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)

Unfortunately, more often than not, most of the new system enhancements and what-not were a bust, or just didn’t make the improvements they were meant to. I was even involved in a few of the initial test phases of these new technologies, and saw first-hand how they WEREN’T ever going to work.

And when I and others pointed out all the defects these new systems had, our advice went largely unheeded – not because they didn’t believe us – but because they had no choice. The company had invested so much money into some of these systems, they didn’t want to admit defeat and find an alternate solution.

So instead of giving up, we were told to make the square fit into the round hole. Unfortunately we weren’t NASA, and while the test team was able to make some changes that helped, quite a few of these systems were adapted; to the great frustration of the employees using them. Instead of making things “better, faster, more efficient”, things were worse, slower, and inconvenient. And I witnessed this over and over again up until the day I left.

Which brings me to the article I wanted to share today. It happens to be about five least successful call center technologies. I’ve probably witnessed about three of these technologies flop at my previous work.

If you manage or work at a call center, you may want to review this piece and see if you are currently utilizing any of these systems. Are they working for you, or are they giving you ever-increasing headaches? If they work fine and you’ve been successful, good for you. You’re one of the lucky ones. If not, you might want to consider upgrading to something else.

But before you go spend tons of money on it, make sure that “new technology” has been proven first!

Simple words that pack a whole lotta meaning. This quote ties in nicely with #15 of our countdown for The Top 25 Things You Should Do in Customer Service: Be proactive.

What does being proactive mean in the business world? Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines proactive as, “acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes”.

Why is this so important to a customer? Because when you are proactive, you are essentially either preventing problems that may occur – thus saving more grief by the customer – or you are helping them more than they ever expected. This in itself is like manna from heaven to a customer – the key point here being they don’t expect it.

When you give a customer more than they bargained for – in a positive and productive way – that type of action stands out. They remember you and the help you gave them. In turn, they remember your store, your business, your company, your service. They’ll tell their friends. And they’ll come back for more.

Simply reacting to a customer’s needs doesn’t cut it anymore. Of course, you may not always have the opportunity to do more than what is expected. But you need to look for those opportunities and take them.

It can be as simple as making a phone call on behalf of the customer instead of them having to do it. Or doing the legwork of finding a product for them they haven’t been able to find.

Back when I was an Account Coordinator at Coca-Cola, I had a local account where the customer was flipping out because a part they needed for their fountain installation hadn’t arrived. The part couldn’t be delivered until the next day, and there wasn’t a service tech available to get the part for them.

Since they needed it to pass an inspection, I told the customer I would go to the warehouse myself, pick up the part, and drive it to their store. Did I have to do this? No. Could I have found someone else or told the customer they had no choice but to wait? Sure.

But that would have left a very bad impression of the company in the customer’s mind. Plus, I felt bad for the customer, it was our problem to fix; I wanted to help. I didn’t mind if it took a few hours to get it all done. Just seeing the smile and relief on the customer’s face was worth it.

Even though the customer initially blamed us for the mistake, he was so impressed that I had taken the time and effort to get the part for him, he told me that was why he stayed with our company – because we could be relied on for our service.

Proactive customer service is what creates not just a satisfied customer, but a LOYAL customer. And loyal customers are sheer gold to your business.

So the next time you have the chance to do something for your customer, don’t just react – take charge and be proactive. Your customer will thank you with their business.

From time to time, I’d have my own internal problems with my computer. Something would stop working and I’d have to figure out what broke. If I couldn’t figure it out on my own (which usually consisted of my “rebooting” the computer), I’d call our Help Desk for support.

Normally this was never a problem other than I sometimes had to hold on the line for more than ten minutes if they were backed up. Yup – even in our own company we had to wait for service. But I had a headset, so I could easily multi-task doing other things while I was on hold. No big deal. Until…

One day when I called, I got someone who obviously was not a native English speaker. This didn’t seem odd to me at first, since there are plenty of IT guys I’ve come across over the years who are foreign. And generally, I don’t have a big problem understanding people with accents because half my family speaks with an accent. But this guy had a really heavy accent. To the point I was having a hard time understanding anything he said. It was almost like listening to an “Abbot and Costello” routine:

Accent Guy: “Can you give me your name and ID number please today?

Me: “Hi, yeah – Michelle Alvarez – B12345”

Accent Guy: “Thank you Miss Albures. And please you tell me, what is problem you are having today, thank you?”

Me: “Uh – my computer doesn’t seem to be working and I don’t know why.”

Accent Guy: “Did you turn off your system please?”

Me: “Yes”.

Accent Guy: “And it did not come back on?”

Me: “No – I mean yes. It came back on, but it’s still not working”.

Accent Guy: “So it is not back on.”

Me: “No, it IS back on.”

Accent Guy: “So it is off and not working.”

Me: “No, it’s ON and not working.”

Accent Guy: “It’s working now?”

Me: “Uh – is there someone else I can speak with please?”

Twenty minutes of going around in a circle on the phone, I STILL didn’t have my computer working and the guy had to pass my ticket on to someone else. Needless to say, I was frustrated and seriously annoyed by the time the conversation was over. It was only after having the same scenario occur a couple more times that I found out Coke had out-sourced our Help Desk to India.

Now I don’t have a problem with foreigners of any kind. As I said, half my family is from another country. I’ve lived overseas and went to an International High School filled with people from all over the world. I’m truly fascinated by other cultures. And while I understand the principle of corporations trying to save money by outsourcing, I disagree highly with how they are going about doing it.

Because in my experience – not just with Coke, but with other companies I’ve dealt with who outsource – the customer is the one who ultimately suffers. If you’re a company that has made sure your outsourcing employees have proper training and can understand and speak English at a high level, that’s one thing. That to me says you are looking out for your customers and there should be little to no problems in communication. However, that is not usually the case.

Most of the time there is a language barrier great enough where the customer is having difficulty in communicating their problem and/or getting it resolved. And when a customer is already upset over a problem, the last thing you want to do as a business is offer a solution that only frustrates them even more.

Coke ultimately received enough complaints internally from its employees that they changed their outsourcing methods. They went back to utilizing internal employees again, and for those associates with heavy accents, they started using the company’s instant messaging system to communicate. For me, this was a great solution. I didn’t care if the person who was trying to help me had an accent as long as we could communicate and he was competent in providing a solution.

So before you decide to use outsourcing for your business, or even if you already are, you might want to re-think this strategy and decide which is more important – saving money by using a cheaper resource – or losing your customers because they’re no longer satisfied with the service you provide?