Invest in Customer Service
How much money and time do you invest in customer service training ( books, seminars, cd’s etc) to improve your skills ?
The average answer is “Nothing. I go to work and learn while I’m there”
Would you feel comfortable visiting a doctor who had that philosophy? or a dentist?
and knowing that a large majority of customer service and sales people have the above philosophy……..
are you surprised that most customer service is very poor ? or that many many sales people are not good at their craft?
Read a book, buy a cd.
Please improve, even if you’re very good……. there’s still so much more to learn !
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.
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 !
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.
Appreciate Good Customer Service
At one of my sales jobs, I spent the day with my manager on the road visiting customers.
As the day ended, He shook my hand. “That was a great day of visits, Terry, I want to thank you.”
I shook his hand and shrugged. “It was just a normal day on the road,” I replied.
“Maybe for you,” he said. “A normal day for me though is sitting in the office, talking to angry people who are upset about prices, or deliveries, or product failing out in the field. My normal days have been pretty miserable lately, and it was refreshing to go out and meet the customer who are happy. It was nice to see people smile when they think about our company.”
“Are the complaining customers from my territory?” I asked with concern.
He laughed. “No they aren’t. Your territory is a treat. Everyone is happy and if they have concerns, you handle them better than I could. You do a great job, and I want you to know it helps me alot that you do. Thanks Terry!”
Where’s the good customer service in that story?
I knew he was having some tough times and so I invited him on the road for him to see the happy customers. He felt better at the end of the day…… and that was my goal.
His positive comments were not expected, but they were appreciated.
The next time you get good customer service, doing a simple thing like showing appreciation will go a long way .
I include a cool card with my thanks …. you can see what it looks like at www.thegoldapples.com
Customer Service – Add some light to the darkness !
“Watch this, kids.” my Dad’s voice whispered out of the darkness from behind me.
We were on a family vacation and had taken a tour of one of the coal mines. Deep in the bowels of the earth, with nothing but ocean all around us, the tour guide had just turned off the small lamps to show us how dark it would be in the event of a cave in.
It was so dark you could feel it, like a heavy blanket slowly smothering you. Even with my hand touching my nose, I was unable to see a hint of it.
But then my Dad had whispered to watch something. My first impulse had been to tell him we couldn’t watch anything in this darkness. But even his whisper had seemed like a shout, and so I kept quiet and watched.
Suddenly the world became visible! No, they hadn’t turned the lights back on. My dad had pressed the cheap little light on his digital watch. It was the 80’s and normally that light didn’t work even on the darkest nights at home. But here, shrouded in blackness, it worked very well!
It didn’t light up the whole cave, just a portion of us, and my dad’s face. He was smiling as he whispered, “See? Even a tiny little bit of something can make a big difference sometimes. Imagine if everyone here had a small light and turned it on. We could light the place up.”
It’s like that with customer service. Even a small amount of it can make a big difference. Everyone has the ability to add their light to the experience.
Do your part so we can light the place up!
Don’t talk to Strangers? The rules have changed since you grew up…..
July 7, 2009
There comes a point in time when you are no longer a child and you are now allowed, even required, to talk to strangers.
Fear of strangers is a deeply ingrained source of stress in the average person’s life. It is the result of being protected from harm in our formative years as children…… and we are lucky that our parent’s were able to instill this caution early in our lives so that we would be safe.
But we’re grown up now. The same thing that was good for us early on in our life is now harmful to us as we get older. There are many examples of this…… ever seen the teeth of a child who has drunk from a bottle too long? Or sucked their thumb longer than they should?
Being comfortable talking to strangers, and actually being good at it, is a valuable skill that many people wish they had. There are many benefits to being able to do this, both from a personal, and a professional standpoint (regardless of your profession).
So how do you do it? You’ve spent so many years being afraid of strangers. Now suddenly it’s ok to talk to them? Heck some of you might even get a job that requires you to talk to strangers every day.
People react to this new “Freedom” in usually one of two ways. There are many degrees to each reaction, but the essence of the reaction is either positive or negative.
Comfort in talking to strangers is similar to a thermometer.
Hot – People who are willing to talk to strangers move into the warm scale.
Cold - People who resist talking to strangers are stuck in the cold area of the thermometer.
Whether you are currently in the hot or the cold scale don’t despair. Everyone who wants to improve in this area can do so easily….. And I’m about to show you how.
Ready to learn the secret?
Ok …. Here it is………
In order to feel totally comfortable talking to strangers…….. PRETEND that you already know them.
Simple, unremarkable. This is just common sense, right?
Yes, it is. If you already use this strategy then you have no problem talking to strangers and you don’t need any help.
BUT – If you ever find yourself getting nervous at the idea of walking up to someone you don’t know and starting a conversation with them…….. Then you can benefit from this way of thinking.
The key word is ….. Pretend.
DO THIS:
As I approach a stranger I quickly tell myself a story which helps me to pretend. It goes something like this;
“Hey that person looks really familiar. I must know them from somewhere, but just can’t remember where. I better ask a few questions about them to try and refresh my memory. If those questions don’t remind me of whom they are, then that’s ok. I can still have a good conversation with them.”
Dale Carnegie wrote very clearly in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” that in order to be interesting to other people…. You must be genuinely interested in other people.
This works so well! Be genuinely interested in the person you are talking to and they will become comfortable with you and find you to be an interesting person. The best way to do this is to ask them questions about themselves. Good questions (yes there is such a thing as a stupid question). Ask them because you are interested in the answer, not because you want to fool them into thinking you care. People can sense it when you are not genuine. If you can’t care about someone enough to be genuine….. Then please don’t even try this strategy. Read Dale Carnegies book first.
A couple of Do Nots
- Do Not actually tell the person you think you know them from somewhere. That’s a fake pick up line and it never works.
- When the other person actually shares a bit of info about themselves…. Do Not nod your head and mumble, “Oh yeah, that’s right.” You are a stranger, after all and this will tend to creep them out, negating any goodwill you have built up to this point.
- In General Do Not do anything that would upset or annoy you if a stranger came up to you and started talking.
This will seem awkward at first. But like anything that you practice, over time you will get good at it and it will become more comfortable to implement.
Some signs that you are getting good at meeting and talking to strangers.
- You will feel more relaxed as you improve.
- The stranger will move from unsure and guarded to comfortable more quickly as you improve
- People will actually begin to ask you, “Wow you look familiar. Have we met before?” it’s ok if they ask you this…. But never ok for you to ask them.
- The very thought of walking up to a stranger and talking to them will no longer make you feel that panic. Instead you will consider it “No big deal” to do this.
Simple and effective. It’s excellent customer service.
It will help you conquer your fear of speaking to strangers….. No matter how small or big a fear that happens to be.
Does it work? Yes it sure does. When you get really good at doing this, you will no longer see any strangers ….. Just acquaintances you want to get to know even better.
I hope I gave you something you can use.
And remember…… “It’s all Customer Service!”
Terry
http://www.thegoldapples.com
Bad News Sells….But Great Customer Service Can Sell Too !
Do a Google search for “Bad Customer Service”.
Now do a search for “Good Customer Service”.
The links for Bad Customer Service are plentiful, while the websites dedicated to showcasing great customer service are not as easy to find….. the bad news is always more entertaining right?
Sure, we all get a big kick out of reading the horror stories of some poor stranger ( as long as no one gets hurt, of course).
But for my own day to day experiences…. I would much rather get good or even great customer service than receive bad.
Admittedly alot of the customer service I get is bad. But so much of it is good too.
Great customer service stories can be even more entertaining than the bad ones. I will continue to read about both the good … and the bad customer service out there.
I just wish it was as easy to find the good exmples online as it is to discover the bad.
Terry
www.thegoldapples.com
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