Shep Hyken's Blog, page 230

Guest Blog: Accountability For Customer Service Only Happens When You Believe It

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Sam Silverstein shares an experience he had with an airline illustrating the importance of everyone in a company sharing the same beliefs. –Shep Hyken

Recently I was on the website of a major airline trying to purchase a ticket that I had put on hold. This airline lets you hold a ticket for 24 hours before making your final decision. The website had a message on the top saying it was being serviced and that it might not operate properly. It didn’t.

I called the special help desk at the airline for frequent flyers who use that airline a lot. I explained my situation and asked if she could finalize the transaction as I didn’t want to lose the seat or the price. I was informed that there would be a service charge for her to do that and that only online was it free. When I restated that the website was down for repairs she said that she could connect me to the web department and that they could take care of me. I objected.

I didn’t want to be connected to another department where I had to tell my complete story over again and then hope that someone would provide me with some service. It was only after restating my situation several times and suggesting that there must be a way to override the computer when there are challenges like this that she finally offered to finalize the transaction for me. It took all of 1 minute for her to complete the purchase of the ticket.

I looked up the mission for this particular airline and there were two elements. Customer service was one. They lied.

Just because you say you believe something doesn’t mean that you do. Just because you say your office will be clean doesn’t mean it will it be clean. Just because you say that you treat all employees fairly, do you? And, just because your mission says that customer service is important does it mean that the members of your organization will deliver that high quality customer service? If your actions don’t support your words then you don’t believe it.

Most companies train on tactics. Leaders tell their employees, “This is how you deliver customer service.” Before tactics can ever matter it is critical for the leadership of the organization to take the time to figure out what they believe. What do they believe about how revenue is generated, how production is handled, how employees are treated and yes, how customer service is valued? Then, leadership must continuously communicate the expectations around those beliefs to all the employees. People perform based on expectations. If you don’t share your beliefs with everyone then they will not know how to act.

Finally, we must make sure that everyone in the organization is living these beliefs. The employees that aren’t should be reeducated as to “how we do things here” and if issues persist persists they should be allowed to achieve success in another organization. Accountability naturally flows from a culture where everyone knows the beliefs and what is expected of them.

Great customer service is not about tactics. It is about an organization’s culture that has been specifically defined in terms of beliefs, effectively communicated to everyone in the organization and continuously reinforced over time. Action follows belief and great customer service follows those that believe it is a critical part of how their organization should run.

© 2014 • Sam Silverstein Enterprises, Inc.

Sam Silverstein, CSP is the author of several books including, No More Excuses. He works with organizations looking to create an organizational culture where people are highly engaged and accountability is a natural outflow. We empower people to be accountable.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com

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What Lane Are You In? Customer Service?

Customer Experience

The best companies know what they are good at, and they “stay in that lane.”  For example, Ace Hardware is known for its helpful customer service.  Nordstrom is known for their brand of legendary service.  Zappos is known for their amazing service.  What none of these companies are known for is being the low price leader.  It’s not that they are high priced either.  They are competitively priced and have chosen to compete by delivering value with their customer service.  That’s their lane: customer service.

Sure, at certain times all of these companies have sales and discounted items.  I love the semi-annual sales at Nordstrom.  Some great buys can be found.  But those are just twice a year, and even with the sale, you still get the great Nordstom experience.

On the flip side, you have the Dollar Stores.  They advertise an incredibly low priced product.  The bargains are sometimes amazing.  But, unlike Nordstrom or Ace Hardware, you don’t find sales experts standing in the aisles ready to serve and help the customer.  What you usually will find are friendly people at the cash register who smile and say thank you as they take your money and hand you your bag of merchandise.  It’s important to note that there is nothing wrong with that.  It works well for them.  It’s their plan; their focus.  It’s the lane they’ve chosen to be in.

What really got me thinking about this was the recent news of Radio Shack closing about 20% of their stores.  All reports indicate that they are struggling.  Or, just like any savvy retail chain, they may just be ridding themselves of low volume stores.  How could this happen to a retail industry icon?  I may not have the entire answer; however I have a theory of what could have contributed to Radio Shack’s current situation.

First of all, I love Radio Shack, and I admit to being a little bit of a geek.  As a kid, I loved going to the Radio Shack store and getting what I needed for cool projects.  I continue to go to their stores on occasion to buy some electronic accessories.  However, the store I visit in the mall today is very different than the store I remember as a kid.  I remember going to Radio Shack for things I couldn’t get elsewhere; batteries, wire and cables.  They also had cool merchandise that other stores didn’t sell.  Today, their merchandising doesn’t give me that impression.  Are they in the “hard-to-find-in other-stores” electronics business, the phone business, or the TV business?  Are they competing with Best Buy and other consumer electronic stores?  At some point they switched lanes, but I’m still not sure which lane they switched.

Now even though I’ve opened the door a bit on Radio Shack’s strategy, that’s not the discussion I want to get into.  This is just an observation that made me think of companies that struggle because they can’t choose a lane and stay in it.

Back to the companies mentioned earlier; Ace Hardware, Nordstrom and Zappos.com.  We know what lane these companies play in.  We know what they stand for.  There is no confusion.  They have chosen to compete with customer service, and they have done quite well.  That lane is obvious.  Walmart and Dollar Stores choose to compete on price, another obvious lane.  Less obvious lanes might be companies known for industry specific merchandise or very high end merchandise.

So, the question is this: Do your customers know what lane you are in?  Making a lane change in business isn’t illegal.  You won’t get a ticket.  But, if not done properly, you will confuse the customer, which reminds me of what someone once said: “A confused customer won’t buy.”

(By the way, if you know who said, “A confused mind won’t buy,” let me know.  Our search for the source of this quote didn’t give us a definitive answer.)

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 24, 2014

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

The CIO & CMO – Adversaries No More by Vala Afshar

(Slideshare) As marketing is getting more and more complex, data intensive and technology driven, it is important for CIOs to understand the new marketing era we live in. The pressure for CIOs to earn a seat at the strategic table was greatly enhanced by Gartner’s report in 2012 that pointed to the CMO as the champion of the technology budget in the near future.

My Comment: When Vala Afshar has anything to say or write, be prepared to listen and take notes.  He’s a marketing and customer service genius that speaks from experience.  This SlideShare is a great compilation of stats and facts that supports the concept that the CIO and the CMO – and the CCO (Chief Customer Officer) – must work together.

5 Ways to Completely Sabotage Your Customer Service (and Why You Shouldn’t Dare Do Them) by Adel Zsurzsan

(Merlin) Mistakes by customer service agents, the front-line employees of every business, cost a ton of money every year. Service providers often unknowingly self-sabotage their efforts. That said, let’s look at five common blunders that you can avoid to not hurt your company’s customer service.

My Comment: Here is a great list of what I refer to as “Loyalty Killers.” The five ways to sabotage customer service that are listed here are guaranteed to cause a company to lose business and erode customer confidence. This list can make a great conversation starter for a company meeting. The question is: Do we do any of these? And what other “Loyalty Killers” might we be guilty of?

Why Trust is the Only Currency of Online Retail by Jan Vels Jensen

(Business2Community) The move from a physical to an Internet retail model has made brand trust a necessity for success.

My Comment: While this article focuses on the concept of trust in e-commerce, I believe that trust permeates any and every type of business. Regardless of what kind of business you’re in – B2B or B2C – trust is not an option or luxury you offer your customer. It’s table stakes. The old expression is that people want to do business with people (and companies) they know, like and trust. Trust creates customer confidence, and confidence leads to customer loyalty.

Wearables – the customer experience impact by Derek Lewis

(The Eptica Customer Experience Blog) Wearable technology is increasingly blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds. Existing augmented reality apps add extra layers of information, such as descriptions, when you point your smartphone at particular buildings or objects. Wearables take this a step further, removing the need to use a phone or tablet as you can automatically receive information or access services through smart technology, such as Google Glass.

My Comment: I am always amazed and impressed how some companies use technology to deliver a better customer service experience.  Customer service used to be just being nice.  Now we strive to be more than just nice, looking for other ways to enhance our customers’ experiences.  Technology like Google Glass is very cool, and I can’t see what else the future will bring us.

Five Reasons Why Customer Service and Service Culture are Marketing Conversations by Ron Kaufman

(Up YourService) Here are five reasons why customer service and service culture are so important for companies and brands, and for clear-thinking marketing professionals.

My Comment: It has been said that customer service is the new marketing, and this article sums it up so well – especially point number one: A company’s brand is experienced at every point of the customer’s journey. So, any and every interaction point is an opportunity to create a strong customer experience. Anything less erodes the customer’s confidence in the brand.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)

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Guest Blog: A Result to Remember: It’s Not the Product. It’s the People.

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Randy Pennington writes about his experience buying a car from  the Sewell Dealership and how they get customer service right. –Shep Hyken

Delivering customer service – at least the way it is practiced in most companies – is easy. The customer asks you for something, and you give it to them. Hopefully, the sales and service people are pleasant and helpful. But judging from past experience, that is apparently optional.

Building a culture that is obsessed with serving customers is hard. You have to create an environment where people are motivated and engaged. Processes must be implemented and continually refined that allow you to be faster, better, cheaper, and friendlier. People have to be passionate about excellence even on days when they find their jobs to be something of a pain.

Carl Sewell’s family of auto dealerships is at or near the top for sales and service with the brands they represent for one simple reason: They are the best at sustaining a culture that serves customers.

The Message that Put Me in a New Car

Earlier this week, my wife and I picked up our new vehicle from the Sewell Lexus dealership in Dallas. We have had two Sewell autos in our garage since 1993.2014RX

I wasn’t looking to fight the crowds for a new car in December. I was perfectly happy with both of my autos, and the lease on my 2011 RX350 didn’t expire until the end of February 2014.

That changed when I received an email and text from the folks at Sewell letting me know that (1) they wanted my vehicle; and (2) they would make it worth my while to trade now.

The result was a conversation with Linda Arnold, my friend and sales rep at Sewell for many years. Linda worked up an offer sheet based on what she knew about me and my vehicle without me stepping foot in the dealership.

Based on that quote, I dropped by on a Saturday. About an hour later, I left with a handshake deal on a new vehicle that actually lowered my payment with nothing out of pocket at closing.

Sweet, huh?

Why I Really Purchased this Vehicle

The reason I purchased from Sewell isn’t the car or even the deal. It is the people.

Other dealerships would have offered a similar financial deal. Everyone runs a sale on cars in December. There is even another very fine Lexus dealership that is equally close to where I live. If Sewell knew the value in my 2011 vehicle, others would as well.

The reason is that no one does service before, during, and after the sale better than Sewell. Here is an example from my experience with my new vehicle:

◾The sales process was extremely easy. I trusted to Linda to treat me fairly and there was no need for haggling over minor details. It would have actually taken less than an hour for us to work out the deal except that Linda suggested that I might actually want to drive the new model to see the differences.

◾At the closing, Linda, synced my phone and uploaded my contacts to the Bluetooth system on the auto. That is cool, but lots of people do that.

◾Linda went a step further by taking a photo of the radio presets on my old vehicle and then loading them into the on my new vehicle.

◾Cecily McClarin has assisted me with every closing since I purchased my first Sewell Lexus in 1989. She is completely prepared. Most important, the experience isn’t just painless. It is actually enjoyable. I was in and out in about 20 minutes.

The Sewell Difference

Over 75 people responded to the photo of my new vehicle posted on Facebook. One person wrote that he remembered reading Sewell’s Customer for Life book back in the 1990’s and found the principles to be simplistic.

The principles are simple. They include things such as:

◾Ask the customer what they want and give to them

◾Systems not smiles

◾Fire your inspectors and your customer relations department

◾Treat people with respect and find ways to say “yes”

◾Do it right the first time

◾Pay more to save more

◾Develop service superstars

The difficult part is executing those principles at every level every day. That’s what makes Sewell the best at what they do. It is what makes for results to remember.

Randy Pennington is author of Make Change Work: Staying Nimble, Relevant, and Engaged in a World of Constant Change (Wiley, 2013). For additional information or to schedule Randy for your organization: contact via telephone at 972.980.9857; e-mail at Mary@penningtongroup.com or at www.penningtongroup.com.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com

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Customer Service Journey Map Can Lead to Instant Gratification

Here is a great customer service strategy: Instant Gratification.

This doesn’t happen at the end of the transaction.  This must happen at every step of the way.  During the customer journey there are multiple touch points, times when the customer either interacts with a company’s employees, website or product.  The idea is to make every customer interaction an experience that delivers instant gratification.

This concept of instant gratification tied to customer service came from a recent conversation I had with Frank Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Falcon Products.  The company makes table bases.  At one point, if you walked into a restaurant almost anywhere in the world, there was a pretty good chance that the table base was made by Falcon.  Frank has since retired, but his enthusiasm for how he treated the customer still burns a strong flame.

Frank felt that there needed to be instant gratification at every touch point.  The goal is to avoid the opposite of instant gratification, which I, for lack of a better term, am going to call Instant Misery.  Imagine if the customer opened their box and found fingerprints all over the stainless steel table base.  Or, perhaps the customer called with a problem and had to be put on hold.  Or there was a part missing from the box.  You get the idea.

Not only do those negative touch points provide misery.  They also cause a customer to question if they are doing business with the right company.  It erodes confidence.

Where can you find instant gratification in the customer experience?  There are many places:

Calling technical support and having a customer service representative answer within ten seconds.
Asking for help on Twitter and getting a response from the company in less than five minutes.
The positive greeting you get when you walk into or return to a place where you’ve done business.
Getting a problem resolved on the first call, without being transferred.
Getting notification confirming that your online order was accepted and is in the process of being shipped.
Occasional messages updating you on your order or project.
When you receive an expected package in the mail – on time or even sooner than expected.

I haven’t even scratched the surface on all of the different places in the customer journey that you can create instant gratification.  So, here is your assignment.  Sit down with your team and create a customer journey map.  Look for the touch points along the way that are opportunities to create these moments.  At the same time, look for places where your customer might find instant misery.  Once you identify these places, go to work at eliminating misery and creating instant gratification.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 17, 2014

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

Experience Design: When Innovation Isn’t Enough by Patrick Newbery

(Wired) The allure of innovation has always been in the chance of finding the next “big thing;” however, businesses often find themselves on the treadmill of relentless innovation as markets mature and technology advances. In addition, innovation has a poor track record of delivering commercial success for businesses. Often, the value of the innovation requires a broader system of products and services for the true benefit of experience to be available to consumers.

My Comment: Very interesting article about designing the customer experience.  The goal is to create an engaged customer, which I believe, with the right experience, leads to a loyal customer.  What comes to mind is that we’re doing what we can to become less transactional and more interactional.  Getting a customer more engaged means building an experience and even a connection, and it starts with designing the customer’s experience.

8 ways to improve customer satisfaction by Saasu

(Saasu) Our team came up with eight top tips on how to improve your customer satisfaction, based on our personal experiences here at Saasu.

My Comment: I like these eight ways to improving customer service.  Especially glad to see the “self-service” tactic included.  Self-serve is becoming important to improving the customer experience.  The airlines have done an excellent job of training their customers to book online and then check-in online.  And if the passenger doesn’t check in on-line, they can do it at the “self-service kiosk” at the airport.  More and more companies are bringing self-service into their customer experience strategy, and it’s working.

Telling the right story: Best Western’s customer experience journey by Nadia Cameron

(CMO Australia) We find out how data-driven personalisation, story-telling and good old fashioned customer service are driving this hotel brand.

My Comment: The legendary companies in customer service and experience got there because they created the legends. Their stories became known.  Perhaps the most famous is the Nordstrom story about refunding a customer’s used tires.  It may not be easy to create a publically recognized story, but it’s not difficult to create the stories inside your own company, which eventually resonate with the company’s customers – and maybe even the company’s industry.  Bottom line is that every company should be able to tell their story; one that the customer appreciates and wants to experience.

6 Social Media Customer Service Mistakes to Avoid by Nicole Fallon

(Business News Daily) Because social media as a customer service tool is still a relatively new concept, companies of all sizes are learning the ropes as they go, which can sometimes result in a negative experience for both brand and consumer. Verrill listed six mistakes to avoid when interacting with customers on social media based on research by Software Advice.

My Comment: Nice article about social customer service.  So many articles tell us what to do.  This one shares info on what not to do.  Seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious is not so obvious.

5 Quick Tips For Lasting Customer Service by Eric Schiffer

(Fast Company) Stay a step ahead of the competition–and your customers–with these tips.

My Comment: Sometimes it’s the simple ideas and concepts that are most effective.  These are five tips that any company – and any person in any company – can use to create a better customer experience. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

(Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)

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Guest Blog: Two Questions Guaranteed to Enhance the Customer Experience

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Mike Lytle writes about the important, simple questions to ask your customer that will help improve the customer experience. –Shep Hyken

Your customer calls into your call center to ask a question. You answer the customer’s question, but then instead of hanging up, what if you asked them these questions: “Mr. Customer, while I have you on the phone, what exactly are you are trying to achieve? And how can I help?”  By asking these simple questions, you have just demonstrated to the customer that you care, and would like to help them solve a problem, not just answer a question!

Be warned that this will definitely increase your agent’s talk time statistics, but we should all ask ourselves, what are we really trying to accomplish?   Average talk time (ATT) and first call resolution (FCR) are important KPI’s in all call center metrics, but our ultimate goal should be to garner the role of a trusted advisor which not only improves the customer experience, but also builds loyalty.

If we take the time to understand the customer’s end goal, not just immediate need, we have the ability to increase their success and ultimately decrease their need for additional support. Being proactive versus reactive means we:

Provide supporting materials – Release notes, technical articles, how-to video links, and white papers can be valuable resources.
Make recommendations - Being a trusted advisor means you have the knowledge and courage to recommend software/firmware revisions and features that they should consider utilizing.  Or equally important, software/firmware revisions and features they should avoid using and explain why.
Offer best practice suggestions – Customers appreciate it when subject matter experts offer advice based on their own experience & knowledge.

In this day of digital, social and mobile technologies, more and more customers are moving to electronic based support.  It is very important now more than ever to earn their trust and help them to become successful every time you have the opportunity.

At Extreme Networks, we pride ourselves in putting the customer first.  We have been awarded six prestigious Stevie Awards in the past two years, and are finalists for four more again this year in recognition of our customer service & support.

So, the next time you speak to a customer, don’t hang up and wait for them to call in again, be proactive and ask these questions, “Mr. Customer what exactly is it you are trying to achieve and how can I help?”

Mike Lytle is a Director of Global Technology Services & Operations at Extreme Networks. Lytle is primarily responsible for managing the engineering support operations within the award winning Global Technical Assistance Center (GTAC). Other responsibilities include managing service and support operations for both North America Federal accounts as well as the entire Asia Pacific geography.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com

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Future of Customer Service is Now! An Update and Commentary on Today’s Customer Service Tools

More and more I’m asked about the new technologies coming up in customer service and experience.  It used to be that customer service was just a phone number you called when you needed help – or how nice someone was when they interacted with you.  The future has brought us something bigger than customer service.  It has brought us the customer experience, which is much more than your traditional customer service.  It now encompasses every touch point or interaction the customer has with an organization.  And the tools that are at our disposal today?  Who would have imagined!

We all thought it was pretty cool when the restaurant gave us a pager to alert us when our table was ready.  Today, that’s not such a big deal. 

Then there was the internet, which allowed us to communicate in ways far beyond the phone or in person.  Today your customers can text, email, tweet, video chat, instant chat or message, Facebook and more.

We have some very sophisticated ways of tracking our customers and getting data on their buying patterns.  If used the right way, you can deliver an even better experience.  I love it when a restaurant or hotel remembers me and my “preferences” when I return to them.  Or how about the way Amazon “remembers” what I bought and looked at the last time I was on their site?

Today, a company can personalize the customer’s experience like never before.  It has typically come through data collection.  But, now there is a new way: a cool technology that has the ability to track your customers through their mobile phone.  Once your customers give you permission – and you should get permission – you can track and personalize the customer’s experience.  You can track their mobile phone and know when a customer walks through their doors.  Imagine your customer is walking by an item and the their cell phone receives an alert that the item that they just passed by, and that they happened to buy the last time they were in, is now on sale.  Or, the store can make the item specially-priced, just for that customer and just when they are in the store at that moment.

There is also a technology called “Directional Audio.” It is an audio system that broadcasts verbal messages to the consumer based on where they are standing. Anyone just a few feet away won’t be able to hear the message, but the audio is crystal clear and loud to the customer. The technology tracks the consumer’s phone and then delivers personalized messages (that even includes the consumer’s name). Cool “stuff.”

Bottom line is that these technologies are becoming more and more mainstream.  Customers are buying into them, just as they accept receiving text and email messages.  But here is the key, and this is very important:  there is a balance between enhancing the customer experience and selling or marketing.  While customer service may be one of your best marketing and sales strategies, marketing and sales are not always your best customer service strategies.  Use with care.  Deliver value.  The customers will embrace you and your technological efforts to deliver a better customer service experience.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)

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5 Top Customer Service Articles For the Week of March 10, 2014

TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE AND BUSINESS ARTICLES

Each week I read a number of customer service articles from various online resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too.

Customer Service Lessons: Amex by Jason Biddle

(USImprints) Despite the overall reputation of the credit card industry, there is one provider who consistently stands out and strives to break the mold: American Express.

My Comment: A few years ago I had the chance to interview the executive VP of World Service for Amex.  It was a fascinating insight to a very customer-centric company (or should I say member-centric).  This article captures some of the reasons that Amex has been so successful, and the lessons are transferable to just about any business.

5 Tips for Making Customer Service Extraordinary by Esker

(Esker) How can you make your customer service extraordinary? These five simple tips will take your business to the next level, and will have your customers raving about your company.

My Comment: This is a SlideShare from Esker that shares five common sense customer service tips.  It sometimes surprises me how common sense customer service is not always so common. 

10 Lessons That Social Can Learn From Traditional Customer Service by Luke Porter

(Sentiment) Social customer service may be new and exciting, but it can still benefit greatly from existing practices and experience. From managing spikes to Last Agent Routing, we think social still has a lot to learn.

My Comment: It’s time to stop separating traditional customer service from social media channels.  It is all customer service, regardless of how the customer connects with you.  This Infographic is filled with stats, facts and lessons to help deliver a better customer service experience through all communication channels.

40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes by Ekaterina Walter

(Forbes) Customer service excellence has always been and will always be one of the critical competitive advantages for any business. Here are 40 quotes supporting this premise.

My Comment: Loves these quotes from many famous – and not so famous – business people.  They are perfect for conversation starters to our morning meetings.

3 Tips for Gaining Clarity in Customer Service by Jenny Dempsey

(Communicate Better) We’re always making up stories in our minds and eventually, will begin to believe them. This only leads to misunderstandings, stress and ultimately, a not so hot customer experience.

My Comment: This short article deserves an A for simplicity and relevance.  Actually three A’s: ask, awareness and attention.  That’s all about gaining clarity in how you interact with your customer. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional speaker and New York Times  bestselling business author. For information contact (314)692-2200 or  www.hyken.com. For information on The  Customer  Focus™ customer service training programs go to http://www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken (Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken)

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Guest Post: What Great Customer Service Looks Like

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Karin Hurt writes about an experience she had that illustrates truly great customer service. –Shep Hyken

The Best Superbowl Advertisement Ever

It was Superbowl Sunday just before kickoff.  It was the first appointment the Apple Genius Bar had available.  My hard drive had crashed, and I was in a tailspin.  The book I had finished that weekend, was stuck in a system that wouldn’t boot, the last third lost with no back-up.  Not to mention the trapped keynote presentations and other docs I’d lost.

Apparently, the editing of the video we filmed Saturday was just too much for my little MacBook Air. I waited with fearful expectation for my turn and diagnosis, anticipating the rolled eyes I deserved.  After all, what ding bat does a big project without a net?  I felt like a rookie.

Tony called my name and I shared my story. I was disturbed by his odds, but strangely comforted by his approach.

Oh, Karin, that’s just terrible, it could be bad.  I’m not sure we can recover your files.  But,  you have my absolute commitment that I’ll do everything in my power to fix this.   OUR goal is to have you leave here with your book, the rest of your data, and a fully functional laptop

It’s complicated, and I can’t make promises, but here are the first 3 options we’ll try… if those don’t work, I’ll explain our other options and we’ll decide together.

After my 30 minute appointment morphed into full surgery, Tony brought in reinforcements.  The  prognosis was improving, but it would take a while.

Chatting to keep me off the ledge, Tony shared  gently:

You know the video work you’re trying to do on this is a lot for this computer. It will work… but it’s not ideal. I know you don’t want to think about that now… just something to consider in the future.

I had time to kill, so I told him I was off to wander around.   Tony introduced me to John to answer any questions I had while I browsed.

I told John the whole story.  His eyes brightened.

“You’re writing a book! Oh way cool….. what’s it about?  .…HE LISTENED

He shared, “I write too, mostly fiction…screen plays…working on a sitcom.   NOW I’M LISTENING

…And I do video… this is what I use.   That’s actually my dream, but I love working here because I stay up to date on all the technology. I’M LISTENING AND LEARNING

Are you using iMovie? HE’’S LISTENING

How’s that been for you? HE’S LISTENING MORE.

“Do you like to travel,” he continued… I find most artists like to travel… I sure do.   NOW HE CALLED ME AN ARTIST.  NICE.

“You know, once you publish your book, you should bring it in so we can all celebrate together about the book we saved. WE WERE IN THIS TOGETHER.

He continued, it’s so nice seeing someone pursuing their passion. THE FEELING WAS MUTUAL.

So there we were 2 “artists” spending Superbowl Sunday chatting about dreams.

I left the store with my book, a working laptop, a new desk top computer, and a joyous heart inspired with possibility.

I woke up at 3 am the next morning, gave the book a once over on my new machine and hit send, feeling like an “artist.”

 Great Customer Service Feels Like…

Respect
Deep Caring
Human connection
Commitment to resolution
Being “In It” together
Leaving the customer feeling like their best possible self

Whether your  customers are external or those you are leading, connection matters.

Your turn, what would you add?

Karin Hurt is an experienced executive leading in a Fortune 15 company. Her mission… to build the next generation of high-performing, high-trust leaders. Named to the 2014 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business and 2013 Multiplier of the Year.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com

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