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.”
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~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: Carmine Gallo, customer experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service process, the customer service blog
“Changing the World by Creating a Customer Service Revolution…”
Reverse Secret Service – While reading The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo, I came across an innovative initiative by the Westin Hotels, designed to encourage deeper relationships between hotel employees and guests: New employee name tags, which included this phrase, “My passion is ___________.” Westin executives said that the passion tags opened a dialogue between the company’s staff and its guests, and when guests start talking, they are much more forthcoming about any issues that might concern them during their stay. A simple phrase on a nametag encourages guests to talk and engage, and find out similarities and common interests, thus helping to break down barriers and create emotional connections.
Call Center & Cast Members – Do you have employees in mundane roles, doing the same task over and over again all day long, answering the same questions, dealing with frustrated customers, whose problems and issues where not your fault? Well guess who else has the exact same scenarios, maybe even worse? Walt Disney World! Disney is and always will be the leading example of world-class customer service. Even though you have heard numerous examples, if you really think about it, they apply to any business. I swore I would not share another Disney story until just recently when I heard someone say, “Our customer interactions are not as romantic as a theme park, where people are excited to be there. It is not apples to apples.” I disagree!
I took my three boys to Disney World this past August — the absolute worst time to go. The temperature was in the mid-nineties, and the average wait time for an attraction was about 60 minutes. It was miserable. Like everyone else, we waited, baking, all while the kids are whining, “How much longer.” I observed the Disney cast members who stood there the entire time, in costumes, as uncomfortable as we all were. The only difference is that eventually we got to enjoy a ride, while they just ushered people on and off. I saw them being asked the same stupid questions hundreds of times, “how much longer,” “my child has to go to the bathroom,” etc. They had to deal with frustrated customers who were literally losing their cool because of the anxiety of waiting in the heat with an impatient child. And I was amazed at these young 18-24 year olds and how well they kept their composure. They acted like the questions were unique, they kept smiling, and I watched as tour guides returned with a new group, reloaded another dozen people and they had to start the script all over again. They said it fresh and enthusiastically like it was their first tour of the day.
There is something to be learned from this about making sure our employees understand the importance of their roles in our customer’s day; and while it may be our 100th same old interaction of the day, it is our customers only one with us. We owe it to them to provide an experience saying they were the only customer we contacted that day.
Adding theatre to your job – Just like call centers, receptionists, and cast members managing wait times, flight attendants’ jobs can get very monotonous by performing the same duties and saying the same scripts flight after flight, day after day. You have to watch this video of how a Southwest flight attendant changed it up, making it a memorable experience for the passengers and himself, and breaking out of the same routine.
Resource of the Week – The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo. I am a huge Steve Jobs fan and found this book excellent. So much so, I had everyone at The DiJulius Group read this book.
Quote of the Week -
“Leaders are fascinated by the future. You are a leader if, and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. As a leader you are never satisfied with the present, because in your head you can see a better future, and the friction between what is and what could be burns you, stirs you, propels you forward.”
~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, John DiJulius, What's the Secret? | Tags: client experience, customer experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, customer service training, the customer service blog
You can make the argument that in business, achieving Zero Risk is as important as consistently achieving delivery of your non-negotiable service standards. Zero Risk addresses an intimidating array of issues such as service defects, lack of concern about the customer’s experience, and incidents or emergencies that aren’t a company’s fault.
“These all produce unhappy customers.”
But what does Zero Risk look like from the consumer side? As a customer, Zero Risk means you have a sense of security knowing that when you deal with a company, if something goes wrong, that company will make it right. There’s no risk (Zero Risk) on the customer’s part to deal with that company or business.
How many Zero Risk companies do you deal with? The following scenario happens every day. You are unhappy with your experience as a customer. You express your displeasure to a front-line employee who looks at you like a deer in your headlights. At best, that employee may say “Sorry” — but that’s it. The employee isn’t allowed, or required, or trained to fix the problem. It’s obvious that nobody at the company cares whether you are disappointed, and you realize it is a waste of time and energy to try to do anything about it. So you just stop reporting your displeasure, and more importantly, you stop going back. Dealing with a company like that is High Risk and the opposite of Zero Risk.
Today, we expect very little from companies. We feel it is a waste of time to complain because companies will be defensive and will not take responsibility for the problem. By now you probably have heard the urban legend about a customer who returned tires to a Nordstrom store and Nordstrom refunded the money even though it has never sold tires. It doesn’t matter whether or not the story is true. What does matter is that Nordstrom has an almost mythical status for its “no-hassle” customer service.
I admit that I love to shop at Nordstrom. They have made price irrelevant for me because they provide great service, and I know they are a Zero Risk company. I don’t have to worry about returning an item within 30 days or saving my receipt because Nordstrom just doesn’t haggle over these details.
I have a personal “tire experience” story with Nordstrom. One day, as I put on a nice pair of shoes, I noticed that the tongue was damaged in one of them. At first I thought nothing could be done about the situation because the shoes were nearly a year old. But then I remembered that my wife had purchased them at Nordstrom. I decided to put Nordstrom’s reputation to the test. I took the shoes to my Nordstrom in Beachwood, Ohio, and asked for the general manager. Fran Broda introduced herself to me as the general manager and asked how she could assist me.
“My wife purchased these shoes here nearly a year ago, and one of them is now defective.” Fran looked at the shoe. “I don’t believe Nordstrom has ever sold this brand of shoes.” I firmly disagreed. “I am pretty confident my wife purchased these here. She buys all my shoes from Nordstrom.”
“Regardless, let me see what we can do. We should be able to repair it. Can you leave it with us for a few hours?” she replied. I have to admit that I was a little surprised.
At first I felt that she was trying to get out of fixing the shoe. (Maybe the tire story really was a myth.) Could their customer service be overrated? I was sure I would have to pay for the repair, especially as Fran wasn’t admitting to having sold them in the first place. A few hours later, I returned to Nordstrom. The shoe was fixed and as good as new. Better yet, to my great surprise, at no charge!
Driving home, I thought, “That was Zero Risk. They stood behind their product and fixed it, even though my shoes were nearly a year old.” I gave them a 9 on a scale of 10, losing 1 point because Fran tried to say Nordstrom’s hadn’t sold the shoes to me. When I got home, I told my wife the story. She immediately told me that Fran Broda was right! My wife remembered buying the shoes someplace else. So Nordstrom scored a perfect 10. At no charge they had repaired a used shoe that they hadn’t even sold!
“Nordstrom is truly a Zero Risk company.”
~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: 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 | 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 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 | Tags: client experience, customer experience, customer loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, Donald Wayne McLeod, listenup, secret service, Secret Service Summit, the customer service blog
LISTEN UP doesn’t just teach you how to network, we look at networking as a science. You will often hear us talk about bringing the Orchestra. What that means is to remember and use the hundreds of tiny skills required to truly and interpersonally connect with others. The ability to blend the entire compilation of said skills into a flawless presentation of oneself is in itself a skill and one that you very rarely see.
I want you to think about The Cleveland Orchestra. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing them I am sure you will agree they are spectacular. Here the conductor has a wide variety of professionally trained individual musicians that can be brought into the mix. The conductor directs and blends all the different components of the orchestra right down to a single triangle to create a masterpiece. If you have ever studied a conductor in action you will notice how hard they need to concentrate. They are concentrating on every detail in order to make the presentation perfect and it shows.
How do I relate this example to Networking? In order to successfully Network you need to bring the entire, well practiced, perfectly conducted, professional orchestra. You need to not only understand the multitude of skills required you need to practice them. You need to conduct them with energy, style, grace and in a flawless manner.
While networking instead of musicians we conduct people skills that are at our disposal. We have greetings, handshakes, eye contact, energy levels, listening skills, manners, goodbyes and body language that are all being judged by those we come in contact. How we talk, walk, dress and interact with others to name a few are all constantly being perceived and evaluated. Are your interpersonal communication skills polished and ready to go?
Think about it, when was the last time someone WOWED you? The problem is a lot of individuals are giving presentations that sound less like The Cleveland Orchestra and more like a grade school concert band. They are going through the motions but the music is almost unrecognizable. Don’t let that be you… practice, practice, practice.
We have no idea who we will meet today who will change our lives forever. Also realize that everyone we meet is listening both consciously and unconsciously to our inner orchestra. Do we sound sincere, gracious, positive, energetic and optimistic or do we sound negative, insincere, uninterested, bored or self absorbed. My question is what kind of music are others hearing coming from you?
At LISTEN UP we are not teaching rocket science. A lot of what we talk about is common knowledge but it is common knowledge that isn’t common. A lot of people believe they already know how to communicate and network with others. The problem is many people are networking unarmed for the task. They are playing at a grade school level and never even realize it. It is not what you think of your presentation but rather what others think about your presentation that truly matters. We want you to be playing beautiful music and when you talk we want others to LISTEN UP.
About the Author
~Donald Wayne McLeod founded LISTEN UP LLC, an interpersonal communication consulting company, in 2007 after witnessing people’s inability to connect with one another and realizing his unique ability to facilitate them in that regard. Donald has been featured in Inside-Business Magazine, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The News-Herald, WEWS Channel 5 and WTOE Radio. Donald Wayne McLeod can be reached at www.listenup.biz, or at 216.210.5420.
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.
