaged in those practices to begin with!

In the end the “free market” system is not customer service friendly. It’s simply back to the old “buyer beware” policy.

Many of your worst customer service experiences stem from this exact situation. If you take a look at your most nightmarishly horrible customer service experiences I bet you trace it back to this source.

When you walk into a store (office, hospital, restaurant etc.) how often are you given a friendly greeting with a sparkly smile and real interest? Half the time? No, that’s too high. More like 10 to 20% of the time. This means that 80 to 90% of businesses are missing on the initial greeting.

That’s not good!

The first greeting when you first arrive is SO important.

If you’re going somewhere for the first time you may be anxious, upset, who knows? What’s your mindset when you go to see a doctor or dentist for the first time? Are you happy and positive? How about the auto mechanic? Some people walk in looking for a fight, expecting something to go wrong, or maybe even expecting that some one will try to rip them off.

But if you walk in and someone gives you a real genuine friendly greeting it brightens a person up. You tend to have a kore positive attitude towards the business, possibly even become more agreeable. Just a simple warm greeting can change someone from LOOKING for things they don’t like to looking for things they DO like. It tends to change your state of mind.

A warm first greeting:

• Sets the tone for the rest of the interaction
• Disarms the customer
• Shows the customer that you have an interest in them

The rule that “everyone must be greeted in a very friendly way” is known to everyone. Its not like you go to some store or office and the people don’t greet the customers because no one ever told them that they should.

So then why is it that sometimes we are not greeted right? Here are some real-life common reasons:

The greeter/receptionist/person-in-the-front was:

• In a bad mood
• Busy filing, typing, scanning, etc
• Just had a bad experience with another customer (or employee) (or the boss!)
• On the phone or with another customer
• Suspicious of strangers
• Distracted from more important work
• Waiting to see if the customer will be nice first
• Busy thinking, snoozing, gossiping, etc.

What to do?

Nothing is more important than simply getting someone out there greeting people who actually LIKES people and is a genuinely happy person. Its not impossible to find people like this, you just have to set your sights high and keep looking until you find the right person. Of course KEEPING the person is important. A great receptionist is worth their weight in GOLD to any business. If you do find a person like above you should pay them well, give them benefits and do what ever to keep them!

And any one who is out there working with customers, patients, or clients should be given some version of the following job description:

Prioritized list of duties:

1. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
2. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
3. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
4. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
5. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
6. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
7. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
8. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
9. Greet everyone who walks in the door in the friendliest way possible, with a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eyes.
10. Take care of your other duties such as inventory, stocking, price checks, filing, faxing, scanning, cleaning, data entry, etc.

I mean really, its that important, you cannot over stress the importance of the first greeting. No matter how much effort you put into making sure it is good, it will all be worth it!

By this stage of the game pretty much everyone knows that the target of customer service is NOT a satisfied customer. Satisfied means that they will stick with you only until something better comes along. And trust me, every satisfied customer you have IS looking! If a customer is in the satisfied category and they have a bad experience they most likely won’t tell you about it. They just won’t come back. Word of mouth referrals from a satisfied customer are not frequent. Of course satisfied is better than unsatisfied, or irritated. Satisfied is not horrible, but your aim needs to be higher.

If you want to have a booming business and garner great word of mouth advertising you have to have LOTS of loyal customers. This is the true goal of customer service. Loyal customers will drive past 10 of your competitors to come see YOU. If one of your loyal customers does have a bad experience they will probably tell you about it and give you a chance to make everything right. And they will refer your business to anyone who will listen to them.

The number of books and articles about the need to create customer loyalty are too numerous to count. They include literally hundreds of ideas to make your satisfied customer loyal to you.

As I give customer service training workshops on a constant basis I am always asking people: “Where are you a loyal customer?” And then: “Why, what do they do to make you loyal?”

The first answer I get, as you might suspect, is consistent high quality of product or service. No one is going to be a loyal customer if the basic service or product is poor. You won’t go back to the auto repair center if your car breaks again right after they “fixed the problem”. You most likely won’t return to your hair stylist if they butchered your hair the last time you went in.

The second answer I most often hear is personalized service. Someone remembered them. Some one cared and served them as an individual, not as just one person in a blur of people. In all the people I have surveyed about “why are you loyal?” everyone said that this was a key.

Loyalty is not about what gets the customer to come in for the first time, it’s what gets the customer to keep coming back.

When you go into a business for the first time you expect them to be friendly. This does not always happen, but it is certainly what we expect. Many businesses seem to focus their best efforts towards pulling in new customers. The employees you interact with as part of the sales or introduction cycle are very friendly. Actually the very best customer service people are used when the customer wants to cancel their service. If there is an option for wanting to cancel your service, then the people who you speak to are the best at trying to be nice and understanding and talk you out of it. So in many companies the customer service focus is on the beginning and the end. Not much in the middle.

But if you DID focus in the middle (meaning focus on delivering personalized customer service to your regular customers) you would have more loyal customers, get more referrals from word of mouth (maybe have a need to spend less on advertising as the referrals come in) and the number of customers trying to jump ship would shrink.

An example is a health club. When you go in for a tour and are thinking about joining you are given the royal treatment. Once you are all signed up you’re not so important. Even if you go in regularly you don’t get greeted warmly and personally. Sometimes the staff look at you like they have never seen you before! Of course this is crazy, in a health club the members who regularly visit is the people who keep them open!

So, assuming that your first visit was okay and you received a quality service or product you will most likely return. This is where personalized service comes into it. When you go back do they remember you? Does anyone remember your name, your pet’s name, your child’s name? Anything that is remembered about YOU makes a world of difference. Where you went on vacation, what kind of coffee drink do you like, even just a spark in the persons eye that says that they remember seeing you before.

Whenever you go anywhere and you are recognized it makes a difference. Have you ever been into your local ______ store (fill in the blank), a place where you have been literally hundreds of times, see the same people who work there, and not gotten even a faint flicker from them that have ever seen you before? How do you feel? Dull, unimportant, routine.

How about some business you frequent where there is that spark of recognition, or some comment that shows them they DO remember you? Does it make a difference to you? Do you FEEL different?

People suffer from not being recognized, being just another face in the crowd. The more populated the area you live in the less likely you will be recognized. As businesses grow they become more and more impersonal; more faceless; and seemingly more uncaring.

We have discussed two aspects of good service: being friendly and personal service.

They are NOT the same thing.

Friendly is smiling, being patient, helpful, expressing some care for the customer. But being friendly is not enough to make a loyal customer. Have you ever had an interaction with someone and they were very friendly up until the understood that you weren’t going to actually buy their service or product and then you got the cold shoulder? Have you ever dealt with some “business professional” and you could sense that the friendly demeanor was an act and that they were not in fact actually a very friendly person at all?

Personal service is not the same thing as friendly service. Personal service, as we have described above, is some interaction which shows the customer that they remember YOU, your likes, dislikes, desires. Personalized service is individualized service.

Of course if the goal is to create loyal customers, then ideally the customer service person would be both friendly AND deliver personal service.

There are literally hundreds of ways to provide personalized service.

• Greeting a customer by name when they call or arrive
  • Review your schedule to see who is coming and refresh your mind on the personal details of the person.
• Greeting their child or pet by name
• Take time to note down any small details about the person, what is their favorite flower, or flavor of ice cream, where do their kids go to school, what is the name of their dog or cat.
• Remembering and commenting on any personal details such as where they went on vacation, a child’s graduation,
• Showing in your speech or manner that you recognize the person remember seeing the person before.
• Sending letters or cards that are clearly for the individual, either by content and/or hand addressed and signed.
• Personal follow up phone calls by the doctor, manager or owner.

I am sure that there could be a specialized list for every kind of business. The thing to do is to make sure that everyone understands this concept and ask them to come up with their own practical ideas of how to apply it. It takes planning and practice and diligence to deliver personalized service. But before you hesitate from the effort required be sure to ask your self, “What is the value of a loyal customer?”

One last aspect of personalized service: it’s fun and interesting to deliver personalized service. When you are there on the front lines and everyone becomes a blur and there is no personal interaction the job becomes dull and boring. When you work to become more personalized in your service people look nicer, customers are more interesting, and generally life looks better!

So there you have it! Personalize your service, have more loyal customers and make your own job and life brighter! Not a bad deal!

First impressions are everything.

We have all seen examples of this in our personal lives. When we meet someone new their appearance, tone of voice, manners (or lack of!) all have a very big effect on us.

When a customer calls or goes into an office, business or agency the first person they talk to represents the entire company. This goes even further with people who are traveling to new places: just ONE rotten experience with a rude “customer service person” can ever after sour the person’s attitude to the entire city, region, or country!!!

To the customer YOU are the company. A good first impression starts a positive relationship with your customers. On the other hand a poor first impression can sometime end the relationship right there. And when you factor in word of mouth and how many other people the customer may talk to about their bad experience with your company you can see how important first impressions can be.

A bad first impression is not impossible to undo, but it sure takes a lot of effort. The point is if you make a great first impression things are a LOT easier.

Let’s look at things from the customer’s point of view:

When a customer calls or walks into a business for the first time they may be: happy, anxious, worried, lost, angry, frustrated, excited, or possibly all of the above! When you, as a customer, are new to a business you don’t know anyone, you’re not familiar with how things work. You don’t know if you’re going to like it there, if they will provide good service, if they will be friendly or helpful. There are a lot of doubts and questions! Many customers go in to a business for the first time actually expecting things to go badly. Some even “get ready for battle” before heading off to a new restaurant, hotel, doctor or auto mechanic.

When you meet anyone new “little things” can affect your attitude towards the person very fast. If you already have a relationship with someone, and that person has a bad day or is in a bad mood it probably won’t ruin or end your relationship. But if the person is new to you just one or two small negative points could end your relationship with the person right there.

Speaking of first impressions, it is vital that you, as the customer service professional, do not make any assumptions about customers. Judging a customer by their appearance or how they speak is a huge mistake.

So, anyone working on the front lines is supposed to do everything to make sure that they give all customers a great first impression and at the same time be sure to NOT let your first impressions of the customer in any way prevent you from delivering the best possible service. This can be a tall order sometimes.

Greeting a customer

Always make eye contact with the customer the first second they come in. Even if you are with another customer or on the phone, make eye contact and acknowledge that they are there immediately. A simple gesture tells the new person that you see them and will be right with them.

Smile! Smile! Smile! Smile! Smile! Smile!

Your greeting should tell the customer, “I am glad you’re here!”

Greetings such as:

• “Good morning! How can I help you today?”
• “Hello, how is your day going so far?” What can I help you with today?”
• “Hi, we haven’t seen you in a while!”
• “Welcome, what can I do for you today?”
• “Good afternoon! What can we do for you today?”

A friendly greeting immediately disarms the person and sets them at ease. It sets the tone for the rest of the interaction. No matter what the customer’s emotional state this will make things better. This is probably the single most important point for anyone working in any position where they greet customers.

Every person who walks in the door

Every person who comes in MUST be greeted in the most friendly way possible: new customers, old customers, customers who come in all the time, all of them. Repair people, delivery people, people who are lost and need directions, everyone. Remember, even if the person who comes is not and never will be a customer they still will relay their experiences with your company, good or bad, to everyone they talk to.

If there is going to be a wait, tell the customer about it. Explain why, offer coffee, tea, etc. then every 10 to 15 minutes give the customer an update. Have gift cards from a local store, restaurant or espresso stand available for customers who have to wait too long. Always tell the truth about how long the wait will be. Saying it will be “just a few more minutes” when you know it will half an hour only makes things worse!

Things you should never do:

• If the customer is early for their appointment NEVER communicate in any way that this is bad or creates a problem. The point is that the person arrived! That’s great! Go give the customer a hug! Don’t berate them for the “crime” of being early. In fact you should not use the word “early”. If the customer comes early the first thing to do is to tell them how happy you are to see them. You can say something like, “Just have a seat and I will go (or call) and see if they are ready for you.” Or something positive, just work it out so that what you are saying is not “You’re early and you’re RUINING my schedule!!!”
• Carry on a personal conversation with another employee, or phone call, while servicing a customer. This is particularly important when the customer first comes in. If you are at the front desk with another co-worker and a customer walks in you need to end any conversations you are having and look up at the customer with a smile BEFORE they reach the counter. Other wise the customer will get the impression that they are distracting you from your more “important” duties.
• Carry on ANY negative type of conversation ABOUT ANYTHING if there is a customer with earshot. This includes conversations about: other staff, other customers, other competitors.
• Convey the idea, feeling or attitude of being “way too busy”, “overworked” frantic or ANYTHING ELSE which would tell the customer that their being there is a problem. Generally customers don’t want to hear about your problems at work or in your personal life. Just be positive, friendly, cheerful and happy to help them NO MATTER HOW SWAMPED YOU ARE.

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.

Who ever answers the phone at any business is the most important person on the payroll! Why? It’s simple, they talk to more customers than anyone else. A great receptionist is worth their weight in gold. It doesn’t matter whether the caller is a new customer or an established one, how the phone is answered and how the caller is handled makes ALL the difference.

First impressions, First impressions, First impressions

If the caller is a potential new customer how the phone is answered is of the highest priority. Of course when you pick up the phone you don’t know if the caller is new customer or an established one. Any small mistakes or misses on the phone and the potential new customer may very well move on down the street.

Your attitude and tone are EVERYTHING!

The most important characteristic is: FRIENDLY!

The telephone should be answered promptly and should not be allowed to ring more than three times. All telephone calls should be answered with a warm greeting,

Example:

The telephone rings: “Good morning, San Rafael Construction Company. This is George. How I can help you”?

Be cheerful, positive, concerned and helpful no matter what the caller has to say.

As soon as you know the callers name write it down!

If you ask the question: “May I please put you on hold?” then you MUST wait for the answer before doing so! If you’re not going to wait for the answer, don’t ask the question, just say: “Please hold” and put them on hold.

You should NEVER convey to the person on the other end of the phone anything other than “I am happy you called and eager to help you!”

Who ever answers the phone MUST be able to answer the customer’s questions. Customers expect that anyone answering the phone will be able to answer all of their questions! If you don’t know, find out! Get trained, make a list of common questions and their answers, and receive some cross training. Do what ever it takes.

Usually in any company there is a chain of people who are assigned to answer the phone if the receptionist is too busy. In my opinion this is better than an automated system. But the problem with this is that often these “secondary receptionists” are horrible! They pick up the phone sounding annoyed, distracted or even angry. Of course this is completely wrong! Every company MUST preach the rules of how the phone is to answered and train EVERYONE who works at the company to answer the phone perfectly. Every employee should be cross trained as receptionist a top priority. Not only will this improve customer service, but it will increase everyone’s appreciation for the companies most important people: the receptionists!!!

Attitude, attitude, attitude! Your tone of voice, sense of humor and level of seriousness are the most important factors. The busier you are the more important these points become!

Ending a phone conversation:

Always end the conversation with a “Is there anything else I can do for you today?” and “Thank you for calling!”

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.

1. Train all staff to answer Commonly Asked Questions
   1. Customers expect all employees to be able to answer their questions. This can be an unreal expectation, but nonetheless it is expected.
   2. Every business gets a lot of the same questions over and over. Have you ever noticed that you may have an employee who is excellent at answering certain questions, and other staff who are fantastic at answering different questions?
   3. Make a list of the most common questions; this list can be separated by departments, or for the entire business.
   4. At the next staff meeting go over each question, one at a time. Get the group to answer the questions (make sure one or two staff take exact notes!) and come up with what they feel is the best possible answer.
   5. The final goal is that ALL employees can answer all of the questions smoothly and easily.

To Do: Make a list of common questions. At the next staff meeting start the program!

1. Know what your customers really think!

Survey your customers. It is probably not possible to get too much feed back from your customers. Most businesses get way too little. If done right surveying your customers in itself will increase the customer perception of your company. Surveys show that you care and want to improve. Surveys MUST be done by someone who really cares, who is good at the nuances of communication!

What are some methods to survey customers?

• Mail out survey forms to all of your new or existing customers
• Have survey forms to hand to customers
• Place stacks of surveys forms for customers to fill out or take home an send back.
• Have a survey section on your web site
• Send out emails with surveys
• Call new or existing customers and survey them on the phone.
• Survey the customers in person while they are still in the store or business

What can you do with your survey results?

• If you know where you’re doing great you can make sure you don’t stop doing it!
• You can validate the employees for all their great work.
• You know who needs a promotion and a raise!
• You can fix an area that is doing poorly.
• You can create or rewrite procedures to make sure things get better.
• You can use the results in your advertising and marketing.
• Offer a bonus or discount for doing the survey

To Do: Decide what is the most effective way for YOU to survey and get started!!

1. Keep the staff in the know and focused on customer service
   1. The customer service log is a large sized book with specially divided sheets which is used by all staff to record any and all customer compliments of complaints, large or small. The log is a vital tool for improving customer relations and creating staff members who care what happens and work hard to improve the company.
   2. Every day employees get feed back from customers about your service or products. Usually the bad comments get relayed, but in a normal day there are many comments. These should all be noted.
   3. Create log books to collect the feed back. Have the logs at several points so everyone can get to them. Get the name of the customer, what was said, the date, and what, if anything was done to fix the problem.
   4. Make sure no one can get punished for noting down what the customer says!
   5. The log book provides a healthy way for employees to relay the complaints that they hear.

To Do: Get the log books made, explain their use to staff and get started!!

1. Create a team atmosphere. Hold a weekly staff meeting
   1. The internal atmosphere of a company is EVERYTHING. If there is bickering, gossiping and griping your customer service will suffer.
   2. Read ALL customer complaints and compliments (from surveys and the customer service log) to all employees.
   3. If there are any complaints discuss them and decide if YOU (the company) did anything wrong. If you did get the employees to come up with the best solution.
   4. If you keep all customer complaints (and compliments!) out in the open, totally transparent, you will create a healthy group who work together to improve the business.

To Do: Schedule and hold your first weekly “customer service” staff meeting.

1. Get all employees Cross Training
   1. Here are some reasons to do cross training:

• If everyone is cross trained they can jump in if someone is missing or busy
• It’s MUCH harder to be critical of another department if you have actually done the work of that department yourself!
• Employees who are cross trained are more valuable to the group.
• Any employee who is cross trained will be better educated to answer customer questions, field their complaints and will excel in customer service.

To Do: Ensure that every employee has a checklist of what they need to be cross trained on, and get them started!!

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.

Every profession has specific tools that are used to create a product. An artist may use canvas and a paintbrush; a photographer uses a camera and a tripod; a mechanic has a wrench; a chef uses a French knife and a sauté pan; a teacher may use a textbook and a computer.

Actually every profession has MANY tools that are used on a constant basis to create and produce results.

What is the difference between someone who gets so-so results and someone who regularly turns out high quality products? It has a lot to do with knowledge of the tools of the trade. Actually there are several steps or levels of knowing about tools. They are:

• Knowing that there ARE tools.
• Having some familiarity with these tools.
• Being able to confidently use the tools.
• Knowing when each tool should be used.
• Having a comprehensive understanding of how to use the tools in conjunction with each other, ie: mastering the tools.

Someone new to a subject is may only know of the existence of one or two tools. For example a person who uses Photoshop but only knows how to crop pictures. Have you ever seen a person who tried to everything with one tool? People can get really good at using just a few tools to do everything. But of course the more tools you know and can use the easier you can get results, and your results will be of higher quality.

What are the basic tools and skills of someone who works with customers?

• Attitude/Friendliness
  • No question, it all starts with attitude. This is the most important point and cannot be skimped. If the attitude is lousy no amount of training will make up for it. Great customer service embodies empathy, the ability to BE in the customer’s shoes.
• Knowledge about the product or service.
  • It’s hard to help a customer service if you don’t know what you’re talking about. This includes knowing all common questions and their answers, but to be really good you need to understand why things are so, how the products/services work and why.
• Knowledge of company policies and procedures
  • Unfortunately this is the point that most customer service staff know the best: the rules! You can’t do this and you can’t do that. But understanding the rules is important and if employees do not know the proper procedures they will create big problems, fast!
• Communication skills: how to control a conversation
  • Listening – this is a skill just about everyone needs work on.
  • Acknowledging – understanding when and how to properly acknowledge is an immensely important skill.
  • Redirecting a conversation – conversations can easily get off track, one needs to be skilled in redirecting the customer back to the subject smoothly.
  • Ending a conversation – have you ever been caught like a deer in the headlights with a customer who would not stop talking? Knowing how to politely end conversations is a key survival skill.
• Understanding of emotions and ability to not take it personally
  • This is one of the most difficult points. In most cases the person dealing with the irate customer had nothing to do with the problem. Then why is the customer yelling at you? If a customer service person cannot deal with this they will soon be on the road to burnout.
• Mastery of applicable software
  • It seems that every industry has its own software, and in some cases hundreds of variations. It takes time to learn and be proficient in using these applications.
• Knowledge of the duties and functions of the other posts connected/related to your own post
  • If you are working in a group you have to know not only your post and duties but to some degree, the duties of those around you. Cross training is a very effective way to educate staff and if there is ANY interdepartmental strife, it is a MUST.
• Customer service surveys
  • Counting on customers to tell you how they feel is not going to work. Every business must employ a host of ways to get feed back from customers. Surveys, emails, letters, customer service phone surveys, a link on your web site, all must be employed to gather input.
• Customer service log book and weekly meetings.
  • Employees hear positive and negative comments from customers daily. These should be written down! Each comment is valuable! All customer comments and survey results should be shared with all staff! Having a weekly meeting where you discuss any and all compliments and complaints and how to improve service is imperative to improve service and create a real team.
• Skill in handling irritated customers
  • All of the above skills are part of this, but anyone who been doing customer service successfully for some time will have developed successful actions. Maybe there are phrases to say, or a way to ask a question, or a specific way to tell the customer your policy, or, or , or. Getting customer service staff together regularly to discuss complaints and what works to handle them is very important and will pay huge dividends.
• Problem solving skills
  • Problem solving skills do not seem to be native to all people! Solving customer problems can include not only finding a remedy for the customers complaint, but suggesting what needs to be done so that problem does not repeat with more customers.

Have you ever run into someone who was in customer service and had a great attitude and was really friendly, but knew next to nothing about the product? (maybe a person working at an overseas call center). Or someone who knew ALL about the product or service but severely lacked in friendliness? (a tech support “person”). Or a person who was friendly and knew the product, but not how to use the company software?

It seems rare to encounter someone who has all of the above skills together, but there is really no reason that it should be so difficult to achieve this. Probably every company needs a workbook and a checklist that includes the above points outlined and detailed for each key post. With examples, common questions and their answers, real scenarios and then exercises to work on.

If this were compiled and someone helped the person get through it then it wouldn’t take years to get someone up to the level of being a customer service expert. And that would be good for everyone!

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.

When customer service is lacking there are really only two possible causes:

1. Lack of caring

2. Lack of training

Of course if there is a lack of caring about customer service from management it will manifest in lack of staff training. In many companies there is not and never has been any intention to deliver anything even approaching decent customer service. These companies constantly do things that antagonize their customers. They use irritating automated phone systems, farm out “customer service” to cheap-priced overseas call centers and in some cases adopt procedures to rip of their customers. Several large telecommunications companies and banks will generally come to mind as examples here.

However, in the majority of companies the intent to deliver good customer service does exist. What is often lacking is a workable system to train people.

The thing about small companies is that you usually get better service. I notice that often the best service I get anywhere is from a business where the owner is the one dealing with customers. There are a lot of obvious reasons for this.

When a company is a one-man (or woman) show, they do everything. Any business starts with the basic product or service for sale. Say a person starts a company as a computer repair specialist, or marketing consultant, or plumber. Of course the “owner” is the plumber, or consultant, or tech. But when you get started you also do all the other functions of the business: sales and marketing, customer service, etc.

So when there is a customer service problem, the owner knows all about it, he or she doesn’t need to go ask a coworker about what happened with Mrs. Johnson. He knows. The owner doesn’t need to ask for approval for her idea of what to do to handle the customer, there is no one else to ask. The owner does not have a customer service handbook or manual. There is no written policy. He or she has or gathers the data and makes a decision on how to resolve the problem in the best interests of the company and the customer.

When a business is run like this (assuming there is a good quality product) there will be plenty of new customers through positive word of mouth. Expansion occurs!

Now as a company expands the owner tries to shed hats and duties. Maybe there is someone hired to help with delivery or production; new techs are hired, or apprentice plumbers. Or maybe there is a sales person who joins the company. Maybe they found a bookkeeper to handle the accounting and customer statements. If the business has a storefront it could be a new receptionist or cashier that is hired to free up time for the boss to get more things done.

I have known several small business owners who grew their business through a great product and wonderful, personal service. Their income went up and up, so they figured “if I hire several new employees the stats will go up faster and higher.”

All too often, this is not what happens. Now the owner does not personally service each customer, but relies on new staff to do what he was doing. You can graph these two vectors, number of staff and customer satisfaction. When one goes up, the other goes down. Have you ever seen a business go through this?

With the owner off the customer service lines things begin to suffer and the expansion of the business stalled. The overall word of mouth of the business started to drop. Some customers became un-enamored with the lack of service.

The owner was operating on the idea that the business would continue to grow when the new staff members were hired. That’s how the increase in payroll was justified. But the decrease in customer service has slowed the flow of new customers and the income did not increase as planned. In some cases it appears that the more new employees the company hires the less profit the company makes.

Why did customer service suffer when new employees were hired? Well, employees don’t always have the motivation to ensure the customer is happy. They are often paid by the hour. Some have a bad attitude: “I am not getting paid enough to be nice to customers”, “They’re not MY customers”, “I don’t care, my shift ends at 4:30” etc.

Or the reason could be that the employee does not know as much about the product as the boss, or the employee does not have the authority to make decisions to handle the customer.

But let’s look a little deeper. How are most employees trained in the first place? They are given a list of rules and procedures. They are told to follow them. It is made clear that if they don’t, they will get canned. That’s the system. I know you can make it sound sweeter; there are workbooks and training manuals, staff meetings and training seminars. There are videos, DVDs and pod casts. There is Employee of the Month, awards and pats on the back. But if you boil it all down, it’s the same thing: here is the book of procedures, please follow them, or else.

What else is there? Well, as in the example above with the small business owner who does everything, the best customer service comes from someone who has an intimate knowledge of the product and service, has authority to think and decide and who cares what happens.

We can call this type of customer service Contextualized Service.

Lets look at the definition of the word context: the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc. Contextualizing your service means individualizing your service. It means taking into account all of the details and information that fits the situation.

It’s the kind of customer service you would expect to get from the owner. One way to describe it would be to say that the person doing it is educated, motivated and empowered.

Why is Contextualized service the way to go? Well, what’s wrong with policy? As soon as you set it down in writing you are limited. And owner does not go back and read the policy when handling a customer complaint. He evaluates the situation based on available data and makes the best decision that will benefit the customer and help the business expand. Customer loyalty, satisfaction, money/financial considerations, word of mouth, availability, these are all variable factors that need to be weighed to come up with an intelligent answer.

Have you ever been on the customer end of a discussion/argument where someone is explaining to you that “the reason we are treating you like shit is that it’s our policy”?

I was in an animal hospital recently and we were discussing creating a written policy on what to do when the customer comes in with an animal in bad shape, but with no money. Should we extend help and treat the animal for free? Should we turn the person and their injured animal away? If the animal is in bad shape and the owner has no money should we offer to euthanize the animal for free? If the owner can’t pay should we offer free pain medications? (For the pet, not the owner!). These are all tough questions. And the more we discussed them the clearer it became to me that a policy was not the answer. Even the most perfectly policy cannot take the place of a person.

The best possible solution is to have a well-trained person there, who can gather and evaluate all data, who has in mind the best interests of the customer, the pet and the business.

It may seem that these two points of interest are at odds with each other, and in some cases this is so, but in the majority of situations these two points of interest are parallel. What’s best for the customer is also what’s best for the business.

A policy presupposes that the person there will not be able to gather data and decide. It implies that the person on the ground is not clever enough to come up with the best solution.

Why do some people need written policy? In some cases they don’t want to think, don’t want to take responsibility. Or they have not been trained and don’t understand the big picture. In some cases they don’t want to have to decide anything, for fear of getting into trouble. Sometimes it is very convenient to be able to tell the customer “I am sorry, I can’t help you, but I am only following company policy.”

I know that just the idea of empowering staff to make these decisions has many readers squirming in their chairs. But lets look at this: If you can’t trust your employees to do any thinking then why do they still work there?

Training employees in contextualized service is not as difficult as one would think. In many ways it is easier than the “old system”. In reality the size of the company should not be a barrier. Any business can improve customer service and achieve profitable customer relationships. Employers can work on providing a package of training, incentives & flexible authority that would address the education, motivation and empowering gaps, needed for contextualized customer service.

Check back in the near future and we will post Contextualized Training checklists and provide more information and insight into how to achieve a truly contextualized customer service experience for your customers!

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.

It starts at the top!

If you want to know who to blame for bad customer service look no further than the top of the food chain. The owners and management are the ones responsible for what ever type of customer service a company provides.

Usually when a customer service training program is started though, the normal starting place is at the bottom. The general staff employees: the sales people, receptionists, front desk, technicians etc are the ones sent for the training. This bottom-up customer service training program is backwards! Actually the training should start at the top, not the bottom!

With some companies I really wonder what in the world are they thinking! Do they honestly care for the customer, or is the customer thought of as a farmer thinks of a cow, something to be milked for all it can provide. Actually that’s unfair to farmers. They are much more interested in the cow’s well-being than many companies are in their customers.

Advertising is a direct reflection of the attitude of management. So much advertising this day is really nothing more than a pack of lies. We see this all the time. Advertisements with the word FREE in them are inevitably full of lies. There is Free Credit report dot com. Definitely NOT free. Products are often advertised for free, and of course they are not. There is always more to it. Why can’t they just be honest? If the offer is two for the price of one, why not say it. Instead they say it’s free and then when you read the fine print, you see that the product is “free” only when you buy another product.

Advertising and marketing practices speak volumes about the company’s attitude toward the customers.

Of course EVERY business claims to REALLY CARE about their customers. This phony, false caring is seen through sales procedures, pricing and billing policies.

Some companies will sign you up for services you didn’t order, bill you for products or services you didn’t want and only correct things when the customer raises a stink. What kind of customer service is that? It seems that the bigger a company gets the more brazen it gets in its predatory and criminal practices.

Some recent examples I have seen are:

Recently many banks have been changing the due date on their credit card statements. The idea is that the customer gets used to paying on the 10th of each month. So the bank changes it to the 7th. The idea is to catch the customer napping and then the bank gets to hit the customer with a late payment fee of $35.00. Not to mention a negative credit report entry, or a higher interest rate.

I used Verizon for some of my business accounts in the past. In one year I had three separate instances where they billed us for services we didn’t want or use, lied to entice us to sign up for new services and then tried to delay our switching lines when we finally decided to go with another provider.

These examples of abuse are not customer service issues. Somewhere there is a management person who comes up with these “bright ideas” to make a few extra bucks by ripping off the customers. The company probably gave the “genius” a bonus, more stock options and a bigger office for devising these new scams.

How about some companies exchange or refund policies? Have you ever tried to change your airline ticket or cancel your ticket due to an illness or accident? The policy is a total penalty to the customer. I recently saw an ad for an online site for purchasing airline tickets. They were making light of a person who can’t complete the transaction to purchase airline tickets. Of course the person is nervous about the final purchase selection! If you make a mistake or change your mind, there goes half your money!!!!!

All of these examples are management decisions. These policies and actions are NOT decided by the customer service staff. They are the unlucky ones who have to enforce these polices and take the brunt of the pissed off customers who feel ripped off and abused by the managements decisions.

Employee loyalty is everything.

But when I say that management bears the responsibility of good or bad customer service, I am speaking about more than the above examples. Really good customer service starts with loyal employees. If the employees are not loyal to the company they are NOT going to do the extras that add up to great service. Management may THINK that the employees will do what is best for the company because “this is what they should do” or “this is what we pay them for”. Maybe managers go out and watch how employees treat customers directly and see good service and so assume that this is what happens when they are not watching.

But when they are NOT watching employees who are not loyal to the company I can tell you from being there that this is NOT the case. Any management person who thinks otherwise is delusional.

How many times have you seen an employee change the way they treat customers when there is not anyone supervising them? Ever go to a 7-11 late at night? Or anyplace really. I have seen this on airlines, at hotels, restaurants, stores, hair salons, dental offices, ad infinitum. ONLY loyal employees make loyal customers.

So, how does a company make loyal employees? Pay and benefits are part of it, but there is a lot more: acknowledging employees efforts; creating and maintaining a safe environment; continuing education; empowering people; involving employees in making decisions. These are what make an employee loyal. Honesty from management is also a key factor in what makes loyal employees! You wouldn’t think you had to point that one out, but have you ever seen any management that was less than honest with its employees?

Internal atmosphere

The overall atmosphere inside a business has EVERYTHING to do with its level of customer service. We already spoke about the relationship between management and employees, but what about the internal attitudes between departments and employees? I don’t think I have ever seen any large company where there was not loads of bickering and infighting between departments. Sales versus production. Shipping versus sales. Accounting versus everyone. Front office staff versus the back staff. The list goes on and on. 80% of all customer complaints are caused by dropped communication. The message did not get relayed, was lost, etc. Or it could be that the system is at fault, there were no correct channels for the communication to flow on. All of these problems are again management problems. If there are ANY communication problems, any bickering between departments, then right there you have management who are too unaware or lazy to be considered management. And there are the bulk of your complaints from customers.

Another version of this I have seen is where the employees are bluntly critical of the customers. The customers are ”stupid”, “idiots”, “morons”, etc. I was in a computer repair shop not too long ago and the staff were making deriding jokes about how stupid their customers were. What idiot would do this, or do that, ha ha. No wonder the moron’s computer broke. Then the managers walked in the room and went right into agreement with them! They started laughing and agreeing and telling their own stories about what idiots the customers were.

What an example to set! Those “stupid” customers are the only reason you have a job! When employees work in an environment where it is okay to make these sorts of comments, don’t you think this is going to come through when the employees deal with customers? Of course it will! Have you ever run into a smarmy or condescending computer repair tech? Where do you think they got it?!

Being a manager is a lot like being a good gardener: you have to be good at weeding! Employees who constantly gripe, gossip, criticize and complain about each other AND / OR about customers are the ones who need to get weeded out ASAP. They set a bad example and drive way your loyal employees who DO care. Of course if a company has management fitting into some of the categories you see above its very unlikely that they will do any weeding. Simply because they need to weed them selves out first! And that’s not very likely.

Where to start?

Good management sets policies and procedures for advertising, marketing, pricing, customer service, etc, that in themselves demonstrate a commitment to great caring customer service. They then hire, train, nurture and keep loyal employees. Good management sets an example for all employees. They set an example in how they treat all employees and their customers. Good management creates a safe productive environment by weeding out the people who don’t care and who just want to be miserable.

These are the basic points necessary to achieve to attain great customer service.

I always have a derisive laugh when I see a company with poor customer service try to fix it by sending a few of their lowest paid employees to some customer service classes. Because the ones who need the classes are the ones at the top, not the bottom!

So, the next time you go into or call any company and get steamed because they provide lousy customer service, now you will not only know who to blame, but you will also know where they need to start to make things right!!!

Click here to learn about our WelcomeTeam Training program.