Archive for the ‘Customer service’ Category

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Borrowing Wisdom from Julie Rains #customerservice

Friday, November 4th, 2011

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Over at OPEN Forum, ARMA loved a recent article where Julie Rains skillfully dissected a recent high profile customer service gaffe that just got worse and worse that more you read about it.  She picks apart the scenario and highlights why those mistakes can be critical missteps for any company.  Well worth the read. 

To flip her missteps into must-have customer service techniques, always remember to:

  1. Respond carefully to customer inquiries. 
  2. Address customer service mistakes immediately, never try to justify them.
  3. Slow down after a mistake and do your best to finish everything right, so the mistakes don’t pile up.
  4. Acknowledge the value of your first impressions, but be nimble and ready to adjust them if they prove incorrect.

 

She finishes with some pointers on avoiding “unrecoverable mistakes.”  Head on over and check them out.

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10/28/11 Customer Service Roundup

Friday, October 28th, 2011

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Susan Payton at Small Business Trends spotlighted businesswoman Missy Ward today (with an attention grabbing headline, we might add), and we really loved Ward’s quote about customer service:

“We’ve listened to what [our customers] had to say and have tried our best to provide them with the experience they are looking for.  In return many of them have become our brand ambassadors and have helped our company grow for eight consecutive years.”

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Words worth living by.  Check out the full article for more quotes and more about Ward’s company, Affiliate Summit.

The 1to1 Editorial team posted a scores of personal insights about what gets their 2011 Customer Service Champions excited about providing the best customer service.  Some of them are inspiring stories and others would fit really well into the #bizquotes ARMA has been collecting on Twitter.

What inspires you to provide stellar customer service?  Feel free to sound off in the comments.

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Six Levels of Proactive Support

Friday, October 21st, 2011

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Bruce Temkin posted an infographic awhile back about increasing levels of customer service that we wanted to share with you:

Temkin emphasizes that responsive businesses should always strive to act at the top three levels of the pyramid.  Check out his original post for examples within the airline industry.

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10/19/11 Customer Service Roundup

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

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Here are some articles from around the web about customer service that caught our eye recently:

At 1to1 Media, guest blogger Paul Hagen talked at some length about the conversations that came out of a roundtable dedicated to the process of analyzing and improving customer experience.  He reported that roundtable members emphasized the importance of culture:

…ideas for building culture included: A “stupid policies” contest, in which employees were asked to submit stupid policies that got in the way of delivering good customer experiences…and the top 10 were given awards. A “words we use” routine, where people were required to put some small amount of money in a jar if they used words that were internal jargon, rather than words that were customer-friendly.

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We’ve talked time and time again about the benefits of going one step beyond what your customer or client is expecting.  Marilyn at Who’s Your Gladys? gives us one more example over at their blog where she describes an experience a colleague of hers had with a photographer she employed.  Worth reading.

And finally, Mike Periu talks about some of his pet peeves with customer service over at OPEN Forum.  Always worth checking to make sure you’re not committing an easily fixed customer service sin!

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Bouncing Back from Failures with Customer Service

Friday, October 14th, 2011

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At ARMA, if something doesn’t work, we always strive to acknowledge the problem and fix it.  Two posts this week caught our eye by looking critically at how to get back on your feet in the face of service failure or even perceived service failure.

Jeanne Bliss at Small Business Trends wrote about Griffin Hospital, a Connecticut health care provider that flipped its customer ratings from abysmal to top marks.  (In short, its about likeability.)  Read her post to see how they transformed the “emotional journey of going to the hospital begins in the parking lot” and the effect it had on their customers’ experience.

Lori at Who’s Your Gladys? tackled the issue from the perspective of businesses that may or may not agree with their customers’ negative experiences with them, but with tips on how to rise above the experience and improve the customer interaction regardless.  Try putting a few of her zen tricks in your toolbox the next time you have a hard time with a client or customer.  This isn’t just mindfulness though, try out this exercise:

Challenge yourself (or your team) to always, no exceptions, respond to all of a difficult customer’s requests with enthusiasm and the highest levels of professionalism.

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10/07/11 Customer Service Roundup

Friday, October 7th, 2011

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Hopefully, October is treating you well so far.  Here are two posts on customer service that recently spoke to us.

The first is from a post Andy Beal put up last week at OPEN Forum where he offered up four tips on improving customer service.  Some of the tips are pretty straightforward, but he gives concrete examples of how to put them into practice.  His fourth tip though, really is worth emphasizing.  He encourages us to set up feedback loops to facilitate more customer service concerns from the middle of the range, not just significant complaints or high praise:

There are many more [customers] that don’t speak up, despite their experience with your business being merely “meh.” Those are the ones you need to encourage to provide feedback.

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Yesterday’s article by Frank Eliason about the power of customer service (particularly in relation to social media) seemed particularly meaningful to us in light of Andy Beal’s thoughts regarding feedback.  Eliason is pretty clear:  “Companies must care. New metrics must surface that place the customer back in customer service.”  At ARMA, we’ve been spending more time developing our Twitter presence and Facebook page in the hopes that they will be avenues for your feedback and increased customer service.  We’d love to connect with you there too.  And if you have an issue or a concern, we’re committed to seeing it through.

What are ways that you prioritize customer feedback?

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Presidential Customer Service Advice

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

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Back in April 2011, there was an executive order issued that indicated a new commitment to customer service in the federal government.  The order’s key requirements were an increased response to customer feedback and more efficient customer service that utilized modern technological channels. 

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve the quality of service to the public by the Federal Government, it is hereby ordered…”

The order notes that “the public’s expectations of the Government have continued to rise.  The Government must keep pace with and even exceed those expectations.’  This is a best practice worth making into a mantra — the best customer service isn’t a practice that fixes a problem but one that prevents problems from occurring. 

At GovWin, Kevin Paschuck discusses the results from the Federal Customer Experience Survey, some of which seem quite promising and inline with the above executive order.  In particular that, “the percentage of very satisfied Americans grew from 27% to 39% and 24% to 35% over the past year” in regards to agency responsiveness and information consistency.  Check out the discussion for more information and Kevin’s thoughts on cloud-based solutions.

At GovLoop, they share some of the feedback that they received at their 1st Annual GovLoop Symposium, which focused directly on how the government can fulfill the April executive order.  They came up with a number of concrete ideas for improving customer service that dovetail with the order’s expectations.  One favorite include the deployment of not only FAQ (frequently asked questions), but “also SAQ – should have asked questions – what questions should your customers be asking you.”  We also like the idea of visually mapping out the actual process that a customer might go through and making that “map” or “blueprint” available to them, presumably on websites or in print format.

What parts of the executive order seemed noteworthy or important to you?

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Customer Service #Bizquotes

Monday, September 26th, 2011

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“All of the inconveniences and hassles had been erased by that one simple act which was unexpected and exceeded my expectations.”

At ARMA, we believe that its about people first.  That’s why we love this post where Stephanie Holland tells a story about customer service at her blog that emphasizes the importance of a human touch in the midst of serious business.  In her case it was a hospital visit, but at ARMA we feel that the application is universal.  For B2B companies, that can just mean breaking out of the administrative process for a moment to do something personal — like send a thank you letter or make someone tea.

What are ways that your business, B2B or otherwise, works to personalize the customer service experience in a meaningful way?

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Avoiding the perils of bad customer service

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Steve Adubato relays a bleak picture of customer service at a hotel where he was giving a talk…on customer service! You can read about his travails in “Bad customer service can alienate clientele” in the New Jersey Star Ledger.  He tells of unhelpful bell captains and front desk people who made him wait for service either because “it wasn’t their job” or “they were too busy.”

Clearly, in customer service, or at least in customer service that excel, the phrases “it is not my job” or “I am too busy” should never come out of anybody’s mouth. If you read the article “8 Things You Should Never Say to Customers” by Jeff Haden, he doesn’t include those because those are the most obvious examples of  not wanting to do a job or wanting to serve a customer. Haden’s list has more to do with the attitude you communicate to your customers by your choice of words. Saying things like “are you sure?” to your customer means you don’t trust him or her.

Perhaps the first step in avoiding bad customer service is to ban phrases like:

  • It is not my job.
  • I can’t help you.
  • I am too busy right now.
  • You can wait until someone is available.
  • What YOU should do is.
  • It is company policy and therefore I can’t help you.

Bottom line is that customer service reps need to be aware that their role is to HELP the customer —either by doing what is requested or finding a way that works.

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How is your company perceived?

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Some companies are disconnected from the way they are perceived by the public. This is usually because the company operates in silos-where each department is separated from the rest and operates practically independently.

Take for example the company that sells training seminars. The C-suite wants increased enrollments. The marketing department is promoting only one of the seminars. The enrollment department knows which seminars draw more people and which fewer. The seminar trainers create their own curriculum without consulting the marketing department or the C-suite. Bottom line-everyone is working for themselves without seeing the bigger picture. In this case, the bigger picture may be one where the training company is seen as offering too many classes and lacking focus.

How does this affect customer service? It affects customer service in two ways. First, if the company has a perception problem, customer service may be spending time correcting the perception. And second, it could be that the way customer service is handled is contributing to the perception problem.

To find out how your company is perceived you will have to do research.  On the do-it-yourself side you could search Google, Twitter and other social media to see what people are saying about your company. You could also hire a market research firm to conduct focus groups and surveys.  Either way, it is important to discover how you are perceived and see if it matches what you want to be known for.

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