Customer Service: What People Remember

April 28, 2008

You can provide the information customers need and have a great reputation for service and quality, but how a customer feels about the conduct or attitude of the person they deal with when they need service is what they remember and repeat to others.

Studies show 1 person will tell 11 people about rude behavior and that 11 will tell 55, so 67 people hear about the behavior. If that happened 25 times in 5 years, that’s 1,675 people; that’s a small town that doesn’t like you.

Here are some great ways to improve how a customer feels about their experience with a customer service representative:

  • People are much more likely to agree with those who agree with them first! Customers want you to agree with them. The person asking questions is in control of the conversation. Get them talking about the issues, you can let them know you agree and have a recommendation
  • Leaders set the tone for customer service. If you have employees, they need to see you doing the things for customers that you are asking them to do. Leadership by example: You set the culture for your organization.
  • Great customer service reps don’t hold their customers too accountable. A customer may be 100% at fault and now need you to help them out of their problem. You have to make a decision to be responsible and accountable as much as you can be. You keep customers by being accountable. The number one complaint customers have is that the service providers hold them accountable for their problem and they feel like they are paying for it never to be their fault.

I ran across a great example on the “Love Them Up and Keep Them Forever” blog

Who’s to Blame and Does It Even Matter? « Love Them Up and Keep Them Forever™:

What I saw was a customer service person who felt that he was being blamed for the situation and didn’t have the skills to manage his emotions. He didn’t “get” that when a customer is upset, it’s never personal. It’s always about the customer’s relationship with the company, not with you as an individual. As a representative of the print shop, we all would have been much better off had he simply calmed me down with a quick “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m working on this as quickly as I can. Do you need me to hold on to the order for you and you can come back later tonight?”

Check our programs and articles for more information

Customer service is dying and I’m not feeling so good myself
Customer service training programs
Customer service keynote programs

1 Comment | Business Growth, Customer Service | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn

The Truth: Nobody Wants Customer Service!!

November 6, 2007

Customers don’t want service! Customers want things that don’t need any service. They want maintenance-free, self-contained solutions, whenever possible. On average, how do you think most people would rate service after the sale over the course of their lives? Do you really think they are looking for more of that? They want cars that don’t break down, systems that need no tweaking; and they may resent the time required to service their product, preferring instead to spend time making money, forwarding their cause or living life.

We tend to believe our customers want great service because we have solutions that require maintenance. In other words, we put customers in a position to need service. To be motivated, we need to believe that we have exactly what the customer wants. The truth is that the customer wants a permanent solution, and either we don’t want to provide it (for various reasons) or no permanent solution exists. If we have to provide service to customers who are not terribly thrilled about needing it, that service had better be fantastic. It’s like insisting that someone who doesn’t particularly care for hot dogs must eat one. You’d better serve one damn good hot dog or you’re in big trouble.

Mediocre service can be worse than no service in some cases. If we can solve customers’ problems before they know they have any, they will feel much better about their purchase but we will lose the opportunity to generate additional revenue and good will through all that customer service. We have to decide which has more value to the customer and to us.

Strategies to consider

  1. Offering training, spare parts or an organized, pre-set service program as part of the purchase price (or as a higher-priced add-on) may give you greater customer satisfaction and allow you to offer less service after the sale but give better results to the customer
  2. Get more deeply involved with customers at the point of sale and uncover more opportunities to help them succeed at a faster rate; and
  3. Help customers in a way that allows them to learn how to help themselves, proving that your solutions have more long-term value than those of your competitors and are worth the higher price tag.

 I realize that this view may not be for everyone; after all, one man’s business-growing customer service is another man’s expensive pain in the butt. But it’s important to find ways to help the customer while at the same time making sure we can stay in business long enough to actually provide that help. Organizations that are not profitable usually give poor service whether the customer wants it or not. So, the question is, what do your customers really want from you?

Customer Service Keynote Presentation

1 Comment | Business Growth, Customer Service | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ginger Dailey Wynn

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