customer experience Archives - Page 2 of 2

22
Aug 17
-

When Front Sided Customer Service Creates Back Sided Experiences

Tags : customer experience promise quality sales warranty

Service after the sale, is that the selling point? Is a culture of service after the sale the right culture? Do you have front sided customer service or back sided? Is your customer service scale balanced?

“This should work but if it doesn’t we have an excellent support department, or you can return it.”

“This has a lifetime warranty. If it breaks just bring it back.”

One of my favorites:

“Would you like to purchase the extended warranty?”

Sometimes you will hear complaints about customer service on the front side. Often though, the mindset is to prove your worth before the sale, to close the sale. Can your culture have too much focus on the front side?

Back Sided Experiences

Quickly some may argue that you can never have too much focus on either side. On the surface that seems appropriate but is there an underlying principle, an ethical challenge, and self-fulfilled prophecy looming?

Lifetime warranties once implied that it would never break. Today, it may be more about statistics. Sell enough product with just enough quality to just enough (or more) consumers that mathematically we can cover any failures.

Is that front sided customer service or a back sided focus? The better question may be, “Is it a customer focus?”

Customer Focused

Do you give service that is just enough? Is it just enough to cover any problems or just enough to close the sale?

When is the promise so good that it is never tested?

Should the cost of the extended warranty be balanced in the price of the product? What is the failure rate?

Does anyone ever ask why he or she needs the extended warranty?

How does an extended warranty business, stay in business?

Does the opportunity to buy the extended warranty lower the quality delivered?

When was the last time a major automobile insurance carrier went bankrupt?

Do casinos payout more than they bring in?

Front Sided Customer Service

Many consumers may decide that they don’t care about these questions. It might be the very reason the expectations are lowered, the quality becomes just enough, and the best customer service happens before the sale.

For the consumer: Be very careful about the offer on the front side, it may be a signal for the rest of your customer experience.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

25
May 17
2

Consistency Matters for the Customer Experience

Tags : authenticity consistency customer experience service trust

Have you ever wondered if consistency matters? In your customers’ eyes, consistency may be the only thing that keeps them loyal.

Yesterday I had lunch with a coaching client at one of my favorite pizza shops. Knowing that I frequented the shop, the client asked, “Is the pizza good here?” It hit me when I had to pause before answering. There is one significant problem with this pizza shop. It lacks consistency.

Customer Experience

Go to a McDonald’s, Burger King, or Pizza Hut anyplace you can find one. At any of these establishments, you’ll have the same or very similar quality of food. You can count on it.

You know how it will taste. The menu might be the same or very similar, and the ambiance will be identical.

Knowing what to expect matters and consistency may be why we shop, buy, or consume. Inconsistency brings on trust issues and the inability for the customer to recommend the quality.

During our lunch, I went on to explain that sometimes the pizza is fantastic, but other times it is just OK.

OK isn’t always good enough. It may be when the alternatives aren’t any better, but when you recognize that there are many lunchtime choices, this pizza shop may lose business.

Consistency Matters

Whatever your business is, trust in the notion that consistency matters.

Consistency may be why people shop, and it is certainly a big part of why they trust. Lack of consistency may signal problems. It detracts from the customer experience.

When organizational leaders or front-line employees don’t care enough to make it consistent, customers may not care enough to return.

The perceived value drops from exceptional to average, and average is available everywhere.

Authenticity and Loyalty

Loyalty may make a difference, but the ease of purchase somewhere else may outshine loyalty even on a good day.

If you work for a business, an organization, or an institution, is the output consistent?

Only when your output is consistent and original is your work good enough to be labeled authentic.

What is not authentic may be considered to be available anywhere.

The question then may become, “Are you loyal?”

No one needs to ask why.

– DEG

Consistency always matters. It is why I wrote this book:

#CustServ Customer Service Culture

Get it Now on Amazon

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Originally posted on May 25, 2017, last updated on December 23, 2018.

25
Apr 17
-

appreciative strategies customer service habits

3 Customer Service Habits You Can Change Right Now

Tags : customer experience customer service habits needs open door

The concept of replacing bad habits with good habits is nothing new. It works for things like eating, exercise, and even sleeping. Many people have a customer service obligation at work, even though they may not always realize it. What customer service habits can you change right now?

Regardless of your workplace role chances are good you can improve teamwork, make others jobs and life easier, and make your organization more efficient and profitable with a few simple habits.

Customer Service Habits

Here are three easy ones:

Assuming needs. Priding yourself on knowing exactly what the customer wants can make both you and the customer feel pretty good. Getting it wrong can be painful and costly. Ask more questions, listen better, and give the customer an opportunity to discuss what the end result should look like. Assume less, inquire more.
Meeting needs. Many people get conditioned to finish the task. It seems that sometimes we lose sight of why we are doing the task and instead only focus on finishing it. Finishing is important but we need to be sure we are meeting the needs of those involved. Sometimes patience and spending time is just as important as finishing.
Open door. You should leave the door open for future opportunities. How you close a conversation or a transaction often has something to do with when you’ll get the next opportunity. You want to ensure the door is open. Consider that, “Have a nice day.” is different from, “See you tomorrow.”

Change Now

It’s easy for even the most business minded people to slip into bad habits. We’re often a product of how we subconsciously move about during our day.

Customer service habits are for everyone. Treat every interaction and opportunity with the intention to help.

You know what to do. Replace worn out habits with fresh ones.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

24
Apr 17
-

customer service culture appreciative strategies

When Communication Drives Customer Service Culture

Tags : #Custserv communication culture customer experience customer service

Ask an organization about their customer service and they’ll often tell you a lot. It’s not uncommon that they believe they are doing great, or at least doing okay. Does internal communication drive customer service culture?

Occasionally when I’m working with a client I might ask how they measure customer service. It is not uncommon to get responses such as:

“No worries, if we screw something up our customers let us know.”

“We send out a survey every month, responses are typically very favorable.”

“We get a lot of feedback, most of it is positive.”

Some customers never complain, some will never fill out a satisfaction survey, and some will elect not to tell you of a shortcoming. However, they might tell a dozen of their friends.

Internal Communication

Customer service is driven, at least in part, by the internal communication. Communication and the culture of the organization set the tone for the customer experience.

Here are three common communication and cultural pitfalls:

Sales performance. The logic here is that sales performance is okay. If it were really bad or slowing we might have to dig deeper to understand if we have a customer service problem. Since most of the feedback offered by customers is good and our sales are stable or growing we’re doing okay. Just keep doing what we’re doing.
Customer education. Sometimes the belief is that the customer is not very smart. They wouldn’t be having problems if they only knew how to use the product or its associated tools. Certainly sometimes educating the customer is important, but assuming that the customer will figure it out is a dangerous proposition. Inappropriately stereotyping ignorance might be the fastest way to lose market share.
Accepted quality. Striving for exceptional quality requires constant effort. It might also require rework and do over’s. Forcing your customers to make your (inferior) quality their quality is never a good idea. Customers might accept a lot of levels of quality, but when your quality doesn’t measure up, they might go somewhere else.

Customer Service Culture

What do you hear in your organization? What is the internal communication?

“Sales are okay. We’re doing okay.”

“The customer is an idiot.”

“Looks good enough, ship it and we’ll see what happens.”

What is the talk?

Communication drives culture.

– DEG

Your communication is about culture. So is what happens for your customer. It’s why I wrote this important resource:

#CustServ Customer Service Culture

Get it Now on Amazon

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Originally posted on April 24, 2017, last updated on December 23, 2018.

15
Feb 17
-

Using Appreciative Inquiry to Build a Better Customer Experience

Tags : appreciative inquiry customer experience customer service positive change

Every business and successful organization cares about the customer experience. Can you use Appreciative Inquiry methodologies to build a better customer experience?

Those reading who are new to appreciative inquiry only need to understand a few basics about the definition to get started.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative inquiry may be described as a method to search for, uncover, and bring out the best in people, teams, and entire organizations.

Perhaps the most important factor for getting started is to understand that Appreciative Inquiry is not centered on identifying problems. It is centered on asking questions (inquiring) about what gives a system and its people life.

Consider that it’s looking for positive imagination (dreaming) and innovative ways (designing) to use positive approaches. It is not focused on negativity, what didn’t or won’t work, and chronic diagnoses of what is causing problems.

Customer service appreciative inquiry strategies

Based on either a 4-D or 5-D Cycle model properly empowered people can ask questions, innovate, form strategies, and transform systems and culture based on positive life giving forces.

Customer Experience

It’s easy to get started on ways to improve the customer experience. Instead of asking customers or the people in your organization what is wrong or what didn’t work, use an Appreciative Inquiry approach.

Consider asking a somewhat vague opening question that will drive the conversation, something like “What would our best product or service, considering no limitations or barriers, look like?”

You can then supplement the interactions with supporting information-gathering questions like:

What customer stories, testimonials, or other narratives can be shared about best experiences?
Describe the features or values about our products or services that inspire recommendations to others.
What brings our customers back for repeat business?

Appreciative Strategies

Often one of the most important and challenging aspects of driving change within a system or organization through Appreciative Inquiry is carefully and closely monitoring the interactions. Many people, especially those unfamiliar with the process will quickly digress into problems, reasons why not, and subjective negativity.

Appreciative strategies inquiry custserv

During most interventions this is not intentional to undermine the process. It is more representative of patterns of learned behaviors which are to identify the problem, exploit it, analyze it, agonize over it, and repeat. That is not the Appreciative Inquiry way.

Can you use Appreciative Inquiry approaches to build a better customer experience?

Yes!

– DEG

custserv book

Praise for #CustServ The Customer Service Culture

“…goes beyond the traditional advice and focuses on strategy and cause.”

“…for everyone who truly wants to exceed their customer’s expectations.”

“…the tools needed to gain lifelong customers.”

“…provides guidance in an easily understandable format, and yet challenges the reader…”

“…brings out the truth by diving right into how culture, traditions and generational differences can cause challenges…”

Buy Now On Amazon

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

17
Jan 17
-

Customer Service, Break Down or Wear Down

Tags : break down CSR customer experience customer service

We probably all have a bad customer service story. In fact, when it comes to customer experiences it is what most people talk about, the bad stuff, the horror story. It’s what people tell their family, friends, and their next door neighbor.

I’ve heard a lot of bad customer service stories. During many of my customer service seminars I typically have at least one activity that draws focus to the participant’s positive experiences, specifically to get them thinking about what a good experience feels like rather than creating a focus on what is wrong or broken.

Break Down

Some organizations will self-identify when they have a problem with their customer service policy or procedures. They are constantly striving for feedback, they listen well, and they find effective ways to survey their customer base, they even monitor social media channels.

They’ll often go to great lengths and it pays off because it helps them quickly identify things that are broken. A bad policy, a mishandled transaction, a quality issue, or they might even catch a negative on-line post or unfavorable comparison with their competition.

We might hear some of these.

“My French-fries were cold.”

“The doctor ordered the wrong test.”

“The landscaper killed the grass.”

“They sent me the wrong product.”

Resolving or fixing break downs in the customer experience are sometimes costly, but are easily identified.

All of this is great, but so often this is only identifying the break down in customer service or quality. Is there something else? Absolutely and that something else is often about wear down.

Wear Down

What happens when an organization finds a gap or hole in a policy or procedure? They create an addendum to the rules.

What happens to a rule that is applied over and over again across long periods of time? It often loses some of its purpose or integrity. It might fade or it weakens.

The question might become, “Do we take back a broken product beyond its warranty period?” The answer is often yes, and this likely makes sense, but across time the CSR (customer service representative) may completely forget about the warranty period.

What often is not so easily identified is how the rules change across time. This might not be so much about a break down in policy or procedure, but more representative of a wearing down. It’s when the intent of a policy or procedure becomes more nebulous over time.

“I drove my car 150,000 miles, but it had excellent care and now the motor is fading. I want it fixed for free.”

“My house roof is 35 years old but just sprung a leak. I’m calling the roofer to complain.”

“I’ve had my smartphone for 3 years and religiously charged it in the proper manner, the battery is fading and I want a replacement.”

What would the CSR or the organization do to solve any of these problems? Provide a new car, a new roof, or a brand new smartphone? I’m dramatizing for illustration purposes, but a bend in the rules across time can become costly.

Wear Down Works Both Ways

The opposite can also be true. What happens or how do you identify when a CSR or another organization representative inadvertently tightens the rules? This is also wear down, a wear down of the intent of the guidelines, policies, or procedures.

The best organizations don’t just fix break downs, they are also monitoring for and adjusting to wear downs.

Do you know of anything that is wearing down?

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

12
Dec 16
-

Who Is The Voice Of Your Business?

Tags : customer experience customer service sales

Who is the voice of your business, in a word, everyone.

Many businesses probably feel pretty good about managing their in-bound sales calls. They probably have a great website and probably have well established sales professionals managing all of their web-based sales as well as those old school sales that come in from callers.

What about all of the other departments or employees in your business that might interact with the outside world? Do they need to know how to manage calls and perhaps be well trained in customer service techniques?

I don’t do a lot of cold calling, but I do some. Most weeks I have a specific target for the number of new potential clients I’m trying to reach. I’m not alone, many business people and entrepreneurs are out there trying to build better relationships and earn more business, and a lot of them establish and build these relationships on the telephone or with video technology.

In today’s world many calls end up in a voice mail message, but occasionally you’ll get to speak with a real live person. Sometimes it might be the person who you were trying to reach and sometimes it might be someone far removed from your target.

What is the Point?

The point I’m about to make is that every auto-attendant, voice mail system, or person gives you an impression of that business. Every button you have to push, the length of time you spend listening to a recorded message, or the tone or perceived attitude of each recorded personal greeting is telling you something about that business.

On a recent call I reached someone in a department that was close to my target, but not an exact match. My impression was not good. The person listened patiently and gave me a few seconds to introduce the reason for my call, she didn’t seem especially hurried or annoyed, but when it came time to help me reach my intended target she acted like I just asked for the social security numbers and birth dates of her entire team.

I’m typically not a suspicious person, but my suspicion in this case is that she has been the victim of an internal assault for giving out anyone’s name or identifying anyone in a specific position. My asking to get to a specific person in a specific job role terrified her.

What is the Message?

The message here is that your business has people who are outside of your in-bound fielding team (or sales group) who may receive some occasional in-bound calls from a potential vendor or a misrouted customer, and those people who are representing your business are creating a first impression. They are the voice of your business. They represent everything that your business is and everything that your business does, including how it respects people and other businesses.

It doesn’t matter how awesome your website, marketing materials, or television ads are, when someone touches your operation through a telephone call they are visualizing every moment of that interaction as a representation of your business.

The worst part of this is that everyone gets it, this isn’t rocket science, but yet so many businesses fail to manage this properly. Often their thought is, “We’ve got better things to do.”

What to Do?

If you’re considering making a difference for your business you’ll need to review your auto-attendant answering system, you’ll need to consider who might be receiving calls. Many businesses have what is referred to as a dial by name directory, and these are great but then an outside caller may reach anyone in that system.

What does each employee have recorded as their personal greeting message? How does is it sound? How often is it changed or updated? What is the protocol for managing an in-bound call? What are the guidelines? Do you have a response time policy? Is their voice clear, warm, and friendly?

Does every employee know and understand?

So, I have to ask. Who is the voice of your business?

Everyone.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Newer posts→

Tag Archives: customer experience

Aug 17

-

Back Sided Experiences

Customer Focused

Front Sided Customer Service

May 17

Customer Experience

Consistency Matters

Authenticity and Loyalty

Apr 17

-

Customer Service Habits

Change Now

Apr 17

-

Internal Communication

Customer Service Culture

Feb 17

-

Appreciative Inquiry

Customer Experience

Appreciative Strategies

Praise for #CustServ The Customer Service Culture

Jan 17

-

Break Down

Wear Down

Wear Down Works Both Ways

Dec 16

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