How To Upgrade Your Customer Service On The Cheap

In several of my recent posts, Customer Service Training Is NOT The Answer, and Six Questions You’ll Want To Answer Before You Purchase A Customer Service Video, I sought to discourage managers from thinking that purchasing a customer service training video would solve their customer service problems. I advocated for creating a plan that took into account culture, incentives, communication, and more.

For front line managers those steps may have seemed rather intimidating. After all, how likely is it that one front line manager in a large chain is going to change corporate culture or get management to review all of its policies.

But there is something that manager can do. If you’re a manager and you want to improve customer service in your territory or your store, you still need to create a plan that will look similar to what I advocated earlier. Here’s how you start:

Elements of Your Plan

1.      Create a list of a few of the behaviors you want your staff to model. It doesn’t have to be polished or final, that will come later. Next, determine what incentives you’ll be able to offer your staff.

2.      Enlist the support of your immediate supervisor. His or her support is crucial. First, your supervisor may be able to provide you with better incentives in the form of commissions, bonuses, etc. Next, when your staff sees your supervisor supporting your plan, its credibility will increase.

3.      Identify those staff most likely to support your plan. Privately seek their input. They may have suggestions that can really improve your plan or alert you to obstacles you haven’t thought of.

4.      Identify those staff you think will be most likely to oppose your plan. Perhaps they don’t like change, or they don’t have the personalities to offer extraordinary customer service. You need to determine how you will handle them. If unchecked they can sink your plan.

The Most Important Element

If you don’t have the support of your team, your plan is doomed. As I mentioned in my earlier post, you need to clearly articulate the benefits to the organization, the customer, and most especially, your team members. 

One of Dale Carnegie’s famous human relations principles is: “Make the other person think the idea is his or hers. You want your staff to identify those behaviors that they can change that will deliver more effective customer service. These are behaviors they can control. They cannot control how fast a special order is shipped from the manufacturer. So don’t list that. 

(Do some research on how to have a brainstorming meeting. I don’t have the space here to go into detail on the various norms they should agree to first.)

It may take several meetings and some work in between, but what I recommend is that you come up with a list of Customer Service Standards (behaviors, really). Your plan is much more likely to be embraced by your staff if they had considerable input into it.

 Here are some possibilities using a retail scenario:

10 Possible Customer Service Standards

1.      We will greet each customer within ten seconds of their arrival in our store. If we are working with another customer, we’ll say, “Hello sir/maam. We’ll have someone with you as soon as possible.”

2.      When a customer walks into the store, we will immediately stop any other task, greet them and attempt to identify their needs. No task is to take precedence over working with the customer.

3.      We will smile. Smiling is the first step we will take in making the customer feel welcome in our place of business.

4.      When we are working with a customer, we will treat that person, or that family, as if they were the only persons in the world. We will ignore ringing phones. We will not interrupt another employee when he or she is working with a customer. The only exceptions are if there is a security issue or when a new customer walks into the store and all employees are busy.

5.      We will listen to each customer’s needs and attempt to identify how we can exceed them. We will use active listening skills to be sure we understand them.

6.      We will acknowledge all family members, not just the customer.

7.      We will show genuine empathy. When a customer comes in with a problem or is clearly distressed, we will acknowledge it in an appropriate fashion as opposed to ignoring it.

8.      We will use professional sales skills at all times. We will not disparage the competition.

9.      We will attempt to turn each customer into a repeat customer. We will offer the opportunity to build relationships with us to those who want to do so.

10.  We will thank each customer for coming in whether they purchase from us or not. Additionally, we will ask them to tell their friends about us.

Your team may come up with additional or different behaviors that are more relevant to your business. Once everyone is committed to these behaviors, implement the plan. Give it three months with monthly meetings to assess what’s going well and what needs to be changed. It will take time for these new behaviors to become ingrained habits. Don't give up too soon.

Finally, model the behavior yourself, otherwise you’re a hypocrite. Continually observe your staff. Praise in public those doing well. Coach, in private, those that need improvement. Seek feedback from everyone. What do they like about the new normal? What challenges do they have? How can you help them overcome these challenges? 

Regards,

Glenn.

I’ll smile if you follow me on Twitter. I’m txglennross.

PS: A tip o’ the Stetson to guest blogger, Alexis Bonari, at Return Customer. I recommend reading her post, Six Things Customers Can’t Stand. It inspired me to write this one.