Customer Service is a Habit

The last couple of times I’ve needed any type of electrical goods or accessories, I’ve made a bee-line for one retailer in particular…let’s call them Loel Neeming’s…

• The first stop was by chance when purchasing a dishwasher for the company I worked for, and while it was a difficult process by staff confused by a purchase order, they did provide great aftercare service and ran around like headless chooks trying to help me.
• The second stop was fantastic at their Lower Hutt store, the staff member more than happy to talk me through all the options and the pros/cons of each one and wasn’t purely after the up sell…so I ended up spending a LOT on my own accord because I trusted this guy.

So naturally, when I decided I was still a big kid and wanted the much maligned XBox One, there was only one retailer that came to mind so I went about collecting a few vouchers here and there until I nearly had enough for what I was after. Then things fell over…firstly, vouchers ordered didn’t arrive only to find out no one had picked up my online order for 10 days (despite calls & emails), their Twitter account being about as interactive and useful as dead mouse (see below) & their website having confusing information (also see below) which could not be confirmed despite my many attempts (at time of writing, this is still ongoing). I’m now in a position where I resent the vouchers in my wallet, knowing that I have no choice but to spend them at a place that has made my life difficult…why would you make my life difficult? I want to give you my hard earned cash for goods or services. Once this Xbox has been purchased, it may well be the last time I visit that retailer UNLESS they offer some magical service to rectify the situation.

Now, I know that sounded like a whinge (and it was) but it is an example to help illustrate my point..

Customer service is a habit, it needs to be a constant not a case by case offering. For all the positive experiences you have with any organisation, like the sporting cliche tells us, you’re only as good as your last game and you are in a CONSTANT fight to retain customers with so many other options out there. There simply does not seem to be enough focus on this part of a lot of business and for me, there is often a lack of leadership. What I mean by this, is that the company may have a fantastic Customer Service Manager but how does that person get around 30-70 stores and hundreds of staff consistently? Should businesses be putting staff through regular online training? Why are there no Customer Service Consultants designated to a group of stores in one geographical location? More importantly, why do we all know how important customer service is, yet ignore it so easily when we’re busy?

Get the stock on the shelf, fly with minimal staff on the floor and up sell to increase the profits, that’s why.

During a customer service workshop I helped run for The Warehouse last year (who actually own the aforementioned business) one figure thrown out was that the average person spends $30,000 in their lifetime at The Warehouse so if you lose that customer, you’re not just losing the next sale, you’re losing all of that money over their lifetime, and possibly $30,000 from their partner, from their kids on and on. Good, honest customer service is a long term investment, it may mean you only secure a $50 sale initially, but that person comes back again and again if they get the same, consistent service visit after visit.

Would you prefer a $2000 one off sale now or $2000 a year for the next 15 years?

I’m guessing this ‘seat of my pants’ bit of writing won’t get very far, probably won’t get to the people who need to see it and if they do, they will take it with a grain of salt, but as a consumer, customer service professional (yup, there is such a thing) and someone who values the money they spend, attention is needed before your doors close and you are at the mercy of those prepared to address the issue…and before you all run off and tell off your staff, consider this. Customer Service doesn’t just apply to your shop floor, customer facing staff. It’s the call center, the person who runs your Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, the accuracy of your website and what you do to fix things when they go wrong.

Thanks for reading

My Social Media Purge – The Beginning

I was looking at this folder on my phone a week ago and wondered what percentage of my ‘phone time’ was spent accessing this little collection of apps. My very unscientific, statistics free conclusion was probably about 75% withthe other 25% shared between calls, email and txting (and playing games on the bus or while my lovely partner watches Coro St.).

This suddenly became a very scary thought when I realised how much time I was looking for the little red notification bubble, but what was the root casue of this scary thought? For me, it’s the fear of missing something. That maybe there’s a discussion I can’t be a part of, an opinion I can’t give my take on or a joke I won’t be involved with. My next though was “but why put myself through this fear when I can simply continue to immerse myself in an online life lived both seperately and in conjunction with reality”.

Here’s my reason. I’m not missing anything important on my phone. I’m missing important stuff in real life.

Conversations are half heard, TV shows are watched in snippets, I sit next to my partner but talk nonsense to people 10,000 miles away and most importantly I miss unknown, unretrievable moments with my little daughter Alice, who deserves the same attention my parents gave me. The problem is, it has become a habit, to whip out my phone and check the latest on what the world is up to is second nature to me and requires no more forethought than getting a glass of water when I’m thirsty or checking my review mirror when driving. I don’t consciously think about it, it just kind of happens. For some this will seem ridiculous, for some it will seem familiar and of course there are those who this will seem akin to blasphemy given social media is how their lives are lived. Please understand that this isn’t a judgement on anyone but me and my percieved situation.

What is my approach to weaning myself from this habit?

1. Retain something (my choice will be Twitter). I enjoy this most of all and love the short, sharp approach it offers. I find myself only engaging in the comments made in the short time just before my latest login.
2. Don’t go cold turkey. Facebook is the biggest monster and it needs to go back into its cage and then be put out to stud. I’ll slowly save all my photos, reduce my friends list (in reality, only 40% of people on there are actual friends) and reduce to checking just once a day for the next while until I naturally find myself going weeks without it. I hope.
3. Delete accounts for the little used. For me Snapchat & Instagram have held little interest and I rarely use them so they need to go. NOW.
4. I’m going to call people. We txt or we Facebook/Tweet. I’m going to attempt to use up my mobile plan minutes up this month by having conversations, asking how people are and generally having a proper catch up.
5. This isn’t a weaning process but I’m not sure what to do with LinkedIn. It’s professional social media. Does it count? I think not and will most likely not change a lot here.

This may all be successful, it may fail miserably.

• I’ll miss being able to organise things and share my hilarious (my own words) thoughts on people’s photos and choice of drink/meal/music/kids names.
• I may initially struggle to fill my time
• I’ll enjoy reading books again
• I think my IQ and EQ may go up
• I think my social life may improve, but equally could suffer
• I KNOW my family will benefit.
• I KNOW my daughter deserves it.

I’m looking forward to being a part of the real human race again and will certainly miss being part of a large digital race made up of our online personas, but it’s a feel good change for me and my phone will feel a lot lighter as well.

I’d be interested to hear you own thoughts on your Social Media usage and the pros and cons you’ve discovered.

Thanks for reading

Leigh

First Contact – Non-Profit Customer Service

 

When it comes to customer service, private companies have it easy. They provide a service, offer goods, make profits (hopefully) and generally have a set of customers who can choose to use them or not. While this sounds like a risk, in that the customer can choose to leave them or go elsewhere, it also gives them a bargaining chip when it comes to refunds, free offers and the like, i.e. “we apologise for the inconvenience as the error was at our end, we’ll give you your money back and a discount of ‘x’ amount off of your next order”, “here’s a free coffee” etc.  and this can often turn a negative experience into a positive one.

When you are a public sector or a not-for-profit, the customer often has no other choice in provider, leaving them angry, frustrated and completely tied to an organisation or process they truly dislike. The first step to changing this mind-set is to work out why it happens. In my opinion and experience working in both areas, the main reasons are:

• Private sector can be flexible. There are rules, but these rules are made of rubber and are able to be bent and manipulated to fit various ad-hoc situations.
• Public sector is rigid, often bound by policy and a set of guideline for consistency & a ‘one rule for all’ approach. Risky of course for those ad-hoc situations but overall, completely necessary.
• Staff.  The mind-set of Private vs Public staff can be quite different and both areas can learn a lot from the other. Private sector staff are protecting their company’s income giving them more power to say YES to the consumer. Public sector staff are protecting the policy or procedure giving them more power to say NO to the consumer.

“So let’s change public sector and bend the rules around established policy & process! Easy solution!”

Wrong. Public sector simply will not work this way for good reason as often the rules are in place to protect the public, create fairness and consistency in a democratic society and ensure there is little chance of mistakes being made.

So what do we public sector/non-profit service providers do?

This is where ‘First Contact’ becomes important. As a basic summary, it is giving someone, at their first point of contact with your organisation an informative, accurate and friendly experience. This ensures that they feel confident the person helping them truly cares about their problem or enquiry. It also sets a tone for future interactions in both directions.

We need to do this because often, they already begrudge calling as they know there is a fee to pay, a bunch of hoops to jump through and more than likely a paper trail that would destroy the Amazon rain forest.

“But they NEED this service and don’t understand how busy we are, why should I have to make allowances to them?”

• Because you are paid to
• Because spending 5 minutes on customer focus now, saves hours of work at a later date when the complaint or stubbornness kicks in.
• Because you don’t know their situation or other mitigating factors that relying on the outcome of the enquiry or service.
• Because of human nature, they are simply looking after their best interest, just as you would.

So many times, we talk to someone who is in a rush or has been trying to reach us for several hours, we then mistake that exasperation for rudeness and automatically go into a defensive or aggressive mode without taking time to understand the situation.

NB: If there is a deadline that has passed, a fine to be paid or punitive action that may need to be taken, too often we share this with them without taking the time to prepare them for this negative result, without offering to help them or without giving a proper explanation as to why this has happened and they then feel complete lost and hung out to dry. Sometimes, there may be a solution you haven’t thought of, so talk to a team-mate or manager before going down the ‘black and white’ route. There may be shades of grey.

LISTEN – let them give you all of the information and take notes to refer to later in the conversation. Don’t start to argue with them or challenge any details as this will just confuse both parties.

CONFIRM – read back to them what they have just said, so that you are sure you have your facts right. Ask them if there are any other details they may have forgotten and of course, take the opportunity to update their contact details as this is often the most common reason for issues to occur – “I didn’t get a reminder”, “you have the wrong address”, “that’s not my number”.

UNDERSTAND – tell them that you understand the situation (and if you don’t tell them you will need to find the right answer). Honesty is 100% the right policy, they would rather you admitted when you didn’t know something than get inaccurate information that could cost them later on and damage the relationship. Do not make promises or suggest outcomes that may not happen, they will hold you to it and this is where things can get very ugly for all parties involved.

TAKE OWNERSHIP – the customer, the enquiry, the interaction is yours. Until the enquiry has been 100% resolved, you have a vested interest in what is going on, even when you have passed it to another department or person. Keep track of it and if you think things have stalled at your organisations end, discuss with your manager so that they can find out what is happening through the proper channels.

Note: You will not make everyone happy, you will not always be able to find a solution, but if you spend the time to LISTEN, CONFIRM, UNDERSTAND AND TAKE OWNERSHIP then you are a long way towards the best possible outcome for the customer, yourself and your team and organisation for the given situation.

Of course, this is all just my take on the way I have experienced certain areas operating and isn’t true to all areas of public or private sector. What I hope, if anything, it that it serves as a discussion piece on the subject of Public Sector Customer Service and how a private sector approach can increase productivity, reduce cost and make the government grey office blocks around your city a nicer place to work each day.