I’ve just put one of my articles into a video. You can see it here at Facebook
Archive for April, 2009
Article to Video
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Are You Shooting Yourself in the Foot?
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009In today’s economy, one key element for surviving is excellent customer service, points out Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD, an industrial psychologist and president of Human Technologies Global, in her latest publication, The Expert’s Guide to Customer Service, a handy robust report consisting of 27 articles in 64 pages.
Some of the issues, insights, and questions addressed include:
* Are you taking care of your employees? More than 50 percent of employees view job stress as a major problem: double from a decade ago
* Are you taking care of your customers? Customer service has consistently missed the grade, and services continue to top the list in terms of customer dissatisfaction
* Do you know your customers? While customer focus might be an intricate part of your mission statement, the larger the company, the more insulated you are from your customers
* Do you measure customer churn? Do you know your deflection rate? In some industries the percentages has increased nearly 20 percent. Are you one of these statistics?
* Do you provide ongoing customer service skills training?
* Do your feet follow your mouth? Training is key to improve employee satisfaction and loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, positively impact the bottom line and please the investors
* Do you know the 5 factors that influence employee retention? The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists customer service jobs as 4 of the top 20 fastest growing occupation
This guide is the latest in a stream of helpful and popular books from D’Ausilio. She is also author of Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub, Customer Service and the Human Experience, How to Kick Your Customer Service Up a Notch: 101 Insider Tips, and Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack Your Personal Deck (which includes 32-card deck). She is a Certified Call Center Benchmarking Auditor through Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality and has spoken at and has been well-received at many contact center conferences.
The new book is affordable, at $19.97, and downloadable: no shipping/handling, and waits. The information and advice can be put to work as soon as it shows up on-screen and/or off the printer.
“We just did a survey of over 17,000 customer care people and the overwhelming response was for articles, and at the same time they were reporting limited or nonexistent budgets at this time,” explains D’Ausilio. “We heard and we listened. We created the Expert’s Guide to Customer Service in response. But instead of charging an arm and a leg, we have made them reasonable, accessible, and easily available.”
Go here to learn more http://www.customer-service-expert.com/report.htm
Hot off the Press
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Our recent survey showed that most people were interested in articles. It also reinforced how tight or non-existent budgets are at the moment. Is this true for you too?
We heard you, we listened. We have created the Expert’s Guide to Customer Service which is a compilation of 27 articles. But instead of charging an arm and a leg, we make them reasonable, accessible, and easily available to you. I think you’ll agree when you go here to learn more http://www.customer-service-expert.com/report.htm
Customer Service and Today’s Economy
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Tom Peters is mostly associated with managing during bad economic times. On his site (TomPeters.com) he recently wrote:
“Instant, mindless cutting of R&D or training or salesforce travel in the face of a downturn is often counterproductive–or, rather, downright stupid. Tough times are in fact golden opportunities to get the drop, and the long term drop at that, on those who respond to bad news by panicky across-the-board slash and burn tactics and moves that de-motivate and alienate the workforce at exactly the wrong moment.”
What stands out to me are: “…mindless cutting of training, etc.” and these times are ‘golden opportunities.”
Interesting fact: The Chinese symbol for crisis and opportunity are identical.
According to a recent survey recently conducted by Tealeaf, a leading customer experience management company, one key element to surviving an economic downturn is excellent customer service. This is a huge opportunity for companies willing to significantly improve their customer service, as this enables you to stand out among your competition.
By providing world class customer service, and listening to what the customer needs and wants, you are more able to satisfy your customer’s needs. This allows you to not only retain the loyalty of existing customers, but through positive word-of-mouth, procure new ones without massive spending on marketing and advertising.
This is vital since these same survey results showed that in the online market in particular, 4 out of 10 people halted all business with a company after just one instance of poor customer service. A favorite expression (don’t know who said it) you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression!
Back to listening for a minute, which is a major component in communication…I just finished reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink. He reports research from twenty years ago when doctor-patient encounters were videotaped. They found that the doctors interrupted their patients after an average of 21 seconds. A more recent study shows that doctors have improved. It’s not 23 seconds before they interrupt (p. 110). While we can all probably relate and even chuckle, if we move this to the customer service arena, what happens? Customers don’t get listened to. And what do customers want? What do we all want? To be treated with dignity and respect, and to be heard!
In today’s world repetitive, routine, ‘just the facts, mam’ issues can be handled through self service usually efficiently and effectively. Therefore, the more complex, complicated, and excelerated calls are necessitating human contact. Tools, techniques, common phraseology, and language are just a few requirements for world class customer service.
Are these taught in school? No. These are introduced in customized, live, interactive training sessions delivered in real time. Is this a cost to bear? No. This is about investing in your people. Usually the lowest paid person has the highest responsibility of contact with the current and potential customers. There are KPI (Key Performance Indicators) that can be directly positively impacted by customer service skills training.
After all, as you’ve heard me say many times, we, the people, are who make the difference.
