Through the Eyes of the Customer

The Value of the Habit in Customer Service

This is the first time I've posted to my blog in over three weeks.  Lost time, lost ideas, and lost opportunities. I was in the habit of publishing two to three posts each week.  And then I stopped for a couple days.  And a couple more days.

I lost momentum.

When I was in the habit, it was easy; it happend naturally; almost without effort.  I'd wake up in the morning, and write when my mind was clear and uncluttered by the day's activity. 

First thing in the morning, every day, and the writing seemed to come naturally.  There's a big parallel between writing blog posts, and delivering great customer experiences:

If you make it a habit by doing it every day, it will eventually happen on its own, without conscious effort.

Make it a habit, by focusing on it first thing in the morning, when your  mind is fresh, and uncluttered by the day's flow of business.  Just as productive writers get productive by making writing their daily ritual, great customer service organizations get great by embarking on their own first-thing-in-the-morning-before-it-gets-too-busy daily ritual.  Companies call it a morning huddle, or the daily line-up.

All the customer-facing employees get together, and talk customer service - the highs and lows of the day before, and what to expect and focus on during the day ahead.  By making these daily stand-up meetings a habit, delivering exemplary customer service becomes ingrained in the minds of the people who are responsible to deliver it, and this too, becomes a habit.

Bring your customer-facing employees together every morning for a concise, focused discussion on serving the customer.  Short and focused.  No one sits down.  No one gets distracted.  Everyone gets focused.  On the customer.

Make these daily discussions a habit.  And more customers will make your business their habit.

"A huddle a day helps to keep the detractors away."

A loyal customer is like a timeless work of art.

On a wall in the Louvre in Paris, France hangs one of history’s most famous paintings – the Mona Lisa.  It took Leonardo da Vinci four years to paint the Mona Lisa; it didn’t happen overnight.

Why did one painting take so long, especially when da Vinci didn’t have the disturbances of text messages, email and cell phone calls that impede our focus in the 21^st century? 

The reason it took so long is because da Vinci was very deliberate with each stroke of the brush.  Each time the paintbrush came in contact with the canvas, the artist was intent on producing a very specific – albeit subtle - outcome.   The cumulative result of thousands of deliberate brush strokes was that renowned masterpiece that’s viewed by over a million admirers every year.

A masterpiece isn’t created overnight, and neither is a loyal customer.

Every interaction between an employee and a customer is like a single stroke of a paintbrush on canvas.  And the evolving relationship between the customer and the business is like the evolving image on the canvas.  Each brush stroke adds color and texture, and contributes to the outcome.  Similarly, each engagement between an employee and the customer adds color to the relationship, changing the customer’s view of your business in some very subtle – or not-so-subtle way.  Just as every brushstroke affects the image which is to become the paining, no interaction is without impact on the customer relationship.

Masters like da Vinci knew this, which is why each brushstroke was delivered with forethought, care, and in the context of his vision for a certain final outcome.  He took no brushstroke for granted.

Smart companies today understand this, and like brushstrokes on canvas, they make sure that every customer interaction is delivered with forethought, care an in the context of a clearly-envisioned outcome.  

They make sure by following certain best practices – they hire people that have a caring, nurturing attitude, they train employees with a focus on the customer, and conduct regular, daily briefings with employees to keep customer-focus top-of-mind.  In a word, they help their employees to understand that every brushstroke matters; every brushstroke must be delivered with care, and with an eye on creating the kind of relationship that results in a loyal customer.

Loyal customers aren’t created overnight.  But with careful attention to each individual interaction, and with a clear vision toward an ultimate outcome, a customer relationship can become a masterpiece, and one of many in a portfolio as large as the Louvre.

A tale of two counters: How human interactions spark customer loyalty.

The most powerful customer experiences are sparked by human-to-human interaction.

This week, I had a flight from Phoenix to Boston.  When I approached the US Airways Ticket counter at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at 1:15 in the afternoon, there were no other customers in line – I was it – and there were three available agents!

I said to one of the agents, “Hi – I’d like to get a boarding pass.”  She motioned to a row of self-service kiosks in front of the counter, and said, “Help yourself to any one of those!”

Three idle flesh-and-blood highly-trained humans and they directed me to a cold, heartless machine.

I printed my boarding pass, took the escalator upstairs, and passed through security.  Next stop: Hudson News, for a bottle of water.  I walked over to the cooler along the back wall to the left of the magazines, opened the cooler door, and grabbed a large bottle.  Then I walked over to the cashier counter to wait in a short line.

One woman ahead of me – as soon as I approached the register with my bottle of water, the cashier looked at me, made eye contact, smiled, and nodded. That half-second gesture communicated a friendly, “I’ll be happy to help you in just a moment, sir, as soon as a finish with this customer.”  A brief and subtle connection, but just enough to spark a positive emotional response.  He made me a happier customer, even before the transaction.  Just that quick non-verbal exchange gave me something to remember.

The dismissive agent at the US Air Ticket Counter – she gave me nothing to remember.

Here’s the point:

The most intense customer loyalty is born of emotion.  And there’s no better way to spark positive emotions, than through the interactions that occur between human employees and human customers.  Employees should be trained to pursue opportunities to engage, and to make emotional connections with customers, whenever possible. 

Loyalty is based on relationships, and relationships happen between people; through human-to-human touchpoints.

Small things Create BIG Impressions, even if its just a Small Cup of Coffee.

Small things create big impressions.  And the impressions define the experience.

This past week, I travelled to Miami, Florida to deliver a presentation on the Human Side of Service.  Traveling outside of one’s normal routine can make one more sensitive to that which one doesn’t normally encounter; travel offers the opportunity to experience the remarkable.

One such incident occurred on the first leg of my JetBlue flight from Portland, Maine to JFK Airport in New York, before transferring on to Ft. Lauderdale.  Portland to JFK is about an hour, and the beverage choices on those flights are usually limited by the time factor.

At about 30,000 feet over Massachusetts, a flight attendant asked me what I’d like to drink.

Me:        “Coffee with cream, please.”

He:         “Sir, we don’t serve coffee on these shorter flights, but if you don’t mind waiting about ten minutes, I’ll be happy to go back and make a pot for you.”

Wow.   An offer of personalized service on flight of over 100 passengers!  That was pretty cool!!

In prior experiences on PWM to JFK, or PWM to LGA (LaGuardia Airport in New York), when I requested coffee, the response was more like, “I’m sorry sir, but we don’t have coffee on this short a flight; may I offer you juice, water or soda?”

Now, that’s a perfectly polite and reasonable response.  But it’s not in any way remarkable.  But when a flight attendant offers to ditch the standard practice, and go out of his or her way to please the customer, now that’s remarkable!

And it’s the remarkable stuff that gets repeated, and gets passed on in word-of-mouth conversation.

So, this is a pretty simple concept, right?  But if it’s so simple, everyone’s probably doing it, right?

Well, they’re really not, and that’s why it is so remarkable.  And that’s good news for the companies that are willing to be systematic about identifying the opportunities in their businesses, where small things can make BIG impressions.

Here’s an easy way to make it happen:

1. Ask all the customer-facing employees in your company, what the top five requests are that you get from customers.  I’m talking about those requests for which your answer can vary. 
2. Then based on the answers you receive, compile a list of the top ten.
3. Then give the list of the top ten back to those employees.  Challenge them to work as a group to come up with three “remarkable” responses for each of the ten questions.

You’ll accomplish three things in the process:

1. You’ll teach your employees to think more like customers; to put themselves in the customers’ shoes, and determine the kind of a response that would really impress them, as customers.  As a result of this, your employees will become more customer-centric.  And that’s a good thing.
2. You’ll generate alignment among your employees, by getting them to think together, as a group, with the common objective of delighting the customer.  Alignment is a key factor in customer-centric organizations.
3. Finally, you’ll come up with 30 ways to engage and delight a customer, to create positive word of mouth.

It's the remarkable things that we remember, which often influence our next purchase decision:

  

The Adaptability of Customer Service, and Why I'd Fly Air Zappo's

Tony Hsieh , the founder and Chief Executive of Zappo’s recently said that he wouldn’t rule out starting an airline someday.

Unless you think Tony is completely out to lunch, that speaks volumes for the importance of customer service in business.

Zappo’s,  by many accounts, has defined how to build and manage an organization whose primary purpose is to serve the customer, and secondarily, sell a product.    Building an organization to sell products is relatively easy.  It takes inventory, logistics and some capital.  Lots of companies do it.  Fewer companies do it well, and still fewer do it so well that they experience the consistent year-over-year growth that Zappo’s has.

But building an organization that can curry such favor with customers, that the customers  come back again and again, and bring their friends, neighbors and associates through word-of-mouth, requires a different set of skills.  Zappo’s growth, and the source of that growth – repeat customers  and word-of-mouth – demonstrates the financial impact that an exceptional customer experience can have on the overall success of a business, and its bottom line.

If you can do customer service well, your chances of succeeding in any business improve immensely.

I believe Tony Hsieh sees business through a different set of lenses.  He sees customer service as the primary growth engine of business.  And he looks for opportunities where there is a huge customer service gap; industries with a high degree of customer interaction and emotion, but where the quality of service has been historically low.  In other words, Tony looks for industries that offer the greatest opportunity for improvement in customer service.

Airlines fall into this category.  Aside from the JetBlues, Southwests and Virgin Atlantics, few airlines have repeatedly stood out as beacons of customer service.  Airlines may employ good people,  but the leadership of the airlines have not been able to transform good people into a great company-wide service organization.   They may know how to deliver air travel, but they have not shown the same level of expertise in delivering a customer experience. 

If you can do customer service well, your chances of succeeding in any business improve immensely.

There’s room in the airline industry for another company that can deliver the level of service and experience that Zappo’s customers receive.  And I think that Tony Hsieh is just the guy to run it.  I only hope that he doesn’t wait 20 years to start.

 

Why Employee Satisfaction is the Key to Customer Satisfaction.

There’s a great debate going on in the LinkedIn Group for Customer Experience Management.  The question that started the debate is:

"Does Employee Satisfaction Come First, or Customer Satisfaction?"

The answers have ranged from:

“Customer satisfaction should come first because the survival of the business and the satisfaction of the employee (pay cheque) depend on the customer. When a customer becomes a company brand ambassador everybody in the organisation wins.”

to…

“I heard a comment that hits a nerve for me, and I would love to hear others’ views. The comment was around understanding or differentiating between internal customers and external customers. My personal view is that there is only one type of customer – the external one who buys your organization’s products or services.”

to…

"ESAT=CSAT...You have to remember what it is like on the front lines in order to best support the experience."

to…

“You cannot wait to get the employee experience right, because this is all to do with culture, and this can take years to change. You must work on both. You cannot deliver a great customer experience without delivering a great employee experience, they go hand in hand. It is not really a question of what comes first.”

Since this is my blog, I get to have the last word (until you leave a comment!), and the last word is this:

Customer Satisfaction is inextricably linked to Employee Satisfaction.  When Employees are eager to go to work in the morning, engaged when they’re there, and excited about the work that they’re doing, they’ll transfer those positive emotions to every customer with whom they engage.

For statistical proof, read the examples of Zappo's and HCL on the Spoken Communications blog post.

Call it Karma if you wish, but it’s real, and it works. Happy employees make for happy customers.

What do you think?

 

2 Core Principals that Drive more Customers to Self Service Support Channels and Lower the Cost of Support!

Companies love when customers go to the Self Service Portal for support. 

Companies love it because resolving an incident through self service may cost $1, compared to $7 via email, compared to $15 or more, with a live agent over the phone.  There's money in self service, if you can just get your customers to go there. 

So what’s the secret?  How do companies who are successful at coaxing customer away from the phones, and into self service, make it happen?

There are essentially two factors to consider:

1. Make it easy for the customer.

2. Make it valuable for the customer.

Easy begins by making the self service portal easy to find.
Don’t bury access to the portal deep on your website.  In fact, treat it like a marketing “call to action.”  Make the link to the portal as clear as day to see; and place it in more than one place on your website, so that the customer can’t miss it!  Obvious, right?  But too many companies get it wrong!

Make it easy to navigate.
A site that’s hard to navigate is a sight that won’t get much traffic.  When designing your self-service sight, design with the theme of making the customer’s life easy.  Finding your way around the self-service portal can be a big part of the customer experience, so do it right!

Make it easy for the customer to find their answer.
This means putting the right content in the portal; Identify those 20% of the solutions that solve 80% of the problems, and make them very findable.  Employing a “recommendation engine” can also help.   If the customer has to manually search for the answer, you'll lose too many at hello - too many won’t invest the time or effort, and the'll go straight for the phone.  But if the search can be automated – by interpreting some key words from the customer’s question, or using other search algorithms to find and present precisely relevant content, you’ll have made life a lot easier for the customers, by saving them the hassle of searching.

OK, so you’ve made the Self Service Portal easy to use.  But remember that line from the movie “Field of Dreams?”   Just because you build an easy Portal with easy access to the right answers, doesn’t mean that the customers will come running.  They won’t.  Customers want value, and customers want convenience.  The more reasons you can give your customers to go to the portal, the more they’ll go there first.

That leads us to the second factor – Make it valuable for the customer.

 

Making it valuable means making the Self Service Portal the "go-to" place for the customer - the default source for anything and everything that they might get from your company.

Example:
A particular software company (real story, by the way) wanted to increase the percentage of customers utilizing their Self Service Portal.  So, in addition to Knowledge Base content and other support tools, they relocated other resource to the portal: software downloads, sales chat, and their customer forum to the portal.  Weekly reports were previously delivered through email, but clients now could access their reports anytime, through the Portal (which was easier for the clients to manage).

Within six months, the percentage of support requests initiated in the Portal increased from 12% to 69%, and the customers loved it!

So, by making Self Service easy to use, and by focusing it on more of the customers' interests (beyond simply support), more customers to come to your on-line support party.

  

 

Emotional Framing, and 3 Ways to Increase Customer-focus in the Call Center

Sometimes, business keeps the call center from doing its real job.

In this past Sunday’s New York Times, there was an inspiring editorial about a call center in a V.A. hospital in upstate New York. 

According to the article, at this Veterans’ hospital in Canandaigua, N.Y., “a staff of about 120 runs a national phone and Internet chat service for veterans in crisis. Its mission is to connect veterans to help as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The editorial inspires by describing how the contact center helps deserving veterans who desperately need it. There’s no other motive, beyond helping the caller.

When we think of disabled war veterans, we don’t think of them as “customers.”  We think of them as good citizens who in the course of serving their country, were struck mentally or physically by the harsh realities of war.  The circumstances can be very emotional, and therefore raise the importance of helping the caller.

Companies often frame their contact centers as cost centers.  They manage their call centers using cost and efficiency metrics.  With this increased focus on cost and efficiency, there’s often a lesser focus on the customer.  The lesson from this V.A. hospital call center is that any call center must first focus on helping the customer.  And only when the customers’ needs have been addressed; when their lives have been made better in some way, does efficiency matter.  

So, what can a company do to increase customer-focus in the call center?

3. Hire and train for empathy.
Many of the call center agents at the V.A. Hospital in Canandaigua are themselves veterans, and therefore have an intimate understanding of the callers’ situations.  In your business, this may mean making your call center agents “customers.”  You can accomplish this by brining your agents as close to the customer experience as possible, by enabling them to use your products or services in their own lives, or spending time with the customers that do, so that they can understand first-hand what it’s like to be a customer.

2. Celebrate and spread emotional stories.
There are plenty of customer service moments when a problem is solved, and a customer’s life is made easier through the efforts of the call center agent.   Share and retell these moments in daily or weekly team huddles.  By broadcasting these emotional successes on a regular basis, empathy for the customer grows stronger.

3. Make your metrics more customer-focused.
Make customer satisfaction scores a higher priority on your contact center scorecards, than efficiency metrics.  If you measure first for efficiency, you’ll manage for efficiency, and you’ll lose customer focus.  Put greater emphasis on customer satisfaction than on efficiency. Without satisfied customers, efficiency doesn’t matter.

When the customer engagement is framed in an emotional context, the call center's core purpose becomes clear.  And that core purpose is to help customers who need help. 

 
A Postcard of the Veterans Hospital in Canadaigua, New York, where service stands tall and centered.

 

What Can Customer Service Learn from the Atlanta Test Score Scandal?

There's an important lesson  that any success-based organization can learn from the Atlanta Test Score Scandal.

Sometimes, so much emphasis is placed on metrics, that the metrics become more important than the mission. 

At the risk of simplifying our educational system, I’ll say that its primary purpose is to educate children; and to prepare them well for their next stage of education.

When metrics are tied too tightly to the rewards of the people who are responsible for fulfilling the mission, those  same people may go to extremes to optimize the metrics, at the expense of the mission.

Just as the success of an educational system should be measured on how well students become progressively better educated from one year to the next, the success of a customer service organization should be based on the satisfaction and loyalty level of customers from one year to the next.

If we place too much emphasis on metrics like Daily Call Volume, or Average Call Closure Time, agents become more focused on getting the customer off the phone, than solving problems and delivering a satisfying experience to the customer.

Metrics are important; metrics are the milestones along the path that guide us in the direction of our mission.  We just need to make sure that we don’t get so focused on the metrics, that we lose sight of our true mission.

 

Don't become so focused on the marker, that you lose sight of the reason for the trip.
 
 
 
 
 

2 Keys that will make your Customer Service Guildelines Stick and Deliver!

People like shortcuts.

Shortcuts save us time, and make our lives easier.  Shortcuts require less thinking, less effort, and take us to results sooner.

Management teams often construct mission statements and vision statements as corporate north stars; a set of guiding principles to lead the organization toward its desired results.  But the problem with most of these mission or  vision statements is that they're virtually useless to the average employee. 

Let's talk about mission and vision statements from the perspective of delivering a great customer experience...

Much of the customer experience is delivered by the actions of those front-line employees; the employees who are  often the farthest from those verbose authors of those tomes that are intended to serve as guidelines.

The HBR Blog Network recenlty published an article with some ideas that can be applied to a vision statement, that  will turn it inot a set of useful  guidelines that can serve as communication "shortcuts" to more effective customer service.

Their premise is simple:  Guidelines should be memorable at a glance and actionable at a relevant decision point or unit. 

Let’s take a minute to examine those points individually, and apply them to a real-world customer service example:  The Vision Statement of the Intercontinental Hotel in Bali.

Memorable at a glance:

Can you understand it, without investing time to read it, or think about it every time?  In other words, does it make use of symbols or economy of  words, so that you can take a quick look, and immediately “get it?”

The Vision Statement at the Interncontinental contains a total of five easy words, that project and inspire an understanding of customer delight.  "Our Guests Want to Return."

Are your customer service guidelines “memorable at a glance” or does an employee have to take a moment to read them and think about them, before understanding them?  Can they easily write it out, or draw it on their own, from memory?  Or can they look at it, and remember it.  Forever?

Actionable at the decision points that matter:

Despite the high-level planning which often occurs, the customer experience is created one interaction at time.  Single face-to-face, nose-to-nose, knee-to-knee, belly-to-belly or voice-to-voice interactions between one employee and one customer.  Guidelines must be useful to the employees at these levels, by guiding them to make the kinds of decisions while interacting with the customers, that will cause the customers to want to come back again and again.   And to encourage their family, friends, neighbors and associates to do the same.

The Vision Statement at the Bali Hotel contains enough meaning to make it applicable at the level of the front-line employee at the front desk, or the member of the housekeeping staff.  As an added bonus, it continues to be relevant in guiding the decisions of mid and upper-level management,  toward actions that will have a positive impact on the customer.

When you craft guidelines that are intended to improve the customer experience, make sure those guidelines follow these two criteria: 

1. Memorable at a glance
2. Actionable at a relevant decision point

Life doesn’t need to be so complicated.  In fact, sometimes it’s best if it’s kept simple.  Simple is memorable, and simple is useful.