21. Attitude, not experience, should be the first thing you look for in a new hire. You can train a person to do the job – but if they have a bad attitude to start, it will NOT get better with training.
We have a customer service crisis in America……Red Rock story. We look at the customer as a necessary evil instead of a loyal friend. How has this evolved and what can we do to fix it? What is leading edge customer service?
Constantly and Consistently are the keywords here. And, are we clear on what the customer expects from us? You can’t exceed something that you don’t understand.
Company policy is written in terms of the Company – NOT the Customer. Establish customer – friendly principles – FORGET POLICY.
Customer Service representatives salvage relationships and protect your company’s investment. A lot of time and money have been invested in getting and maintaining the customer base.
How many of you are customer service reps? How many of you deal with the customer but are not IN customer service? Each and every one of you are responsible for quality customer care and for nurturing customer loyalty. That should be your company’s number 1 priority!
Rustoleum Story
Here are the four key points we are going to learn to establish lasting customer relationships….
Bestway story…. VERIFY, VERIFY
Listen to your customer with the intent to understand what they are saying. DO not be thinking about how you plan to answer, or reading or responding to someone else’s email, while you are listening to your customer talk to you. I once had a salesman that read every piece of paper on my desk while he was in my office talking to me. Focus on what your customer has to say and do not interrupt them while they are talking. By the way, listening is the worst personal development skill that most of us possess.
Chicos story Train your employees to make the same decision you would – then when they do, should it be wrong, know that you would have done the same thing!
Gitomer says “The difference between training and education is expressed in your answer to this question. Suppose you had a teenage daughter. Would you rather her school provide her with sex education or sex training?” If you don’t treat your own employees right, don’t expect them to treat your customers right.
DO not second guess their decisions – after all, they have been trained to listen, to respond and to work within their limits of authority. If it is a wrong decision, at least they acted.
The Quality Cycle for continuous improvement is Plan, Do, Check, Act and then Repeat.
The definition of loyalty must be a daily executed set of philosophies, principles and actions. It is NOT the enforcement of a set of rules and regulations and it is NOT shoving policy down your customer’s throat.
There are just some people that should not be entrusted with the care of your customers. Those that say “it’s not my job” or “I don’t get paid enough to do this” or “ that customer is such a jerk” should NOT be in Customer Service….
Platinum Rule: Do unto others as others would have you do unto them.
Be sure to return phone calls. This is a sore subject with me. So many of you have caller ID on your phone…..which means that you only answer if you want to speak to someone. However, your message says “Your call is important to me, leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible” Then you never call – WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? Always do your best – be known for your excellence in customer service! Make your customer want to do business with you.