The Quest for Customer-Service Excellence
Introduction
Your overall business plan, your policies, your strategy, basically every little thing you do as a company, should be in sync with your customer-service goals. Your customer-service staff cannot single-handedly carry you to the heights of customer-service nirvana, if they are fighting customer-unfriendly rules, policies, facilities, procedures, and so on. Keep in mind our Customer’s Top Ten List when you re-examine your Touch-Points. All those Touch-Points must be pleasant strokes, or you are defeated. Remember, it’s the little touches that sometimes are the most important Touch-Points for the customer—and it’s the “nickel an hour” employee whom the customer usually has direct contact with—and the one who can make it a Wow! Experience or a Holy Cow! Experience.
It’s the little touches
that sometimes are the most important
Examples: Quest for Customer-Service Excellence
Here’s an example where there is no employee, only one of those dastardly web sites that the company thinks makes it easy for the customer. Good luck on that one.
Good for Them—Bad for Us
A client told me the following story. His daughter had applied to an eastern college and he wanted to help her apply for financial aid. There’s an on-line service you can use, it’s affiliated with thousands of schools around the country, and by entering the name of the school he could apply online, and send the financial aid application directly to the school. One Saturday morning, he was completing the extensive application form, and needed help. If you are able to fill out the financial aid application without help, you should automatically receive financial aid and possible an academic scholarship. Pleasant Touch-Point: there was a phone number placed prominently on each page of the application. Unpleasant Touch-Point: it was not a toll-free number, and when he called, a recorded message informed him that the office hours were 8–4 Eastern Standard Time. Somebody in that company wasn’t thinking. 100% of their clients are parents who are filling out the application, and most of them want financial aid. More than likely, these parents are employed during the week and are completing the application in the evenings or on weekends.
Here’s another example of business policies getting in the way of taking care of the customer.
A Tale of Two Tiles: Policy that Works
The Bensons were looking to purchase a substantial amount of floor tile for a home they were building. They narrowed the list to two suppliers, and spent a considerable amount of time with a salesman in both of those stores.
At the first store, the salesperson offered samples of every tile they were considering. For one tile, he actually went out into the tile yard, in the snow, and climbed on boxes and moved crates to find the samples. He sent the Benson’s home four tiles of each series.
At the second store, the salesman was just as helpful, but gave them only one tile of each series to take home. The tiles varied in color, and it was difficult to tell what the overall effect would be, so they asked to take home a larger sample board of one of the series. The salesman informed them that they had a company policy that the large sample boards never left the store. When the Benson’s explained that they wanted to make the purchase decision that night, the salesman asked his boss if he could bend the policy. The manager proceeded to give them a variety of reasons why they just couldn’t change the policy. Guess where the Benson’s purchased their truckload of tile?
Looking at Your Rules and Policies
Think about your own business. Are there ways that your strategy is not working in tandem with your customer service? The organization’s approach to customer service has to be an outgrowth of its business strategy.
Of course some rules and policies are necessary—but rules and policies must be flexible to change if they don’t accomplish their purpose. So when you’re examining your rules and policies, make sure that they are customer-friendly and enhance your customer-service goals. If you take care of the customer that is usually what is right for the organization. All too often, companies create a series of rules that are designed to make sure that the company wins, and if the customer doesn’t—well, that’s just too bad.
Take the time to examine the rules in your organization, and bring your staff into this process as well. Look at the rules you have in place, and determine those that can be bent to the situation or eliminated. Over time, just like we accumulate junk in our houses, every organization develops a series of rules that are nothing but junk. Take those out and trash them immediately!
Then, consider the rules that remain and look at them more closely. Are they absolutely important to the health of the organization? Are they critical to allowing you to deliver the products and services to your customers? Do any of them prohibit you from delivering over-the-top outstanding customer service? If they do, immediately trash those rules as well. If you find it upsetting to just eliminate a rule, substitute this rule in place of any you toss: The rule is
If a rule doesn’t make it easy
for the customer
to do business with us,
get rid of the rule!
Looking at Customer Service from a Fresh Perspective: You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
Just because it’s “always been done that way” doesn’t mean it needs to be done that way. Re-think the way you do things as to what your customers want. Examine everything from your company entrée to your company policies, being sure that your employees, especially your lower level ones, aren’t the gatekeepers that are killing the process.
It’s not just what you say to your customers, but every interaction with them…every Touch-Point. In other words, something as simple as the hours your business is open to the public or how your phone is answered is a part of how your customers think of your level of service. Banks and the medical profession have traditionally been rated very low on service surveys, primarily because they have chosen to keep their service and hours for themselves. But it’s a whole new world, but you’d never know it based on how bankers, dentists, and doctors operate. They use the philosophy of letting the customer adjust to how they do business.
Changing for Your Customers
Let’s think for a moment about the success of internet companies like Amazon.com and EBay? They’ve been successful because they’ve changed the way they and others operate to accommodate their customers. What a radical idea and it appears to be working. How about your business? Has it changed to accommodate the needs and wishes of your customers? If you were a customer of your own business, what would you like about it, and how would you want to change it?
Customer Complexity Factors
XYZ Company sells the same products to both large distributors and retail outlets. Although the retail outlets can only order in quantities specified by XYZ, similar to the distributors, the retailers require a salesperson assigned to each store with related periodic visits. Each store in a retail chain represents a small quantity of the retailer’s entire order requiring individual order identity by store, as well as individual shipping, billing identification, and sales statistics. The increased volume of activity that these individual store orders create results in increased costs for each product sold. On the other hand, a distributor order in treated as one order in its entire way through the system resulting in less overall costs. XYZ needs to differentiate their customer-service costs and pricing policies based on such customer diversity.
Management must analyze each customer’s requirements and related costs. Through this process, each customer is identified as to its needs with resultant customer-related costs calculated fairly accurately. These customer costs can then be added to product and functional costs to calculate a final cost that can then be used to negotiate with each customer as to a price that provides a desired profit. Such cost calculations can also be used to determine which customers and products are most profitable and should be emphasized for sales and which customers should not be sold to under present conditions.
Exhibit: Complexity Factors Drive Cost
To show how complexity factors drive cost look at the exhibit below that summarizes some of these complexity factors.
Volume:
Number of units
Process time
Direct labor intensive
Direct material intensive
Process complexity:
Subcontracting
Material transactions
Cycle time
Process flow
Schedule changes
Product design complexity:
Number of parts in system
Difficulty in manufacturing
Difficulty in distribution
Outsourced manufacture
Distribution complexity:
Number of customers
Number of customer orders
Number of internal orders
Customer service complexity:
Pre-sale service and negotiations
Determining customer needs
During sale contacts
Post-sale service needs
Servicing Different Types of Customers
XYZ Company provides their products to a number of different types of customers:
• Large distributors
• Large retailers
• Small retailers (individual stores and small chains)
• Cooperatives
• Wholesalers
• Independent sellers
The large entities (distributors and retailers) require minimal shipments to a few locations with related minimal sales support. The other entities (small retailers, cooperatives, wholesalers, and independent sellers) may generate a large number of transactions with deliveries to multiple locations and larger sales force attention. By looking at these customer service costs the company can avoid selling to the wrong customers and adjusting their cost and pricing strategies accordingly.
For instance, the customer may be unprofitable because it buys mainly low margin items, requires large amounts of support, or has negotiated unprofitable (but profitable to them) terms. By identifying these factors, the business can take the proper remedial action such as refocusing customer-service efforts, renegotiating sales terms, and updating pricing policies. Considering customer-service support and service costs, as well as the allocation of other general and administrative costs to customers and products, the business can make better decisions as to costing and pricing, who and what to sell, how to sell and market, the level of customer support by customer, and so on.
These are the first steps in developing effective sales, marketing, and customer-service plans allowing the business to use its resources most economically and effectively. The goals of customer-oriented selling are to provide the optimum customer service to each customer at the least possible cost while maximizing each customer’s contribution to profits.
Looking at Customer Service Costs
By now, you have come to realize that looking at customer-service costs can change a seemingly profitable customer to less profitable or even a net loss customer. Many times such customers are the business’s higher sales volume customers and management insists that the business can’t lose such a customer. Such a situation is discussed in the case study Sales Are Better Than Cost Savings.
Sales Are Better Than Cost Savings
The Gidget Company produces and purchases many small items for resale in the less than a dollar impulse buy novelty type merchandise. With such low-ticket items there is not a large profit margin on each item—sometimes less than two cents per item. For the company to add real profits onto their bottom line, they must sell large volumes of each item on each sale while containing their costs to a minimum. One of the Gidget Company’s largest customers is the biggest retailer in the country, MelMart. Initially, MelMart ordered extremely large quantities from the Gidget Company all to be shipped to one location. While MelMart asked for and received the most favorable prices and extensive customer service where the Gidget company might make less than a penny an item, such a high volume still produced a perceived profit for the Gidget Company. Recently, MelMart told the Gidget Company that they would now have to break up each shipment by individual store location, resulting in multiple shipments rather than one large shipment to a central location, without any additional price considerations. The Gidget Company realizes that such additional costs will not only erode their small profit margins with MelMart but may result in a substantial loss on each sales order.
What would you suggest to the Gidget Company as they do not want to lose MelMart as a customer due to the volume of sales and potential profits as well as the devastation to their operations? Should they have to eliminate this volume from their operations?
A quick answer is to stop selling to MelMart, eliminating their volume from the gross sales amount; the cost of selling such merchandise including product (e.g., manufacturing and buying), functional (e.g., packing and shipping), and customer-service costs (e.g., dealing with the company as well as individual store locations); resulting in miniscule profits and probably losses on most sales. However, since the Gidget Company has expanded their operations to fulfill MelMart requirements, it would be traumatic to retrench their operations and eliminate MelMart as a customer. Accordingly, the Gidget Company must look for ways to reduce their costs to maintain the same profit margins or better if they wish to continue selling to MelMart.
Listen,
rethink,
relearn,
imagine!
not what is,
but what could be!
How to Empower Employees to Deliver Outstanding Service
We assume that when we deal with a so-called “customer service” or “customer care” company representative that they are knowledgeable and have the authority to make customer-service decisions, especially of a low dollar impact. Here’s an example of how that doesn’t work.
What Does Commitment Mean?
My cell phone charger stopped working less than five months after it was purchased. So I went back to the store to exchange it for one that worked. Of course, no receipt, but the charger did have the words ‘Verizon’ on it in big, bold letters. The clerk looked it up in the computer to see when it was purchased. However, their system sorts data by cell phone number so when he looked it up, he found no record of it being purchased. I know it was purchased from his store right before Christmas. The employee told me that they get really busy right before the Christmas holidays and the person who sold me the charger probably didn’t have time to enter it in the computer. So he couldn’t honor the warranty and exchange the broken charger for a good one. But I could change cell phone companies.
The company was more into control with unbending rules and policies than excellent customer service warrants. Had they empowered their front line employees (those with direct customer contact) to correct such situations my transaction would have been salvaged. The clerk knew the right thing to do. He wanted to do it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do it. His company had not given him the power to do it because they mistrusted that he would do the right thing—and it might cost them pennies to rescue dollars of future sales.
Now, it’s a fine line, deciding just how much to empower your staff. Ultimately, it’s a judgment call based on your evaluation of their readiness to accept responsibility. If you’re aware of the importance though, and look for ways to give them that extra measure of empowerment you will end up with happier customers and happier employees. And if you give up your power and control to your employee, how does that affect your comfort and trust levels.
Why Staff Empowerment Is Critical
The following diagram shows why staff empowerment is so critical. While those closest to the top have the greatest input into decision-making, those closest to the bottom have the greatest direct impact on customer service. It’s not usually the six million dollar man at the top that loses the customer, but rather the lowly paid staff member (never underestimate your nickel an hour employees) with direct customer contact
Impact on decision making.
Think of the last time you went into your local bank. Who did you talk to? Was it the CEO of the bank; or one of the tellers? How about the last time you went to that chain restaurant to eat? Did you talk to the Vice President of Strategic Planning or did you deal primarily with the server?
Those who have the most impact on direct customer service are usually the ones with the least impact on decision-making. So even when they recognize changes to improve customer service, in all likelihood, their comments and suggestions are not heard. But chances are, they are more expert on customer service, they know what the customers want, what makes them happy, and what makes the customer unhappy.
Establish a customer-service network from bottom to top. Meet to review company rules—especially those that get in the way. Make it a fun event, where employees gather to eliminate anything that keeps them from delivering great customer service. Have a rule burning party. Besides eliminating rule deadwood, it also emphasizes the importance of placing the customer first. Your staff will know that you trust and value their input—that they are part of the process—and that you’re serious about delivering WOW factor customer service.
Customer Service Tips for Empowerment
Here are a few customer service tips for empowerment.
1. Remember the customer-service pyramid and push the decision-making authority down to the customer interaction level.
2. Let your customer-service staff determine when something has to be returned to you for a warranty claim, and when the customer can just junk it. Give them the credit—no questions asked!
3. Empower employees at all levels—make each one an entrepreneur.
These are just a few, but they give you the idea of what empowerment can mean to a business.
Making It Clear to the Customer
Here is an example of a so-called lifetime warranty that is meant to provide comfort to the customer. That is the customer believes that he or she can return the product at any time and either receive their money back or another item (hopefully updated and corrected). Since the lifetime warranty is written by the company (most likely standard boilerplate) they believe that they have created sufficient legal wiggle room to deny any warranty that might be submitted—in other words they have created a false customer promise—a no-no of customer service. See what you think.
Lifetime Warranty
This product is warranted to be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use (Aha!). This product’s warranty is in effect only from “us” and not from the company whom it was purchased or received from.
This warranty covers all defects encountered in normal use of the product. Warranty does not apply to the product’s battery life, loss, or damage to the product through abuse, unreasonable use, mistreatment, neglect, mishandling, commercial use, or if the product has been repaired or serviced by anyone other than us.
We are not responsible for any consequential or incidental damages nor are we responsible for any breach of implied or expressed warranty on the product. Your product has been carefully tested according to very high standards and demands. In the event of a defective or malfunctioning product, send the item to our service department well packaged and properly insured with a description of the problem—to be returned at the owner’s expense. Within a reasonable period of time we will repair or replace the product with a similar product of equal value.
Reading the above warranty how many of you would take the time to file a warranty claim with this company with what expectation of success? Those with the power to deny your claim probably will. Not only do I automatically throw away such legalese warranty documents, but if something goes wrong with the product I take care of it myself—usually bearing the cost of replacement.
A company’s warranty
is only as good as
it’s word and reputation
Tips for Terrific Touch-Points
Tip Number 1: “How Are We doing?”
The first question to ask when calling on a customer should be “How are we doing?” Then comes the hard part, to shut up and listen—really listen. Pretend you’re a therapist, and create an open and honest atmosphere. It’s a fairly open-ended question, so the customer can really tell you what he thinks of your business. You’ll learn lots, some of it (hopefully) will be glowing praise, and some of it will be things that have you cringing. But you will know what you need to work on. Be prepared… if you ask the question, you have to be ready to listen and then, if appropriate, make changes.
Here’s an example of asking “how are we doing”?
How Are We Doing?
On a sales call to an important customer, Joe asked his standard “How are we doing?” and settled back assuming he would hear wild and wonderfully positive things about his customer service. The customer bought a lot of product from Joe, and Joe felt that his company really took good care of this customer. He was stunned when the customer absolutely blasted him over a technical problem with one of the products. Joe was a bit deflated, but listened carefully, and told the customer he would check into it. Joe did exactly what he told him he’d do. Joe tried to solve the problem, presenting the customer with a new and improved product. It turned out that he could indeed improve the item, but unfortunately not at the price point he needed to hit. Joe went back to the customer, and walked him through what he’d found out. He explained that the company could change some hardware to fix what he didn’t like, but the price would be higher. Ultimately, Joe let the customer decide. The customer decided it wasn’t worth the extra cost to him, so he stayed with the status quo. Did he now love the product? No, but he was more satisfied with it—and Joe’s service.
Tip Number 2: Two Heads Are Better Than One
Have discussions with friends who are also in business. It doesn’t matter if it is the same type of business; you’ll find you have a lot of concerns in common. Sometimes, one of the best ways of getting advice is over a few drinks after trade shows. After a long day of standing in a booth, small groups can go out for dinner, and talk about business problems over a couple of beers—or sometimes something stronger.
Maybe its just human nature, but it’s always easier to see the flaws in someone else’s business, than in your own. Others can look at your business and see ten things you could improve, usually something you haven’t noticed. So, using the beers and dinner approach, toss ideas back and forth about problems that each of you are having with inventory issues, hiring, firing, pricing, marketing, and so on. And since you’re not dining with competitors, but rather with friends whose business judgment you trust, it isn’t that difficult to talk to them about problems.
Tip Number 3: You Can Snatch Victory from the Jaws of Defeat
We all make mistakes. In the area of customer service, the key difference is what happens after you make that mistake. If you want to salvage your customer service, admit the error quickly, and fix the mistake immediately. Interestingly enough, your customer may come away from the problem thinking that you have even better service than before the problem. This may be due to the fact that so many businesses today handle their mistakes so poorly. It’s downright refreshing when a business says, “You’re right, we’re wrong.” Admitting the mistake isn’t the killer, trying to cover it up is. When your business makes a mistake, admit it, apologize, and if it’s not obvious, ask your customer what he wants you to do to fix it. Say you have a home service business, installing air conditioning systems, and an employee breaks a customer’s lamp, you might ask “would you like us to try to find another one, or would you like us to deduct the cost from our bill?” Or perhaps you manufacture rope. If you ship a customer the wrong rope, ask him if he wants to cancel the order, does he want the correct item shipped with his next order, or would he like you to ship the rope express at the company’s expense. If it’s appropriate to the situation, as they say in New Orleans, give the customer a lagniappe, just a little something extra that they don’t expect. Perhaps the customer with the broken lamp would appreciate a coupon for an extra 10 percent (or more) off their next preventive maintenance. These customers will now trust you (Aha! An honest person.), and be even more loyal to your business. Examine the error, and take steps to make sure that it won’t happen again.
Tips for Avoiding Traps That Trip You Up
Trap Number 1: “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” Or the Glued-to-Your-Desk Syndrome
A manager of a large resort hotel believes he needs to spend at least 80% of his time out of his office, walking around the facility, talking to employees and guests. He feels that this is the best way to, as he puts it “to take the temperature of the hotel.” He says that “managers too often feel that they should be sitting behind their desks” and dealing with issues such as budgeting, hiring, firing, and marketing. Instead, this business leader felt that his time was much better spent being out with the guests and staff. When he did this, he was effectively setting the tempo for the organization. Whenever his staff saw him interacting with guests, they understood where the real focus of their efforts needed to be—with the guests. And he avoided a trap of being caught in his office.
Trap Number 2: “All Customers Are Created Equal.”
Wrong. They’re not all equal. I know, it almost sounds un-American, but it’s true, you don’t need to treat every customer the same. Service level for any business should be set very high. Every one of your customers receives at least that level of service. Top customers receive an even higher level. Special treatment and extra favors go to the biggest accounts that may never be offered to other customers.
It’s a fact of business life; some customers provide more volume, or more profits than others. As the owner or manager of the company, it’s up to you to know and understand which customers are your bread-and-butter. For those, you go above and beyond.
Remember that when you’re considering your best customers, you’ll also want to look at those that have the most promise.
Trap Number 3: “It’s Ok to Screw the Little Guy.”
Now while it’s true that all customers are not created equal, they are all important. Be very careful though not to make the mistake of letting your service standards slip just because a customer may seem insignificant. As a company dedicated to outstanding customer service, you never want your staff to get the message that any customer is not important. Outstanding customer service is a culture, a habit, and an underlying philosophy that has to be ingrained into every employee. Treat every customer, no matter how small, well. If you’re willing to take their money, they deserve good service.
Here’s an example of dealing with one of your small customers.
The Little Guy Doesn’t Matter
Dave is in the woodworking business, and he typically gets his products from a local distributor. They know his needs, deliver to his doorstep, and back their products. Recently, he decided to try out a new supplier. This new supplier has been in business for years, and generally deals with larger businesses. Dave placed an order with them, but when the order came, it was the wrong species of wood—the supplier’s mistake. The truck driver didn’t know what to do, and so Dave accepted the delivery, assuming that the company would make an exchange and give him the correct wood. When he called them, they told him that since he had accepted the delivery, it was his. When he called the salesman he had ordered from, the salesman told him there was nothing he could do, they didn’t typically deal in such small orders and it would be too much trouble to exchange it. In a perfect world, someday our woodworking company will become a huge lumber customer who will never purchase from that supplier. In the meantime, their “screw the little guy” mentality will creep into other aspects of customer service. Every employee involved in that transaction has received the message: customers aren’t that important.
Trap Number 4: “Death of a Salesman”…How Reprimands are Handled
If someone in customer service makes a mistake, because they are trying to provide outstanding service, don’t make it a federal crime, but learn from it.
Empowerment Made Me Do It
Let’s say that you own a business that produces items for the lawn and garden industry...pink garden hoses. Here we set the stage. You’ve recently instituted a brand new policy that allows your customer service/sales people to spend up to $500 to solve a problem for a customer. No prior approval is required. Frank’s Garden Center has been a good customer, but payables has informed you that they are past due 60 days, so you have them on a shipment hold—no money, no product. Unbeknownst to you, Frank is getting close to going out of business, but is doing everything he can to keep the creditors at bay. The scene opens. Frank calls, and tells your customer service rep that “a check is in the mail,” but he has to have some pink garden hoses rushed to him because he’s got a trade show coming up. He tells your rep that this is his most important show of the year, and he expects to sell hundreds of pink hoses. Your customer service rep remembers that new policy and agrees to send him $500 worth of pink garden hoses. After all, he has been a good customer, and your business is noted for its outstanding customer service. The curtain drops two weeks later, when Frank’s Garden Center files for bankruptcy. How does the scene end for your intrepid customer-service employee?
Is it “exit, stage right?” or do you discuss the situation calmly, keeping in mind that they were trying to provide great service. Your other employees will be watching this one as people are bound to make mistakes, and personally I’d rather that they make the mistake trying to do the right thing for the customer.
Trap Number 5: “Let’s Take a Meeting”
I ran into my local Big Box Home Supply store very early one morning, I needed some advice, and I figured if I arrived bright and early it wouldn’t be crowded. The store was indeed empty, not only of all but a few customers, but also of employees. I finally went to the checkout clerk, after searching in vain for any staff on the floor. It turned out that they were all in a customer-service meeting. And it’s not just meetings that are at fault. In another case, checkout lines snaking through the store, because only one clerk is ringing up sales, while three others are counting inventory.
They know how to get you in,
but not how to get you out
And here’s a classic that I encountered: there was one clerk ringing up sales in a discount store, there were seven unhappy customers waiting in line, and two aisles over there was a table set up under a large banner emblazoned “Customer Service.” A clerk sat there, totally alone, waiting to sign customers up for the stores bonus points’ card. She looked pretty bored, and evidently entertained herself by watching the customers waiting endlessly in line to pay. Don’t fall into the trap of letting meetings or slogans about customer service interfere with actual customer service.
Trap Number 6: “The Customer Will Tell You What He Or She Wants”
Now we’ve been learning to listen to your customers, find out what they want, discover their needs and fulfill them, and so on. But, sometimes, they will lead you astray. Remember the customer who wanted the product change, but then decided that it really wasn’t necessary if it was going to increase his price. Here was a case where the customer was right, sort of. He wanted the new product and what he told the company about the product was correct and he just didn’t want to pay what he’d have to for the new version.
Trap Number 7: “We Want Every Customer We Can Get”
Actually, as it turns out, sometimes you shouldn’t keep some of your customers. Some customers are just too expensive to maintain. They may take too much time of your sales people and purchase too little product, they may return products too often, or they may be doing things that are outright fraudulent.
In an old business, it was decided that they couldn’t afford Big Box as a customer. They sold a good amount of product to them. But taking into account everything they needed to do to keep them as a customer, they would be in the situation of losing money on every transaction. You can’t make that up in volume. At the time, they needed customers, and it was a tough decision, but they decided that the best move was to not take on a large customer like Big Box. They could not provide them with the level of customer service that they demanded at the prices they were willing to pay, and they weren’t going to make promises to them that they couldn’t keep.
From a customer-service perspective, you’ve got to look at your customers and ask yourself which ones are taking up too much of your time and are too costly. Are they calling with too many requests? Are they changing orders late in the game causing manufacturing difficulties? Are they sending returns back when you’re certain it has nothing to do with the product, and more likely to do with their cash flow? You’ve got to figure out who are your best customers, after you take into account all the costs and charges that go into dealing with them.
Trap Number 8: “The Customer Is Always Right”
Nope, not true. The customer can be, and oftentimes is, wrong. But the issue here is how you deal with the customer when they’re wrong. It can be a touchy subject. You’ll need to deal with them carefully because perhaps the source of their problem is coming from your confusing brochure, your unmarked prices, or your sales flyer that was outdated before it was printed. But if the customer is truly wrong, you have to tell them that without making them go running to the competitor. You shouldn’t mind being told that you’re in error as long as it’s done with the grace to save face. This is a great place to include role-playing in your staff training. Give them a typical place where the customer can be wrong, and let them work through ways to tell the customer that, without alienating them.
Trap Number 9: “Technology is Always Cheaper Than People”
Using technology to replace or eliminate people as customer contacts. Look at what happens today when you call the “customer service” or “customer care” hot-line. Because your call is important to us please stay on the line for up to twenty minutes listening to music you thought that you’d never hear again. Ugh! And every so often hit the customer with your message and tell the customer that they are now number six in the queue.
Here are some quick tips for watching out for traps.
Keep an eye on:
1. How much time you spend in mediating problems with rules in your business—especially those that can be avoided.
2. How much effort is going into the design of your bonus program for excellent customer service…the simpler the better and the one that works.
3. And most importantly, keep an eye on anything that is keeping you from talking and visiting with your existing, and prospective customers?
Making That Great Customer Service Last: Keep the Romance in the Relationship
What ultimately separates the local Department Store from the national chains, the individually owned electronics store from the big box guys, is the culture of the organization. They keep those warm and fuzzy feelings alive with their customers trying to get that WOW! factor back.
I know this may sound like a rah-rah slogan, but it’s true. Organizations with outstanding customer service have it because at the core of the business is the belief that the customer is the number one priority. This isn’t just a trite, over-used phrase that should be posted on the wall with a picture of a sunset and a seagull. As a matter of fact, you could wallpaper your entire office with that phrase and it wouldn’t help your customer service one iota. It’s ironic that although the lower levels of our hierarchal pyramid have the most contact with customers, it is top management that sets the tone for outstanding customer service. A culture evolves from the top down. Not only will your employees “pick up” top level attitudes, eventually employees that don’t emulate that attitude will leave or be “helped out,” and the new hires will be more in tune with your company philosophy.
The key to a customer service culture is to provide the customer with the best service possible. Period. That means a lot of things including delivering the best quality product at the lowest price. But to do that, you have to watch your costs very, very carefully, but that doesn’t mean you let service slide to accomplish that goal. Your actions and words gave rise to both of them.
Sometimes it can be the small things that set the tone: the company doesn’t need to give out boxes of pens to each employee. Everyone in the office has a pen, and when they run out of ink, they give the old pen back to the supply manager, who gives them a new pen. Sounds nitpicky? There is a reason, though. It isn’t that the cost of lost or stolen pens is going to put the company under, but being careful of costs sends a clear message: we watch our costs. There were others, but this one sent a clear message, and set up a culture of being careful with costs.
Our customer-service culture is created and maintained the same way. The owner might occasionally ask a customer-service rep how orders were shipping. Were they going out fast enough? Any backorders? Now, the owner might already know those answers, but wanted customer service to know that those things were important. After a sales trip, you might visit customer service to report back to them about customer comments—good or bad. When a customer calls, the owner should interrupt a meeting with an employee or supplier to take their call. Every one in the company knows that customers are our number one priority.
Empower your employees
to provide wow! customer service
and the sales will follow
Listen to your customers,
as they may know more about using your product than you do.
Your customers are your most important asset
and the best source of feedback for improvement.
You are in the customer service business—
listen and serve your customers.
The customer may not always be right,
but the customer knows what they want.
Conclusion
Memorizing the Customers Top Ten List and analyzing your business won’t do any good if you don’t set the example. Remember the incident with the woodworker who received the wrong lumber from the big company? They may offer good service to their big customers, but they will eventually go astray because they have no culture of service. If they did, that incident was less likely to have occurred, because the employees would have known that every customer was deserving of a certain level of service. An incident like that is actually a great opportunity to set the example. When the office manager heard about the problem, he should have sent a truck with replacement wood out immediately—even if they lost money on the order. What a great learning experience for all the employees involved. They would have understood that outstanding customer service is an intrinsic part of the business; it would have become ingrained in their culture.
You have the tools and knowledge to elevate your service level, but when the first flush of memo’s and meetings subside, it will be your attitude and commitment that will keep it flourishing. Your actions and focus will become the example for the culture of outstanding customer service that you want in your business.
You are the starting point
for outstanding customer service
wow!!!