Filed under: Customer Service, Customer Service Training | Tags: customer loyalty, John DiJulius, Secret Service Summit
FAB FIVE – I hate platitudes. Don’t tell your employees to be present or to make or exceed expectations. Tell them how, make it black & white, and make it measurable. One of my new favorite systems for making a customer connection are the “5 E’s.”
- Eye Contact
- Ear-to-Ear
- Enthusiastic Greeting
- Engage
- Educate
Why? – I love these for five reasons:
- They are so simple to do
- They can be effective with every customer
- The first four take zero time to execute
- They demonstrate genuine hospitality
- No one else is doing them
Applies to B2B – Before I lose my professional service providers or internal customer service/support/call centers thinking this is only for retail-to-consumer models, it absolutely applies to you! It’s 100% if you are meeting customers face-to-face, and if (or when) your touch point is over the phone. Numbers 2-5 should be non-negotiable every time.
Eye Contact – This eliminates the head down, uncaring, robotic feeling when the front-line just asks, “next?” A great training method for this is to audit the employees by periodically asking them, “What was the color of the customer’s eyes?”
Ear-to-Ear – Smile. A smile is part of the uniform, and a smile has teeth. Demonstrate a positive attitude and tell the customers that you are happy to serve them.
Enthusiastic Greeting – Your greeting must demonstrate genuine warmth and not just a trained greeting. It should be one that shows enthusiasm in the voice coupled with a smile and eye contact. You are now giving genuine hospitality as if the customer was an old friend visiting at your home.
Engage – THIS IS THE ONE, the secret ingredient that most companies do a poor job of mandating, training, showing its importance, and hence they provide little direction to employees on how to execute. This doesn’t have to be a ten-minute conversation. Every single customer can be engaged within the time it typically takes to serve them, be it 90 seconds in the fast food environment or a 45 minute meeting. This action demonstrates that they are not a herd of cattle, or one of a hundred customers. It eliminates the “too task focused on the transaction” versus having an “interaction” with someone. In the incidences where you know the customer — make that known. Utilize any customer intelligence you can, from info in a database to recognizing their name badge, or a picture of their twins on the desk, a hat, college shirt, tie, glasses, or anything else you can point out.
Educate – This is the one that may slightly affect time of service in industries that are built around rapid pace (fast food) and may have to have an above & beyond action when it is warranted, i.e. a new customer unfamiliar with a menu. For the rest of us it should have zero impact on productivity and be demonstrated every single time. Think of companies like Nordstrom and Apple stores. Their employees are brilliant about their products and application.
Amazing new pre-hiring screening tool – If you are looking for people who have the potential to be customer centric service providers, auditing the first 4 E’s might be your most powerful tool. Many of my consulting clients have incorporated the first 4 E’s into their interview process, literally counting the times an employee candidate demonstrates each.
Service Aptitude potential index – The 4 E screening does not mean employees have the Service Aptitude necessary to be service stars. Rarely do your new employees (or, unfortunately, existing) have the Service Aptitude level needed to deliver a world-class experience. It is your company’s job to have soft skill training initially and on going that dictates Service Aptitude. The “E’s” tell you if they have the Service Aptitude potential.
NEARLY SOLD OUT! America’s #1 Customer Service Conference – featuring the most amazing lineup of customer service experts and brand executives. This conference has sold out the last two years, so do not miss your opportunity to bring your management team to the 2011 Secret Service Summit November 3rd & 4th.
Quote of the week -
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~John R. DiJulius III best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President 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: b2b, British Airways, customer experience, Customer Satisfaction, customer service consulting, Customer service in airlines, customer service process, customer service revolution, customer service teleseminar, Jobs Stanford Address, John DiJulius, Michael Caito, Restaurants on the Run, Secret Service Summit, Steve Jobs Apple's CEO, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group, TravelCenters of America
| Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…
Competition on the Run – ROTR is a very aggressive company that excels in implementation and execution (Chapter 6 of What’s the Secret?). They recently introduced a service recovery program designed to focus on loyalty and retention processes, which forced them to take a much longer look at what they do when things do not go according to plan. This What America needs is more Jobs…Steve Jobs – Last week Steve Jobs officially removed himself as Apple’s CEO. This may be the end Secret Service by an airline – I get dozens of RSS feeds on customer service stories everyday, but rarely do I get a positive story of an airline. British Airways Using iPads TA making price less relevant – TravelCenters of America, a long time consulting client of The Quote of the week -
“We started off hoping to change a business, ended up changing an industry, community, people’s lives, and the way other companies do business”
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Secret Service Certification by John DiJulius
This last class of the year, will provide new insight into the customer service systems used by the top organizations in the world and show you how to use them at your company.
12 candidates will be selected to be a part of this train-the-trainer class taught by best-selling author, keynote speaker, consultant and THE Authority on delivering a world-class customer experience John DiJulius.
This class is tailored to: · Corporate trainers · Consultants · Leadership teams · Small business owners
For details and selection process call Denise Thompson at 440-443-0023 and mention secret phrase “I’m a member of the customer service revolution” for early bird pricing.
Few seats remain available!
“Any company in the world can do what you do, except deliver world-class customer service.” |
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FREE Teleseminar September 14, 12 PM EST This September 14th join John DiJulius in the first of a NEW series of FREE Teleseminars based on the X-Commandments of world-class.
The first teleseminar will expand on The State of Service in America. Why are companies realizing poor service is a sure way to go out of business? How the top service companies endure all economic climates? How do you compete on experience not on price?
To register follow these 2 easy steps:
Add this teleseminar to your Facebook or LinkedIN calendars so you don’t forget:
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~John R. DiJulius III best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President 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, John DiJulius | Tags: Amazon, client experience, Customer Satisfaction, John DiJulius, secret service, Shep Hyken, Success Magazine, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
“Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…
It’s about TIME – Speed of time and speed of service are as critical to the customer experience as anything. Too often it is part of fundamentals, but does not get the time it deserves in operations, training, and mindshare of all employees. Everyone in the organization has to understand how valuable time is to the customer.
No time to Wait – In the great book, The Amazement Revolution, by my good friend, Shep Hyken, (who has been a keynote speaker at the Secret Service Summit) articulates very well the importance of time. Hyken shares how consumers consistently report to researchers that they are working harder and longer hours than ever before, that they experience serious stress in their lives because of the lack of available time to do everything they want to do, and that they flat-out resent being kept waiting. It is vital that business demonstrate to their customers that their time is always regarded as a critical resource. Their time will always be respected by sending silent cues and signals such as, “I am here. I see you. You are the most important priority for me right now, and I am not putting any other task in front of the task of serving you.”
New Word of Mouth – Word of mouth use to be the most influential tool to a brand’s reputation. Today is a new age, and through social media outlets, the voice of the customer can create brand evangelists or brand assassins at warp speeds. College Works Painting, headquartered in Southern California, has always prided themselves on being at the top of their industry for customer service; but they found out the hard way about the new word of mouth. One unhappy, disgruntled customer created a blog where he complained aggressively about the job that was done for him. His blog dominated the search engines for four years. As a result of this brand terrorism CWP estimates that it lost millions in revenue and countless employee candidates.
Just say Yes – As a result of the beating CWP took from that nasty blogger, CEO Matt Stewart now 
shares the lessons he learned. “After committing to truly becoming a world-class customer service organization, we changed our entire culture and attitude toward every customer we contact. We don’t care who is right or wrong, we look at ourselves through the eyes of any customer, and we fight for 100% satisfaction. We say ‘sorry’ more, we say ‘yes’ more, and we move very fast and very transparently. Our philosophy is Yes is always the answer, now what is the question? This is a way of life for us, and for me personally.” You can hear Matt live, as he is one of our keynote presenters at this year’s Secret Service Summit. Matt will share how he has helped to build multiple successful businesses based on delivering a world-class customer and employee experience.
“…To be the earth’s most customer centric company” – A pretty ambitious goal, but I wouldn’t bet against the author of that statement, Jeff Bezos. Recently Success Magazine featured the founder and President of Amazon.com in their August issue and as always, the pioneer stressed how Amazon’s 
success is built around fanatical drive on the customer experience. Some excerpts from Bezos: “The customer experience is the critical guiding hand. Our vision is to be the earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” With that type of vision from the President, is it any wonder why Amazon.com has revolutionized not only ecommerce, but also retailing and publishing as well? The article said, “If the Internet were rock & roll, Bezos was its Elvis.” Bezos cites the fundamental differences between an entrepreneur and professional management, “entrepreneurs are more stubborn about the vision and keep working on the details. One of the dangers about bringing in professional managers is the first thing they want to alter is the vision. The rule of thumb is to be stubborn on the big things and flexible on the details.”
Quote of the Week -
“We are not for everyone, nor do we want to be. We are for the 1% who wants to emerge as
the best-of-the-best and are not afraid to work harder and challenge themselves
to see how much greatness they actually have inside.”
Receive a “Johnism” of the Day – join me on http://twitter.com/johndijulius
~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 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.
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| 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: Client Services, Customer Experience, Customer Service, John DiJulius, Malcolm Gladwell, Patient Experience, Patient Services | Tags: Customer Service, customer experience, client experience, The DiJulius Group, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, customer service consultant, the customer service blog, Client Services, Patient Services
If you ask managers of any business how important their customers’ experience is to customer satisfaction (i.e. engaging, memorable, personalize, relationships, etc.), along with the quality of service or product they deliver, nearly every manager would say that the customer experience is critically important. Yet they contradict themselves by their actions.
Managers get frustrated because their employees and professional service personnel think it is all about the expertise. ‘Wowing’ the customer consistently takes a back seat. Why? Because it is just lip service by management! Want proof? Think about most professions; nearly all the degrees, licensing and on-going education is spent on the technical expertise of the profession. Now compare that with how much customer service training is put into a new employee and how much on-going training is put into an existing staff? How many colleges offer Customer Service as a major, a minor, or even a class?
How many companies require their professional service providers to have certain levels of customer service training and/or licensing before they are allowed to work with customers, patients, or clients? Hardly any.
Medical brilliance is a Commodity
A recent study found that, of the doctor’s surveyed, most seemed to overrate the patient service they provide. The following results are from research conducted in 2010 by The Management & Business Academy, sponsored by CIBA Vision and Essilor.
- 97% of practices rate the quality of the service they provide as above average or higher.
- 32% rate their service as “outstanding” – the best in their community.
- When patients rave about the service of an optometric practice, they most commonly mention the quality of the human interaction that occurs during an office visit rather than the technical quality of the exam or the technology used in the practice.
- The most frequently mentioned comment from highly satisfied patients is that “staff is friendly.”
This study presented research of highly satisfied patients, and rarely did the highly satisfied patients ever mention the technical competence of the doctor or staff, the technology used by the office or thoroughness of the exam.
What does this mean?
Patients expect excellent medical treatment and trust they will receive it at most professional medical practices and hospitals. As a result, medical brilliance by itself is a commodity and unacceptable today as a single measuring tool.
Want more evidence of how important demonstrations of caring and compassion can be in the medical world?
Consider the following findings from the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
- The risk of being sued for malpractice has very little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes.
- Analysis of malpractice lawsuits shows that highly skilled doctors get sued. In nearly every single malpractice case, the patient was quoted as saying something negative about how the doctor made them feel.
- At the same time, the overwhelming numbers of people who suffer an injury due to negligence of a doctor never file a malpractice suit at all. Why? Because of the bond they had with the doctor. They would never consider suing the doctor or his practice, even though there was negligence on the part of their doctor.
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
Patients don’t file lawsuits because they’ve been harmed by shoddy medical care only. It is how their doctor treated them on a personal level. People don’t sue doctors they like.
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, 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 Experience | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Service, customer service consulting, customer service process, John DiJulius, the customer service blog, The DiJulius Group
Having a service vision for your company is only the first step in developing a top-flight, customer experience oriented business. Even the most visionary organizations can’t pull off top service if they don’t have a world-class internal culture. That is accomplished only by attracting, hiring and retaining only those people who have the all-important service DNA.
As business leaders, we need to have standards that require prospective employees to earn the right to be a part of our company. Having a set of non-negotiable hiring standards will turn your prospective employees either on or off.
People need to earn the right to work for you. The main objective of any human resource person who conducts first interviews with prospective hires is to try to scare the applicant out of working for you. If the applicant doesn’t scare, chances are high that he or she is a good fit for your company. What “scare” really means is to help candidates recognize that a job at your company may be either a much bigger commitment than they wanted or exactly what they have been looking for. In order to do this, your company needs to have its own set of non-negotiable hiring standards.
Very similar to creating the service vision, there are two distinct parts of creating your hiring standards:
- creating the values that truly embody what your company stands for and
- being able to articulate those values to potential, new and seasoned employees so clearly and passionately that, within minutes, you can tell if your are turning them on or off.
A world-class culture does not compromise values; rather, it remains faithful to values, even when remaining faithful means doing things differently from everyone else. A legendary culture is created in the head and the heart of the leader and passed from team member to team member.
Build the culture and the customers will come
If you truly want to be a world-class customer experience organization, then you have to be the employer of choice. And to do that, you need to be known for four things:
- Being a great place to work
- Providing great training
- Having superior customer service
- Offering unlimited opportunity
If you can create that type of reputation, you will never have a shortage of applicants.
The employee career experience
The employee career experience encompasses the traditional stages an employee has during his or her career with your company. These stages are quite consistent from company to company; recruiting, screening and hiring, orientation and training, 90 days after hire, six months after hire, one year after hire, two years after hire, and after five or more years of employment.
Because the employee’s mentality is different at each stage, managers need to be trained how to coach, so they effectively emphasize and avoid certain factors at each stage. By creating this, you are designing a blueprint on how to create a positive working environment. This blueprint teaches new managers – and reminds experienced managers – how to create a great culture throughout an employee’s career in a way that continually reinforces his or her emotional capital in the company.
There are three components of each stage: service defects, standards and above-and-beyond opportunities.
Service defects are the things that the company and management need to avoid at each stage because those things can cause the employee’s morale to take a nosedive.
Standards are actions we want the company and management to deliver at each stage because those are the things that will differentiate the company from any other company for which the employee has ever worked.
And finally, above-and-beyond opportunities allow management to demonstrate a culture of going out of their way to care about the individual employee, leaving a reoccurring impression that this company is unlike any other for which they have worked.
I have never come across a world-class customer service organization that wasn’t a world-class company to work for — not only vertically (management to employee) but horizontally (employee to employee), as well.
