Customer Service

This week I interviewed Stephanie Edwards who wrote our best-selling Best Practice Customer Service books:

Carolyn Sheppard (The Complete Trainer): What do you think are the main issues for staff in delivering a good customer experience?

Stephanie Edwards (Director/Author Customer 1st International Ltd): Ask yourself this question the next time you receive service, did you feel the company really understood what you were trying to achieve or did it feel like ‘I am simply being processed’?

The biggest business challenge facing most large organisations is creating an individual customer conversation that is relational and not transactional, that can only happen if staff work in an environment where they are trained and encouraged to see beyond the immediate request for a product or service. Understanding what the customer is trying to achieve not only creates openings to go further and provide proactive advice, it also reveals opportunities for additional sales while creating a foundation for an ongoing relationship.

Carolyn: What are the hardest issues for companies to crack when asking staff to deliver a good customer experience?

Stephanie: The hardest thing most companies have problems with is trying to reconcile productivity / efficiency targets with allowing time for customer facing staff to deeply sense, understand and then respond to their customer needs. The reality is this; if you have already devolved management targets for efficiency down to your customer facing staff then the efficiency trap has already been set. Because the targets will always win and your customers will always lose and staff are caught in the cross-fire. Efficiency should and must be measured but only mangers need to be targeted as this is a resourcing issue which customer facing staff have little or no influence over. Customer facing staff should be targeted on satisfying customers and optimising processes using the simple and effective methods found in lean service.

Carolyn: How does lean service help improve the customer experience through staff?

Stephanie: Lean Service starts with involving customer facing staff in the discovery of customer value, then understanding how well the organisation responds to their customer needs and set about eliminating non value added activities and creating new value. This completely changes the relationship with the customer and their experience of doing business with you.

For managers running a traditional efficiency driven organisation this will seem like an impossible dream, but what they don’t realise is that service staff are already spending between 40%-90% of their available time performing non value tasks i.e. waste. If it were removed then companies could spend time providing a great customer experience, reducing costs and maximising revenues, to put simply…. sensing and responding to customer needs.

Many Leading brands have woken up to the problem of waste and are using the efforts of all their staff to eliminate it, effectively turning their own staff into small management consultants becoming highly effective and efficient as a result. Most importantly, it creates differentiation. And remember, all businesses have costs but waste is optional.

The training and development of all your staff to become Customer Service Professionals is vital for business success in today`s economic climate. Service is the differentiator and organisations need to upskill their workforce.

Stephanie is author of:

Best Practice for Customer Services Managers

Best Practice for Customer Service


Please contact us if you would like to participate in future interviews.

Leadership in tackling crime

A leadership case study by Niall Kennedy MMKtng

When I lived in New York, it was a very scary place. 42nd Street was a disaster and crime was everywhere. Within a few years it was one of the safest cities in America. There is no doubt that the transformation was a result of excellent leadership. There is debate about which leader transformed New York City and it was probably a combined result of the Mayor, Police, Transit Authority and Borough Leaders. So no matter what state your environment is in it could not be as bad as New York with rampant murders and other terrible events. So if you want to improve your working environment here is the checklist on how the leaders turned New York around.

Shattering complacency: The leaders reminded people that it was not OK for New York to be as bad as it was.

Fixing broken windows: Broken windows were identified as the first sign a neighbourhood was going to fall to crime. Broken windows were fixed immediately to keep a positive environment.

Charging the community: There was lots of media and communications ensuring everyone knew they were fighting back. It was a reminder that everyone is on the same side.
Identifying struggle points and hot spots and deploying resources: There were heaps of problems with job descriptions and demarcation lines. These had to be straightened out across all departments.

Hitting the King Pins: get these king pins on your side and half the battle is won: If you do not have the support at the top do not bother starting.

Framing the challenge: You have got to correctly label the exact challenge. This is vital and if you get it wrong everyone will be working on different directions.

Walking the talk: Many people slip up here. It is a bit like “we are going to have an open transparent workplace and do not tell the accounts people”. Your people will not get behind you and you are doomed if you do not walk the talk.

Getting beyond “This is the way we always do it”: Really successful leaders anticipate pushback and the saboteurs never get a chance to railroad your plans.

Building an environment of continuous improvement: There is a Chinese saying that states a truly great leader will never be content. Everything can be improved. An Australian organisation recently announced that they had no room to grow as they had expanded every possible area for customers. Their share price is still sliding and thankfully there is a new leader taking the reins.

Niall Kennedy works for http://www.lionglobalhr.co.uk/ who run leadership development programmes . You can find products from Lion HR on our website (bullying), as well as further leadership resources.

For more about the Mayor of NY - the leader who is acknowledged as a major contributor to these amazing changes - you may wish to read more on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani

A Tale of Two Pots

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole that she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The old woman smiled,
"Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

Story provided by Iain Wilson.

Save money on training

Use your brains and save money on training - by Stella Collins

Whether there’s a recession or not, companies always need to ensure their training budgets are being used properly and not wasted.

It’s estimated about 80% of what is ‘taught’ can be forgotten 24 hours later – so when you have to continue to invest in training people in the important stuff (health and safety, IT, finance, products etc) then it’s vital they remember what they’ve learnt.

By understanding a little about how brains work and applying a tried and tested process to training, you can challenge this natural tendency to forget. Instead people can consistently remember at least 50% and up to 100% of what they learn – and that means they can apply it back at work, and you can recoup your return on your investment.

This effective process has 6 steps:

Step 1: motivate people to want to learn the information, however technical.

Step 2: present information through different mediums so they absorb it in their preferred way

Step 3: encourage people to use multiple ways of exploring information to search for their own understanding

Step 4: generate strong memory triggers so that, when it matters, they can recall the information again

Step 5: ask people to test and exhibit their new learning

Step 6: create regular opportunities for people to review and reflect on their training to ensure it’s learnt for the long term.

You will find more ideas about how you can use your brain in business and save your training budget by reading more in these great books: Learning - the Creativity Myth and Learning - Begin with the Brain in Mind

Article kindly provided by Stella Collins of Stellar Learning www.stellarlearning.co.uk and author of Learning - the Creativity Myth and Learning - Begin with the Brain in Mind

Disability – Is it a problem for your company?

By Susan Patrick

For many companies, it is a real problem when they have to deal with disabled people, but it doesn’t have to be.

Knowing how to approach people who are disabled, irrespective of their disability, may be the start of a “beautiful” love affair, because if the service offered is right, disabled people (and those who are non-disabled) will return again and again to buy your products, services, goods, and/or use your facilities.

Service in this day and age is extremely important if you want to increase your bottom line (or even maintain it)! People want to be treated as if they are your one and only customer and that you and your staff are there for them and them alone. Staff training is where it starts. If you don’t spend sufficient time with your staff, either when they are inducted or with continuing or ongoing training, standards slip. Once they slip below an acceptable standard, you will lose customers. Training of staff in how to handle disabled people is extremely important. Get it right for them and you will get it right for others. For instance, if someone were to come into your premises that had a large strawberry birthmark on their face or someone like Simon Weston who was seriously burnt during the Falklands War, the normal reaction by someone when they first see that person is to drop their jaw! What you should try to do is to control your own natural reaction, look them in the eye, and smile a warm welcoming smile. This will immediately help to put the individual at ease and they will be less likely to feel embarrassed at the way they look.

Another example is when you first meet someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, the natural reaction is to shout. How many of you have done that in the past? Be honest. I would think that everyone has done that at one time or another – but these people are not stupid, they haven’t lost their marbles, they just have a disability that may cause communication barriers if not treated in the right way. If you face them so that any light falls on your face (even if you can’t sign – and it may not be their first language) they will have the opportunity to lip read. They may also have a companion with them who does sign, so again don’t block that person however inadvertently, from being seen by the person who is deaf.

I could go on further and in more detail, but I recommend you read my newsletters each month. Go to my website http://www.smpconsultancy.com/ and sign up to the newsletters - whilst you are there have a look round the site. I hope you will find it interesting.

Susan Pattrick
Director SMP Consultancy Ltd

5 Ways To Capitalize On the Economic Recovery

By Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of hearing about how bad the economy is. The truth is, many parts of the economy have stabilized and many sectors are on the rise. In fact, I'm excited about the Economic Recovery that is happening right at this very moment.

Haven't heard about it yet? Perhaps you're listening to the wrong news stations, or hanging around with the nay sayers at your office, or still looking for excuses for your performance. Regardless, the economy IS turning around and the Top 20% are talking it up, driving the enthusiasm and writing more and more business because of it. How about you?

Are you still:

Listening to the negative news in the morning and arriving at work defeated before you even pick up the phone?
Convinced that the economy has to fully recover before you can make your quotas?
Siding with your prospects when they tell you they can't afford it and justifying it when you don't make sales?

Getting on the phone with an already defeated attitude dreaming of Friday or of another job?
If so, then it's no wonder you're not picking up on the signs of the economic recovery that is taking place right now. On the other hand, if you're ready to take advantage of it before your competition does and you're ready to contribute to and so start being part of the recovery, then here are 5 things you can start doing today to capitalize on it:

1) Look for the evidence of Economic Recovery and talk it up. Again, it's there if you look for it. Most news programs (print, radio and the
internet) report bad news because it sells. However, there are plenty of sources that report the good news as well. Find them, read them, and then spread the word.

The economy doesn't have a mind of its own - it has our mind. By concentrating on the recovery already taking place, you'll increase it.
Start today.

2) Ask your prospects and clients for the Good News. It's hard to turn somebody's attitude around, but one way to counter your prospect's negativity is to ask them for the good news. There always is some if you'll just help them find it. Try:

"I totally understand __________. You know I heard some good news about the economic turnaround." (Tell them what you've heard and then say:) "What good news have you heard?"

Then reinforce what they tell you and keep selling!

3) Tell a recovery story: I know you hear about client's successes all the time (if you don't, then you need to begin asking for them!!). Gather two or three successful stories and be quick to share them with your current prospects and clients. Show them how they are in a similar situation and how they can succeed as well.

Remember, that's what your clients want to hear from you (solutions) and if you're ready with other client's success stories, they'll be easier to influence and sell.

4) Practice perfection. Those of you who know me know how big I am on practicing perfection. Remember, if you're using poor sales techniques including weak openings, not qualifying prospects, etc., then you'll have no chance regardless what is happening in the economy.

Your best bet is to go back to basics and begin using your scripts! I'm sure you've got them, why aren't you using them? If you're still winging it, God help you.

Another great option is to invest $17 in my book, "The Real Secrets of the Top 20%" which you can get on Amazon.com right now. If you're not sure you need it, go read the 20, 5-Star reviews and see for yourself. Bottom line - if you're not doing something to get better, then you won't get better.

5) Write up and begin using an affirmation to imprint the performance and results you really want. I'll tell you right now, most sales reps (80%) have horrible, negative self-talk, and this, more than any single thing, affects their results. Ask yourself: what do you say to yourself after you miss a sale or get brushed off on the phone?

Take some time right now, and develop some affirmations and begin using them to replace your negative self-talk. There are many books on the market that will show you how to do this (including the last chapter of my book), but which ever you choose, do it today.

There you have it - five proven ways to contribute to and take advantage of the economic recovery that is happening right now. Don't wait for the negative news stations to finally get on board - all the good sales will be long gone by then...

If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s eBook: “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts,” which is packed with word for word scripts and techniques that you can begin using today to make more appointments and more sales. http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Sales_and_Marketing/Complete_Book_of_Phone_Scripts

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide in the US, teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/

Mike regulary provides us with great sales articles - if you have articles you'd like to see here, please get in touch! www.thecompletetrainer.com/contact_us

Coaching and the Learning Process

by Sean McPheat

John Radshaw offers what I feel is an incredibly apt definition of what it means to be a coach. He says that coaching is:

“Systematically increasing the capability and work performance of someone by exposing him or her to work-based tasks or experiences that will provide the relevant learning opportunities, and giving feedback to help him or her learn from them”

He’s absolutely right.

The role of a coach is to get the coachee from A to B quicker than if they tried on their own. They are there to question, probe, push, align and provide a thought provoking sounding board.

A coach is a catalyst for change but the coachee has to want to change!

The coach does not have to know the answers either and they do not need to be the best in the field.

Don’t believe me? Well, what’s the name of Tiger Wood’s coach or Usain Bolt’s? Did their coach ever win major golf tournaments or win an Olympic gold? The answer is No!

But they know how to get the best out of their coachees and that’s what the role of a coach is all about.

As a coach you need to know how to get your coachee started - how do you jumpstart the learning process?

There are three things that need to be in place before you can teach anyone anything. They are:

Desire - the person you are coaching must want to learn as opposed to finding himself in a situation where he is forced to adopt a coach

Opportunity - you must have the time to coach your employee, he must have the time to dedicate to the things you are teaching him/her, and you must have the support of your organisation (in both time and materials)

Competence - you must be an expert in your area of specialty. Otherwise you’ll only cause confusion to the person you are coaching. The person you are coaching must be competent as well - he needs to care about his work, have the skills necessary to do the job, and be willing to work with you to make his job even better.

If these three main points do not exist you will have a very difficult time facilitating the learning process. Of course there are people who just do not want to be coached, but we'll deal with that in a later session! Take the time to review your situation before you get started. Doing so will enable to you make the changes necessary to ensure you are successful.

Sean McPheat is the Managing Director of management development specialists MTD Training. http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/

My first attempt at playing music on the site

This is the forerunner to future podcasts. This track is by Shave the Monkey (UK folk rock band). However, I am not very successful with this technology as yet so probably you won't hear a thing!

If you would like to be interviewed for a podcast, please contact me on +44 (0)1920 466591. We are looking for interesting leadership, motivation, sales and development specialists to provide added value to our network.

Thank you.

Redundancy and Equality

by Sandra Beale

This year's Budget announcement raised the limit on weekly pay for statutory redundancy pay purposes from £350 to £380. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) is saying that the change will be effective from 1st October 2009. However, there is yet to be official confirmation of this date and whether it also includes an identical increase to the statutory basic award. For those employers planning large-scale redundancies, the timing of this change is a factor to be taken into account.

All well and good cutting employee numbers to reduce costs, but employers must still pay attention to those left behind, as these employees could struggle to cope with new workloads. Levels of stress tend to rise among survivors post-redundancy, as well as levels of anxiety. Not only do these employees worry that they are the next to go, but there is also the added workload because the level of work has not dropped and the number of people has.

The increased pressure on survivors can have a direct impact on the amount of hours staff spend in the workplace, and often serves only to fuel a 'long hours culture' where even though employees spend more time in the workplace, their productivity levels drop due to tiredness and stress.

Increasingly, people are becoming workaholics, work is their life and relationships with family and friends away from work fall apart. Such an environment is far from ideal for organisations trying to weather the economic storm; and to resist productivity and motivation levels dropping among remaining workers. Those who are left behind need to be managed efficiently, and so too are the hours they are allocated to work.

It is really valuable to ensure that staff are fully briefed on the progress of the company, so good communication from top to bottom is crucial to keep employees' stress and anxiety levels to a minimum. It is the not knowing what is going to happen next which impacts on stress levels.
Top tips: Supporting redundancy survivors

√ If making redundancies, employers should pay careful attention to staff members who are left behind, as an increased workload can cause stress, anxiety and lead to a 'long hours culture'.

√ The 'long hours culture' should be easy to identify as employees will be anxious that they are soon to lose their job and will put in the extra hours to complete tasks. However, tiredness and stress often sets in, and productivity will level out or decrease.

√ Effective communication from top to bottom is important, and line managers should be used to ensure that messages about the company's situation get to staff. This can ease help worries about redundancy and let staff get on with their work.


Publication of Equality Bill
The Equality Bill was laid before parliament during April and published on 24 April 2009. When it becomes law, probably in 2010, it seeks to consolidate existing discrimination and equal pay legislation to make it easier to understand and comply with. Measures to be introduced is an outlawing of pay secrecy clauses in contracts and employers can take steps to recruit under-represented groups in their workforce. Currently in the UK a woman is paid on average 23% less than a man and this latest equality legislation seeks to address this. As equal pay is top of the list of tribunal claims (see below), companies may want to consider undertaking an equal pay audit and/or a job evaluation exercise to check the tribunal risk factor and take steps to address this.
Publication of Tribunal Statistics 2007-08

The latest tribunal statistics have been published and make illuminating reading. The top three claims made were related to Equal Pay, the Working Time Directive, and unfair dismissal. The statistics show there has been a dramatic growth in the use of lawyers to help defend a tribunal claim.

Sandra Beale FCIPD

www.sjbealehrconsult.co.uk

World's best icebreakers

I met Philly on line - I can't even remember whether it was Facebook, Ecademy or Twitter, but we hit it off instantly.

She has a great range of training support materials, but I particularly liked her Best Training Icebreakers.

Take a look! It's a long time since I went on a training programme now (time to address personal development again?) but I would certainly enjoy and benefit from some of these. Icebreakers and activities do help to embed learning.

Experiential exercises are always good too - make the learning really 'sticky'. I asked a question about Sales Exercises on Trainingzone - see what they said here:

TrainingZone Community

Handling the Economy Objection Once and For All

by Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales

If you're still getting the "We're just not going to do anything until the economy (settles down or improves, or whatever...), when you are closing the sale and asking for the order, then I've got some good news and bad news for you:

First the good news: After reading this article, and applying the techniques in it, you will virtually eliminate this objection once and for all.

Now the bad news: If you're getting this objection during the close when you're asking for the sale then you're responsible for creating it.

Here's the bottom line: It's your responsibility to qualify out any economy, price, budget objections on the front end call so that these objections don't come up during the close. If you're still getting these objections later on, it means you didn't "disqualify" out the non-buyers - which are what you're dealing with when you get this objection.

It doesn't mean they aren't EVER going to be buyers, it just means they aren't going to buy now. And you need to know that in the beginning and NOT send any information or demo out.

Here are some questions to ask to identify who will and who won't use the "We're just going to wait until the economy gets better" objection.

During the qualifying call, make sure and ask any of the following questions by working them into your specific sale:

"A lot of companies are taking advantage of this (your product or service) now that the economy is slow - do you think the time is right for you, too?"

"Given what's happening in the economy right now, do you still see yourself (or your company) moving forward with this now?"

If they say they don't know, then layer it with:

"When do you think would be a more appropriate time for you?"

Also, ask:

"How are you doing in this economy?"

Layer:

"Are you still going to be able to participate in this if we can get you the (price, rate, deal) we're talking about here?"

Ask:

"__________, many of our clients find that this (your product or service) is still important regardless of what is happening in the economy - is it something that you still have in your budget?"

I think you're getting the idea, right? The bottom line is that it's up to YOU to eliminate any budget objections BEFORE you get into the closing arena. And you'll do this by asking these types of qualifying/disqualifying questions in advance.

Start using them today and watch as your closing ratio goes up, and your frustration level goes down.

If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s Ebook: “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts,” which is packed with word for word scripts and techniques that you can begin using today to make more appointments and more sales. You can read about it by clicking here:
http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Books/Complete_Book_of_Phone_Scripts

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/