Customer service speaker & consultant- keynote speaker – - author Micah Solomon’s customer service blog: COLLEGE OF THE CUSTOMER

It’s not just what you do that matters.  Sometimes the order in which you do things makes a critical difference. This is true in business, as it is in life.

One example from the world of customer service: When you encounter an upset customer, you can:

1 Apologize to a customer.

2 Hear her out at length.

3 Help her find a solution.

These tasks, in this order, work very, very well.  But, alternatively, you might:

1 Blurt out your proposed solution right away, rushing the customer to a resolution

…at which point,  any attempt to

2 Apologize and

3 Hear her out

will fall on deaf ears.

Both approaches include the same three ingredients.  But the results will be worlds apart.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

Tell me if you’ve noticed this too. Irony of ironies, the most frustrating customer service encounters often happen at companies that think their service is the bee’s knees:

• Certain grand hotels.

• Particular local-legend restaurants.

• That boutique grocery on the corner.

The tricky problem here is that most customers are content, even happy, with the service at these institutions.  So when, out of the blue, a customer begs to differ, just watch the managerial knees as they jerk in defense of the status quo and how it’s being interpreted by employees.

But a customer has a far more intimate view of how employees are coming across than a manager ever will. As a manager, you do have intimate knowledge of your employees’ quirks, their family and personal issues, their dedication to the job. And you know that these folks, who work for you, are, unsurprisingly, nice enough to you.  But that doesn’t mean you know how they’re treating your customer – or, more to the point, how your customer perceives that treatment.

If a customer implies your employees are bureaucratic, unempathic, policy-driven, consider for a moment that it might be true. Believe what the customer in front of you is telling you, until proven otherwise.

The customer, and only the customer, is the customer.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! Live Keynote Speech.

One of the great destroyers of company value is the digging-in-your-heels phenomenon.

Your poorly hired and poorly trained staff member is confronted by a customer who wants an exception, an accommodation–something that requires a break from your company’s ordinary procedures.

Instead of seeing this as a chance to take the customer’s side for the sake of both the customer and your company’s survival, the opposite happens: The better the arguments of the customer, the more entrenched your representative becomes, the more invested in “winning.”

Leaders know you don’t win an argument with a customer.  But have you gotten this across to your people?

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

There’s no truer truism in customer service than this one: You’re only as strong as your weakest link.

It’s frustrating to a business leader to do everything right, 90 percent of the time, then have one jackass of an employee slip through your hiring process and ruin your reputation with customers, txting his girlfriend right in front of the guests he’s supposed to be checking in.  This scenario causes nightmares for even the most  conscientious business leaders. And it is worth losing sleep over.

But at the same time, don’t forget to celebrate the power of your strongest link.  That one shining employee with an unearthly desire-to-serve glow, empathy with your customers, and an entrepreneurial attitude.

Pay attention to the effect such a strong link in your organizational chain has on the customers she wows, and the peers she inspires. You may not be able to fully measure the effect, but you dearly need to be aware of it.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

One of the realities of social media feedback from customers  is that it would feel more comfortable to not receive that feedback at all—the harsher stuff at least—in an open forum.

It’s undeniably nicer to have your customers voice their complaints to you directly and discreetly rather than hit the social media ‘‘airwaves’’ with them. So, one part of dealing with social media feedback from customers is to reduce the need for it by making sure your customers know, as directly as possible, how to reach you.

Think about it this way: If your friend saw you had your fly undone, would he tweet about it? No, he’d quietly tell you. [And if nobody tells you when you’re fly is undone, you clearly have no friends!]

Use the same principle to your advantage here. Why should customers address issues to you indirectly via Twitter or their blogs when they can use email, the phone, or a feedback form on your website and know that it will be answered—immediately and with empathy?

With their round-the-clock access to the social airwaves, make sure that the first impulse of customers is to reach you—day or night:

•  Have ‘‘chime in’’ forms everywhere; this is akin to building escape valves for steam into your machinery.

• Where your FAQ’s fail to answer customer questions, be sure you offer a direct, immediate way to get a personal response by chat, telephone, or email.

• Don’t send out mass emails to customers from “please do not reply” addresses—your goal is to make it easy to reply.

You get the picture. If you’re Amazon.com or another online aggregator, with a vast product line that’s supplied in large part by outside vendors, your sensitivity to open conversations will be lowered; your customers can let off steam with zero downside for your overall brand. But most of us, obviously, aren’t Amazon.com.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

This is too much fun to not alert my friends to: I want to invite those of you who may be interested to two events, both in Copenhagen at the lovely Hotel Scandic and both organized by MBCE, a training and conference company with over 15 years experience.

1) I will be the keynote speaker for the fabulous  Copenhagen Contact Center Conference  on March 16.  Please come!

2) I will also be leading an Executive Workshop the following week, on March 21.

Here is complete information including a video clip and more:  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9116602.htm

Complete information in English on the Executive Workshop is available as well at the following link: http://mbce.dk/pdf/MicahSolomon_workshop.pdf

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

…“Not yet” is the best answer.

That’s the answer the world’s greatest (and one of the longest-running) songwriter, Richard Thompson, gives when asked the question in interviews.

He means it—and so should you.

Expectations of customers (whether you call them clients, patients, customers, or fans) are always increasing.  So you’d best keep upping your game.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon speak Live! (Keynote Speech)

Everyone hates scripting, but professionals do understand the need to wear a uniform.  So when you want your staff to use the right phrases with customers, consider reframing the concept for your employees:  Ask them to put on their verbal uniform when they punch in.

Nursing Poster, WWI

                    ******

Also: Here are two longer “College of the Customer” articles on the language to use — and to avoid — when delivering customer service:

 

1.  “Language engineering”  – what to say and what not to say, to customers.

2.  The five words you can NEVER say to a customer 

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

(Thanks to Tally McClain, RN for her input on this subject and how it applies to the healthcare industry.)

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

I hate to differ with my fellow keynote speakers and their motivational messaging, but “Everything happens for a reason” is a statement fraught with danger.

These five words, in ancient times part of a well-developed Stoic worldview, are now spouted nightly, and unthinkingly, on reality shows and other bellwethers of our times.

There are a few problems with this gentle-sounding phrase. Most obvious to anyone who has studied or lived through a violent or economically tumultuous time is how it offers a poetically-phrased excuse to blame blameless victims.

More to the point here, it’s not going to work for you in business. “Everything happens for a reason” may work as a balm when you’re feeling blue, but be careful: Those first few sales calls that don’t work out will appear preordained and become self-fulfilling…instead of just something you need to push through.

And once you become successful, it’s even more of a hazard:  It leads to inventing order in what are actually random events, to expecting permanence in what is actually a temporary, and fickle, business reality. To thinking the success of your business is God-given, and on a continuing, inevitable upward trajectory.

And, very commonly, it leads those who are successful in business to think that they innately deserve everything they have–and then some. Anyone who has thought about success in depth knows that luck is an enormous part of material success.  Enormous.  And to get more lucky, frankly, a good place to start is to acknowledge this reality.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”

See Micah Solomon in Action! (Keynote Speaker--Live.)

Well, early, anyway:  If you can pay your vendors early (or exceedingly on time),  do it.  In our low interest rate environment it’s nearly free to do so.

And, it pays dividends. Vendors, just like employees, affect the ultimate outcome for your customers.  You need their full, creative effort now. And you need them to have your back, should crunch time ever arrive.

From Micah Solomon - author, keynote speaker, consultant on customer service excellence, sales, branding, and transforming company cultures in our socially connected world.

See Micah in action — including video and free resources — at http://www.micahsolomon.com. Or, click here for your own free chapter  of Micah Solomon’s customer service bestseller,” Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.”