Transcript Delivering Superior Customer Service NOW!

The Art of Intentional
Customer Service
Atlantic HR Conference
Speaker: Paula Morand
October 2, 2008
You can’t promise your
customers sunny weather,
but you can promise to
hold an umbrella over
them when it rains.
Anonymous
Who is your Customer?
Customer Service
• Answering questions
• Solving problems
• Untangling Corporate Logjams
• Fixing what’s broken and finding what’s lost.
• Soothing the irate and reassuring the timid
• Pulling a rabbit out of your hat.
To the Customer
YOU are the Company.
Customer relations is an integral part
of your job – not an extension of it.
William B. Martin
What Customers Expect
Start with asking yourself these questions.
1. What do my customers want from me and
from my company?
2. How do support areas work to serve my
customers?
3. What are the details – little things – that make
a big difference in my customer’s satisfaction.
If you don’t have customers,
you don’t have a job!
Key Service Skills
•Customer’s evaluate service
quality on 5 factors.
The RATER Factors
• Reliability
• Assurance
• Tangibles
• Empathy
• Responsiveness
The RELIABILITY Factor
The ability to provide what
was
promised, dependably
and
accurately.
The Service Promise
1. Organizational Commitments
2. Common Expectations
3. Personal Promises
The ASSURANCE Factor
• The knowledge and courtesy you show to
customers, and your ability to convey trust,
competence and confidence.
Consistent, high quality service boils down to two equally important
things – caring and competence.
Service Wisdom
How do we reassure our Customers?
• Product Knowledge
•
•
•
•
Company Knowledge
Listening Skills
Problem Solving Skills
Extra Points for Style
The TANGIBLE Factor
The physical facilities and
equipment, and your own
other’s) appearance.
(and
From the customer’s point of view, if they can see
it, walk on it, hold it, hear it, step in it, smell it, carry
it, step over it, touch it, use it, even taste it, if they
can feel it or sense it, it’s customer service.
Super America Training Program
First impressions
are the most lasting
The EMPATHY Factor
The degree of caring and individual
attention you show your customers.
Empathy vs Sympathy
Sympathy
Identifying with and even taking on
another person’s emotions.
Empathy
Acknowledging and affirming another’s
emotional state.
The RESPONSIVENESS Factor
The willingness to help customers promptly.
Customer expectations of service organizations are loud
and clear; look good, be responsive, be reassuring
through courtesy and competence, be empathetic but
most of all, be reliable. Do what you said you would do.
Keep the service promise.
Dr. Leonard Berry
Researcher, Texas A&M University
Research shows that the most
frustrating aspect of waiting is not
knowing how long the wait will
be.
Managing Customer Expectations
• Failing to meet a customer expectation has
the same impact as breaking any other
promise.
Don’t fix the blame.
Fix the problem.
- Japanese saying
Getting Results
The Satisfaction Equation
Show that you
CARE
and
Mean it!
What is Your
MISSION?
6 STEPS to delivering Superior
Customer Service
is through
CARING
COURTEOUS
- courtesy and gracious good manners.
“If a man be gracious
and courteous to
strangers it shows he is
a citizen of the world"Francis Bacon
Webster’s Dictionary
POLITE
CONSIDERATE
POLISHED
HONEST
MANNERLY
THOUGHTFUL
KIND
CIVIL
LOVING
Perhaps the best reason to be
honest with your customers is that it
allows you to be honest with
yourself.
Ways to be Courteous
♥ Smile
♥ Listen & Watch
♥ Be Aware
♥ Language
♥ Clarify
♥ Validate
♥ Restate
♥
♥
♥
♥
♥
Eye Contact
Empathetic
Appropriate
Body Language
Stay Calm
Handling Customer Complaints
WAYS TO MAKE
the CUSTOMER RIGHT
1.Clarify the problem
2.Validate their feelings.
3.Look for teaching opportunities.
4.Believe your customers.
Handling Customer Complaints
• Customers respect HONESTY
• Instead of saying NO – ask questions.
• Give TRUST and you will get it double in return.
COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
What are you noticing?
……. And what are you missing?
In face to face situations at
least 70 percent of what is
communicated is done
without speaking a word.
How you feel about yourself in your job
is as important to your personal
self-esteem as the way you feel about
yourself as a parent, a spouse or a
friend.
Dealing with Irate Customers
Stay Calm
Safety first
Vent and Release
Validate feelings
Collaborate on the Solution
COURTEOUS
ATTITUDE
RELIABLE
Building TRUST
• Practice frequent communication
• Stick with the truth
• Develop Openness
• Show warmth
• Show confidence
• KEEP YOUR PROMISES
Service Recovery and Building Trust
• Apologize – Acknowledge the problem.
• Listen, Empathize and ask Open Questions
• Fix the problem, quickly and fairly
• Offer Atonement “I want to make it up to you”
• Follow-up
• Remember : Keep your promises
Loyalty Builders
Listening is a Skill – Use it!
Barriers to Good Listening
► Noise
► Interruptions
► Daydreaming ► Technology
► Stereotypes
► Attitude
► Trigger Words and phrases
Loyalty Builders
Ask Intelligent Questions
• Background Questions
• Probing Questions
• Confirmation Questions
COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL
How can you involve your customer in
solving their problem?
When the customer feels vulnerable,
trust is imperative.
Leonard L. Berry
Service Expert
Leveraging Your Service
• Understand the rules of your organization
• Manage your stress
Loyalty Opportunities
• Make the Commitment to
CARE
• Be a FANTASTIC Fixer
• Work in a spirit of
PARTNERSHIP
• Politeness goes far and
costs nothing.
Superior Customer Service
is in the DETAILS.
• Everything counts
• Never stop learning
• Ask your customers
• Ask your co-workers
Consumers are statistics.
Customers are people.
Stanley Marcus
Megatrends
COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL
NEGATIVE-FREE
No job is important enough to
lie for, no paycheck big enough
to compensate for feeling bad
about the treatment of another
human being.
10 Stress Reducers
1. Breathe
2. Smile
3. Laugh
4. Let it Out
5. Take a one minute
vacation
6. Relax
7. Do desk aerobics
8. Organize
9. Talk Positive
10. Take a health break
11. Work/Life Balance
COURTEOUS
ATTENTIVE
RELIABLE
INTENTIONAL
NEGATIVE-FREE
GRATITUDE
Thank you…Thank you… Thank you….and
Thank-You!!!!
Fozzie Bear
Three ways to say Thank-You
1.Verbally
2. In Writing
3. With a gift
The Five Forgotten Thank You’s
Thank your Co-workers
Thank your boss
Thank people in other
departments
Thank your vendors or
outside customers
Thank Yourself.
Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the
mother of all the rest.
Putting It All Together
Return to your Mission
Commit to CARING
Collaboration and Partnership
Stay Calm
The Results
In a 100 person outfit,
taking into account normal
vacations, holidays etc…
that would mean
24,000
new courteous acts
per year.