The Customer Authority

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the two airlines who each had over six hour flight delays -with the airplanes on the tarmac – within one week of each other. Because of these fiascos, lobbyists are pushing forward in their on-going fight to pass the “passenger bill of rights” bill, currently pending in Congress.

I’m all for any law that gives rights back to passengers. The airline industry is known for it’s poor service overall, and instead of getting any better, it’s remained either stagnant, or waned.

To be fair, the airlines industry has had it’s share of knocks since 9/11. With the decline of flights and then the resulting economic recession we’re currently in, the industry as a whole has suffered tremendously. But that is still not an excuse for not providing proper service to customers.

Now I agree, being stuck on a tarmac in a narrow metal bus is a tricky situation for all involved. I’m claustrophobic myself, so this would be one of my worst nightmares. I could maybe survive an hour, possibly two. But six hours?! With little to no food or water, hot stuffy air, and cramped seats? Pass the Prozac please!

One of the proposed solutions  is for any flight delayed over three hours on the tarmac to have the ability to return to the terminal and let passengers deplane – particularly if there is reasonable doubt the flight will leave within the next thirty minutes.

I think this is absolutely reasonable. As a passenger, the last thing I want to do is be sitting in an uncomfortable environment any longer than I have to, especially if it’s going to be possibly hours more of a wait.

The catch is the span of time it takes to come back, deplane, and then if something changes quickly, losing the window of time to get everyone back on the plane and out to the tarmac for take-off once again. My hats off to the people who have to figure that one out.

I realize it’s a difficult situation to come up with a quick and easy solution. The airlines will be inconvenienced, and you’re not going to make everyone happy with whatever comes out of the bill. I do think there should be better monetary compensation, whatever the results are. I’m sorry, but a measly $50 for delays longer than two hours on the tarmac is pretty pitiful to me. They need to raise that up another $50 at least.

Anyway, here’s the article on the topic if you’d like to read more:

The six-hour-long stranding of passengers aboard two different flights this month—a Continental Express (CAL) regional jet diverted to Rochester, Minn., by thunderstorms and a Sun Country Airlines delay on Aug. 21 at New York’s JFK International Airport—has thrust the issue of torturous takeoff delays back into… (read more).

Have you ever spoken with a customer service representative who told you he/she would be getting back to you with information – and then you never hear from them again? Usually, you’re the one having to call back in and then have to translate your problem all over again to someone else. Annoying, isn’t it?

As a customer service rep for any business, if you tell someone you’re going to follow up with them, then you do it. There are no excuses for not. In fact, there are a few situations you should always be following up with the customer:

• You’ve told a customer you will get back to them with information they’ve requested
• A customer has a scheduled service
• At the end of any service visit made by your company

Not only is it common courtesy to follow up with someone you already told you would call, but most of the time, that person is waiting for you to provide information that is important to them. And often that information is costing or saving them time and money.

If a customer has a scheduled service, a quick reminder call to your customers is a nice way of showing your business is considerate of their time. It also ensures there won’t be any problems with a tech going out to the location and no one being there.

Often, when a service trip is over, many businesses feel that is where their contact with the customer ends. This is a big mistake, because essentially, they’re making the assumption that everything went fine with the service call, or that the customer has no questions. And we all know what it means to assume.

When I was an Account Coordinator, it was part of my responsibility to contact the customer within 48 hours from the end of the service visit. And while most of the time, everything with the service went very well, there were a number of times there were problems. Either the customer wasn’t happy with the service itself, or they actually had to have a tech come back out to the location. Sometimes, they had questions about the service, but hadn’t had the opportunity to call in. Whatever the case, they ALL were appreciative that I had followed up with them.

Here are a few rules you should abide by for follow up:

• Always give a specific time or time frame you will contact the customer (within an hour, by end of business day, 5:00p.m., within 24 hours, etc.)
• Always call back within the time frame you gave the customer
• Follow up should always be within the first 24 hours if possible, and no more than 48 hours maximum. If follow up needs to be extended, give the best estimated time for follow up you can
• If you have to be delayed in contacting a customer back, always acknowledge and apologize for the delay
• Make sure you have the correct contact information to reach the customer – even if they’ve already given it to you

I read this article today that touched on a huge pet peeve of mine. I like to scour the want ads out there for customer service positions, just to see what the market is currently like and how our industry has been affected by the economy.

One of the things I often see is what is effectively a sales position wrapped up in the guise of “customer service representative”. They key to knowing this is truly a sales job is the descriptions commonly use phrases such as:

“go-getter”
“aggressive”
“self-starter”
“self-motivated”
“work for commission”
“ability to motivate customers”

You should never see any of those words in a customer service representative job description. All of these phrases are “action” oriented to get other people to do something. In a customer service position, you aren’t trying to get customers to “do” something, so much as your job is to “help” them with something. Or rather, the customer wants YOU to “do” something.

I don’t know if I’m seeing this more and more now because companies are trying to get around the “bad-word” of sales and gain more attraction to the job. Personally, I hate sales. I don’t like solicitation in general, and although I was told I would make a great salesperson, I never had any desire for the position.

But Sales is a necessary evil, and in business, it’s a good one. How else do you get people to buy your stuff? As the article points out, it isn’t all about customer service. I do agree with this. If you don’t have someone proactively reiterating the benefits of your company service or product, while you may still have sales, you won’t have them at the rate you want them to be. Sales in an active form can generate more bang for your buck and gain new customers you wouldn’t have if you’d remained passive.

And Sales is most effective when you combine it with great customer service, but it shouldn’t be just about customer service. As the article discusses, when you use customer service as your only sales tactic, you’re really only generating information, but not actively gaining assurance of a buy. As a salesperson, your job is to seal the deal and know when you walk away you just added a new customer and more money to the company’s bank. And when you have great customer service skills combined with selling tactics; that is a powerful tool right there.

However, it doesn’t work the other way around. Sales is not customer service. Customer service should be focused on assisting the customer where their problems, questions, concerns, and inquiries. Customer service is about information and communication. If I’m calling in to find out how I can get my vacuum cleaner fixed, I don’t want the rep on the phone trying to up-sell me to their latest and greatest product. If I wanted to buy something, I would have either said that directly, or simply gone to the store to purchase a new one.

Take a look at the article and see how this may apply to your company. Have your salespeople become more like customer service reps? Are you trying to use your customer service reps as salespeople, when they really should be just called Sales?

Have you ever gone to a source to get information? Then, once you follow up with the information, you find out it’s completely wrong? How frustrated did that make you feel?

I remember a time when I had to contact my doctor’s office to follow up on some regular testing I had done. Of course I received their automated answering service, which directed me to push various numbers to get to the lab results page for my doctor.

When I finally punched the last number, the line rang for a moment, but then a robotic woman’s voice came over the phone and told me I was dialing an incorrect extension – then proceeded to hang up on me.

I stared at the phone a moment, surprised and confused. I didn’t think I’d dialed the wrong number. In fact, I was pretty darn sure I’d followed the instructions precisely. And the fact that instead of letting me try over, I was hung up on – well – let’s just say I didn’t appreciate having to start all over again.

But I did. I re-dialed every number, careful to listen to all instructions and make sure I did everything right. I got to the last step, and line rang as before, only to be told I had an invalid extension. Click. Now this was just getting downright rude.

I was baffled. I had been given this number by the doctor’s office. In fact, it was written on the business card I had obtained the very last time I was there. I knew I wasn’t making a mistake, so why couldn’t I get through?

I called back, but this time I pressed the main number to speak to a “live” office person. After a few minutes of waiting, I finally reached someone to talk to. Fortunately, she was able to help me. When I told her about trying to call through the extension I’d been given, she let me know the extension had been changed and was the reason I couldn’t get through.

Well, at least I had an answer, and that’s fine and dandy. But why hadn’t they updated this information on their answering service? Why did they still have old cards out with the wrong information? Why did I have to go through 15 minutes of frustration just to figure it all out?

In the customer service field, giving out incorrect or incomplete information can have a serious impact on your image. While I’m not going to fire my doctor for the incident, it did leave me with a bad taste in my mouth and an expectation that when I call them again, I may have to brace myself for a run-around.

Mis-information can build negative feelings. And if your customer has any other poor experiences with your business, this will only be piled on top with the rest of them, resulting in loss of trust and possibly loyalty.

Customers expect companies to give them valid facts from the get-go. It doesn’t matter how small it may be, if it’s not dead-on, you’ll have trouble on your hands.

So make sure you’re always providing accurate details to your customers. Better yet, do what Santa does – check it, then check it twice. You know Santa doesn’t want any billions of ticked off kids coming after him!

I came across this article on answering services and the values of having one. In particular, it sites the advantages to having a live answering service for your business as being:

• • Calm, confident, live operators
  • Rigorous training
  • Customized service plans
  • 24 hour support

I have to agree, on paper, those seem like pretty good advantages if you’re considering using an answering service for your office. However, the article points out, these are what the really good answering services offer. So where does this leave the rest?

Which comes to my hesitation on using these services. When it comes down to it, it’s really about the quality and integrity of the company you’re hiring for what type of service your going to get – same as any other. I would also be looking at the reasons you need to hire an answering service and what you want to get out of them.

Is your staff too busy to be taking phone calls?
Do you have a limited budget and are looking to outsource?
Is there a particular subject or question your callers ask about?
Do you feel your staff isn’t competent enough to assist with your call volume?

While these may be valid reasons to use an answering service, there could be alternatives for you to consider. If it’s really about lack of time for your staff, and limited money, is there really an advantage to hiring an outside source, or does it make more sense to hire additional inside staff assistance?

If you’re trying to save money, you’re more likely to be looking at companies that may not provide all the customer support services you’re looking for. They may just offer to take the calls and message, but they don’t do the trouble shooting or other services your customers want or need. This could be detrimental as a customer who wants an answer becomes frustrated they aren’t talking to the “right person” when they need to.

And are you really saving money? Is it more cost effective to hire outside services instead of hiring an additional assistant? What are the advantages and disadvantages to you and your company? Are you making any customer service sacrifices by hiring an outside resource? These are things to seriously consider when making the decision to use an answering service.

I would only consider using one of these services if they guarantee the same things I can and would want to provide in-house. That means thorough training so the customer doesn’t know they are speaking to someone not directly employed by the company. Someone who is knowledgeable about your companies services and can assist with questions confidently. If the provider you’re looking at can’t guarantee you at least that – move on. If the service can give you all you want and more, and it’s within your budget, then certainly check it out.

Social Media is still a generally new phenomena that seems to be riding a tidal wave of success in today’s internet world. First it started with MySpace, then Facebook, and now the huge following of Twitter – the site that lets you tell everyone what you’re doing on a regular basis in only 140 characters.

It’s no coincidence then that businesses are starting to look more closely at social media to use in their marketing approach. In fact, large companies such as Zappo’s and Comcast have already achieved great success with these resources.

Twitter seems to be the growing trend to use now for many companies, and as a result, they’ve committed to having immediate response to any customer complaints received through that source. And it’s definitely made an impact. People are talking and what they’re saying is – they like it.

I feel anything that helps you reach out to your customers and makes it a more pleasurable experience for them is a good one. But as with everything else,  you’re only as good as you use them – meaning if you don’t have the right team backing up your social media efforts, you could actually contribute to your own poor customer service.

I’m interested to see which direction social media will take in the next few years; particularly to see which of the social media resources will survive. There’s already a known decline in MySpace as Facebook takes over the #1 spot. And Twitter is surpassing them all, especially now that it’s becoming a celebrity sensation as well. I’m curious to see what new social media entities will be around in the nest 5 years.

The article I read today covers social marketing and the impact it’s been having having in today’s world. Hopefully you’ll find it useful as you determine how to use social media to improve your own customer service. Enjoy.

According to a March, 2009 Forrester report titled “The State Of Service Provider Customer Service”, the number of services offered by “service” companies is increasing, while the amount of money they are able to… (read full article).

Have you ever been talking to a customer service representative on the phone, only to have them say “hold on a sec”, and abruptly switch to another line? You find yourself listening to excruciatingly painful elevator music, or worse yet, you’re forced to listen to the same three ads rotate over and over again as you wait for the rep to come back on the line.

Not only is being placed on hold suddenly an annoying occurrence, but in my opinion, it’s downright rude.

Now I understand the need or desire of some companies wanting to make sure all calls are picked up as soon as the phone rings. The entire purpose of having a phone that takes multiple calls is so you can manage more than one person at a time and therefore “better serving your customers”. Not mention, the expectation of the customer is to get someone “live” to talk to. Nothing worse than having to constantly leave messages and wondering if you’ll ever be contacted back.

But there are ways to handle the “on hold” situation where you are still performing your duties without isolating the customer – or possibly ticking them off. It’s a simple matter of courtesy.

Instead of just saying “hold on a sec”, ASK the customer if it’s okay to place them on hold. This gives the customer:

• A more polite warning they will be placed on hold in advance
• Inclusiveness of the decision to hold
• A better feeling you still care about their needs

Simply asking them permission to hold will also lead the customer into typically saying yes. They may still be frustrated for being placed on hold, but they’ll have the better sense that you are still taking care of them.

There are also ways to alleviate a customer’s frustration from being placed on hold. This is by how you respond to them when coming back to their line. You immediately want to thank them for holding, and then APOLOGIZE they had to hold in the first place. You can even add a note of empathy by saying,

“I know it’s really frustrating to be placed on hold, but I’ve been waiting for that return call and couldn’t miss it. Thank you so much for your patience, it’s appreciated”.

Of course it doesn’t have to be that lengthy or complex, but you get the idea of what I mean. You’re reassuring the customer you’re not ignoring them and appreciate them for allowing the interruption without getting upset.

So what do you do when they DON’T want to be placed on hold? Of course you have that question. I would too.

In that situation, you have to evaluate the situation. Here are some questions to ask:

• How upset or irate is the customer?
• How important or urgent is it to answer the other call?
• Do you have voice mail?
• Are you going to lower your call volume performance by taking the call?
• Does that even really matter?

Most of the time, if you have voice mail – and in this day and age, I’d be surprised if you didn’t – if a customer tells you they don’t want to be placed on hold, it’s because they are upset or frustrated. You don’t want to upset them further by going against their wishes, so the best thing to do is let the call go to voice mail. It shouldn’t even matter if you have a performance measurement for taking calls. It’s not about the numbers; it’s about the customer’s experience at that point.

On the other hand, if you have caller id, or you are expecting a call back for an urgent or important matter, you can briefly explain to the customer the matter is urgent and assure them you are simply placing the other call on hold and you’ll come right back to them. By assuring them you’ll be right back –and follow through with this – you’ll gain the customers trust and appreciation while still being able to take care of the other matter without creating more problems.

I’ve been in the above situation before, and nine time out of ten, while the customer may not have wanted me to switch over, they usually let me. Not only that, they were usually surprised at how fast I was able to switch back to them and continue our conversation. If you’re good at it AND sincere in taking care of your customers, any conflicts you may have will always be forgiven.

A new book is coming out called, “Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan”. I just learned about it while reading an article online,so I haven’t read it myself yet, but I know I want to read it now!

It’s chock full of great advice and case studies from co-authors, Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest, on how to handle tricky customer situations, and even how to prevent them, by giving excellent customer service.

I loved this one line quoted from the book:

“While many tactics for improvement address one aspect or another of your business, what we’ve discovered is that changing how you and your staff think about your customers can make the most difference,”

So very true and I couldn’t have said it better myself. So much relies on you and your employees own attitudes to the customer. It can absolutely make the difference in the experience you will have with them, and definitely create much more positive experiences for all involved.

Take a look at the article and, if you like what you see, go out and get the book for an added bonus to your business. I know I’ll be doing just that!

A recent survey came out on what makes employees happy in the workplace. I can related to these surveys because I’ve conducted my own with my associates when I was a manager at Coca-Cola. I was always somewhat surprised at the varying answers I would receive.

I assumed, for most of my direct reports, the answer would have been money. This was mainly because I knew many of them had been working there a long time, and the job is time-consuming and demanding. Not to mention it was always the hot topic of conversation come review time when they didn’t get as much of an a pay increase as they had hoped (not my doing, but because of the on-going tightening of the budget).

So it was to my surprise that only a couple of people opted for money as what was their driving motivation. Some simply wanted recognition. Others enjoyed helping customers and the feeling of satisfaction that came with it. Still others enjoyed being a leader amongst their peers.

And according to the article, those finding coincide nicely with the typical responses the survey has received over the years.

Until now.

Apparently I’ve finally been proven right. Money has taken over the top spot of what employees want most out of their workplace. Per the writer of the story, he feel the reason is due to fear.

With the global economy the way it is, I don’t feel he’s too far off the mark. Although, in my opinion, if it were fear driving them, I would think that job security would be at the top of the list instead of compensation. And in return, I would assume most would be dissatisfied with how much they make in lieu of so many companies cutting back on bonuses and the like.

As a business owner, it’s important to know what will make your employees happy and do what you can to satisfy those needs. Knowing today that it is most likely money can be tricky. For one thing, if your employee’s mind-set is only on money, and their worry over it, this could potentially transfer into a lack of productivity and motivation.

In the meantime, there is still hope the economy will be turning back around sooner rather than later. During that time, continue to reassure your employees and help ease their fears if you know your business is still stable. Knowing they won’t be the next one in line for the unemployed can do wonders for the psyche.

(read full article here)

Obviously this is not an post about customer service today. But I felt compelled to write something about this topic after I read today’s article about a Sudanese woman who is on trial because she wore “indecent clothing” aka, a pair of slacks.

The punishment for wearing pants can be up to 40 lashes. She initially appealed her sentence of 10 lashes in order to bring international attention to this backwards law and her hopes to have it changed once and for all.

Any Westerner today, particularly women, I’m sure would be as appalled as I was when I heard about this story. I still shake my head in amazement that there are such strict religions out there that keep women so ridiculously subservient.

I’m all about respect for other religions and such, but in this day and age, I still don’t understand how women can be treated this way. And for something so minimal in my eyes, it simply makes no sense. Can you imagine answering the question; “Why’d they flay the skin off your bones?” – “Oh, I was wearing pants.” Yeah sure, that makes sense. Uhhhh….. I think not.

Unfortunately my opinion is not going to be changing anything about this law or the general laws and treatment against women withing these religions. And as long as men continue to control the laws, nothing will be changing anytime soon.

I applaud this woman’s courage and tenacity in facing up to those who want to keep women oppressed in an oppressed society. I can’t imagine taking one lash of a whip against my bare skin, let alone 40. But she intends to stand up and fight the courts to the very end for what she believes in, and she intends to do it wearing pants.

While I have doubts that she will win, I truly have hope that perhaps – just perhaps – her plight could be the one instigator that begins a slow movement of positive change for women to come.

See the full story here:

A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing pants declared she was ready for thousands as she battles the country’s laws.
Lubna-Ahmed al-Hussein, a journalist with the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is on trial after being arrested July 3 along with 12 other women for wearing… (read more).