I Am Your Customer. If You Know Me....Know Me!

It was 6:53p exactly--I remember this because I rolled my eyes and saw the clock after answering my phone and hearing the person on the other end fumble my name and begin walking through their scripted pleasantries. 

At that moment I had my daughter's food on a plate, ready to serve--I had my dinner cooking on the stove, and my better half had just walked in the door after a long day and begun the download.  (Sure, maybe I shouldn't have answered my phone at that moment, but that is not what this post is about.)

He said he was calling from my insurance agent's office.  He spoke very slowly, not picking up on my hurried responses, nor asking if this was a good time for his call.  I impatiently waited through his methodical homage to the process he was instructed to perform, to find out his main reason for calling was to know if I had the pleasure of logging into the insurance company's website and create an account there. (For real!?)

My answer was "No" since I have never had a reason to, so he proceeded to inform me that he would be happy to send me some links via email that would help me through signing up for an online account. 

"Can I have your email address sir?" he asked.  "I have been a customer for over a year now, and I exchange emails several times a month with my agent and the office, you should have it on file," I replied.

"I am sorry sir, I don't see any email attahed to this file." Hurriedly I give him a reply, "Firstname.lastname@gmail.com"

"Ok, so, First name dot last name at gmail dot com," he repeats.  I confirm, "that's right, frederick dot mendler."

"Oh....wait..." Now I realize that he is confused.  He thought that my email address was literally firstname.lastname so the additional information of my real name just threw him off.

Now, at this very moment--I am not sure if my frustration and impatience possibly created some sort of radiation that transferred externally affecting the already low signal of my ATT phone, but the called suddently dropped.  I hoped he didn't think that I hung up on him, but not enough to where I was going to call him back.  He didn't return my call.

Here is the rub.  My agent is a small office of a top national insurance chain.  She employs five, which I know all of their names, and his was not one.  I have been consolidating many policies with her and even was in their office just a week ago.  Via email immediately after the call, I confirmed with her that the parent company has hired an outside vendor to make "Thank You calls" as part of a customer retention program. This was a big fail in my mind.

1.) I left a call-center driven large insurance agent (and likely now pay a bit more) so that I could have a personal relationship with a local agent to take care of me and my family.  I have her cell number, her email address and her office is nearby. I like that.

2.) When I have needed something, I call her office and the team jumps to it and is incredibly quick and thorough. I like that.

3.) The outside vendor was disconnected from this relationship by not having any history of our relationship, and by not even having what should be basic contact info in my file. I DO NOT like that.

4.) The outside vendor calls at a very inconvenient hour to discuss something very trival and low priorty to me.  I DO NOT like that.

5.) The agent's personal brand, something she has worked for many years to build, was now put in the hands of a part-time hourly employee working for an outside company.

If you are big, try to act small so customer's don't feel like a number.  If you are small, be okay being small--especially if that is one of the value propositions that drives your business. You can act big by leveraging the right systems, having a large suite of products, benefitting from marketing, etc.

In my mind, if you MUST use an outside service to contact customers en masse, then YOU must ensure that they are well equipped, up to your standards, and put in the best position to succeed. Would you want that call at 7p? Would you want a representative calling you from a small office that you pay a premium for service with that doesn't know who you are?

The agent, who has two kids and a husband at home, told me in her email, "I know what 7p is like with little ones, so sorry for the inconvenience!" It's a good idea to think through that detail when initiating an outsourced campaign. They are YOUR customers!

How to Drive Customers Away from your Store

Seems like basic stuff, but it's amazing to me how many businesses mess this up.  From mom and pop shops to the 400 location mall stores.  There are more to be added to the list, add them yourself via comments:

How to Drive Customers Away from your Store:

-treat them like a shoplifter

-ignore them altogether

-make it more important to huddle up with co-workers and gossip/chat

-don't make it easy to find sizes

-turn the music up so loud they can't discuss the attributes and qualities of your products

-act like a snob when someone asks you a question

-have every sales rep ask customer if they need help, 1min apart

-agree that policies are stupid, but continue to work there enforcing them

-focus on "tasks" like floor resets, inventory, merchandising, cleaning, folding, etc.

-have only one register open during busy periods

-limit how many items a customer can take into a dressing room

-fight them over the return policy

-sell them things they dont want or need

-ignore their objections in order to try and make a sale

-don't remember or recognize them when they return

What else?

Great Service Means Drowning the Rats

In the previous post I mentioned a concept I call “Drowning the Rats.”  Companies that want to be great at service have to remove any obstacles that prevents their front line from “Drowning the Rats” for your customers.  The analogy goes like this:  Picture you fell out of a boat that wrecked in the Amazon.  You are floating down the river fighting for survival, trying to use the current to get towards land on the side so you can get out.  However, as the water moves you down river, you are suddenly accosted by nutria—big fat river rats—nipping at your legs and toes.  They are nice enough to come one at a time, and you have to fight them off.  What do you do?  Do you push them down and away only to have them float back up to wreak havoc with you again?  No—in this environment of survival, you have to hold that rat under the water until it drowns—guaranteeing that it won’t float back up and cause you more problems. 

Business is competitive and also an environment of survival. You have to make customers happy and when a customer has an issue, the employee who takes ownership of it has to be able to take that problem all they way to root cause and solve it permanently.  Things like forced call metrics which make a representative want to get off a call in a certain amount of time for fear of reprimand, causes them to solve issues hurriedly and in an incomplete fashion. Ultimately, this will cost the organization more money when the customer calls back in. It also leads to customer and employee frustration and when you finally lose that customer—you will also lose revenue and increase acquisition costs to get new ones.  So, do you want to allow your employees to serve the customer well and solve their problems, or just push them down so that they float up later?

Don't Force Techs to be Extroverts

Hiring great sys admins in a technology company whose core is customer service is a constant challenge. Not only do you want to find an incredible technician with skills that you and your customers benefit from, you also want someone willing to pick up the phone or answer a ticket and not only solve customer's problems, but really WOW them. It's not only extroverted folks that can do amazing things for customers--though they often get most of the credit because their efforts are more noticeable by nature. In fact--a lot of extroverted types are great at surface level presentation, but not as great at digging into deep detail and really drowning the rats as more introverted employees are. (More on "Drowing the Rats" in the next post.)

Don't exclude a potential candidate from a customer service role because they come across as quiet or not as boisterous as one might want.  Certainly, a qualified candidate should have the skills you need, as well as be able to put cohesive sentences together, but some of the best at making a customer one for life are the quiet detailed types.

As a leader, it's important that you manage each member of your team differently--not all are the same or need the same things.  Similarly, Customers don't all respond to the same type of service delivery.  It's a great idea to match your customer with the person best equipped to help them--from a service and personality standpoint.

I recently came across this article by Carl King who I believe does an excellent job of describing introverted people in the post "Top Ten Myths about Introverts".

From a Customer Service perspective, do you see how many of these positive characteristics of introverts could benefit your customer service organization?

Great Customer Service (Garner Homes)

Taking ownership of a customer's issue is a great way to leave them feeling the tingles on the back of their neck.  Act like the customer's problem is yours, solve it like you would solve your own similar problem, and you will build a customer for life--and one that is your biggest advocate in the marketplace. Remember that referrals are a large part of your marketing efforts.

The opportunity for today's Great Customer Service example is delivered to us by the team at Garner Custom Homes (garnerhomes.com):

We had a few pocket doors at the house that became disconnected from the rails. I tried to fix them but I don't have the skills nor the right tools. After calling all the door companies in town, I couldn't find anyone who would come out. The doors sat broken for weeks. Not knowing what to do and at a loss of who to turn to, I emailed the builder, Garner Custom Homes (www.garnerhomes.com) who built this house in 2007 for the original owner (not me), just looking for a recommendation or some advice.

Instead of recommending someone to fix the problem, the company owner, Trey Garner, took complete ownership of the problem and sent his construction manager and a carpenter over to fix the doors. Not only did they do an excellent job, they wouldn't take any money for it!!! We already love this house for all the attention to detail and quality craftsmanship--and now we even love it more knowing that the people behind the home are dedicated to doing the right thing and building customers for life through great service.  This is an example of a great company built on strong values.

The service quality best exemplified here is OWNERSHIP.

The leadership quality seen here is a CEO taking the lead and setting the tone for what his company represents.  Leadership sets the bar for how others in the company should act and what their "standards" are.

If you have a Great Customer Service story to share, email me directly at suizo@suizoserves.com