Four Elements of Good Customer Service

A few years ago, I was asked to zoom in on some of the elements of good customer service for a brief talk at a meeting of service professionals. In preparing the slide deck, I came to focus on four things I believe are the keys to everything else, and I often refer to them as "Roy's Famous Four" because others have picked up on them and repeated them elsewhere. There are many other elements that you might focus on, but for me, you don't get really good service without these, each of which builds on the prior one.

Listening: Whether a customer is calling you or sending email or chat messages, you need to be paying attention to what they are saying and the way they are saying it. Whenever I've "jumped the gun" and started to offer a solution without actively listening to the customer, I've gotten it wrong. Really paying attention and thinking about what the customer is saying--and how they are saying it--can give you a wealth of information about the customer's context, the urgency of the issue, and other factors that might very well figure into the correct solution to assist your customer toward the best outcome. As Covey says, "Seek first to understand..."

Empathy: Every call for assistance, technical or otherwise, has at least two components: One is the stated reason for the contact (question, difficulty, complaint, suggestion, praise, exchange, return, etc.); the other is the emotional state of the customer. There's an example I've seen in more than one customer service textbook about a woman who rushes into a hospital and excitedly asks where her sister is. Without that first component, listening, we're not sure whether the sister has been seriously injured in a car accident, or whether she is giving birth to a child. Once we've determined which it is, we can empathize, either to share the deep concern or the joy of the new child, and act appropriately.

Clarity: Once we understand the circumstances and the emotional components, we have come to the point where we have gained some insight into the issue. At this point, it's a really good idea to confirm with the customer that you do have a grasp of why they are contacting you by asking something like, "If I understand you correctly, you're calling because..." and then restate the issue, question, or complaint. (Don't forget to practice active listening when the customer responds. You may pick up details you missed.) 

As you begin to provide the customer with a solution, clarity is extremely important. Here are some quick tips:

• Don't speak in jargon.
• Don't use internal language--that is, language your company uses, but that the customer normally would not.
• Don't talk down to the customer, but assess what level of information they are comfortable with.
• Confirm that the customer understands what you are telling them.
• Don't wander off track; stick with the customer conversation.
• Don't ask the customer to "bite off more than they can chew." Keep it concise.

Consistency: Not every customer should be treated exactly the same way, but the level of service and the information you provide should be consistent. This requires that a body of knowledge be developed and shared so that the entire team is giving responses that match up and serve to solve the problem.

Note: Scripts, in my opinion, are death to customer service, especially if your representatives are unable to deviate from them. Customers see right through scripts, and often get the impression that the representative has no understanding of the issue, and doesn't have the authority to solve the problem. Provide guidance, good shared knowledge, and training, not scripts.

There you have them, in very short form: Listening, Empathy, Clarity and Consistency. The four corners of the customer service foundation.

Give it some thought.

Abandoned Surveys: Look At the Where to Get At the Why

Customers abandon surveys for many reasons. Chief among these are that the survey is too long and/or that it doesn't ask relevant questions.

As an illustration of the first case, I often tell the story of staying for one night in a hotel and getting a 142-question survey (yes, really) the next day. Of course I abandoned it after the first five questions, when I advanced to the next page and the progress bar barely moved.
As for the second case, people are likely to abandon a survey that is not asking questions which are relevant to them as customers, or which seem likely to be attempting to blame the customer service rep for the original problem--or at least for not having the power to fix it.

Call centers track abandoned calls and make note of how long people were on hold before they hung up. That's useful information, because it can help drive staffing levels and efficiencies if the call center management is paying attention. But what about surveys? Are you tracking the "drop off" points and making some sense of them?

As an example: If 45% of survey takers drop the survey after filling out the questions on page one and advancing to page two, you probably shouldn't have a page two--your survey is too long. If 25% of survey takers drop after answering the third consecutive question about the customer service rep (Was the rep professional? Was the rep knowledgeable? Was the rep courteous?), they are getting the impression that you are conducting an HR survey, not a customer survey. Customers are not there to solve your personnel problems. If a rep is being rude to customers, you should already know that, unless you hired them ten minutes ago.

Some quick, simple rules for your survey:

• Keep it short - 5 questions maximum, fewer if possible
• Keep it relevant - Ask questions about whether the problem was resolved and how the customer feels, not about details of the transaction
• Leave room for comments - Open text fields require analysis, but can give you vital information about the customer experience and your products or services

Whether you use a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey or a Net Promoter® (NPS®) survey or a customer effort score (CES) or something else, you are trying to determine a very small number of things:

1. Why did they contact you? (If they report that product failed and 80% of your contacts are similar, no amount of great service will help. Fix the product.)
2. How do they feel about your organization? (Key question, whether you are after satisfaction, delight, or "Wow!" reactions)
3. What do they want to tell you? (Open comments)

Comments, or "verbatims" as they are often called, can give you terrific insights into what your customers expect and how they might respond if things were changed, even slightly.

If you are going to survey, get it right.

Give it some thought--and leave a comment. 

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld

Making Customers Wait May Drive Them to Your Competition

While today's customers demand a choice of contact channels, studies have shown that self-service is very effective for the simplest of customer issues or requests, but that complexity drives channel choice.* Customers want to speak with a human about more complex questions or problems.

But what happens when customers do call about a complex issue may not be helping your brand's perception with your customers. In fact, it may be damaging your credibility and possibly even driving your customers to the competition.

Why?

Two things happen:

1. Customers have to wait in lengthy customer service queues
2. Customers have to repeat information they've already given

Imagine calling your friend Pat to ask a question about this week's PTA meeting, and being told to hold on for a few minutes while Pat's phone repeats how important your call is... then when Pat gets back on the line, you have to identify yourself and your reason for calling all over again. Annoying? You bet. And yet so many brands do this to customers all the time.

According to a study conducted in September, 2013 by Virtual Hold Technology, 64% of customers will hang up after waiting on hold for 5 minutes, and a whopping 91% will hang up after 10.  So, why do companies make us wait and then (96% of survey respondents said) have to repeat information? [Infographic]

The alternative would seem to be to increase staffing to a level they cannot afford, they say. Well, that probably isn't true. Information capture technologies exist that can integrate with self-service (and other channels) to provide call-backs in the place of long hold times, and will capture the relevant information so that customers do not have to repeat it.

If you can stop needless hold time, bring together information from multiple channels, and end the annoyance of repetition for your customers, why wouldn't you? After all, 90% of the consumers in the VHT study said that a positive customer experience will increase their loyalty.

What do you think? Would getting a call back instead of waiting in a queue make you feel better about your own customer interactions with a particular brand?

Give it some thought.

*See the American Express 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer (PDF)

Losing Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs wanted to change the world. I believe that he did.

There was a huge round of blog posts when Steve stepped down from the CEO position, a move that few mistook as anything but a sign that his health was very, very bad. I was, to tell the truth, a little angry about all the accolades begin showered on Mr. Jobs. It wasn't that I didn't feel that the praise was very well deserved; I just wondered where all this sentiment was for all his years at Apple, and during his time away. The fire was there all the time, but many felt the need to belittle it or write it off as some kind of fringe behavior.

It was obvious to many of us that Steve and the products he talked so persuasively about were something special, and that he would, in fact, change the way we use computers, the way we listen to music, the things we can do on the phone, and the way we think of animated movies. (Yes--that little company called Pixar was Steve, too.)

Now since this is primarily a blog about customer service, I would be remiss if I did not point out how important customers were in Steve's mind. Don't think so? Take a look at his 1997 Macworld Expo keynote  and pay extra close attention at around  22:30. Steve says that Apple's customers are its most important core asset, reveals that he calls the support line himself, and doesn't like being kept on hold. One of the very first things Steve did at the beginning of the monumental task of turning Apple around was to focus on customers. I remember it, because I was there, as I so often was. I developed immense respect for the brand and its champions, the greatest of whom was Mr. Jobs. 

And let's not forget one of the other big things: Steve changed the way we present, if we present well. I've had the pleasure to see many great speakers, but no one ever came close to Steve doing one of his keynotes. His beautifully simple slide shows (using Apple's Keynote, so please don't call them "PowerPoint") showed me the great value of using white type on a dark background: The words themselves give out the light your eyes are seeking, and so you are drawn to the words, not some fancy background. Brilliant, and all presenters (and corporate template designers) should take note. Combining Steve's low-key, dark clothing and incredible persuasive power, Steve's talks were amazing.

Some years ago, I heard Sting say that the definition of charisma was the ability to stand still and silent and hold people's attention. Steve had it.

 

I was lucky enough to be associated with Apple through the Apple Solution Experts and Apple Consultants Network. Before OS X arrived, I was a beta tester, and went through OS X "boot camp" in advance of its public release. I often worked the Apple Help Desk at Macworld, along with other ACN members. When Apple started issuing technical certifications, I was one of the first to earn "ACTC" - Apple Certified Technical Coordinator. I was also an Apple User Groups Northeast Regional Liaison, and was talking in 2003, as this writeup from Macworld shows, about what is now called "social IT" - having user groups as a first line of contact to resolve questions and issues before picking up the phone to anyone else.

Were it not for Mr. Jobs, I might not have been part of the great Apple community and would not have been thinking along those lines. I'm no longer a professional "Mac Geek" but I will always be partial to the design and function of Apple's technology, driven from the insight of Steve Jobs.

I have no doubt that Steve Jobs changed the world, because he certainly helped to change mine, and that's all I have to go by. Thank you, Steve.

The Power of Twitter for Customer Service

Twitter, smartphones, connectivity, flight delays, and Customer Service via Social Media.


Back in June, Sabine McElrath wrote about our rediscovery of each other via Twitter—after 35 years—in a post she titled "The Incredible Power of Twitter." This week, I used one of Twitter's other amazing powers to save a trip from becoming wasteful in time and money, and to gain peace of mind. (Yes, really.)

I was ready to fly home after a few days of business. In the airport, the info boards told me my flight would be delayed for about an hour. I connected to the airport's free wireless network and downloaded the Delta Airlines iPhone app, Fly Delta. I checked my connecting flight in New York, and it was scheduled to get off the ground about three minutes after my delayed flight landed. I checked repeatedly as I waited in the airport, and my outbound flight was drifting a few minutes later each time. Not good. It was evident that I would be stuck in New York after my arrival. I used an app called Direct Line to call Delta without  going through their phone tree manually. I spoke with a friendly representative who confirmed that yes, I was going to miss my connecting flight, and was puzzled when I laughed at the thought that she could find another flight later in the evening to my destination—Bangor, Maine. She found me a flight to Bangor from New York, leaving late the next morning. So, I would be hoteling it in NYC, or spending many hours in the airport. Downhearted, I switched the flight. I would not make it home Thursday night. We got off the ground about one and a quarter hours past our originally scheduled time, headed for my New York connection.

Thanks to my gogoinflight Internet connection, I was able to communicate with home and elsewhere via email from the plane in flight, and I checked into the Delta app to keep updated on the flights. Late in my flight, I decided to take one more look at my original flight, after an email from home suggesting that it, too, might be delayed. Sure enough, it was running about one hour late. So, my mission was to get back on that flight as rapidly as possible. Using the Birdbrain app, I found Delta's Twitter account and sent them a tweet asking how I could switch:

A few minutes later, I received a tweet from @DeltaAssist asking for my confirmation number and my desired change via Direct Message, which I sent (number removed):

And then, after about 5 minutes, I got the good news:

I deplaned in NYC, walked up to the gate for my departing flight, got my seat assignment, and was on my way home.

Now, let's not forget that the best Customer Service would have been to get me off the ground on time in the first place, and have neither flight delayed. But, Delta did a great job of responding quickly to my request and getting it done. Thanks JD, whoever you are, for understanding the urgency, for being empowered with the right tools to make the change happen, and for getting me home. I had peace of mind because I didn't have to run around talking to gate agents to make the switch in NYC, and a good, productive day the next day, instead of losing time, effort and money for extra travel.

Does your company have a good Social media strategy for Customer Service?

Give it some thought.

Note: I have no affiliation whatsoever with Delta, gogoinflight, Birdbrain, or Direct Line. They just happen to be the tools I used to accomplish these tasks.

Give It To Me Now, Give It To Me Straight

In this post, I'm going to talk about service from the customer perspective, stepping out of my role as a service provider. Let me state for the record that when I say Customer Service, I am not talking only about a Customer Service "department," or the handling of complaints or returns or problems, although all of these are all parts of the Customer Service world. I'm talking about a philosophy of service that is relevant across the company, and which doesn't lose sight of the fact that a business will only continue to exist as long as it fulfills the needs and expectations of customers, whether those customers are end-users or other businesses. Great Customer Service is evident in every step of the customer's contact with the company. It's useful, I think, to do a quick review of what I consider to be the essential elements of excellent Customer Service from the customer's perspective:

• Timeliness - Service transactions and information are delivered quickly and appropriately
• Accessibility - Customers can easily get information or ask questions or report issues through any channel the company provides without "jumping through hoops."
• Directness - The Customer should always feel that they are getting correct information, and not just a tidbit or statement the company chooses to provide to make them "cool off."

Now for the examples.

Not So Good: A company well known for their Customer Service recently sent us an electronic coupon worth $10. The email stated that it could be used on their website, printed and brought to a retail store, or simply shown at the checkout on a smart phone. Armed with iPhone and coupon, we visited one of their outlets. We brought our purchases to the checkout. The cashier had never heard of or seen the promotion. The cashier's supervisor had never heard of or seen the promotion. They did not know how to handle the electronic coupon, and wound up turning it down because of their distinction between a retail store and an outlet store. This goes to Directness. We now understand  their distinction between one of their big, full-price stores (nearest one is 4 hours away) and their outlets. It should have been clear on the coupon, and the program should have been known to their employees. [Note: This was the first less-than-stellar interaction I've had with the company in 40 years of doing business with them. They explained why they could not take the coupon, but made no attempt to take any responsibility for the interaction.]

Excellent: One of the sites I use to post on the Web suffered a Denial of Service attack last week, and was effectively down. The company scrambled to get out from under the attack. As soon as possible, they sent out one of the best Customer Service communications I've ever seen. In this email, they

• Explained in plain language what happened, what they did to solve it and how they planned to prevent it from happening again (no excuses, just information)
• Apologized sincerely, indicating that they understood that the site was down, and what that meant for subscribers
• Applauded the technical team that had worked without rest to provide a solid, working solution

The information was Direct, Accessible, and Timely. It does not get much better than that.

Give it some thought.

The Outcome Is Not Guaranteed

I have always thought of people as fundamentally optimistic. If someone tells us something, we usually believe it. When we buy something, we expect that it will work. We have a symptom, we see a doctor, we get a prescription, and we believe that we will get better.


I've also always thought that this is a naïve approach. Not everyone gets better. Things don't always work as advertised. And this is as true in computer support as it is in health care. No matter how we may wish to make everything perfect, fast, easy, and reliable, we can't always do so. Sometimes the outcome is a frustrated person on each end of the phone or help chat. The support person wants to make things work as the end-user expects; the end-user or expects that it's going to be fixed right now.


As hard as it is for many of us to absorb, not everyone gets well, or has their symptoms ameliorated. Some medical conditions fail to improve; likewise, some computer issues don't respond even after hours of work. There are so many variables in each case.


So, when you are faced with a computer issue and contact your support provider, bear in mind that the outcome may not be as you wish, but you can help minimize the chances that this will happen. The better communication you have with either your health care provider or your computer support person, the more likely you are to get your particular issue resolved.


Some helpful hints for getting the best results from computer support:

• Be honest - if you dropped the laptop, admit it. You'll save yourself and the support person lots of time.
• Be patient - lots of variables mean lots of questions and maybe some failed fixes.
• Be understanding - if you are trying to connect to your office from a hotel, be aware that the service desk at your company has no control over the hotel network, and may not be able to make things work for you
• Be compliant - if you're asked to restart, or unplug, or call the hotel front desk, please act in your own best interest.
• Be trusting - don't immediately call your "cousin Bob, who knows a lot about computers" after the support person tells you that you need to do x, y, or z. The support person may, in fact, not be as smart as "cousin Bob," but may have information that Bob does not have about the network, or model of computer, or the state of the Internet at that particular time.

One more request: If you do figure out what the problem was, or if the symptom stops happening, let the support folks know. Believe it or not, we worry about these things, and often spend our off-hours reading and researching the fixes for unresolved issues.

Now, reboot and don't forget to take your medicine.

Give it some thought.

Communicating Change - 3 Things to Remember

One of my favorite quotes comes from one of my favorite TV shows—The West Wing. In one episode, writer Aaron Sorkin has President Barlett say, "Decisions are made by those who show up."

I have seen this happen in my own groups at work, when one of my direct reports misses a meeting and something changes. I've felt it when I've had to miss a meeting myself, or when I wasn't invited in the first place. This often produces a clumsy moment days or weeks later when someone is blindsided by the change resulting from that meeting. If you have had this happen to you, you know how painful and frustrating it can be.

Perhaps it's a trait fostered by my astrological sign (Gemini), if you believe in such things, or perhaps it stems from my being the youngest of three siblings: Communication is paramount to me, and I tend to over—rather than under—communicate (I am not perfect at this! Who is?), and I tend to try to participate as much as possible in everything that's going on.

So, how can we avoid cutting people out of the loop, or assuming that people now something they don't know? Here are three quick tips:

1. Make sure the right people show up: Check and double check to be inclusive in your meeting invitations
2. Do pre-meeting communication: Agendas and subtopics should be clearly communicated in advance, so that unidentified stakeholders have the opportunity to come forward
3. Do post-meeting communication: The results, decisions, and outcomes from the meeting should be as widely distributed as possible without breaking confidentiality. (And give people a way to access this in a relatively permanent manner--not just email. Post information on a wiki, attach minutes to a project plan, whatever works.)

Make sure that people who weren't able to show up still have knowledge about the decisions that have been made. The people who habitually don't show up would rather have other people make their decisions for them.

Give it some thought.

Software Support: A Customer Service Story

Over the last several days, I've spent a fair amount of time chasing down some information vital to obtaining some software via download from a major company. We've had dealings with this company before, and they have lived up to their reputation of being hard to contact and difficult to deal with once you do find someone to talk to.

Late yesterday, I'd spent 15 minutes or so on hold, until their automated system decided I'd waiting long enough and kicked me into voicemail. I left as much information as I could articulate clearly over the phone: my contact info, the order info, and what I was trying to accomplish. I had not heard back by the time I left for the day.

This morning, there was a message waiting for me when I arrived in my office, left by a support representative about 20 minutes after I'd left for the day. He said he would call back "in the morning." My faith was less than profound.

Because my level of trust in the company's support was low, I called the support line back first thing and actually did get connected to someone who sounded very far away, and who sounded vaguely Scandinavian—like Stephen Hawking's speech generator. With this assistance, I did gain access to what I needed and touched off several Gigabytes of downloads. This solved my technical problem of getting into the site.

A short while later my phone rang, and I was surprised to hear the very person who had left me voicemail yesterday, a man named Andrew. I let him know I had already gained access, but that I had several questions about why this company's process was so convoluted and what we could do to make it better in the future. He spent about 15 minutes on the phone with me. He pulled up the records of our dealings with the company in question and explained two ways we could improve our experiences. He gave me the phone number of a different group that could go farther to resolve the over-arching issue: Simplification of access and licensing (not handled by his group). I then asked him for his email address so that I could send him something he could share with his supervisor, if possible. Andrew had done an excellent job of turning around what otherwise was a dreadful customer service experience.

About 20 minutes later I sent Andrew a thank you, congratulating him for doing a great job of customer service, in contrast to every other contact I had ever had with the company. Here's exactly what I wrote, except for the name of the company in question:

Andrew, I just want to tell you what a pleasure it was to speak with you. I have been chasing this particular issue around the block for days, and you gave me valuable information for our future purchases from [Company]. Although you had called late in the day yesterday, you said you would call back, and you followed through. You asked for pertinent information and looked into why we might be having the issues we have been seeing (not having access to the downloads associated with our purchases). You gave me some questions to ask within our organization, and some paths to follow to be able to simplify our purchases. Your customer service was exemplary, and I’d be very pleased if you were to share my comments with your supervisor, who is free to call me any time. In short, you rock!
Thanks, Roy

I hope I made Andrew's day a little better. He certainly helped mine, by

• Following through on a simple commitment
• Being pleasant and professional in manner
• Having empathy for the situation
• Having access to the information he needed in order to help me
• Passing that information along, and making some suggestions that would help

Have you had a good customer service experience recently? Post a comment and let me know.

(Post updated to clarify some parts of this experience - thanks for your comments, Jeff!)

Give it some thought.