company ownership

What’s one word for a more positive customer experience?

(hint - it's not 'yes') If you've attended my Trusted Advisor seminars, you know how by just changing a few words you can improve how others perceive you and your organization. For example, check out this short video where I reveal one word that creates a better experience for employees and customers.

What’s one word for a more positive customer experience?

(hint - it's not 'yes') If you've attended my Trusted Advisor seminars, you know how by just changing a few words you can improve how others perceive you and your organization. For example, check out this short video where I reveal one word that creates a better experience for employees and customers.

Getting your Team to Care about Customers – 5 strategies for creating a customer service culture

One of the most common challenges I hear from managers and business owners is how to get staff to want to provide better service. After having trained literally hundreds of customer service teams for over 25 years, I’ve observed that the organizations who nurture the best service behaviors use these five strategies…

1. Educate towards Empathy

It’s easier to get employees to care about customers by putting them in the place of customers. That’s why when clients bring me in to conduct customer service training seminars for their teams, I ask participants to create a list of what they expect when they are customers. Then we reveal tips on how, by simply changing a few words, staff can demonstrate that they understand the customer’s perspective. Compare: “I’ll have to check our schedule” vs. “I’ll be happy to check our schedule for you.”

2. Send Grumps to your Competitor

Pay attention to how each of your employees responds when a customer casually asks, “How are you?” If an employee uses that small-talk question as a license to complain about how he or she feels (tired, busy, or ready for a break) it’s time for a chat or a training review. That employee needs to make a serious choice to either a) stop burdening customers with their problems, or b) consider working for the competition. That might sound harsh, but the last thing today’s harried customers need is to be forced to listen to the soul sucking lamentations of a service provider who over-shares. The bonus of sending toxic talkers to work for your competitor is your remaining staff will appreciate the more positive atmosphere with the purging of just one negative person.

3. Catch them Being Good!

That message was pasted on a banner at a daycare across from a fitness room where I was working out. It was meant to remind the staff to pay attention when toddlers are doing the right things; not just correcting them when they misbehave. Similarly, managers foster better customer experiences by catching employees when they provide exceptional service. The key then is to ensure all team members learn from the positive behavior. That leads us to...

4. Stage CAST© Meetings

Getting employees to care requires more than a onetime event; it requires ongoing nurturing of your customer service culture. To make the process more efficient, consider staging CAST© meetings.  CAST© stands for a Customer Service Team Meeting. It’s where leaders and their teams talk about how to make the experience better for customers, employees, managers and other stakeholders. CAST meetings take as little as 90 minutes a month and you’ll find that in as little as six months they transform your customer service culture.  Essentially they involve reminding team members of your service mission and standards, providing a coaching moment, disseminating customer service feedback, discussing ways to enhance the experience, and celebrating your service legends - examples where staff went above and beyond for customers. I detail the step by step process in my book, Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month

5. Turn Service Stars into Owners

As the expression goes, owners care more, and it shows (particularly to customers). Employees who have a vested financial interest in ensuring customers are happy over the long term take a different approach to service than those who are just waiting for a paycheck. That may mean putting your money (actually your equity) where your mouth is. At some point high performing frontline employees, who presumably don’t earn as much as managers, are going to want to create a more secure financial future. One of the most effective ways to involve them – literally – is to offer share ownership to your star performers.

Bottom Line - Cultivating a customer service culture isn’t complicated. It does however require training and support. Some managers claim they’re too busy for this. My question: in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace where your service is increasingly the only significant differentiator, what could possibly be more important to managers than ensuring your team provides outstanding service that customers notice, pay a premium for, and tell others about?

 

Make your “Thank You” Memorable

Here’s an easy way for employees to be remembered when thanking customers. Avoid the amateur routine of giving the customer their change, receipt, or bag and saying, “Thank you,” as they leave. Instead, consider the approach used by a clerk when I was the customer. Before handing me my change, she held on to it until I looked her in the eye. While maintaining eye contact she smiled, nodded, and said, “Thank you.” Then she handed me the change. Result – she appeared more sincere. And her store seemed more deserving of my patronage than the average business.

I’ll Take Care of It

Whenever one person gives someone else a task to do, there’s always the risk that the other person might “go-through-the-motions” to get it done. Whether you’re an employee doing something for a customer – or for your boss, your choice of words can instill confidence or foster mistrust. For example, if you respond to a request with, “I’ll do it”, it sounds like you’re forced “to do” something. Instead use the phrase, “I’ll take care of it.” That response implies that you’re complying because you care, and that you’ll see it through until completion.

Two Words that Gain Commitment

When influencing others, two little words get big results. A Chicago restaurateur had problems with people not showing up when they made table reservations. So, the hostess added two words when people phoned for a reservation. Instead of saying, “Please call us if your plans change,” she changed the wording to, “Will you call us if your plans change?” The result, adding “will you” and then waiting for their answer dropped the percentage of no shows from 30 to 10 percent. “Will you” has the effect of turning a suggestion into a subtle request for a commitment.

One Word that Enhances Cooperation by 57%

Harvard Psychologist, Ellen Langer discovered a surprising way to gain cooperation. In her study, researchers would interrupt someone making photocopies; asking if they could make their copies first. Only 60% of machine users would comply. Next, researchers would interrupt another user, this time adding a phrase beginning with the word, “Because…” Apparently, it didn’t matter what came after the word. Even saying, “Because I’m in a hurry,” resulted in 95% compliance – a 57% increase! The lesson – anytime you’re asking a customer, co-worker, or family member to do something, remember to add, “because…” and you’ll gain greater cooperation. Not bad for remembering a single word!

What will work best for you?

There are times when dealing with dissatisfied customers that you may not be able to repair the damage or inconvenience that they were subjected to. A common error when attempting to salvage the relationship is to ask, “What would you like us to do?” That phrase sounds too much as though you won’t do anything unless the customer gets you to do it. Instead use the phrase, “What will work best for you?” That wording sounds much more like you’re willingly going to do whatever it takes to make it right.

Give something for the inconvenience

To appease dissatisfied customers, managers generally rely heavily on refunds and exchanges – to their own peril! While providing a refund or exchange may fix the problem, it does nothing to fix the relationship. Exchanges and money back guarantees don’t fix relationships – people do. That means employees need to express empathy about the customer’s frustration, sincerely apologize and then offer something (in addition to the exchange or refund) to compensate the customer for their inconvenience. That way you turn an upset customer into an advocate.

What’s mood got to do with it?

“It’s no big deal that we made the error; the customer wasn’t upset.” Is that the criteria your team members use when deciding how to deal with mistakes? One of the tips I share in my seminars is how to recover trust with customers when things go wrong. Unfortunately, the common practice in many organizations when they make a mistake is to do the minimum required to fix the problem. Especially if the customer isn’t particularly upset. The right thing to do when there is a problem is not just fix the problem; it’s also apologizing and providing something extra to address the additional time, hassle, and possible money the customer had to spend to finally get what they originally paid for. The mood of the customer has absolutely nothing to do with it. Do your customers need to be angry before you do the ethical thing?

REDUCE CUSTOMER CONFLICTS

Register today for our 30 – second Trusted Advisor tips and receive as a bonus 15 Phrases that Pay for dealing with stressed and rushed customers.