Janus

This is the time of the year when we reflect on the past and look to the future, like the Roman god of beginnings and ends, Janus. We get together with friends new and old. We gather up the harvest of what we have done during the past year and make lists, plans, or resolutions of what we would like to accomplish for the next. For many of us, 2009 has been difficult. Personally and professionally, we've had to weather the storm of economic changes that have caused rapid and massive change in our businesses, careers, and networks. Jobs have been lost, teams changed, training discontinued, budgets cut. As I've written previously in this space, "Although the transitions will be challenging, there are opportunities here." I think it's worth examining a few of the opportunities for 2010 and perhaps some strategies to help us get there.

• Make a list of your accomplishments for 2009 - It's very easy to forget the positive things you and your team have managed to do under difficult circumstances
• Decide which of those accomplishments can be carried into 2010 - Not everything can be brought forward to the new year's "books," but there are some trends you can track and follow forward
• Find the pitfalls from the past year - Make note of the weak spots and areas where you can improve on wins and reverse downtrends. The chief pitfall is deciding ahead of time that your goals cannot be attained.
• Look for opportunities - Professional, personal, team, and individual opportunities exist. Find them and discover how to capitalize on them

Give it some thought.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject of growing into the new year. Please comment.

Keep the Bar High When Your Spirits Aren't

We all have times when we don't feel like we can maintain our positive outlook. An unexpected setback, an unkind remark, a missed opportunity, the loss of a friend—maybe all in the same morning—and your resolve to be positive goes right out the window. Sometimes a job demands that we do something really unpleasant, and it takes time to recover from the negative impact on us.

When this happens, it's easy to forget how important our own mental well-being is. We can't function up to our best potential, we can't deal with problems effectively, and we have trouble prioritizing work. Probably the best thing any of us can do when we experience this is to take a little time off. We need to step away from the day-to-day and regain our focus and the positive attitude that got us where we are.

Unfortunately, it's not always possible to step away from the work. Even when we're away from the workplace, we are connected through our smartphones or laptops, and it's easy to bring all the internal turmoil home.

When this happens, the most important thing is to remember that the quality of the work you and your team are doing should not suffer. That's why we have teams. Think back to a time when one of your team members suffered a setback. Didn't you step in and pick up some of the work, or make the appropriate adjustment so that they could recover and pick up the load again? Is there someone on your team you know you can depend on to do the same for you? The team should be strong enough to absorb at least some of the extra work.

In this excellent article on the importance focusing on our mental health, St. John Health System enumerates ways to overcome the loss of positive outlook. I suggest at least a quick look at some of the bullet points there. Add some of them to your personal arsenal of capabilities.

Give it some thought.

Get Your Customer Service Issues Addressed

Anyone who has studied customer service in any depth knows that most of your dissatisfied customers never let you know. Even consistent, well-constructed surveys often don't produce a clear picture of what you're doing right and what you can do better.


Why don't people tell us when they have a problem? Maybe it's because they think we'll be offended, or that they might get us "in trouble." Maybe it goes back to the old model of a "Complaint Department" at businesses and stores, and people don't want to be perceived as complainers. For whatever reason, the percentage of people who do let us know they are unhappy is often compared to the "tip of the iceberg" with the other 90 to 95% of dissatisfied customers remaining silent. This creates a big problem for those of us who care about and deal with customer service (CS) issues. How can we improve if we don't know that we're doing something wrong, what we're doing wrong, and maybe the customers' ideas on how we might improve?


You don't have to be angry about bad service you received—but you might be—in order to contact a customer service representative at a business. A business that's interested in having a future will work with you to find a resolution. Here are some steps you can take to get the right kind of attention on a service issue:

• Get relevant details ready for your call, chat or submission
• Find out what to do if your first contact does not go well
• Tell your story as simply as possible
• Get attention on the details that created your dissatisfaction or problem
• Be prepared to escalate your case to the next level
• Try hard not to be overly confrontational; making the CS representative defensive doesn't help
• Be realistic - you won't get a house in Malibu because your dryer doesn't work
• Don't sell yourself short - have some idea of what will make you happy, and stick to that
• Be prepared to go to the competition on your next opportunity, and let that be known

Let us know how we are doing. Focus your feedback. In the long run, you'll get better service all around.

Give it some thought.

After the Conference

If you happen to follow me on Twitter or be connected with me on LinkedIn, you probably know that I attended the First Wednesday Group's excellent Voice of the Customer Conference in Massachusetts this past week. This was my second time, and I'm so glad I attended. The producers put together a great range of speakers, and there is always a lot to learn.

But here's where the value of any conference is either made or broken: What's next? What did I take away from this event that helps my job, my career, my life? What did I hear—what topics were discussed that will make a difference for me over the next year?

Here, as I heard it, were the salient customer service points made at this conference:

• If your company is not paying attention to social media (Twitter and Facebook especially), it should be
• People are talking about your company, products and services, and if you are not in the mix, search engines will own the conversation more than you will
• People consult social media, including reviews and ratings, before buying a product or service
• The methods currently used to measure customer satisfaction need to be updated
• Customer-provided voluntary support information can be extremely valuable. Knowledgeable people will post answers to questions, an will solve problems for people for free—but make sure you thank them*
• Companies struggle with knowing when to step in with their own support

We are all learning how to use these new forms of global, instant communication. How to use them well is something we have to figure out as we go along. In my line of work, some organizations already are using Twitter as a method of getting assistance from the service desk.

It's an exciting time. How we deal with all this change will steer the customer service and support industry through the next decade and beyond.

What have you learned recently from a meeting, webinar, conference or workshop that will stay with you in your world?

Give it some thought.

*The Microsoft MVP community marked a 30% increase in questions answered after a word of thanks.

A Seat at the Grownups' Table

Many of us can remember Thanksgiving dinner in an extended family setting where those of us who were very young were sent to eat at the kids' table—usually a folding table set up just for the purpose. When we were "old enough" we were able to move up to the grownups' table. It was and is a rite of passage. For those of us who are the youngest sibling, this rite was even more important.

In business, a "seat at the table" means that your department or division or function gets to participate in decision-making processes. Your people get to be in the room when decisions are at least discussed if not made.

When there are business meetings in your organization, are there people who sit at the kids' table? Perhaps they are not taken seriously, or perhaps they don't care enough to be paying full attention. In the worst case, they are people who do care, who desperately want to be part of decisions, to be asked questions, to participate.

When you call a meeting to start a new project, are some of the people in the room relegated to the kids' table? Perhaps unwittingly, are you avoiding their opinions and perspectives?

• Make sure that all stakeholders are represented at your meeting
• Go around the table completely and give everyone an opportunity for input
• Listen carefully for those unexpected gems that can help you get things done

The best insights often come from unexpected places. Don't forget to tap the minds at the kids' table. And don't forget about giving them a rite of passage to full citizenship within the family of your business.

Give it some thought.

Finding Opportunities in Change

There were two significant changes in my workplace this week. They weren't new servers or databases. They were changes in staff.

One person has left the Service Desk to take a new and exciting position closer to home (it will save him about 3 hours a day). Another will be leaving my Desktop Support group to head across the building to take up systems administration duties.

Neither of these changes is easy. Work needs to be absorbed or modified. There will be the inevitable challenges to get up to speed on things these people know and things they did. Oh, sure, we have documentation. The nameplate outside my office has two lines. One has my name, and the other says, "If it's not documented, it's a rumor." But nothing beats experience in some situations. We'll miss that.

Although the transitions will be challenging, there are opportunities here.

• Rethink workflow through and around these positions
• Check processes for clarity and completeness
• Develop materials to help with training a replacement
• Refresh all administrative passwords
• Be open to a fresh set of eyes

We'll miss our departing colleagues. But we can gain some new insights to what we do.

What's your biggest challenge when there's turnover in your workplace? How can you find the opportunities in the change? Leave a comment and let me know.

Give it some thought.

Customer Service Week: Celebrating Your Best

Who picks up the phone when someone calls your company with a question or a problem? After your customer has navigated what is sometimes a long Winding Path through a phone tree or waited on hold—or both—who handles a confused, sometimes angry customer? Your Customer Service people do.

Customer Service Week is meant as a time to honor and celebrate the people who do this difficult and sometimes personally rewarding job. Like a lot of well-intended celebrations, however, it has become focused more on celebrations in Customer Service rather than celebrations of Customer Service both as a department or team, and as a concept.

Dear C-level Execs:

When was the last time you had a question about your own products? Did you call your Customer Service line (or use your IT Service Desk)? I'll bet that you did not, but rather used some internal channels to get your answer. Why not call the same lines your customers do? I'll wager that you thought it would take too long, and might not get you the help you needed. What does that say about your company's customer focus? It says that you are out of focus, and that—once you've collected their money—your customers become second-class citizens. Would you deliver that message up front? "We'll take your money for our product and then deliver as little help as we can without losing measurable market share." What's wrong with that? Everything.

Dear Customer Service Reps and IT Support Staff:

Take this week to celebrate yourselves. Make nice when the CEO/COO/CIO stops by to eat your cake and tell you how valued you are. There are those of us who truly value your work and think the world of your daily struggle to get it right. Most often, you do get it right. Sometimes very right. You save the customer's day, and you save the company's bacon. Good for you! You have every right to this week of funny hats and pizza, or however it is that you choose to say, "Hey! We're good at what we do!"

Dear Customers:

Yes, the phone trees are frustrating. Yes, that music on hold is not exactly what you want to be listening to. But soon you will be connected to a person (and we all do want to be connected to a person rather than a bot, don't we?) who will help you. They will sort out your bill, or ask you to reboot, or direct you to some information, or just stay on the line with you until your particular service storm has passed, your issue resolved or on the way to resolution. When you are impatient and angry with a product, remember that the person on the phone with you really wants to help, They really do!

From a purely personal perspective, I'd like to thank the Customer Service people at two companies in particular for their consistently high standards and work: L.L. Bean* and American Express. Your companies really understand the Customer Service concept.

What can your company do to improve the level and ease of Customer Service?

Give it some thought.

*Note the quote from Leon Leonwood Bean at the top of the linked page. This company was founded on impeccable service and continues to offer it.

Note: I have no financial or personal connection to either L.L. Bean or American Express other than being a long-time customer of both.