This part of the interview includes information on how American Express decides to hire new employees versus promote them from within, more information on the compensation and motivation methods the company is using, how they use Net Promoter, information on the company’s “Relationship Care” program, and more.

To read this part of the interview, click “read more” below. If you want to read part one of the interview, click here.

Question: How do you approach hiring new people versus promoting from within? Are the customer care professionals who work with Centurion card members hired for that position or do they need a certain amount of years’ experience before they can move up to a role like that?
Answer: For a position as a Centurion CCP, we tend to do more hiring from within. I can’t think of a situation where I have hired an external person for Centurion in the last couple of years. Professionals typically progress and work their way through the organization to build experience. For the remainder of our servicing roles, we also hire externally. There is a lot of movement within the center with customer care professionals from one area moving to another to develop skills across a variety of disciplines.

Question: Tell me a little bit about the compensation method and those new things you said recently put in place and seem to be working?
Answer: Four years ago we stepped back and realized the behaviors we were incenting were not based on the voice of the customer. We recognized that great service doesn’t come down to what we think about our performance internally. It’s all about what the customer thinks after every interaction. We instituted new measuring actions of our customer interaction and after each interaction we will ask the customer how we performed. Do they feel we have done a great job? Would they recommend us to a friend? This information is important because we adjust each customer care professionals’ incentive plan based on the customer’s feedback. So it was a real cultural shift for us. We retired traditional call center metrics to focus on the voice of the customer – what we call “Recommend to a Friend” has become a primary metric for our customer care professional performance so is tied to their incentive pay now.

Question: How does Net Promoter work?
Answer: For the customer care incentive plan, we ask our customers if they would recommend us to a friend. And that’s the score that we use with the customer care professional incentive plan. Since we introduced our new Relationship Care ethos, we know that our ”Recommend to a Friend” score has increased by more than 10% as a result of infusing Relationship Care into the equation. I cannot share the absolute score, but we’ve seen a really nice lift in customer results as a result of that this metric.

Question: When you ask a “recommend to a friend” question, do you ask on a zero to ten scale or on a yes or no scale?
Answer: Zero to ten scale.

Question: Tell me more about Relationship Care.
Answer: Relationship Care is what we call our servicing ethos and very simply put, it is really about making sure we take advantage of whatever our interaction is with that customer to create incremental value to them during the time American Express is on the phone with them. CCPs don’t just respond to a customer’s question or solve their problem, they go the extra step of offering the customer tailored information about how they can get more out of their card, like taking advantage of a benefit they’re not utilizing. As an example, you might want to contact us with a change of address because you’re moving and our CCPs take that opportunity to remind you of a benefit through their program so that the customer can maximize the value of their card.. With one of our co-brands, that would be specific to a home improvement service or benefit like Home Depot. It’s taking that interaction and thinking how we can add incremental value by reminding the customer of a benefit or bringing a new benefit or service during that discussion.

During any given interaction, we have access to of data about that customer and we can use that data and remind them of appropriate benefits. When they are traveling, we remind them about club access in the airport or baggage insurance that the cardmember may have forgotten about as benefit readily available through their card. It gives us a deeper connection and engages the customers more. Over time, the customer wants to stay with us and has a continued loyalty with our brand. It’s a powerful way of servicing for us, and American Express continues to provide extraordinary care and service for our customers which hasn’t wavered for 160 years. Our aspiration is to become the world’s most respected service brand. And over extenuating circumstances, over the course of time with many customers, we have been a go-to company. We have reached out and helped them out over difficult situations. Our servicing ethos has always been there; we’re just continuing to enhance it.

Question: How do you train for Relationship Care? How do you train someone that when a customer says I am moving and need to change my address to start suggesting home improvement and all that?
Answer: It all starts in customer care professional classroom training. It’s why we “hire for the will and train them for the skill.” Let’s me give you an example of how this plays out. As the customer care professional looks at the screen during the call, there will be specific messaging. The messaging might say this particular customer travels extensively. So the customer care professional would take the opportunity to remind them of a free airline club access their card entitles them to. Or, if the customer is moving, the CCP could mention the opportunity to redeem Membership Rewards points with Home Depot or Lowes. So technology is providing relevant information so the customer care professional can focus on the conversation with the customer and on providing outstanding service.

Question: On a similar note, you obviously have a traditional call center where someone calls in and will probably not speak to the same person two calls in a row. How do you manage that when someone calls in and make people feel they are dealing with a small team and make it a personalized experience a little bit?
Answer: This is why the incentive program becomes so important because each and every person in the center is fully aware of Relationship Care and the importance of it in customer interaction. Over and over when a customer contacts us, it is not just a transaction, but an opportunity to deepen our relationship with a customer. Our CCPs interaction with customers is no longer measured by average handling time but on providing a superior customer experience, as measured through customer feedback.

All of us are aligned in providing the same level of consistent service. It doesn’t matter who receives your call. If Douglas calls today and he is a Platinum card member, he will have the same consistent customer experience whether Susan answers the phone or Doria answers the phone.

Part three of the interview will include talk about how American Express empowers its representatives and how it encourages them to take ownership over issues and will be published next week.

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The way that most organizations approach this is to have a mission statement, set of principles, or something similar. Some companies call it a credo, others have fancier names. For example, Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group refers to his company’s set of operating principles as Enlightened Hospitality (see this post for more information). The Ritz-Carlton has its Gold Standards.

I recently conducted an interview with a senior customer service leader at American Express (look for the interview to be posted over the next two weeks) and during the interview, she mentioned American Express’s Customer Care Principles. American Express was nice enough to share a copy of their principles, which I liked a lot.

I like the American Express Customer Care Principles because they’re separated into three simple categories (Easy, Recognize, and Solve) and within each category, there are three to four very actionable items that make it easy for a representative to provide great service. For example:

• I communicate knowledgeably, clearly and correctly. (Easy)
• I care about my customers and connect with them. (Recognize)
• I own my customers’ problems and see them through to resolution. (Solve)

The document (and the principles in general) is easy to follow and most importantly, easy to practice. Tangible goals and mission statements that can be translated into real action are essential to seeing high level service and business goals gaining any traction.

If you want to see the American Express Customer Service Principles, click here. If you’d like to share the customer service principles or mission statement that your company or another company you know of follows, contact us. If I see a couple submissions, I’ll feature them in a follow-up post.

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Let’s start with how and why customers find us, and let’s assume a potential customer hears about a specific product from a friend, relative, or the internet. Most likely the search starts online, and the consumer searches for a particular vendor. Buyers may look at social media reviews, and then proceed to look for online promotions and sales. If your store fits the criteria, carries the merchandise, and can be competitively priced, the purchaser may show up at your brick and mortar store to make the purchase in person.

So how do you keep this customer coming back to you? Even successful companies struggle in this economy, but those who look at things from the customer point of view and make decisions accordingly seem to have the upper hand and the most business. Top performers have customer service agents who use positive language. “I can certainly help you with this,”  is a far better statement than, “I will find my manager to try and help you.” Even with a complaint looming, a statement such as, “We certainly value you as a customer,” is much more positive than, “It’s not our policy to make returns on sale items.”

Customer feedback and information need to be widely available. (VOC – Voice of the Customer) Customers need to be able to lodge complaints because that can make a profound difference in solving future problems. For instance, if enough people complain about checking account fees added on balances of less than $500, there’s a chance for a bank to solve the problem and dispense with the fee. Customer service representatives need to be listening as customers lodge the complaints, and instructing agents not to type until the customer is finished can help agents listen more effectively.

A company can not always solve all of their problems at once, but being able to prioritize and design an action plan can benefit customer expectations. Everyone in the company needs to concentrate on specific tasks and have a plan. It’s no coincidence that top companies continue to make constant commitments to excellence, and share those commitments with their employees while carefully scrutinizing the latest innovations, economic, and social trends.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

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Customer Engagement Management (CEM) helps to increase customer engagement by practical steps. It works best when used with Employee Engagement Management (EEM) which helps to create a company culture that employees feel passionate about and are enthusiastically involved with helping the company become a success.

To focus on CEM, we must work on solutions before problems even arise. You want to hear the good as well as the bad; there are valuable lessons to be learned from the negative feedback. When you identify specific focus areas, you need to contact customers after their experience with that particular area and get their feedback. You will see the trends in that particular area and will be able to view the product or service from the customer’s eyes. Be ready to make changes, and be ready to provide feedback to the participating customers. Finally, make sure the daily business runs smoothly so there is time to deliver outstanding customer service. Those very happy customers are the ones who will promote your company and encourage others to come aboard.

The second part of  the successful customer-centric organization is of course the EEM. When an employee is genuinely interested and happy, customers recognize the positive attitudes and sincere service. The management team that works regularly with their best employees to help them build quality relationships with worthwhile customers encourages employees to make independent decisions and focus on the success of the company. It’s important for the management team to act as role models in order to attract the most talented staff who can deliver exemplary services and goods to customers at decreasing costs to the organization.

There are no standard solutions for everyone; all organizations have their own special culture that make them different, but happy customers promote more happy customers, and that is what leads us to success.

photo credit: Jesse757

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In case you aren’t aware, Sennheiser is a major manufacturer of microphones, headphones, and wireless transmission systems. I know about the company because they make my favorite pair of headphones. A bit of background: The company was founded in 1945 in Wedemark, Germany and is still family-owned and the part that John runs is a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary based in Old Lyme, CT that focuses on sales and marketing of Sennheiser products in the United States.

Here’s the interview with John. The style was a bit different than the traditional Q&A style I normally use, so please let me know if you like it or not in the comments.

Our founder, Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser, just passed away at age 98 and left a legacy that defines how and why we do things the way we do. His biography is fascinating and gives great insight as to our history and the man who made it all happen.

Before I came to Sennheiser, I was working for Philips in the consumer electronics market. A recruiter contacted me and asked if I was interested in coming to work at Sennheiser. I wasn’t really interested until I had a meeting with Prof. Dr. Joerg Sennheiser, Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser’s son. That meeting made me anxious to join his team, and to become part of a family owned company.

We are a family owned company, and our mission of manufacturing high-quality audio solutions is as strong as it was 65 years ago. The Sennheiser family is committed to staying true to this mission over the years to come. The third generation has just stepped into management roles and will carry this mission into the future. While we are global corporation today, the family spirit and quality values of the brand Sennheiser can be felt all around the world.

Music plays a large role at Sennheiser. Due to our strong involvement in pro audio and the music industry, it’s natural that many employees are also very talented musicians or music aficionados – thus many Sennheiser internal conferences often end with sizable jam sessions after the official part is done. So when our employees talk to our end users- who are often musicians themselves – it soon becomes an authentic peer-to-peer discussion.

We believe that customers will be loyal to our brand if they are authentically convinced about the benefits that our products provide to them. We are not an aggressive marketing company. Our approach is to listen to our customers and respond with the right solution. We invest much into consulting, service and knowledge transfer– a fairly straightforward and honest approach. Our experience shows that this creates satisfied customers, strong peer-to-peer recommendation and ultimately, loyalty.

Over the past 65 years, Sennheiser has grown not only because of innovative solutions, but also because we have been able to build a strong fan club for the brand. In some of our key business areas we have seen this loyalty being passed on from one generation to the other. This fan club continues to grow.

The key to customer loyalty is building trust. There are several factors that play a role in that: listening to the market and developing the right solutions for our customers’ needs, providing excellent customer service, and open, honest and timely communication.

Customer service must go above and beyond what the end-user might expect. We invest a lot of resources into employee training and offer several seminar programs and consultations for our customers. Only if we are a trusted and knowledgeable partner to our customers we can successfully build loyalty.

We created a set of guiding principles some years ago that addresses how we should go about building trust and creating customer loyalty. It’s our 3-D Vision and is simple: Delight Our Stakeholders, Deliver Results, and Demand Excellence.

Ensuring the ideal customer experience is a challenge for us. Especially in large retail chains, it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate our brand’s value in-store and provide the advice that the end user should ideally receive.  However, we work hard with our retail partners on training their staff or providing in-store tools that help in guiding customers. Additionally, we have a knowledgeable crew of product specialists that answer end user’s questions via phone or e-mail, and advise our customers on the best product to use or how to set up their products.

Let’s also not forget about the benefits of new media in this context. New media significantly helps us connect directly with consumers. Facebook and Twitter are two examples. We use these tools to engage with end users. There are also many conversations among consumers about product applications on various websites, and our product specialists contribute with valuable insight. The customer of today turns to these vehicles in his research prior to the purchase.

We want to remain accessible and personable and I think the level of direct-to-consumer advice that we provides to our end users is unique. We are pretty accessible via the phone or e-mail. On a personal level–and in line with our 3-D Vision–not one single customer ever contacts me without receiving a personal response from me.

Our roots are in engineering and product development. However, when Sennheiser started to go global in the 70s, we began building a strong network of distribution and service organizations. In the local markets, service and distribution is our focus and expertise while the engineering lies within our headquarters in Germany.

When our sales force engages with customers, service needs are being discussed as much as product benefits. Over the last six years, we have launched a series of “service products”. We cover educational services through our Sound Academy series of audio seminars, and we offer product setup services. We conduct customer satisfaction surveys annually to ensure our services and processes meet customer demands.

You can follow John on Twitter here and read a bit more about Sennheiser USA here.

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With a constant emphasis on customer service, Kazanjian reveals the simple philosophy of Taylor’s approach to customer service. “Take care of your customers and employees first, and the profits will follow.” The “Founding Values” which could be adopted by all companies emphasized:

- Protecting your brand
- Let it be a fun and friendly place to work
- Make sure you have teamwork
- Reward hard work
- Help your own community

Taylor knew to be successful a business had to stand out from the crowd, and to make his business different from other car rental places, the trademark slogan was born, “Pick Enterprise. We’ll Pick You Up.”

The book emphasizes that satisfying customers is not complicated. Regularly surveying customers, but keeping questions targeted to one specific area could evaluate the company’s progress. Three questions pertaining to customer service became staples:

1. How satisfied were you?
2. What could we have done to improve our service?
3. What do you think we do especially well?

You don’t have to be perfect; you just have to handle problems promptly and appropriately. Included in the training were steps to turn angry customers around. Taylor assumed many customers when renting cars were on vacation, and he wanted people to remember their vacations with positive experiences. Employees were taught to listen with an understanding and sympathetic attitude and record or repeat back to the customer what had gone wrong. Employees were to apologize and find out what the customer wanted to make them feel better, and propose a solution. If the customer wasn’t satisfied with the representative’s solution, there would be more follow-up and to find a solution suggested by the customer that everyone could live with, with the final objective to make sure the customer never lost face.

The Enterprise Way has been a cautious company growing with limited risk. On some long term leases, when opening a new office, the company employs the “JCT” clause (after Jack Taylor) which allows the company to get out of its lease with 90 days notice and three additional rent payments, and although the economy has hit every business hard, Taylor’s philosophy remains timeless.

Bottomline: The book clearly explains starting and managing a company with practical and useful advice aimed towards customer service and employee satisfaction. The author’s logical sequence keeps you interested and entertained.

Pros: The rags to riches with a practical and humble approach is inspiring. We all enjoy reading true accounts of customer centered companies and their rise to success. The book provides practical information for customer service employees.

Cons: The book was copyrighted in 2007, and some of what was written seems out of date now. I have noticed in my own experience that Enterprise offices have been run down with less than stellar customer service representatives.

Interested: Exceeding Customer Expectations is available on Amazon.com for $16.47. You can buy it here.

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“Biggby Bob” Fish is the CEO and co-founder of the Michigan-based chain of what I’d call happy little coffee shops in 1995. Fast forward to 2010 and he’s now watching it grow past 100 stores – in spite of today’s challenging economy – as new franchise owners get on board with the company’s fabulous philosophy.

What has Biggby done right? So many things, though we’ll focus on the company’s positive ideology, which is clearly stated and reinforced to all franchise owners and employees using several methods. Here’s one quick example:

Franchise owners live by an “in-store operating philosophy” using the acronym PERC, which refers to the following four tenets:

Perception by customers that we respect their time and move them as quickly as possible
Every customer leaves the store in a better mood than when the customer arrived
Recognize each customer as an individual
Consistently produce a high quality beverage

Biggby has well-defined core values, corporate vision and mission statements, and a closely guarded corporate culture that come together to define who they are as a company and brand. They use coffee-related acronyms so the details of the philosophy are easy to remember and they reinforce it throughout the franchisee and employee experience.

My personal favorite lines of Biggby culture-defining statements are “B-Happy” and “Love People.” Biggby Bob embodies these statements in both his presentations and his social media persona. He’s an active participant on Facebook and Twitter and if you follow him, you’ll know that his positive energy is genuine.

Want to meet Biggby Bob? He’s likely found in one of his franchise stores, working on his laptop, watching the servers create happy caffeinated moments for customers. Besides creating a great corporate culture, he’s also an involved leader who sets – and lives by – high service standards.

What do you think? If you’re a manager, are you setting a positive example of service for your staff? Have you defined your corporate mission, values and culture?

Guest Writer Bio: Lori Jo Vest, co-author of the bestselling book “Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan,” has been involved in relationship-based sales and customer service for over 20 years. In addition to her work as managing director of the Emmy-winning television production studio Communicore Visual Communications in Birmingham, Michigan, she consults with small businesses on methods to enhance their sales and customer service efforts through personal connection and long-term relationship building. Find out more at www.whosyourgladys.com/blog.

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That’s the paradox of customer service. Customers want faster service, more conveniences, better service payment plans, options, return policies, less wait time and all of their problems solved. Have I missed anything? The problem is that what customers expect is different from what they get.

In the case of an airline carrier and an expected flight at an expected time, how often does the airline meet those expectations? We don’t want to wait for the flight since our promised time was already set, but we expect to wait because that is what we have experienced. We’re not happy with in, and when we contact the customer service representative we are angry and ready to explode.

If  perception defines a customer’s expectations which is not compatible with the realities of the company, it is inevitable that the customer’s perception will not be fulfilled. This creates the necessity for a company to have a recovery system. Service failures provide opportunities for companies to create customer loyalty, and provide a chance for higher satisfaction than if the failure never happened. A good recovery can turn frustrated and angry customers into loyal customers just by creating good-will. In the case of the airlines, complimentary upgrades, complimentary food, written apologies, and complimentary flights will not ensure that the next flight is going to be on time, but it surely will calm the savage beasts.

photo credit: Thriving Ink

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