Archives – September, 2009
Road rage and customer service in America are quite similar. One reason customer service stinks is that companies don’t know their customers. How could they? Most customer service is delivered via phone, email, or a chat window. Most American service isn’t even “made in America”.
Over-crowding – in the 1950s a scientist conducted studies involving over-crowded rats. (One interpretation contained here.) A simplistic summary is that overcrowding rats caused them to become aggressive to one another. If you run a customer service center I have a plea for you. Stand up, walk outside your office and look around. Does the scene resemble over-crowding? Are your service representatives measured by average speed of answer, time to resolve a question/call? The quality of the service can be only as good as the people you have and their efficacy is impacted by work conditions.
Anonymity – wearing their invisibility cloaks, drivers feel they can treat other drivers (who are people) poorly. Pedestrians don’t treat each other as rudely as drivers treat each other. When was the last time you heard of a fist-fight related to one person entering a revolving door before another? How about someone slipping ahead on an on ramp? Similarly face-to-face service is more civil than that provided over a phone. People still crave relationships and responsive customer service is just that – a relationship, albeit brief. Even if we must provide service via phone or chat window or email, we must preserve the relationship with customers.
Loss of Control – road rage is borne of a feeling of intense frustration. And that frustration boils over into poor decisions which are at best rude and at worst deadly. Customer service representatives who lack the tools to solve a problem provide little value to customers – who recognize the fact and grow frustrated. Likewise, customer service representatives who have no control aren’t engaged and it shows.
The pivot point is that unless you take great care in delivering service, your customers may feel more like victims of road rage than valued stakeholders. Customer service has gotten a bad reputation and deservedly so. I saw a television commercial extolling the virtues of “speaking with an actual person.” Imagine that, an actual person! What a sad commentary of how impersonal our service culture has become. To reverse this trend, treat your people with respect and trust your team, create relationships with customers, and provide tools and training to the people who are charged with earning repeat business and maintaining a respected reputation.
September 29, 2009
I read a good post at HBR not too long ago whose premise was that if your employees don’t know what your company does, it’s unlikely your customers will.
Unfortunately not only do employees not know what the company does, they don’t know that what they do matters! You can amplify your value to your customers (hence your company) as a leader/manager by developing engaged employees:
- Knowing what your company does – Read Tony Tjan’s post for some good ideas. “Your Employees Have No Clue What Your Company Does”
- Translating it into simple language – Google’s done a great job of this. “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” And a laugh from the other end of the spectrum (yes this is true), “… to scout profitable growth opportunities in relationships, both internally and externally, in emerging, mission inclusive markets, and explore new paradigms and then filter and communicate and evangelize the findings.”
- Explaining how employees contribute to the company’s success – This linkage is the critical piece to linking engaged employees to your company success. In my experience this link is often ignored, especially in supporting functions (e.g. a Human Resources employee in a Legal Firm). If the HR specialist doesn’t understand that the benefits program, 401K plan, and compensation policy contribute to the firm’s success, how much passionate engagement will an employer get?
- Measure performance and communicate results – Seems simple, but knowing what you do is different than knowing how you do. How does my performance stack up against my peers’? How does it compare to my performance last year?
Being able to articulate what the company does is a start. But turning that knowledge into passionate engagement comes from strong management! The pivot point is that employees who know that what they do is valued and that their improved performance is noticed can increase profits and move your company towards its goals.
September 21, 2009
I’ve spent a fair amount of time writing about costs and people lately and a quotation attributed to Alan Shepard (the astronaut) came to mind that sums up the pivot point perfectly. Alan Shepard, was reported to say of his time in space:
“It’s a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one’s safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”
Many companies, when finding ways to decrease customer service costs turn to outsourcing as a popular panacea. Adherents promise lower costs and more time to focus on core competencies. I’m not against outsourcing per se. But I am against blindly following the outsourcing crowd. Simply put, outsourcing doesn’t always work. Here are a few questions to ask before making the leap with your customer service.
- How big are the cultural differences between the people? For example are the new employees likely to be more argumentative because that is an accepted part of the culture? If you’ve ever traveled to the Middle East you know that bargaining and negotiating is as much a part of a business transaction as the product is. I once negotiated with a cab driver who was so intent on giving the best bargain (compared to his peers) that he offered to pay me. True to his word – he did!
- How will your customers react to the outsourcing? One reason customer call centers are placed in the Midwest US is because their speech has a neutral accent. Not so in India, or New York City for that matter.
- What types of problems will new employees handle? If they are very similar then outsourcing may be a good solution because flow charts can provide adequate service. But delivering the service online (without much human interaction) may be a better solution. If the problems are highly specialized your customer service team has a chance to make a difference in the total experience. You won’t want to cut corners on delivering great service in this case.
For us, the pivot point is that the hidden differences in outsourcing are also hidden costs. When your customers contact you, do you want them to realize that you valued them so poorly that you found the lowest bidder you could find? If more executives applied Shepard’s comment to customer service, the world would have more satisfied customers (of all products and services).
September 15, 2009
Benchmarking is a common sense way to compare one facet of company performance to another company’s performance. However, as is too often the case, common sense isn’t always common practice.
3 Benchmarking Success Factors:
1. Know Your Customer – Before companies decide to benchmark their performance they should invest time to ensure they know their customers. Customers have different preferences. So, unless you run a boutique consulting business, don’t attempt to please everyone.
2. Measure Relevant Attributes – For customer service, the 3 essential attributes are speed, quality, and cost.
Speed – For my products and services is speed important? If a neurosurgeon thinks they’ll get paid more and have more satisfied patients by performing faster brain-surgery… well, you get the idea.
Quality – Volvo has a reputation for building cars built to last forever. Benchmarking themselves against inferior quality autos would give them a false sense of achievement.
Cost – Again automakers present an interesting comparison point. Think of Ford and Lincoln. Big cost difference. People purchasing a Lincoln are willing to spend more because they are buying the Lincoln brand which has historically signified quality.
3. Make Appropriate Comparisons – This success factor is as important as knowing your customer. It is effectively the same as defining your market. To which company should you compare your company? In a highly competitive market, compare yourself to your closest competitors. So Pepsi should make a comparison to Coca-Cola. But if you define the market differently, say as consumable beverages then perhaps a better comparison would be to Budweiser.
Benchmarking can be an expensive undertaking. Some of the largest companies in the world invest millions to grow market share and make smart investments. Even with a small budget, the exercise of thinking through the success factors can help set your company apart from the competition. After all, any company can invest in ways to become faster, reduce costs, or improve quality. Your goal is to improve in ways that matter to customers.
The pivot point is that benchmarking provides a way to know if you are winning the race, losing the race, or even in the race.
September 7, 2009
There is a lot of research related to finding the right employees for various jobs. Happily, finding the right people for Customer Service positions is not complicated. Hard? Yes. Complicated? No.
The number one attribute that service employees must have (not optional) is an innate desire to serve. They must offer themselves to their customers. It is not enough to be able to serve (which many of us can do). Their psychological DNA must contain an inherent need to please others. These people are the face of your company. They get phone calls, chat requests, and emails only when something is not clear or has gone wrong. Whether or not they successfully solve an issue is the difference between a [repeat] customer and a defection.
Some schools of thought start with technical or subject matter prowess. But technical people with no service skills should work [well] behind the scenes. They’ll be happier and your customers will be happier too.
As I mentioned, this process isn’t complicated. But it is hard to find qualified people because customer service positions have been maligned and outsourced. Passion isn’t a commodity. As a result, people who love to serve are 1) compensated so poorly they seek other positions and 2) early candidates for outsourcing. Don’t be fooled – low cost service provided by the wrong employees holds no value and your customers know it.
When you do find a candidate who can blend subject matter expertise with service passion, hire them and keep them!
The pivot point is that customer service employees must truly love serving others. That skill alone is the key on which all other service attributes (phone etiquette, time management, communication, etc.) can be built. A man I know often says you can’t teach height [to basketball players]. You can’t teach a passion for service either.
September 1, 2009
