The Customer Authority

You may have noticed I’ve recently been posting links to articles I find on customer service. There’s a reason for this. I’ve started searching more and more for articles on customer service just to see what’s out there. Are people talking about customer service? Do they care about customer service? Is there any good customer service left – or is it all just going downhill?

The answer to all those questions is “yes”. People are talking about customer service all over and in different ways. One of the things that stands out the most is that with the poor economy, I’m finding examples of two significant things happening in customer service: It’s either getting worse – or it’s getting better. There seems to be no middle ground.

Which leads me to the article I wanted to share with all of you. This particular one was written by Jennifer Leggio, who writes a blog called Social Business for ZDNet.com, and online tech news website.

What drew me to this particular article is Jennifer recounts her own personal experience with above-and-beyond service from The Marriott Hotel – where she happened to be staying when she sprained her ankle.

While I was impressed at the level of service that Jennifer received from The Marriott Hotel, it wasn’t that which caught my attention. What I was most impressed about was that Jennifer was so bowled over by the customer service she received, she took the time to write an entire article about it and share it with everyone – on a tech website no less!

That, my friends, is the level of customer service you should always be aspiring to. Always take your approach to customer service as one where you go above and beyond the call of duty at all times. It should be so ingrained into you and your employees  it is second nature – so that when a customer gushes to you how wonderful you are and you tell them “it’s no big deal” – it really IS no big deal to you because you do it every day.

But don’t just take my word for it. Take a look at the article here and see what I’m talking about. Maybe it will even give you some ideas of your own on what you can do to reach customer service excellence.

We talk a lot about all of the new approaches to customer loyalty and customer satisfaction surveys and using social media to listen to and better engage with customers. Yet a few weeks ago I was reminded about the most important facet of customer loyalty out there… (read more)

If you work in customer service, it’s inevitable you will have to deal with a customer who is upset. It’s the nature of the beast.

But if you have the right skills, you can turn that beast into a fluffy, purring kitten.

One of those skills is called empathy.

For those of you that may sometimes confuse empathy with sympathy, they are not the same thing.

Sympathy is not just understanding and identifying with another’s feelings, but you are also standing on their side with their feelings.

Empathy, on the other hand, is simply identifying, acknowledging, and understanding another’s feelings, but you are not necessarily agreeing those feelings are right or wrong.

In other words; you are putting yourself in their shoes.

Why is empathy important to show to a customer? For several reasons.

When a customer comes to you with a problem, especially if they are upset about said problem; they are generally looking for someone to acknowledge it and help them. They want someone who understands and will fix it for them.

If you come back to the customer with an attitude of “so what?” or “I don’t care”, you’ve already lost that customer’s chance at reason and possibly their business in general. Not to mention you’ll have a customer that will now become even more upset because you failed to empathize with their situation.

Think of it this way; when you’re upset and want to vent to your friends or family, would you want them looking at you with a blank stare that clearly states, “I don’t care”? Of course not.

Empathizing with a customer does not mean you’re agreeing with them. In fact, you may not even be able to help them in the way they want to be helped. But by simply saying you understand them, you hear their concerns and you want to help them however you can, then you’re giving them the empathy they need. This will in turn show them you care and you want to help.

Here are some examples of empathy statements:

“Wow, that’s a really tough situation sir. I’m sorry to hear that happened to you.”

“I’m sure that must have been very frustrating. I can understand your being so upset. Let’s see what I can do to help with your situation.”

“I completely understand how you feel inconvenienced. If something similar happened to me, I probably would be too. Let me see what I can do to help you.”

Never ignore a customer’s feelings. Simply empathizing with your customer can go a long way in gaining your customer’s trust and loyalty. And with that trust and loyalty means longevity in business.

Recently I keep hearing more and more about Zappos.com the online footwear and clothing outlet store. I’ve seen them from time to time when I search for shoes online – I think I may have even ordered from them in the past – but they’ve recently been in the news due to their huge growth in just the last few years. “Huge” as in a growing their gross merchandise sales from 1.6 million to over 1 billion – in just 8 years!

How did they do this, you ask? By focusing squarely on customer service.

Zappos has received enormous accolades for its bend-over-backwards approach to customer service. They offer everything from free shipping both ways, a 365 day return policy and a 24/7 call center to name a few. They have even been known to deliver a 4-day shipping item as next day – just to surprise their customers.

Who wouldn’t love all that?

I was reading a press release in PRWeb today about Parafest ’09 (Parature’s conference – the global leader in on-demand customer service software). What caught my eye was Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, was the keynote speaker for the worldwide conference  (see press release here). In his address, he focused on how his company focuses solely on the customer experience to retain customer loyalty, as well as building those core values and culture within the company itself.

Speaking of building core values and culture within the company – did you know their employees go through a paid 4-week customer loyalty training course? Did you also know Zappos offers their new employees $2000 to leave after they’ve received the training? – no questions asked? Incredible! The point being for this is to ensure their employees are there because they love the job, not just for the money. And if you wondered; only 3% of the new employees took the money and ran.

With dedication like that, it’s no wonder that Zappos has grown primarily through customer loyalty and word-of-mouth. It’s rarely heard of in this day and age that a company will go to such lengths to please its customers.

But it just goes to show that everything I’ve been talking about on this blog is true – you CAN grow your business by simply improving your customer service. And not just doing it in ways that everybody else does it – but by doing it even better.