Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service Training, John DiJulius | Tags: customer service conference, customer service cuture, customer service leadership, customer service training, John DiJulius, Nestle, Service Management Group, starbucks, The DiJulius Group
“Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…”
A radical overthrow of conventional business mentality designed to transform what employees and customers experience. This shift produces a culture that permeates into people’s personal lives, at home and in the community, which in turn provides the business with higher sales, morale and brand loyalty– making price irrelevant.
Found Money – Want to increase revenue without increasing advertising or labor? Customer service expert Jack Mackey proves that you can in his recent article, “Found Money: Want it or Not?” Mackey demonstrates how research has proven a staggering amount of money lost or gained per year by how well you manage your service breakdowns and your service recovering systems. I strongly encourage you to take 10 minutes and read his article to see how your company is stacking up.
 |
| Jack Mackey |
All Business is Personal, it goes where it’s invited and stays where it’s appreciated – that is Jack Mackey’s philosophy and message. Jack is one of our keynote presenters at the 2011 Secret Service Summit. As the Vice President at Service Management Group (SMG), he helps companies guide and energize their people to deliver remarkable service. With more than 20 years of experience in customer service leadership, Jack is also co-author of The Total Customer Service System and The Manager’s Role as Coach. He speaks on performance improvement strategies nationwide and is legendary for instilling a spirit of “celebrated discontent” in his audiences.
What gets recognized, gets repeated – One of the best ways of keeping a World-Class customer service culture alive, without losing its momentum, is by finding ways to recognize your employees, locations or departments for delivering Above & Beyond service (Commandment VIII in What’s the Secret?) These range from soliciting, capturing and celebrating raving fans’ stories sent in from customers, to sharing them through signage, pre-shift huddles, awards, internal newsletters, and several other company communication mechanisms you use.
Excellent incentive - Here is a best practice by Nestle, a consulting client of The DiJulius Group, and a company that has had their customer service management team in attendance at every annual Secret Service Summit. Nestle currently has a contest running where the employee with the best Above & Beyond story (voted on by their peers) from each of their customer service center locations wins an all expense-paid trip plus tuition to this year’s 2011 Secret Service Summit. This does several positive things: 1) It gets people to continue to think creatively to solve customer problems, 2) It generates more Above & Beyond stories so Nestle can use them to drive the awareness and service aptitude in their front lines, 3) Sometimes people who do great things, don’t do it for the recognition, and don’t bother to tell anyone what they did. A contest like this gets co-workers to tell on each other, and 4) The winners, the ones that “get it,” are rewarded by going to a two-day customer service conference with dozens of customer service experts and motivational speakers, thus giving them even more ideas and systems they can further use. Is it any wonder why Nestlé’s customer service has reached new levels over the past three years? Are there ways you can stimulate a stronger World-Class customer service culture?
Not making the customer wrong – A favorite best practice I have learned from being a regular at Starbucks is how well they educate their customers in order for the customer to be able to adapt to their terminology, thus making their job more efficient. For example, if someone comes in and says, “I would like a big size, sugar-free vanilla, with non-fat milk, latte,” the Barista will confirm the order by saying something like, “certainly, you want a venti skinny vanilla latte.” This just taught the customer how to articulate their drink more quickly in Starbucks’ language, which reduces time and improves accuracy of the order. Best of all, the customer wasn’t made to feel stupid.
Quote of the week -
“The biggest tragedy isn’t death — it is living without a sense purpose and a lack of passion. It is not being blind; it is having sight but no vision.”
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consultant, customer service consulting, customer service process, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
In order to create brand loyalty and customer evangelists, you must operate at a high level in six distinct areas of business and constantly evaluate your company’s customer service across each category, separately, and as categories overlap:
1. Physical: Deals with the actual brick-and-mortar component of your operation.
These are the physical elements that are more permanent or long term, that cannot be changed daily.
2. Setting: Refers to the controllable setting you create daily. As Disney says, “Everything speaks from the doorknobs to the dining rooms sends a message to the guest.” The setting communicates a message about what you can provide your customers. This isn’t always visual, it may be the music your customers hear when they call and are placed on hold or the mood your web site creates. The setting reveals the characteristics of your business as they appeal to the five senses of your customer: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.
3. Functional: Refers to the ease of doing business with you-return policies, hours of operations, and other factors. Functionality has nothing to do with human interactions, such as being pleasant or saying please or thank you.
4. Technical: Refers to your staff ’s level of expertise in their particular skills and in the company’s systems and equipment, such as product and job knowledge. Again, this has nothing to do with whether they are nice.
5. Operational: Refers to the actions that team members must execute behind the scenes before, during, and after a customer’s experience. These actions assist in the day-to-day transactions with customers, the tasks, compliances, and duties of our jobs.
6. Experiential: Refers to the actions that team members execute while interacting with the customer. Those actions that make the customer say “WOW!” The customer is delightfully surprised. Experiential actions are the reason why customers return, refer others, and become brand evangelists. These include Secret Service, personalization, anticipating customer’s needs, and others.
Let’s look at some real-life examples of these components:
• Your server is the most incompetent waitress (technical) you have ever met, but she is trying her hardest and being extremely nice (experiential).
• The place needs a good paint job (physical).
• The store where you shop is always out of what you want (operational).
• Your favorite store is difficult to get to and has barely any parking (physical).
• This salon has high energy and always smells great (setting).
• The quality of the food (technical) is unfit for human consumption.
• An associate overheard that you really wanted a diet drink and ran across the street to the drugstore to get it for you (experiential).
• At the diner, everything is themed 1950s style (setting).
• It is impossible to get a human being on the phone. No matter what you try, you cannot get out of the company’s voice-mail maze (functionality).
• The company has a 24-hour answering service and guarantees a call
back within 60 minutes (functionality).
• My sales rep always screws up my order (technical).
Specific examples of each of these six components are:
| Physical
Brick and mortar Building Structure Architecture Location Accessibility Parking availability Design Décor Public areas Floor coverings Signage Spaciousness Handicap accessible |
Setting
Ambience Candles Theme Lighting Acoustics Grounds Furnishings Comfort of chairs,beds, etc. Mood Signage Sound system TV placement Noise level |
Functional
Policies Hours of operation Ease of doing business Accessibility to a human being Product selection Design of your web site How well you are staffed Reliability of vendors Security Payment options Phone number on website |
| Technical
Employees level of expertise Speed of your technology Computers State of the art technology Ability to use your website Equipment Phone system Software Product knowledge Quality of product Timeliness Knowledge |
Operational
Daily tasks Cleaning Dress code Preparation Answering the phone Duties Checking people out Processing orders Functions of the job Compliances Paperwork |
Experiential
Hospitality Customer engagement Personalization Above and beyond Using the customer’s name Remembering preferences Presentation of food Verbiage/vocabulary of staff Congeniality Willingness to help Anticipating needs Service recovery Soft skills |
An example of physical excellence would be the beauty of Disney parks or how The Cheesecake Factory restaurants are designed. Starbucks has mastered setting, from the comfortable, inviting furniture to how well they merchandise their cafes, just as Disney has mastered how well they theme their parks and hotels. A couple of great examples of Functional excellence are Nordstrom department stores and Zappos.com who have simplified the process of returning merchandise.
Cleanliness is a great example of operational excellence. When you are considering your customer’s experience, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Consider a hospital room, or massage or facial room. Because patients and customers are lying down for extended periods of time, they may notice the condition of areas of the room employees never look at.
As for the sixth component of the customer’s experience, experiential excellence, there is no need to provide specific examples here because the rest of this book is focused on experiential standards.
Keep in mind that it is important to constantly review how customer friendly your company is in each department. With regards to training of new and existing employees, the majority of your training will deal primarily with technical, operational, and experiential.
The vast majority of companies focus their training on the technical with very little if any emphasis on the experiential. Having been fortunate to work with some of the best customer-service companies in the world, I have both learned and helped create some amazing training that truly prepares new employees to be able to provide a world-class experience, regardless of their backgrounds.
Are any of the components more important than another? No, all are critical and all need to be reviewed and tweaked on a regular basis. The components differ significantly in terms of required people skills training. Physical, setting and functionality have little to do with training or people skills, but the other three components absolutely do involve people skills and training. There is a difference, however, in the training required for each component. It is much easier to train employees on technical and operational skills; they are job-specific, and they include easy-to-train subjects, such as product knowledge, and checklists. Also, technical and operational skills tend to be present and thorough because of prior education, degrees, licensing, certifications, and trade schools.
Many industries today mandate continuing education credit hours. The vast majority of companies are weakest in the experiential category.
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. John DiJulius is the innovator of a methodology called Secret Service a customer service system which consistently enables organizations to deliver World-Class Customer Experiences. Find out more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, the #1 National Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consultant, customer service consulting, John DiJulius, Secret Service Summit, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
John DiJulius - Presenter at The 2010 Secret Service Summit
Recently a survey was conducted in the US and eleven other countries exploring attitude and preferences customers have toward who they spend their money with based on the customer service they experience (read the entire article).
Here is a summary of the findings.
- The majority say customer service is even more important to them in today’s economic environment
- 61% will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service
- Only 37% feel businesses have increased their focus on providing better customer service
- 27% feel businesses have not changed their attitude toward customer service
- 28% say companies are now paying less attention to good service
- 91% consider the level of customer service important when deciding to do business with a company
- 81% of consumers are likely to give a company repeat business after a good experience
- 52% will never do business again with a company after receiving a poor experience
- The three most influential factors when deciding which companies they do business with include:
- Personal experience (98%)
- A company’s reputation (92%)
- Recommendations from family & friends (88%)
- Just about half of consumers use online postings/blogs to get others’ opinions about a company’s customer service reputation
World-Class Customer Service Companies recognize the value
“Customers expect superior customer service especially in this tight economic environment,” says Jim Bush, Executive VP, World Service at American Express. “Many customers say companies haven’t done enough to improve their approach to customer service, yet it’s clear they’re willing to spend more with those who deliver excellent service, suggesting substantial growth opportunities for businesses that get customer service right. It’s important to see service as an investment, not a cost.”
“We know that luxurious touches don’t matter to guests unless the service surpasses the setting,” said Simon Cooper, president, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC. And Susan Reilly Salgado, managing director of Danny Meyer’s learning business, says, “Service is about the technical delivery of the product, while hospitality is about how guests feel during that transaction.”
How Service is Valued Globally
The report found that consumers from different countries feel that customer service has become more important to businesses in the current economy.
Consumers feel that companies have increased their focus on providing good customer service
Best
- India 65%
- Japan 49%
- Mexico 47%
Worst
- Australia 29%
- Germany 34%
- Canada 35%
- Italy 35%
In summary, customer loyalty is the strongest asset a company can have in any economy. There are significant growth opportunities for companies that want to compete on the experience they deliver versus getting caught up in the price wars. There are fewer players competing in the experience arena. Customer Service must be viewed as an investment, not an expense!
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. John DiJulius is the innovator of a methodology called Secret Service a customer service system which consistently enables organizations to deliver World-Class Customer Experiences. Find out more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, the #1 National Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service training, John DiJulius, The DiJulius Group
John DiJulius
Quality training must include systems and processes that remove variation and provide a consistent customer experience. A common misconception is that the only way to get better people is to pay more than everyone else. There are many great examples of world-class companies who do not necessarily pay better than their competitors. In fact, employees at Disney, Starbucks and Nordstrom are hired from the same labor pool every other organization uses and are paid the going rates. The real reason why Disney employees are so good at customer service is how well they are transformed into Walt Disney Cast Members, which occurs in their training. In most cases, the most recently hired, least trained, lowest-paid employees deal with the customers the most.
What determines the consistency of delivering the experience is the quality of the systems and training that every new and existing employee goes through. Just like in sports, the contest, match, or game, is decided long before the actual event takes place. It is won in the practice and the preparation leading up to the event.
Inadequate training is definitely the biggest underlying reason for the inconsistency and scarcity of great customer service. Companies skimp on training because it costs money, but companies that invest in customer service by training their new employees reap great financial benefits.
To be a world-class customer service organization, your training should include the following:
- A company orientation that covers company policy and the company’s history.
- The functional components of the specific job.
- The operational procedures of the job.
- All technical training, including product knowledge, use of equipment/tools, software and other technology, plus scope of services.
- Experiential training on soft skills (especially how to create relationships and personalize encounters), preventing customers from feeling like transactions, and customer recovery techniques.
- On-the-job shadowing.
- Testing and certification, including extensive testing on experiential skills.
Map the Customer’s Experience Journey
Identify all the significant points of interaction, called “stages,” that your customers may have with your company. Once you have mapped out your customer experience stages, you need to get your employees involved in helping to create what those stages should look like. You then break each stage down into four individual components:
1) Service Defects – All the things that can ruin the customer’s experience at this stage.
2) Operational Standards – All the tasks or jobs for each stage.
3) Experiential Standards – The actions that will create an exceptional experience and a raving fan.
4) Above-and-Beyond Opportunities – Common situations that we want our front-line employees to recognize and be prepared for in order to make a customer’s day.
Let your team help create this experience. Once you have your final version of service defects, standards, and above-and-beyond opportunities, you can create a training manual that all new employees get trained and tested on during their first two weeks with your company.
Action Plan
It is imperative for companies to ensure that every employee – new and existing – truly understands the organization’s Customer Experience Promise. The Customer Experience Promise is what the organization is supposed to deliver to their customers, consistently, at every stage of interaction. Every employee needs to understand the importance of each point of contact, what to avoid, the company’s non-negotiable standards that every customer must receive, and the potential opportunities to really “wow” them. Organizations need to make sure their Customer Experience Promise is structured in such a way that all employees learn, understand and execute it.
~John DiJulius best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the CVO of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. John DiJulius is the innovator of a methodology called Secret Service a customer service system which consistently enables organizations to deliver World-Class Customer Experiences. Find out more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, the #1 National Customer Service Conference.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, secret service, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Your customer service has many legs and pockets. It is not only the way your employees interact with your customers, but it’s all the messages being sent to your customers in countless ways. Everything speaks: verbal cues, systems, technology, physical signage, uniforms, etc. It is imperative you take a step back and review any negative cues that are making your business appear less than world class.
Verbal – Medical practices are the leaders in negative cues of all kinds. First, negative verbal cues: when a patient is checking in and the receptionist says, “We need to VERIFY your information.” Verify makes me feel like they don’t believe who I am; that maybe I am trying to use someone else’s insurance information. How about saying, “we need to CONFIRM your information?” Another example is when a patient is being seen by a doctor and a nurse comes into the room during the exam and says, “Your 10:30 is here,” or “You have a call on line 2.” At that point I am convinced the doctor is now rushing and more concerned with the patient waiting rather than focusing on me. Some great medical practices have created both verbal and non-verbal codes for this.
Signage has by far the highest occurrence of negative cues. I have collected so many examples over the years and am constantly receiving more each week from all of you. Businesses are so concerned about getting taken advantage of by 2% of customers that they end up insulting 98% with threatening signage. Here are just a few examples:
This is an actual sign on the glass door at the entrance to a high-end wine bar located in a beautiful shopping area. There are 12 things they tell you that you cannot wear. But they have a line underneath it all that says, “Business casual or business attire is suggested.” Couldn’t they have just put that on the door?
This one is so popular that Amazon.com actually sells it! I have another one that says, “No English, No Service!”
I was recently speaking to a group in Sydney Australia, where a partner of one of the most successful real estate companies in Sydney approached me. The partner confessed that he has some negative cues. When they have an open house for potential buyers, they display the following sign on the door that reads, “CONDITIONS OF ENTRY,” and it proceeds to tell you that you cannot enter with food or drink or shoes or unaccompanied children or a slew of others barriers to viewing the house. I was so excited when this gentleman said, “I realized we could position this notice in a more positive way by saying:
Out of respect for the homeowner, we appreciate your removing shoes…
He got it!
On Stage vs. Off Stage
Do your employees really know what is considered on stage and off stage? I recently worked with some QSRs (quick-service restaurants) and after touring some of their locations, I repeatedly saw their employees on break, standing in front of the restaurant where customers were walking by, smoking. This goes back to last week’s service aptitude article. This is not their fault. To them, they are on break and can do what they want. It is management’s responsibility to make them aware that even though they are not interacting with customers while on break, if they are in uniform where customers can see them, they are “on stage.” This can apply to all our businesses. I worked with a hospital and found nurses chatting behind the nurses’ station forgetting that they still can be seen and heard by patients and their visitors.
It is critical that you do a periodic review of the negative cues that can be expressed in numerous ways and can project a less than world-class image.
About the Author
~John DiJulius is President and Chief Visionary Officer of The DiJulius Group, a customer experience consulting firm used by top organizations, to create, develop, and improve their customer service systems. Our customer service consulting engagements help improve and maintain a healthier corporate culture and performance; lower employee turnover costs; increase customer retention factors; generate more referrals and make price less relevant. Companies across the world use The DiJulius Group to create World-Class Customer Experiences every day. John will be a presenter at The Secret Service Summit 2010.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, Dennis Snow | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service process, Dennis Snow, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
The term “customer service” evokes different images in people’s minds. One image could be that of friendly, smiling, helpful employees who go out of their way to serve you. Or it could be the opposite – indifferent, unfriendly employees who can’t wait for you to leave or hang up the phone.
Most people can recall many examples of poor customer service. Whether it’s the help desk employee that puts you on hold for 20 minutes or the store cashier who engages in a personal conversation instead of ringing up your purchase, poor customer service can make people feel frustrated and vow never to do business with that company again.
On the other hand, great service feels like a gift. It makes us want to continue to do business with an organization over the long haul. And that alone is the secret to business success – retaining customers by providing great customer service. With so much competition out there, customer loyalty is the single most important attribute your business can have. You achieve loyalty by doing the “little things” that make customers want to deal with you again and again and recommend you to their friends. The real difference is how a business makes their customers feel. If customers feel valued, most will remain loyal. If they feel under-valued, sooner or later they will defect to a competitor.
Several reasons exist for why customers defect from a company. The customer may move away, a competitor may lure them away, or they may leave because they are unhappy with the product. However, a recent study found that a whopping sixty-eight percent of customers who defect do so because of poor service. That’s a sobering statistic. The study further noted how customers defined poor service: “an attitude of indifference on the part of employees.” So while bad service certainly causes customers to leave, indifferent service can be just as detrimental.
With every two out of three customers citing poor customer service as a reason for leaving, what can your company do to achieve customer loyalty? Assuming your products and prices are competitive, you need to focus on providing superior customer service in order to gain loyalty. To do that, here are three simple steps to help you make sure your customers stay with your company.
1) Look through the “lens of the customer”
No matter what industry you’re in, chances are that you interact with customers at some level. Realize that customers can be shoppers at a store, patrons at a bank, patients of a doctor, clients of a law firm, etc. Because customers have their choice of where to obtain goods or services, the business has to convince the customer that they truly care. An engaged, caring employee raises the customer’s confidence that the business is looking out for the customer’s interests. When that employee suggests a new product or service, the customer trusts that his or her best interest is at heart. On the flip side, if the customer senses a lack of caring, he/she will question the motives behind any recommendations.
Every business has its jargon, so be careful to speak in a language that customers understand. Successful businesses speak the language of the customer, not the language of their own industry. Take, for example, the banking industry. Would a young couple buying their first house be looking through the same lens as a customer who buys and sells real estate for a living? Of course not. That young couple purchasing their first house is excited and nervous – that is the lens with which they are experiencing this purchase. Therefore, they need loan officers who are excited for them, who explain the terms in everyday language, and who provide information that will make their buying experience easier. A bank that shows that level of care is likely to earn that young couple’s ongoing business.
The same applies for customer complaints, which can be frustrating for customers and employees alike. As employees, we often can’t understand why a customer is making such a big deal about a particular issue. Didn’t the customer read the contract? (Probably not.) Doesn’t the customer understand that researching a problem takes time? (No, they don’t.) Remember, it’s not the customer’s job to see through the business’s lens; it’s the business’s job to see through the customer’s lens and show an understanding of the customer’s frustration.
Next time you are working with a customer, stop and ask yourself: “Am I seeing this experience through the customer’s lens?”
2) When it comes to a company’s environment, recognize that “everything speaks”
Imagine visiting a fine dining restaurant for a special occasion. You’ve been looking forward to the meal and you’ve heard good things about the restaurant. Then imagine noticing something crusty dried to your silverware and old lipstick marks on your water glass. Wouldn’t you begin worrying about the cleanliness and quality of everything else in the restaurant? Everything speaks!
Now imagine a customer entering your place of business. She notices trash in the parking lot. When she enters the reception area, she sees delivery boxes stacked by the receptionist’s desk. She sees employees standing around eating and having personal conversations. All of this detracts from your business’s image. Consciously or unconsciously, the customer’s antennae go up and makes them question, “Do I really want to spend my money here?”
The “everything speaks” philosophy means that all employees understand that even the little things count. So pay attention to everything, including whether the physical environment is neat and clean, whether all necessary supplies are available, whether the employees are dressed appropriately, etc. Anything that sticks out as “wrong” becomes an intrusion on the customer experience. These intrusions add up and result in customer concern. On the other hand, when customers sense an atmosphere of professionalism, care, and order, they feel a sense of confidence.
How many times have you seen employees in a business walk right by trash on the floor or a display that has been bumped out of alignment? Employees who understand that everything speaks will take a moment to pick up some wadded paper and straighten the display because they know that such behaviors have a direct impact on the customer experience.
Take a moment to think about your company’s environment. Since everything speaks, what are the details saying about your organization?
3) Create customer “wows”
Small gestures can create customer wows. Consider the housekeepers working in the hotels at Walt Disney World. Housekeepers have a tough job. Cleaning up after people on vacation is a challenge. Even in such a challenging job, Disney’s housekeepers will do little things that make guests say, “Wow.” For example, while spending a day in the Magic Kingdom children will often leave their stuffed Disney characters in their hotel room. Housekeepers have been known to position the characters with playing cards in their hands or tuck the characters into the children’s bed to create a moment of magic.
Employees can do many things to create wows. Remembering a customer’s name is a huge wow, creating a feeling of family. Letting a customer know that another product may better meet their needs is another wow. Sending a goody basket with a handwritten note to that young couple who just took out their first mortgage is a wow. Some wows are small and some are large, but make no mistake about it – wows add up.
One of the most powerful ways to create wows is to share best practices with fellow employees. Hold a company meeting so employees can share things that they have done that dazzled customers. Just talking about these behaviors increases the likelihood that others will adopt some of the practices or create new ones of their own. It is also likely that some wows can become standard procedure, whether it’s a grocery store bakery handing out fresh-baked cookies to children, or salespeople escorting customers to a product rather than simply pointing.
Next time you’re helping a customer, ask yourself, “Will my behaviors make this customer say or think, ‘wow’?”
Take Action Now
Excellent service is not about policy manuals. Excellent service is about excellent behaviors. When employees focus on excellent service, the results can be magical. Customers are happy, employees are happy, and shareholders are happy. Everyone wins. The key is to make service excellence a habit. Encourage every employee to internalize the above steps so they become habits. When employees focus on these principles, your company will achieve the most powerful result of all – intense customer loyalty.
About the Author
~Dennis Snow is a a speaker at The 2010 Secret Service Summit business author, speaker, and consultant who helps organizations develop world-class customer service. He is the author of two books, “Lessons From the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life” (DC Press), and “Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service.” (Wiley). Dennis can be reached at www.snowassociates.com, or at 407.294.1855.
Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Marriott World Center Orlando
Recently I was a keynote speaker at a company’s annual conference held in Orlando, Florida. Their meeting was held at the Marriott World Center, the largest Marriott property in the world. When I arrived from the airport at around 10:00 am, I requested of the nice bellman to please have my luggage sent directly to my room so I could meet with the meeting planner and then deliver my keynote.
Unexpected Surprise
By the time my presentation and book signing were completed, it was now 5:00 pm. I was free, but I had a productive night scheduled. My plan was to run up to my room, change out of my suit and tie and go work out. I would then come back to my room, order room service and get caught up on several days of piled up email.
Well, things didn’t work out as planned. When I got to my room, I searched for my luggage, but it was nowhere. I then called down to the front desk, informing them that the bellman never delivered my luggage as requested. Shortly after, the front desk called me back and said they were unable to locate my luggage, but would try to as quickly as possible. So here it goes again: yet another horrible customer service experience!
I sat in my room, in a robe, like a prisoner. I had no workout clothes, couldn’t go to the gym like I had planned, my evening schedule was being compromised, and everything was getting pushed back. Why me? I was working myself up, getting stressed over the inconvenience, and imagining a horrible night’s sleep as a result.
Opportunity to be a Hero
What seemed to be hours later (actually only 10 minutes at most since I called the front desk looking for my luggage), the phone in my room rang. “Mr. DiJulius, this is James. I am the head bellman. I want to apologize for your inconvenience. We haven’t found your luggage yet, but I promise you we will soon. Can I ask you if there was anything in particular you needed that I can send up to your room?”
I responded with, “Just my work-out cloths. I was planning on getting a work out in.”
James responded, “Mr. DiJulius, I apologize. If we do not locate your luggage within the next 15 minutes, I would be happy to get you a pair of workout shorts, tee shirt and tennis shoes from our store outside our spa. Can you tell me your sizes?”
I responded that he didn’t have to do that! I could easily flip -flop my plans and get my emails done first, and hopefully by then my luggage would be found and I’d work out then.
James said, ”Are you sure? I promise you, I will personally find your luggage and get it to you ASAP! You are the last person we want to inconvenience, and I am truly sorry.”
I responded, “James, I appreciate your effort, really. I am fine. There’s no inconvenience. Thank you.” Within 15 minutes James brought my luggage to the room, and I thanked him and gave him a big tip for his effort.
Attitude Adjustment
What happened here? One moment I was an angry guest, working myself up, feeling sorry for myself: poor me, why does this have to happen to me, my entire night is screwed up, not realizing that I had an option of rearranging my plans. The next minute I was feeling bad for the bellman, telling him I was fine with plenty of things to do, it wasn’t an inconvenience at all, stop with the fuss. Why did this attitude transformation occur? (I went from being a potentially angry dissatisfied customer to telling them they were making too much of a fuss.) Because this particular Marriott properly trained their associates to recognize when something goes wrong, empathize immediately with the customer, and instead of focusing on the problem, (missing luggage) to focus on the inconvenience and offer solutions and alternatives. As a result of James’ sincere empathy to my horrible situation (exaggerated in my mind), the situation flipped and I was feeling badly for him and how hard he was trying to please me.
While they may complain about the Service Defect,
They are going to rave about how we handle it!
World-Class customer service companies train their employees to be Zero Risk. Commandment VII is anticipating your service defects and having service recovery protocols in place to make them right. We can’t eliminate things from going wrong, but what we can do is reduce errors and be better prepared to be a hero when things do go wrong. With over 2,000 visitors per day, just on that sheer volume, Marriott is going to misplace a small percentage of luggage from time to time. They know this and they are prepared.
- Have you recognized the reoccurring service defects in your operations?
- Have you trained your employees on how to show empathy and recognize the inconvenience versus the problem?
- Do you have protocols in place to turn your potentially upset customers into even more loyal evangelist?
~John DiJulius is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, consultant and the President and CVO of The DiJulius Group.
Filed under: Customer Service | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, secret service, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Without execution, systems in manuals are nothing more than ideas on paper. This is where most companies fail – the execution of these systems.
The two most important words in the success of implementing systems are consistency and continuity. Nearly every company has more ideas than it knows what to do with. Here’s a scenario familiar in every company: Some executives attend a fantastic seminar, get dozens of great ideas, and return to work all fired up to start executing. A month later, not one idea is being executed even 10 percent of the time. The managers are either preoccupied with a crisis or have moved on to a new focus. Managers are not short on ideas; they are short on strategy that will result in successful implementation.
Select a path and stick with it
I can’t tell you how often I hear the same thing from the companies I consult: “A few years ago, our theme was ‘fish,’ last year our theme was ‘raving fans,’ and this year our theme is your book.” It’s no wonder nothing sticks. There’s no continuity from one generation of employees to the next because they joined under a different theme. There is nothing wrong with using any of those books and concepts as themes. What I am saying is pick a path.
The world-class customer service companies focus on one concept and build their training program around it. Over the years, every new employee goes through the same training, learns the same underlying concept and theme, reads the same book, and hears the same message. That doesn’t mean the training doesn’t evolve. But you have a consistent foundation on which everyone has been trained. And it can’t just be new employees who go through intensive training; existing employees need to be retrained and re-energized on at least an annual basis. Beyond that training, world-class customer service companies advertise superior customer service to their employees on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.
Implement slowly and properly
Let’s assume you have just successfully completed the Customer Experience Cycle Workshop with your entire organization. You should now have the buzz. Stop right there. This is when the train wreck so often happens. The workshop was easy; the hard part is implementation. Yes, you are excited about the buy-in to being world-class. Yes, you want to maintain the enthusiasm and the momentum. But now you must crawl before you can walk. A worst practice is to allow managers to roll out the implementation on their own or to introduce many new concepts every week. If you do either, in about 45 days, all of those great ideas will be a distant memory because not one of them will stick. The only result will be a loss of credibility. Employees will feel that all their work was just a bunch of rah-rah and hot air because nothing ever came of it. Customers will be disappointed by the inconsistency between your promises and their experiences.
Both your front-line managers and employees already have too much on their plate to digest and manage the execution of more than a few things at once. You need to create a roll-out calendar of new customer service systems. Never introduce more than two or three things per 120 days to any one department. This may sound like a slow process, but wouldn’t you be doing cartwheels if I told you that a year from now, you will have introduced 10 new initiatives that are all being executed consistently?
Manage the Experience
It is imperative that every manager is uncompromising about the execution of your standards. Your employees have to know that they cannot pick and choose. That is why it is very important NOT to have too many standards for every stage of interaction. Less is more, so keep it realistic to achieve. As soon as employees start to think no one is really paying attention or cares, the standards go from nonnegotiable to optional. To avoid this, managers have to routinely do audits of the standards and recognize when they are being executed and immediately coach when they aren’t. You can have the greatest customer experience on paper, but it is the leadership’s responsibility to make sure every employee is well aware of the importance of consistent, continuous execution.
Filed under: Customer Service | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service conference, customer service consulting, secret service, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
John DiJulius
We are excited to share with you that The DiJulius Group has added two Revolutionist, who can help us on our mission to Change the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution.
We take this extremely seriously, which is why, in the last few years, we have dramatically broadened our reach and resources. We now offer public seminars, called the Secret Service Tours, that are held in different cities throughout the US. We do this to make it more affordable for companies to bring their management teams to experience our World Class Customer Experience workshops.
We also have our annual Secret Service Summit every November. This is an exclusive two-day event solely focused on the world-class experience, featuring over 10 speakers who are leading authorities, best selling authors and brand executives of world-class customer service companies, and we’ve added Secret Service Certification. The certification course now enables companies to send someone on their staff to be trained by John to present the Secret Service keynote and also facilitate the Customer Experience Cycle workshop.
 |
However, we realized that still wasn’t enough. Given the economic climate these past two years, the value of customer service has never received more attention. As a result, The DiJulius Group has grown exponentially — in spite of the recession! Companies have realized that there is no greater asset in any economy than customer loyalty. And the ones not only surviving, but thriving, in these times are the organizations committed to truly providing a world-class customer experience.
The only way we can handle this increasing demand is by bringing aboard two Revolutionist! These speakers/consultants can provide the necessary depth required by our attendees, and help with the increased demand on The DiJulius Group from so many companies that already recognize the benefits from adopting our program.
These revolutionists not only can help provide an alternative when John DiJulius is booked and unavailable, but they have lower price points, which allows more companies the opportunity to receive The DiJulius Group’s resources and systems.
 |
Who are these Revolutionist?
We have been extremely selective in whom we have added to our team.The DiJulius Group Revolutionists are outstanding presenters certified in Secret Service Systems and the facilitation of the Customer Experience Cycle workshop. In addition to their certification, they have also undergone extensive personal training sessions with John DiJulius. Both have an extensive background in customer service, not only as a service provider, but also as a trainer and presenter. We have spent the last two years training them on our philosophies, concepts and systems.
It gives us great pleasure to announce The DiJulius Group’s Revolutionists: Jeff Nischwitz and Nicole Flesher. Find out more about our Revolutionists
Filed under: Customer Service | Tags: client experience, customer experience, Customer Service, customer service aptitude test, customer service conference, customer service consulting, secret service, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
John DiJulius
When it comes to customer service, do you know the rating for your company, location or department? The DiJulius Group has created an incredibly powerful tool called the Company Service Aptitude Test (C-SAT).
The C-SAT not only pinpoints the Service Aptitude Level of your organization, but even more importantly, it lets management know where the strengths and opportunities are in order to get to the next level. The C-SAT is based on the “Ten Commandments” to providing a world-class customer experience. These are the 10 principles shared by every great customer service organization. Now your management can take the C-SAT.
Click to take C-SAT
There are five levels of customer service:
This test is designed so that individual departments may take it and score themselves independently. It will take approximately 15 minutes to answer all the questions. If you are taking it to determine the level of customer service delivered by your company, there are two approaches you can take:
- Look at your entire organization’s customer service as a whole, or
- Look at the customer service of each individual department (i.e. sales, technical support, call center) or location.
If you choose to take it by department or location, you will obviously have to take it once for each department or location you have. This allows you to determine which departments, managers and front-line employees are stronger and which are weaker. Department scores may then be averaged to find an overall company score.
C-SAT REPORT:
Within seconds of completing the test, you will receive a C-SAT report emailed directly to you, sharing your company’s service aptitude level based on your answers (figure 2). There is no charge, and you can take this test online as many times as you want.
