Achieving Customer Service Breakthroughs

1. Achieving Customer Service Breakthroughs

2. “The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.” Peter Drucker

3. Research Research confirms a diverse range of skills, behaviors and attitudes are required to achieve this simple objective of a satisfied customer

4. The Complete Role There are approximately 40 aspects of customer service – concepts, attitudes, skills, behaviors, emotions, tools and processes – required to ensure complete customer service

5. 5 Units These aspects are brought together in five major areas, or units of customer service • The Value of Customers • Quality Service • Communication • Self management • Complaints & Conflict

6. 38 Modules • Each Unit comprises of several Modules • Each Module is a stand-alone topic

7. Must haves To achieve complete customer service, staff must have • Knowledge about best practice customer service • Skill sets that have been practiced • Tools and processes • The right attitude • Emotional control • Appropriate behaviors on the job • Confidence

8. Structure of a customer service training program Each module has a specific sets of objectives, learning & behavior outcomes designed to improve customer service • Understanding & skills • Judgment • Attitudes & emotions • Behaviors

9. It is useful to view some key customer service concepts and behaviors required by staff serving customers We will use the Priority Management Model as the guide

10. Complaints & Conflict The Value of Customers Customer Quality Service Self Management Communication The Complete Role

11. The Value of Customers • The Complete Role • Point of Contact • Memorable Service • How we Treat Customers • You and Your Organization • Internal Customers • Customer Service Impact on the Organization • Customer Loyalty • Learning

12. Everyone in the organization should be either directly dealing with customers, or supporting those who do

13. Moments of Truth “Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression” Jan Carlzon

14. Memorable Service • What is a ‘moment of truth’ for us when we are the customer? • What is a ‘moment of truth’ for our customers when they deal with us?

15. Customer Service involves every person, and every part, of an organization “You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.”Jerry Fritz

16. A dysfunctional group of individuals? Shared ownership – a team? How do our Customers See us?

17. “We have hundreds of thousands of salespeople. They are our customers.”Scott Cook

18. Internal Customers When we are the internal customer… • What makes us feel valued? • What makes us feel unimportant?

19. “Organizations have more to fear from lack of quality internal customer service than from any level of external customer service.”Ron Tillotson

20. “The purpose of a business is to create a mutually beneficial relationship between itself and those it serves. When it does that well, it will be around tomorrow to do it some more.”John Woods

21. 20 15 10 5 0 Average Customer Tenure (Years) 50 60 70 80 90 100 Average Retention Rate (Annual) Source: Bain & Co. Inc. Research (from The Loyalty Effect by Frederick Reichheld, Harvard Business School Press, 1996) Get them and Keep them!

22. The Loyalty Effect • Retention rates go up • Referrals go up • Spending rates go up • Customers are less price sensitive • Costs of servicing them go down • Initial processing costs go down • Returns and losses are lower • Profits go up

23. Goodwill

24. Raving Fans ‘Raving Fans’ – Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles

25. Quality Service • Customer Worth • Lifetime Value • Service Standards • Customer Perception and Reality • Managing Customers Expectations • Overpromising and Underdelivering

26. All Customers are not Equal Unequal in terms of: • Sales volume (units or $) • Range of products or service bought • Profit or margin realized • Frequency of purchase Equal in terms of: • Personal behaviors • Personal treatment

27. Relative Worth of Customers Impact on our business Classification % of customer base % impact on business Platinum 10 25 Gold 15 25 Silver 35 45 Bronze 20 5 Tin 20 -15

28. Lifetime Revenue Value A customer • Spends $1000 • Every 3 months • Stays for 5 years Lifetime Revenue value is $1000 x 4pa x 5 years = $20,000 Now calculate yours!

29. “A loyal customer is worth ten times a single one.” “One customer, well taken care of, could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.”Jim Rohn

30. Service Standards A service standard is an example or benchmark of a customer service activity against which actual performance can be measured What do standards achieve for • An external customer? • Us as the service provider? • An internal customer? • Our organization?

31. Managing Expectations In a selling-buying transaction, expectations have to be understood, adjusted, set and agreed before the contract is signed In customer service, it is usually after the sale is made that expectations have to be considered and dealt with

32. Overpromising & Underdelivering “Never promise what you can’t deliver” • What are the advantages of practicing this? • What are the potential risks of doing the opposite? “Understate and Overprove”

33. Communication • Two-way Communication • Questioning • Listening • Verbal Behaviors • Non-Verbal Behaviors • First Impressions • Rapport Building • Telephone: Voice Tone • Telephone: Impressions and Behaviors • Tips on Customer Service by E-mail • Types of Calls

34. Intention “Blah, blankity blah. OK?” “Blah, blah, blah. OK?” Decoding Encoding Interference Method Face to face Telephone Electronic Using Words Voice Visual Receiver Sender Feedback Two-Way Communication

35. Our Verbal Behaviors Believing a message and trusting the sender depends 7% on the Verbal = Words 38% on the Voice = Tone 55% on the Visual = Body Language On a conscious level • Face-to-face - words, tone, body language • Telephone - words and tone • Written - words

36. First Impressions “You never have a second chance to make a first impression.”Anon • Eye contact • Handshake • Personal space • Grooming

37. Rapport Building “A sympathetic relationship or understanding” • Our business is based on relationships • Long-term positive and profitable relationships are preferred • Each “moment of truth” is a rapport building opportunity • Our “treatment” reinforces or negates the existing rapport

38. Telephone Behaviors: Voice Tone • Non-verbal (Body language) behaviors are conveyed and received, mostly subconsciously • Our voice tone is the most important conveyer of our message and our credibility

39. Pitch Pace Treble High Fast Slow Bass Low Balance Volume Speed Pause Inflection Intensity Fall Rise Tuning Telephone Behaviors:Voice Tone

40. Guidelines for Receiving Calls • Answer promptly • Greeting and identifying • Words and voice tone • Conversational phrases • Using the caller’s name • Being organized • Obtaining information • Verifying information • Providing information • Apologizing • Transferring • Completing

41. Types of Calls Inward customer visits or calls fall into three types Advise:Telling us something we need to know Ask: Requesting information about a product or service; or advice Complain: Making a complaint about a product or service; or person; or customer service

42. Self Management • Power and Confidence • Managing Stress • Time Guidelines • Cross-Selling and Up-Selling • Educating our Customers • Product and Services Knowledge • Attitudes and Behaviors • Self Management Model

43. Skills Emotions Able and Willing Knowledge Attitudes Self Management Able (can do: capable, having the knowledge, aptitude & skills required) Willing (will do: the desire, commitment and attitudes)

44. Product & Services Knowledge • Challenging • Range continues to grow • Often more complex • More competition • New products • Customers more knowledgeable and demanding Easier for us? Harder for us?

45. Educating our Customers How do our customers learn? • Seeing“Show me – let me see it” • Trying“Let me try it out” • Reading“Give me the literature (or the website) I’ll read it and get back to you if I have any questions” • Discussing“I’d like to talk to you about it” • Listening“Please tell me” Customers learn in their way, not ours

46. Cross-selling and Up-selling Cross-selling involves selling a complementary product or service to a customer Up-selling involves selling a higher value or higher specification product or service to a customer What opportunities are there for you to cross-sell or up-sell?

47. Managing Stress • Stress is necessary for functioning effectively and living a full life • The impact of stress may be positive or negative, depending on how we perceive and respond to stressful situations • Recognizing stress or stress symptoms is required prior to coping with it • Constant, everyday ‘hassles’ can have cumulative effects of more significance than one-off stressors

48. Personal Power & Confidence • Easily developed • Generated by ourselves • Can never be taken away • Can outweigh other power sources • Generated by such things as Appearance Speech Listening Knowledge Experience Abilities Standards/ethics Manner Expertise Reputation Qualifications Success

49. The Competence/Skill Model 5 Conscious of Unconscious Competence “I’m aware of habit” 4 Unconscious Competence “Don’t know I know” Habit 3 Conscious Competence “Know I know” 2 Conscious Incompetence “Know I don’t know” 1 Unconscious Incompetence “Don’t know I don’t know”

50. Skill Development “Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus 10,000 times is skill.” Shinichi Suzuki “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle