1001 Ways to Wow Your Customers!

You may be a small business owner, the manager of customer service, operations, branch banking or any number of organizational functions. You may be someone in a customer facing position yourself. Either way, this is an important message for you to read and to pass on.

In my opinion, Customer Care is everyone’s business, and should be part of everyone’s job description. But in every organization there are those people – the customer facing people – whose primary responsibility it is to take care of the customer. It’s to them I am speaking today, so be sure to make sure that everyone in your organization has a chance to read this tip. It’s especially critical in these challenging times to take EXQUISITE care of the customers we have, so herewith are 7 things that I think every customer service person needs to know.

1. You chose this job, or it chose you. Either way, it’s in your best interest and the best interest of the customer for you to show up and be fully present to the job. Set an intention every day to be the best you can be at your craft. Make it a point to do a little learning about how to get better at it every day. Find joy in doing your job well. Recognize and acknowledge yourself for all the “wins” during your day. (Even if, and especially if your boss doesn’t notice often enough.)

2. Be proud of what you do. You play an important role in the company’s success. I’m here to remind you that the experiences you provide for the customer could make or break their relationship with the company. Even if parts of the process are broken, even if the wait times are long, even if the customer is upset about some aspect of the company, a great experience with a customer facing person can make up for a whole lot. You have the opportunity to make deposits in the customer’s emotional bank account and keep those customers happy.

3. You have emotional genius. Being good at customer service requires a great deal of emotional intelligence. In fact, in your job, EQ is as important – and often more important – than IQ. Here’s the neat thing – being in a people oriented position gives you the unique opportunity to practice and even perfect those EQ skills. That’s going to help you in every relationship you have in your life. As you get better at your job, you get better at your life. That’s a bonus!

4. The customer is not always right. I know you might have a little card that came from the corporate office that tells you they are, but I’m telling you what you already know to be true. They are not always right. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are mean, sometimes they lie, sometimes they drive you crazy. But being right or wrong is not the point. Your job is to be so skillful that even if they are wrong, angry, nasty or just having a bad day, you have the ability to turn a bad situation into a better one. A highly skilled customer facing person is a magician, able to transform and diffuse difficult situations into good ones.

5. You work in the performing arts. Service is not like a manufactured good. It can’t be made ahead of time and put on the shelf. It happens in the moment, as needed, and it’s all about performance. That makes you the performer. Just like an actor (or a public speaker or trainer for that matter) there will be days when you just don’t feel up to it and you will have to act “as if” you were. Here’s where your good training comes in. Rehearsal and visualization work to help you prepare for a great performance every time. Think of yourself as an improv artist.

6. You have a stressful job, but the amount of stress you take home every day is up to you. How you view your job is just as important as how you do your job. If you allow yourself to over dramatize, ‘catastrophize’, get defensive, and take everything personally, you’re in for a tough time. Your body reacts to the perception of danger with primal instincts to fight or flee – both involving a cascade of stress chemicals that can damage your body. You have the power to change how you view any situation – including your job. Find a frame that makes it less stressful and more enjoyable.

7. You have the opportunity to make the world a better place every day. Whether you deal with 10 customers or 200 customers a day, you have the power to create positive experiences for all of them. When you make your best effort to add sincere care and appreciation to every interaction, you are infusing it with positive energy and vibration. When the customer leaves the interaction with you feeling good they are likely to spread that positive emotion. Emotions are contagious.

You have the power to spread positivity and make the world a better place. We all know how important that contribution is these days. Take it seriously and you can make a serious difference in the lives of your customers and every one they touch. Allow yourself to see the ripples of good will and well being you are sending out into the world. Spread happiness and appreciation and you will feel energized.

So there you have it – a short story every customer facing, customer caring person should see. Spread the word around and start a lively dialog in your organization by discussing each of the points – and perhaps by adding a few of your own.

If you are looking to keep all the customer facing people in your organization motivated to stay focused on that customer – take a trial run of our Monday Morning Motivation – it’s an easy and inexpensive way to focus attention on the things that matter. It’s all about keeping the main thing (the customers) the main thing.

Caring is contagious – please spread the word…

JoAnna

 JoAnna Brandi is the Publisher of the Customer Care Coach leadership program. She is the author of three books: Winning at Customer Retention, 101 Ways to Keep ‘em Happy, Keep ‘em Loyal, and Keep ‘em Coming Back, Building Customer Loyalty - 21 Essential Elements in ACTION, and 54 Ways to stay Positive in a Changing, Challenging and Sometimes Negative World. JoAnna is an accomplished public speaker and a contributing author to numerous business publications. Her work in customer loyalty has been cited in Fortune Magazine, Sales and Marketing Magazine, The Executive Report on Customer Retention, US Banker, the Retail Advantage, The Kiplinger Letter, The Competitive Advantage and dozens of others. You can subscribe to her bi-weekly Customer Care Tip for free and find more of her work http://www.customercarecoach.com and her new blog .

Here are Richard King’s personal top ten takeaway thoughts from another Tom Peters mega happening in London

1. Excellence comes from human beings doing things of value that customers find memorable.
2. Remember. You are the only human being in the world who can help this particular customer at this particular moment in time.
3. The thing that keeps a business ahead of the competition is excellence in execution.
4. Brand inside is more important than brand outside for sustained success.
5. Leaders’ careers will usually be determined by their handling of one or two critical events that no one could possibly anticipate or plan for.
6. Make sure that you spend your time on the things you say are your priorities.
7. Tuck the shower curtain in and give away two-cent candy!
8. It’s remarkable how quickly an excellent culture can be torn apart by poor management.
9. Irrelevance comes from always doing the things you know how to do in the way you’ve always done them.
10. If you love your company and love what you do, you will serve your customers better—period!

Thanks Richard,

Thanks Tom.

How’s this for happiness at work:

Wonderful post from Alexander Kjerulf - the Chief Happiness Officer! He speaks and consults in businesses all over the world, showing executives, managers and employees how to change workplaces from dreary and stressful to more fun, energized and happy… and profitable! Please visit http://positivesharing.com/ for his excellent book - Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – and more!

Is it a paradox? The great acceleration to a self service economy via mobile and the web and the growing need for more full service experts at the same time? Perhaps it’s just a new model of service that employs the latest technology and good old-fashioned face-to-face great service.

It is so much easier today to gather information, compare alternatives, understand the differences, and truly appreciate the value you offer via the web, and that enables me as the customer to better make informed decisions – and that’s a wow! As a service provider, have you got your multi-channel service delivery act together?

In an earlier post – Self-limiting Service Disabilities – I recapped my adventure scoping out wheelchair access and the service delivery I encountered. My web search led me to an expert provider that responded the same day by email, and as well by phone – with a face-to-face on-site meeting the next day. And yes we did the deal three days later after a little due diligence with the associated electrical work.

Lessons learned (and values re-enforced)

Respond quickly in kind, and then promptly by voice with a view to meet face-to-face. Be an expert, provide information, offer great value, be accessible, follow-up and care – the deal is there.

If you need help with that please visit High Performance Retail

Over again.

I am constantly amazed at how much opportunity is left on the table just due to the self-limiting perceptions of what individuals and their organizations can and cannot do to serve their customers. And clearly, the self-limiting service disabilities reflect the opportunity horizon, scope, values and vision of those who lead the organization.

Here is a story of my recent adventure in wheelchair access for a residence.

Situation: I need to provide wheelchair access for my mother’s residence. It’s about quality of life and mobility - easily understood. (Then think aging population and the potential of the market for this need!) Winter weather up here in Canada is also an issue.

Approach: As typical today I launched into an internet search to develop and compare options, alternatives, price and value. What an adventure and regrettably, quite a waste of time. The paid Google ads led me to more Google ad farms and links, and then to more ad farms until I ignored them completely. Focusing on the unpaid search results I started to gain serious information, such as how to construct a wheelchair ramp - the rise ratios, the width and hand rail requirements, building codes, weather issues etc. and got to a point where I could speak knowledgeably about the topic and figure out what the impact would be with the entrance.

Through additional research it seemed like there were four alternatives available:

Construct a wooden wheelchair ramp that complied with code and required one foot in length for every inch of height. Plotted that out for the entrance and I had this ramp out 30 feet to a landing and then back 22 feet to the ground. OK, this is my default alternative but I would need some help. Search for contractors in my area who do this - nada. (Major opportunity for any contractor to get an interactive presence in this increasingly important segment.) If you are building decks and into home renovations why not think wheelchair access?

Very interesting alternative to wood. I found an outstanding web site with a modular aluminum product that looked like even I could install. Had the railings and weather issues covered. Trouble is they’re in Washington State with no local dealers or reps. (Are these brilliant alternatives only needed on the US west coast?) C’est domage. This was however, the only web site that provided pricing - all others were a mystery!

So far I’m doing all the research and calling, so let’s “engage.”

An incline platform lift looks like a perfect solution. It’s an independent bolt-in system that would take minimal space. The web site is clear (except for price) and I call, play tag a bit and then find out the price is astronomical! Why? It’s industrial technology and not really meant for residential use. Bizarre! (Isn’t there a need for this rapidly growing residential segment?) On to the next alternative.

A porch lift - mini elevator. This seems to satisfy all requirements, including weather. A little pricey I suspect but let’s “engage” again - with three potential suppliers. And here is where the customer service lessons connect.

In all three cases I fill out the web contact form completely, including address, my email, product need and a comment that I have a pressing need and want to move fast. (Ready to buy you think? A qualified prospect? A potential customer for thousands of dollars of business?) Compare the results and see who has any self-limiting service disabilities.

Supplier 1 (manufacturer or reseller) - I receive an email (within a day) thanking me for my interest, providing a price range, and also advising that I am outside of their territory of operation and that there will be several additional charges for them to provide their solution at my location. OK, thanks for the info. (Why not put that on your site to better limit your exposure and ensure you don’t get business from my major metropolitan area?)

Supplier 2 (manufacturer) - I receive a brochure and very nice letter in the mail (within days). I call, we play tag a few times and then have a brief chat. The marketing rep transfers me to their sales people as it seems I want pricing information and she doesn’t have it. (A little bizarre!) I get transferred into voice mail, leave a message and have not received a call back since.

Supplier 3 (re-cycler of wheelchair accessible equipment - and why didn’t I think of that sooner - “bonne idee!”) - I receive an e-mail the same day thanking me for my interest, providing a brief outline of their services, and advising me that I will be contacted with 24 hours by Donna to explore my needs. The email has Donna’s contact info. I receive a call the same day and we connect and they share price ranges, alternatives and installation requirements - and they are very reasonable (compared to all of the above options.) Their manager will be in my area tomorrow morning and could come by for an assessment and estimate, and will bring their contractor to assess any additional work. That’s excellent I say, but I can’t be there in the morning - please assess the situation and call me in the afternoon. All is booked. Then another call that their manager and contractor can come by later in the afternoon to meet my schedule. (Face to face seems to be the ideal approach for them and they are so very right!) I am getting the sense that they are very interested in my business and are doing almost “whatever it takes” to get face-to-face and solve my need.

So tomorrow, I think I will be meeting with a service provider that will be responsive to my needs in terms of the solution and cost. Do you think that’s a reasonable expectation? What is your estimate of the probability that I will do thousands of dollars of business with them?

The lesson for me is the power of the interactive presence supported in execution by the power of email, voice and personal contact. I enjoyed the re-cycler’s execution of service. Are they hungry for business? You bet! Is their approach effective? Looks like a “whatever it takes” sort of “customer obsessed” ethic that works.

Then imagine a new relationship … I can re-cycle the stuff with them when it’s no longer needed.

So many lessons learned about service and also new business opportunities and competitive strategy. If we make the deal I will be a major advocate and get their message out to over 30,000 people monthly. That might help support an enterprise that “gets it.”

For the record, even if we don’t make the deal, their approach to service is ideal. You can find them here - http://www.silvercross.com/

And if you need some help with going beyond service to “customer obsession” please visit

http://www.refresher.com/highperformanceretail

Over.

I spent the summers of my college years on the coast of South Carolina as a waitress. I learned a variety of skills including how to balance and carry out five steak platters on my arm, how to gracefully dive under a table to retrieve a baked potato when it rolls onto a customer’s shoe, and how to pacify a table of anxious, hungry diners who have already waited 30 minutes for their meal when I’ve just been advised by the kitchen that their order ticket is missing.

Sure, there were some hair-raising times, but for the most part, I loved every minute I spent waiting tables. Why? Because it was a fast-paced, customer-intensive job that provided instant gratification (by way of tips and smiling faces) when the customer experience was well delivered. Perhaps my biggest education was learning the art of the “customer dance” - recognizing when to lead the customer and when to follow. Over time, I learned to pick up subtle signals that helped clarify the customer experience I needed to deliver. Were they there to eat and run? Did they want to linger over coffee and dessert? Were small kids at the table in need of a fun distraction? I watched for the customer clues and then tailored my services accordingly.

Ace Hardware has taken the delicate dance of “lead and follow” to a whole new level with its addition of “customer quarterback” positions in its 4,600 U.S. stores. This technique was born out of the $3.8 billion hardware cooperative’s year-long initiative of analyzing ways to best serve customers, during busy stores times, without adding extra staffers. When store traffic is heavy at the Cape Coral, Florida store, for example, customer coordinator, Linda Gillard, gears up to “call the play.” She talks to incoming shoppers, analyzes their body language and then alerts store staff on how to best serve them: Mission shopper with no time for small talk? Browser? Shopper gearing up for a big project? Gillard makes the assessment and then, using an earpiece, radios ahead to staff so they are ready in the aisle to help, when the customer arrives. Gillard knows the danger of too much contact too early and is quick to warn the team, “Browser entering Housewares. No immediate assistance needed. Give them at least 5 to 10 minutes before you approach.”

Loyalty Lesson: Customers come to us with a mindset shaped by a host of factors. We must learn to read their clues and then sculpt our service delivery accordingly. Often times, this will invove a number of staff members. That’s why systems, such as the one Ace Hardware mobilized, provide important pathways for helping frontliners “lead” and “follow” in the all-important customer dance.

Now, about that baked potato that landed on my customer’s shoe…

I’m told that many, even most, companies maintain thick employee handbooks jam-packed with all shapes and types of rules — rules about when you come to work and when you leave, rules about how often you get a break, rules about coarse language, rules about penalties for defacing bulletin boards, rules about this, that, and everything, so many that even the person who wrote them couldn’t possibly know them all. Every year or so, they make revisions to the handbook, usually sticking in still more rules but rarely, if ever, discarding or updating any of them to reflect a changing world. So you have a business drowning in rules that no one can remember, including the managers who dreamed them up.

In this regard, companies are as bad as governments. I’m always reminded of this when I read about some antiquated local or state law that never got updated for common sense. For instance, South Carolina has a two-hundred-year-old law banning games with cards or dice — even in your own home. So I guess the police can bust in and haul you and the kids to the pen for playing Monopoly or Go Fish.

When you have piles of rules, we believe it makes people extremely uneasy. They feel like they’re back in school — or, worse, in prison. And the upshot is that they don’t feel as if they’re trusted. One of our sales associates shared how, at another company, she came to work one day despite having wrenched her back the previous night. She was in a fair amount of discomfort, but didn’t want to miss a day. So between customers, she sat down to ease the pain. Her supervisor spotted her, stomped over, and barked: “Get up right now. You can’t sit, because it sets a bad example. It’s the rule!

You know the old saying “Rules are made to be broken.” Well, we find that people look on rules as meaning that you’re testing their integrity. Which translates to “I don’t trust you.” So one of the most important ways we show that we trust our people is by not having rules except those required by law.

Now, when we say that we don’t have any other rules, we don’t mean that we operate in complete anarchy — maybe a touch of organized chaos, but not anarchy. No business could be successful if it were run that way. People don’t come and go as they please, they don’t have limitless expense accounts, they don’t come to work in bikinis.

You see, we’re a hugging culture based on values and principles, not rules and regulations.

So how do we establish parameters? Rather than rules, we have expectations. And if you have a company comprised of trustworthy people, setting examples and expectations works a lot better than rules.

What’s the difference between rules and expectations? To our mind, rules are unbending. If the rule is that you have to take lunch from noon to one o’clock and you don’t take it at that time, then you starve to death. So rules are rigid. To me, they’re cold and impersonal.

Expectations, on the other hand, are warm, and they’re flexible and freeing when they need to be. The clear understanding is that you are expected to live up to our expectations, and so you come in and leave when you are scheduled to, but you don’t need a time clock to keep you honest. Expectations are mutually agreed upon — and they can be fulfilled in different ways by different people. No two individuals are completely alike in talent, strengths, motivation, or personality — everyone has plenty of quirks or weaknesses — so why should everyone have to follow rigid rules? Expectations are pliable and they may be adjusted to suit an individual and build on his or her strengths.

What, then, are some of our expectations?

There are seven key expectations that are important to me:

1. Be positive, passionate, and personal.

2. Work and play hard — and work smarter, too.

3. Understand the power of the team. That means exhibiting mutual respect and trust. Fun and success mean we, not I (remember the old expression, “There is no ‘I’ in team”).

4. Dress appropriately (this especially applies to us since we’re in the clothing business).

5. No surprises.

6. Always, always be open and tell the truth!

7. Hug one another and hug the customers

We also like to use the word standards a lot in place of rules. In general, we set very high standards, and we expect everyone to do their level best to live up to them. My tenth-grade civics teacher wrote in my Staples High School yearbook, “Live up to your potential,” and I obviously never forgot it and think about it often, and that’s what we want our people to do: live up to their highest potential.

That’s why effort, hard work, and education are emphasized. We like people to keep raising the bar, especially in areas where they are naturally strong. We realize that if the bar is raised appropriately with each individual in mind, then everyone will reach his or her personal and professional goals and will enjoy — indeed love — the journey, the process, the playing of the game of the career of life.

And so within our expectations we establish specific standards, or targets. For instance, we expect our sellers to achieve $1 million in sales their first year with us (but we don’t horsewhip them if they do $900,000). We expect tailors to be fast and accurate — we never like pants that end six inches above the ankle — and to work as a team. And, of course, we expect everyone to support one another in a sale, to share their skills and “secrets” on personalizing relationships with other huggers, and to store data for everyone to use in an open and honest way with respect for privacy and confidentiality.

So set expectations for your associates, but leave rules to the prison wardens.

From HUG YOUR PEOPLE by Jack Mitchell. Copyright (c) 2008. Published by Hyperion; March 2008; Copyright © 2008 Jack Mitchell

(Thanks Jack! ed.)

After speaking for a client in Cancun, I spent the late afternoon at the resort’s beach where noticed something odd. As guests left the beach for the evening events, the resort’s staff would realign the vacated beach chairs, going so far as to crouch to chair level and eyeball the chair backs to ensure they were precisely in-line. First, I wondered why the need for being so neat, then it occurred to me… When the chairs are lined-up exactly, it tells guests those chairs are available. When your operations are neat - shelves faced-off, landscape and entrance manicured, uniforms tidy - it doesn’t just show you’re clean. It tells customers you think details matter, you have self respect, and most of all - you’re ready to do business.

Copyright JCMowatt Seminars

Jeff Mowatt is the bestselling author of the books, Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month and Influence with Ease. As a customer service strategist, Jeff’s Influence with Ease® column has been syndicated and featured in over 200 business publications. To obtain copies of his books or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team, visit http://www.jeffmowatt.com/main.html or call 1-800-JMowatt (566-9288).

Here is a great question: “Are you easy to do business with?”

That may sound like a simple question, and you may immediately want to say, “Yes!” However, I urge you to take a close look at how you are perceived by your customers and fellow employees.

Certain companies create an image that they are extremely easy to do business with. Their sales people are friendly. They bend over backwards to take care of you. They provide a “hassle-free” experience. They never question a return. Most people (especially me) love doing business with a place like this.

I recently had the opportunity to refinance my home mortgage. Interest rates have been dropping for a while, and I felt now was the time. I shopped to find the best rates. I ended up doing business with Nexstar, and the guy that helped me was Brian Parks. He is the perfect example of how to be “easy to do business with.” He assured me the application, taken over the phone, was going to take less than fifteen minutes. He assured me how much things would cost and explained everything in detail. I completely understood the process and along the way there weren’t any surprises. He followed up after the “closing” with the title company to make sure that went well. If I called to ask a question and Brian wasn’t available, the person on the phone was able to access my information and thanks to Brian’s great notes, they could answer my questions. My experience with Nexstar was nothing short of perfect. Most important, it was easy!

I recently bought a pair of pants from the Men’s Department at Neiman Marcus. My sales rep, Patty, assured me the pants wouldn’t shrink if they were washed at home. Her comment was simple. She promised, “If there is anything wrong with the pants after you wash them a few times, bring them back.” It was that simple!

Look at your business through your customers’ eyes. Have you made it as easy as possible for the customer? Or are some of the procedures in place simply for the convenience of you or your company? Ask your customers. Listen to their answers. Find out ways to improve. The bottom line is the easier you are to do business with, the happier your customers will be.

Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author who works with companies who want to develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees. For more information on Shep’s speaking programs, books, tapes and learning programs please contact (314) 692-2200 and visit http://www.hyken.com/

I like Dale Wolf’s definition of the perfect customer experience:

“The perfect customer experience is one which results in customers becoming advocates for the company, creating referral, retention and profitable growth.”

Clear and precise. It’s the positive, memorable and emotional impact that creates advocacy and loyalty - and that creates business!

Dale’s blog is a rich source of information on customer experience. It’s appropriately titled The Perfect Customer Experience. Enjoy!