Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD, Customer Service Expert

Dear Subscriber,

I have just completed the following article that I hope you find interesting and motivates you to take action.

The state of customer service today is not good to put it mildly.  It doesn’t matter if it’s over the phone or on the web using self service options.  Since 92% of people (BenchmarkPortal call center study) feel their call experience was important in shaping the image of a company, it reinforces the significance of branding the image of your company.

A survey entitled The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement – sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories and Datamonitor/Ovum reports that the cost of customer service in 15 major industrialized economies causes businesses to lose a total of $338.5 billion dollars per year when customers defect and/or abandon purchases.  No small change here.

The 2012 American Express® Global Customer Service survey, conducted in the U.S. and ten other countries, (Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, and India) explored consumer attitudes and preferences toward customer service.  The most popular way consumers address service inquiries continues to be speaking to a live representative (either on the phone or face-to-face), and through company website or e-mail.

However, one in five consumers (17%) say they’ve used social media at least once in the last year to obtain a customer service response, and this relatively small group of consumers is extremely engaged and vocal.

• People who have used social media for customer service at least once in the last year are willing to spend substantially more–21%–with companies they believe provide great service – in contrast with the general population–13% mor– and those who have not used social media for customer service–11% more.

In addition, more than 80% of these consumers say they’ve bailed on a purchase because of a poor service experience, compared to 55% overall.

The Big Four Service Gripes (American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer) are:

However, despite the greater value consumers place on customer service, it’s reported that many centers don’t make the grade.

• 60%–6 in 10 people believe businesses haven’t increased their focus on providing good customer service — up from 55% in 2010.
• Among this group, 26% think companies are actually paying less attention to service.

Consumers feel most centers fail to get the message that service matters. Nearly two-thirds of consumers feel companies aren’t paying enough attention to service:

• Two in five–42%–said centers are helpful but don’t do anything extra to keep their business.

• One in five–22%–think their business is taken for granted.

According to the Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report, 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience–up from 59% just 4 years ago.

Customers are smarter than ever and looking for more value.  More than just customer service, they want a great customer experience.  If you can’t deliver, your customers are a click away to your competition.

The White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC, says that 59% of customers will try a new brand or company for a better service experience.  And it’s been noted in many articles that dissatisfied consumer will tell between 9 and 15 people about their experience. About 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 24 people up 50% from 2011.  On the other hand, however, happy customers who get their issue resolved only tell about 4 to 6 people about their experience..

Ruby Newell-Legner, author of Understanding Customers, says it takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience

Bottom line:  Customer Service Matters!  And customers are willing to pay for it!  Give your representatives the tools, the techniques, the customer service skills training and the support needed to deliver world class customer service.

ROSANNE D’AUSILIO, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, consultant, master trainer, best selling author, executive coach, customer service expert, President of Human Technologies Global, specializes in human performance management providing needs analyses, instructional design, and customized customer service skills trainings as well as executive/leadership coaching.  Also offered is agent/facilitator university certification through Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality.

Known as ‘the practical champion of the human,’ she authors 7 best sellers “Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub,” 4^th ed, “Customer Service and the Human Experience,” “Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack Your Personal Deck (includes 32-card deck of cards), How to Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch: 101 Insider Tips, Vol I and II, The Expert’s Guide to Customer Service, Vol I and II as well as her popular complimentary ‘tips’ newsletter on How To Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch! at http://www.HumanTechTips.com

Dear Subscriber,

Here are great tips on Leadership.

http://www.carolroth.com/blog/leadership-effective-leadership-tips/

Be sure to read #34 Manage Don’t Parent – mine.

Your thoughts?

Regards

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Customer Service Expert

Dear Subscriber,

Great article in Forbes* by Mike Myatt, Contributor on April 4, 2012:

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on annunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others), which leaders desperately need to learn. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. In today’s column I’ll share a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results.

I don’t believe it comes as any great surprise that most leaders spend the overwhelming majority of their time each day in some type of an interpersonal situation. I also don’t believe it comes as a great shock to find a large number of organizational problems occur as a result of poor communications. It is precisely this paradox that underscores the need for leaders to focus on becoming great communicators. Effective communication is an essential component of professional success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intragroup, organizational, or external level. While developing an understanding of great communication skills is easier than one might think, being able to appropriately draw upon said skills when the chips are down is not always as easy as one might hope for.

Skills acquired and/or knowledge gained are only valuable to the extent they can be practically applied when called for. It has been my experience that the number one thing great communicators have in common is that they possess a heightened sense of situational and contextual awareness. The best communicators are great listeners and observers. Great communicators are skilled a reading a person/group by sensing the moods, dynamics, attitudes, values and concerns of those being communicated with. Not only do they read they environment well, but they possess the uncanny ability to adapt their messaging to said environment without missing a beat. The message is not about the messenger; it has nothing to do with messenger; it is however 100% about meeting the needs and the expectations of those you’re communicating with.

So how do you know when your skills have matured to the point that you’ve become an excellent communicator? The answer is you’ll have reached the point where your interactions with others consistently use the following ten principles:

1. Speak not with a forked tongue: In most cases, people just won’t open up those they don’t trust. When people have a sense a leader is worthy of their trust they will invest time and take risks in ways they would not if their leader had a reputation built upon poor character or lack of integrity. While you can attempt to demand trust it rarely works. Trust is best created by earning it with right acting, thinking, and decisioning. Keep in mind that people will forgive many things where trust exists, but will rarely forgive anything where trust is absent.
2. Get personal: There is great truth in the axiom that states: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Classic business theory tells leaders to stay at arms length. I say stay at arms length if you want to remain in the dark receiving only highly sanitized versions of the truth. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with people you’ll never know what’s really on their mind until it’s too late to do anything about it.
3. Get specific: Specificity is better than Ambiguity 11 times out of 10: Learn to communicate with clarity. Simple and concise is always better than complicated and confusing. Time has never been a more precious commodity than it is in today’s marketplace. It is critical you know how to cut to the chase and hit the high points, and that you expect the same from others. Without understanding the value of brevity and clarity it is unlikely that you’ll ever be afforded the opportunity to get to the granular level as people will tune you out long before you ever get there. Your goal is to weed out the superfluous and to make your words count.
4. Focus on the leave-behinds not the take-aways: The best communicators develop the ability to get the information they need while leaving the other party feeling as if they got more out of the conversation than you did. While you can accomplish this by being disingenuous, that is not the goal. When you truly focus more on contributing more than receiving you will have accomplished the goal. Even though this may seem counter-intuitive, by intensely focusing on the other party’s wants, needs & desires, you’ll learn far more than you ever would by focusing on your agenda.
5. Have an open mind: I’ve often said that the rigidity of a closed mind is the single greatest limiting factor of new opportunities. A leader takes their game to a whole new level the minute they willingly seek out those who hold dissenting opinions and opposing positions with the goal not of convincing them to change their minds, but with the goal of understanding what’s on their mind. I’m always amazed at how many people are truly fearful of opposing views, when what they should be is genuinely curious and interested. Open dialogs with those who confront you, challenge you, stretch you, and develop you. Remember that it’s not the opinion that matters, but rather the willingness to discuss it with an open mind and learn.
6. Shut-up and listen: Great leaders know when to dial it up, dial it down, and dial it off (mostly down and off). Simply broadcasting your message ad nauseum will not have the same result as engaging in meaningful conversation, but this assumes that you understand that the greatest form of discourse takes place within a conversation, and not a lecture or a monologue. When you reach that point in your life where the light bulb goes off, and you begin to understand that knowledge is not gained by flapping your lips, but by removing your ear wax, you have taken the first step to becoming a skilled communicator.
7. Replace ego with empathy: I have long advised leaders not to let their ego write checks that their talent can’t cash. When candor is communicated with empathy & caring and not the prideful arrogance of an over inflated ego good things begin to happen. Empathetic communicators display a level of authenticity and transparency that is not present with those who choose to communicate behind the carefully crafted facade propped-up by a very fragile ego. Understanding the this communication principle is what helps turn anger into respect and doubt into trust.
8. Read between the lines: Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader that comes to mind… you’ll find they are very adept at reading between the lines. They have the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard. Being a leader should not be viewed as a license to increase the volume of rhetoric. Rather astute leaders know that there is far more to be gained by surrendering the floor than by filibustering. In this age of instant communication, everyone seems to be in such a rush to communicate what’s on their mind that they fail to realize everything to be gained from the minds of others. Keep your eyes & ears open and your mouth shut and you’ll be amazed at how your level or organizational awareness is raised.
9. When you speak, know what you’re talking about: Develop a technical command over your subject matter. If you don’t possess subject matter expertise, few people will give you the time of day. Most successful people have little interest in listening to those individuals who cannot add value to a situation or topic, but force themselves into a conversation just to hear themselves speak. The fake it until you make it days have long sense passed, and for most people I know fast and slick equals not credible. You’ve all heard the saying “it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters,” and while there is surely an element of truth in that statement, I’m here to tell you that it matters very much what you say. Good communicators address both the “what” and “how” aspects of messaging so they don’t fall prey to becoming the smooth talker who leaves people with the impression of form over substance.
10. Speak to groups as individuals: Leaders don’t always have the luxury of speaking to individuals in an intimate setting. Great communicators can tailor a message such that they can speak to 10 people in a conference room or 10,000 people in an auditorium and have them feel as if they were speaking directly to each one of them as an individual. Knowing how to work a room and establish credibility, trust, and rapport are keys to successful interactions.
11. Bonus – Be prepared to change the message if needed:  Another component of communications strategy that is rarely discussed is how to prevent a message from going bad, and what to do when does. It’s called being prepared and developing a contingency plan. Again, you must keep in mind that for successful interactions to occur, your objective must be in alignment with those you are communicating with. If your expertise, empathy, clarity, etc. don’t have the desired effect, which by the way is very rare, you need to be able to make an impact by changing things up on the fly. Use great questions, humor, stories, analogies, relevant data, and where needed, bold statements to help connect and engender the confidence and trust that it takes for people to want to engage. While it is sometimes necessary to “Shock and Awe” this tactic should be reserved as a last resort.

Don’t assume someone is ready to have a particular conversation with you just because you’re ready to have the conversation with them. Spending time paving the way for a productive conversation is far better than coming off as the proverbial bull in a china shop. Furthermore, you cannot assume anyone knows where you’re coming from if you don’t tell them. I never ceased to be amazed at how many people assume everyone knows what they want to occur without ever finding it necessary to communicate their objective. If you fail to justify your message with knowledge, business logic, reason, empathy etc., you will find that said message will likely fall on deaf ears needing reinforcement or clarification afterward.

Bottom line – The leadership lesson here is whenever you have a message to communicate (either directly, or indirectly through a third party) make sure said message is true & correct, well reasoned, and substantiated by solid business logic that is specific, consistent, clear and accurate. Spending a little extra time on the front-end of the messaging curve will likely save you from considerable aggravation and brain damage on the back-end. Most importantly of all, keep in mind that communication is not about you, your opinions, your positions or your circumstances. It’s about helping others by meeting their needs, understanding their concerns, and adding value to their world. Do these things and you’ll drastically reduce the number of communications problems you’ll experience moving forward.

Regards

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Customer Service Expert

*http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/04/04/10-communication-secrets-of-great-leaders/

Dear Subscriber,

Enjoy this article by Mike Michalowicz, author of “The Pumpkin Plan” and “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” from the Wall Street Journal/Running a Business.

I have an altar to Bruce Springsteen in my house. On it sits my prized possession: a guitar pick Bruce tossed out into the audience at one of his concerts.

If you come to my house, I will tell you a long, drawn-out, mostly truthful story about where I got it, why it’s important, and the many hardships I endured to acquire it. To me, and to those who live through my story, Bruce’s pick is priceless. Sure, at face value it’s a piece of plastic worth mere pennies, inspiring a shrug and a tepid “cool,” in response. But after you find out it’s Bruce Springsteen’s guitar pick, and after you hear my epic tale of how it came into my life, the value of the pick goes up considerably. Now it’s worthy of oohs and ahhs and the inevitable, “Oh my gawd, may I touch it?”

Just as no one cares about my little piece of Bruce more than I do, no one cares about your company more than you do. Your business is your baby, and you’d do anything for it. Your employees, on the other hand? Not so much. Even your best, most loyal employees aren’t going to care about it as much as you do. That is, until you cultivate the entrepreneur within.

To get your employees to be even half as invested in your company as you are, you need to foster their sense of ownership. To do that, you need your own epic tale.

There are two components of a great “company” story. First, you need the history. What inspired you to start your business? What was your grand vision? Where and when did you first open up shop? How did you earn your first dollar?

Everett Collection

Next, you need hardship, the tales of woe and wonder that you’re either extremely proud of or totally embarrassed to tell. Everyone loves a good underdog story, or a good nick-of-time story, or a good wing-and-a-prayer story, so dig one of those up.

Finally, make your story inclusive of your employees. Use the great “we,” instead of “I,” and make sure to close the story in the present day so that your employees know that they are part of a legacy – your legacy.

Take the legend about FedEx founder Fred Smith’s gamble with the last $5,000 in its checking account. In the book “Changing How The World Does Business,” Roger Frock, one of the founding executives of the company, told the story of how, in the make-or-break start-up days of the company, Mr. Smith took the $5,000 in the company’s checking account to Vegas and bet it all.

At the time, the company needed $24,000 for the jet fuel payment, Mr. Frock said. Mr. Smith won $27,000 in Vegas, according to Mr. Frock. He described that as a stroke of luck that kept FedEx in business for another week.

Parul Bajaj, a spokeswoman for FedEx, says the story about Mr. Smith isn’t true. (“We appreciate that some of our team members may have heard this corporate legend and felt inspired by it, but it’s not accurate,” she adds. )

Even so, this legend can influence a new FedEx hire who thought he was just getting a decent job with great benefits. He’ll feel like he’s part of something amazing and powerful and interesting. He’ll be proud of the Fred Smith’s scrappy, risk-taking nature, so proud that he’s going to tell that story to his friends and family, so proud that he finds a solution when there’s a problem, goes the extra mile whenever he has the opportunity, and always gives his best. He owes it to Fred, you see. Besides, FedEx is his company now, too.

One of the best examples of how powerful this kind of storytelling can be is the National Anthem. It’s not just a song. It’s a powerful story put to melody. We usually only sing the first part, but the “Star-Spangled Banner” actually has four verses that tell the story of the War of 1812. And let me tell you, there’s plenty of drama and hardship in that tale!

But what really inspires patriotism in even the most jaded American is the inclusiveness. Even if you’re just mouthing the words, thinking about the ballgame that’s about to start, you’re going to get choked up at the end because it’s about you.

“Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?” That’s us. That’s you – you are a free and brave American. That story is your legacy. It’s the perfect story.

Other companies focus on telling employees that they’re the best, the dominant player in their industry, but that approach just causes employees to separate emotionally from the company. It’s you vs. them, and in that scenario, they feel irrelevant.

If you want your employees to stop working just for a paycheck and start taking pride in your company, give them a great story and include them in it. It might not be as amazing as my sitting-in-the-back-row, roadie-gave-us-front-row-seats, Bruce-flipped-pick-into-audience, I-knocked-down-a-pregnant-woman-and-accidently-elbowed-a-three-year-old-in-the-face-to-reach-it story about the great guitar pick miracle, but it’ll do.

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Customer Service Expert

*http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577319921074200382.html

Dear Subscriber,

Historically, customer service was delivered over the phone or in person.  Customers didn’t have many choices, and switching to competitors was cumbersome.  Today, these methods are but two of the many possible touch points of entry for any given interaction. With all the options the Internet brings to us and our customers (both current and potential), competition is literally a click away.

However, I want to report that online customer service is not good–to put it mildly.  In fact, some people say it stinks. Why?  Because the web is but one dimension.  It doesn’t have the human response — the necessary back and forth live communication–that is so critical.

Twenty five years from now your customers will not have metamorphosed.  They will still be human beings, and will still be driven by desires and needs.  Virtual environments do not create virtual customers.   Except for the simplest transactions, customers still need to be connected with and nurtured by a live person. As an example, Amazon.com has learned this.  They employ hundreds of trained personnel using phone lines to help customers with questions that cannot be dealt with online.

In today’s competitive marketplace there is little difference between products and services.  What makes the difference– what distinguishes one company from another– is its relationship with the customer.

Who has the awesome responsibility for representing your company, your industry in general?  Every person who interacts with a customer.  In that moment of truth, the customer or potential customer makes a decision as to whether this will be a good or bad transaction, and whether they are wasting their (and your) time.  That moment of truth is where it all happens.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the receptionist or the CEO.

However, being great on the telephone or face to face doesn’t necessarily translate into the written word, whether it’s e-mail, faxback, or text-chat.  As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has said in the past, one out of six Americans are functionally illiterate. (New York Times, August 11, 1999).  The sad news is I don’t think this statistic has changed much.

What can you do about this?  Hire for attitude, train for aptitude.  For instance, train for language skills, basic or advanced. Train for communication and listening skills, rapport building, empathetic responsiveness, conflict resolution, anger diffusion, and other soft skills.  Perceive training as an ongoing process, not an event.   Remember that technology supports people, it doesn’t replace them.

One of the most powerful documents in the world, the U.S. Constitution, begins with “We, the people...”  Yes, ‘we the people’ make the difference.

John Naisbitt said in Megatrends: The more high tech the world becomes, the more people crave high touch service.

Regards

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Customer Service Expert

Dear Subscriber,

INC Magazine has an interesting article on this topic at http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/why-working-more-than-40-hours-a-week-is-useless.html

“The clear takeaway here is to stop staying at the office so late, but getting yourself to actually go home on time may be more difficult psychologically than you imagine..”

Makes you wonder…

Regards

Rosanne D’Ausilio PhD

Customer Service Expert

Dear Subscriber,

Great read.  And which one are you?  Which one do you think I am?

Here you go:

* The Five Personalities of Innovators: Which One Are You? – Forbes forbes.com

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Customer Service Expert