Systems and Policies are Dangerous for Customer Service
I’ve been running into blogs and articles about customer service lately that promote Systems and Policies for improving a companies Customer Service.
I disagree with this type of thinking.
Bob Tasca had a great suggestion in his book “You Will Be Satisfied“ ………“Treat your customer as custom”
Each customer has different wants, needs, problems, and desires for their specific outcome. In order to be great at providing customer service you will need to provide a unique and different solution for each and every interaction with a customer. Even helping the same customer three different times…… you will need to provide three different and new experiences.
If you need to install a policy that the phone must be picked up before the second ring, then your people aren’t cut out for customer service.
Systems and Policies are for people with no creativity. They are for people with the inability to adapt.
IF you need systems and policies in place to deliver customer service, you’re in the wrong business……
which is entirely possible judging from the large amounts of bad customer service in the world today.
What do you want?
I asked an employee who was unhappy with their role this question;
“If you had your way, what is it that you’d want to do here?”
They thought about it for a few seconds, then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes answering my question.
After 10 minutes I had to interrupt.
“You’re only talking about what you Don’t Want to Do. What are the things that you Do Want to do……..?”
The employee was silent. He had no idea what he wanted…… but lots of thoughts about what he didn’t want. All of his energy was focused on complaining and the negatives. He couldn’t even begin to search for positives in that state of mind.
You can’t get something until you define what something is.
It’s simple.
It’s cliche.
It’s common sense.
Yet so few are aware of it.
Who’s Business Do You Work For?
It doesn’t matter if you are an employee or the owner of the business. Your answer should be the same.
“This is my business. This is my company.”
It’s a true strength for everyone working at a company to view it as “Theirs”
This world is full of people who don’t won’t take responsibility.
Your boss wants to you believe the company is yours. If every person was as excited, motivated, and eager to succeed as she/he was then the business would be exploding.
At a seminar the presenter said something that has stuck with me;
“Once you stop working ‘for’ your company and start working ‘on’ your company, you’re an executive…… regardless of your actual title.”
Some of the most successful companies I’ve seen ( and worked with) encourage their staff to treat the business as if it were theirs.
When you own a restaurant and your hostess gives you a well thought out list of improvements for increasing customer satisfaction…… you know you’re on the right track.
“Psst…I think she’s talking to you……”
“Thanks for coming to the meeting everyone. Let’s discuss what we can do to get more prospecting done on a daily basis.”
“This meeting is to address the growing customer service complaints our company has been receiving lately.”
“While we are in this small group, let’s address a growing issue in our office. We are not following up on quotes nearly enough.”
“This group needs to do more to increase sales.”
I could go on and on with topics for meetings.
The fascinating thing about every meeting you will ever attend is this;
The People who are the cause of the meetings, honestly believe the meeting isn’t about them at all.
When a meeting is called, assume the topic has something to do with you specifically. If it didn’t, you would likely not be required to attend the meeting.
The ones who need to read this the most …….. never will. Maybe one of you can help them figure it out.
Good Luck !
Do You “Breathe” Excellent Customer Service ?
I spoke with a lady who works for a large international shipping company. During a conversation, I told her that I preferred her company over the other large international competitor of hers. Her company was much better and reliable at delivering on time.
This remarkable lady didn’t miss a beat as she calmly smiled and did something many would not do……. she defended her competition.
In a few short sentences she conveyed how the competition struggled as a company, even though most individuals would rather do better.
At the end of the conversation my choice of shipping companies didn’t change, but my understanding of her competition changed.
This lady could have handled my comment any number of ways. She discussed it with me in such a way that I became even more loyal to her company (through her). Her interaction with me was customer service, and it was excellent.
When you sleep you breathe naturally. You don’t consciously think about it, you just do it. When you’re awake you also breathe and most of the time you aren’t aware of it.
“Breathing” customer service is the quality of customer service given when a person isn’t conciously thinking about it. When no one is watching, or there is no gain to be made, what type of customer service does a person provide.
Successful people “Breathe” great customer service.
When Will They Learn……….?
When do you learn?
- Everyone is expected to learn when they attend a class or seminar…..
- We should learn from our mistakes…..
-But what about other peoples mistakes ? If you see a total stranger messing up in real life, do you attempt to learn from that?
You see a parent scold their child in a public store….. do you think to yourself, “Wow, what a bad parent. Freaking out on their kids in a public place and over reacting.” or, “That is one terrbile kid, the parents should be ashamed of themselves.”
Do you Judge or do you Learn?
It’s impossible to do both at the same time.
Learning will benefit you more.
Great Summer Activity for your Kids !
My kids are too young for any real job, but we wanted to give them a chance to make a little bit of money while keeping their school skills honed over the sumer.
Here’s what we came up with…. Helped them make a Blog and each day that they post to it they can earn 2 dollars. Not a lot of money, but also not a ton of work for them to do.
The benefit to them – they get a bit of money that can add up over a couple months. They also earn it, so they are a bit more discerning about how they spend it.
The benefit to the parents ( and to the kids to but they don’t consider it a benefit) - They keep their writing and reading and creative skills in practice. Already after just a couple days they are doing very well and slamming out their blog entry in very little time.
Blogs are serious business in the world today, My kids are getting introduced to them and seeing that they can be used to make money.
It works for Seth Godin and many others…… it could work for them someday soon! If it doesn’t at least a couple of the 3 r’s are still being practiced.
Here are their blogs if you want to take a look;
If you do check them out please leave a comment, I know they would be thrilled to hear from you !
Customer Service You Have to Ask For Isn’t Good Customer Service
Earlier this week my family went to a local amusement park that we had bought a season pass to.
As we were paying for some food at one of the concession stands, the girl asked, “Are you a season pass holder?”
We told her we were and she replied, “Great, that entitles you to a percentage off your bill.” She then lowered her voice a bit and said, “Be sure to mention that everywhere you buy something in the park. Most places will give you a savings, although almost no one will offer them.”
Honouring a special, or offer, or promotion, is much different than offering it.
We had bought from other places in the park and paid full price, even though we were entitled to a deal. Was that our fault? Yes.
The company took advantage of our being new, and I’m sure we weren’t the only ones. Was that terrible customer service on their part ? Yes.
Definitions
We went out to a restaurant with our friends a couple weeks ago. When the bill was delivered, I asked everyone at the table to rate the service we had received.
“It was great!” a couple of people at the table exclaimed.
I was puzzled and asked them, “Really? why was it great?”
“Well,” one of them remarked, “The last time i was at this restaurant the food was cold, and the time before that the waitress spilled my drink on me. This time, though, nothing bad happened. So it was great!”
“That’s right,” The other person agreed. “When I was here last, it took 20 minutes for a waiter to even come get my drink order. Tonight they were here much sooner.”
“So just because the customer service wasn’t bad…… you rate it as great?”
Many companies are confused when it comes to grading their own customer service.
“Our people are very competent. We have a checklist and they do a great job of sticking to it!”
Not insulting or angering a customer is viewed as successful customer service, but it’s not.
If you’re describing your customer service force as “competent”, then your in trouble.
There’s a big difference between bad customer service, adequate customer service, and amazing customer service.
Every day you should experience amazing customer service. More than once!
Sadly, most are grateful just to get through the day without experiencing a customer service nightmare.
How Everyone Can Improve at Customer Service
A fan had the chance to meet a world famous pianist after a concert. The fan was in awe as he said to the piano genius.
“You played incredibly! I’ve never seen or heard anyone play the piano with such skill, such feeling. You are utterly brilliant!”
The Pianist smiled politely and said, “Thank you for your kind praise.”
“Kind has nothing to do with it,” the fan exclaimed. “I’d give my life to be able to play the piano like you do.”
“That’s what I did,” The Pianist replied matter of factly. “I gave my life to be able to play like this.”
I heard that story from a seminar years ago. The speaker was talking about the importance of commitment and practice.
Here’s how you can improve at providing customer service. Practice. Then practice some more. Then learn from what you have experienced …… and practice some more.
No one is good at something the first, or 5 th time we try it.
Careful, though. Don’t do something 5 or 6 times and make the mistake of thinking you just practiced 5 or 6 times. Follow these simple steps to get more out of your practicing.
1. Be aware that you are practicing.
2. Critique your effort.
3. Identify what went well, and where you could have done better.
4. Pick an action to improve during the next practice attempt.
5. Keep written notes of how/what you have improved on.
6. Don’t identify or try to change more than one detail on a practice run.
7. Accept that you won’t be perfect …… ever. But also accept that you can get better each time you practice.
A little improvement each try adds up to big changes in quality much quicker than you would guess.
Tiger Woods still needs to practice to get better. We all do.
Sucbscribe Here
