Service Untitled

I was at Blockbuster the other day and handed my movie to the person behind the counter. She took the security tag off of the case, glanced at the movie, and then said, “This was terrible by the way.” and proceeded to finish checking me out.

I just stared. I couldn’t believe an employee of a major company that depended on a large amount of small value transactions to make any money was telling me the movie I was about to rent was terrible. She hadn’t sugarcoated her critique at all, either. She just told me quite plainly that the movie was terrible.

The woman obviously noticed my stare and then recovered slightly and said, “Is there anything else you want to rent?” I continued to stare, mainly because she had already taken the security tag off and scanned the movie. The checkout experience was essentially over and all I could think about was how terrible this woman’s customer service skills were and how bad the movie I was about to rent was going to be.

Needless to say, this isn’t the best way to upsell your customers or to encourage them to continue using your company. If the employee really thought the movie I was going to rent was that bad, she could have said a few other things:

• “To be honest with you, I saw this movie and didn’t really like it. I did see [Random Movie], though, and really liked it. Do you want me to grab that one for you?”
• “I’ve heard customers say they didn’t really enjoy this movie. [Random Movie] has been popular this week. I’m happy to get that for you instead if you’d prefer.”
• “Have you seen this before?” (customer says no) “Okay. Because I saw it and it wasn’t exactly my favorite. Some of our more popular releases are along that wall if you want to maybe consider those instead.”

The alternative is to of course say nothing and let the customer rent his or her movie. However, if you are going to say something (or encourage your employees to provide their honest feedback without being asked), then have alternatives in mind. And if and when you’re going to suggest an alternative, do so quickly. The 10 or 15 second pause could easily result in a lost sale at worst and an awkward service experience at best.

I was staying at a pretty nice hotel in Chicago not that long ago and I called the front desk to ask for a late checkout. I wasn’t a frequent traveler at that particular hotel, but I figured a two hour checkout extension wouldn’t be a big deal for a fairly large hotel.

Apparently, it was. Even though I had called the night before to check that a two hour extension wouldn’t be a big deal, I called the front desk in the morning to confirm it again and was told there would be a $90 fee for the extra two hours.  I told the person at the front desk that I was told an extra two hours wouldn’t be a problem the night before, but that didn’t help — if I wanted to stay an extra two hours, it’d be an extra $90.

The “lesson” of this story is that as a company, you should try to accomodate special requests whenever possible.

Most hotels make it a pretty standard practice to let guests stay an extra hour or two without charging them. The hotel I stayed at would allow a late checkout for people with frequent traveler status at the hotel, but not as a courtesy to regular guests who asked. In reality, though, the real costs of letting a guest stay an extra hour or two without penalty are probably small when compared to the increased positive feelings the hotel would gain by letting a few customers stay that extra time if they make a special request for it.

Other companies do this as a fairly standard practice. Some online retailers will upgrade customers to overnight or two day shipping as a courtesy. Airlines usually let customers with slightly overweight bags check their bags without charging them the fee. Rental car companies usually won’t charge customers if they are a half gallon short of a full tank when they return their car. There are countless examples of thinking about (and favoring) the customer loyalty value over the real financial gain associated from the fee or the addon.

I don’t think enough companies color code any of their customer service processes.  Color coding any sort of customer service processes is helpful and easy. Think about some of the simple possibilities:

• Emails from new customers or priority customers are marked green so the staff knows to pay extra attentino to them.
• New employees are given a different color name tag so existing employees know to help them out more.
• Regulars or other VIPs (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) at a restaurant are given a different color placeholder or menu so the waiter can instantly recognize what makes them unique or special.
• Certain papers customers need for certain things are color coded so staff members can instantly tell what the customer is there to be helped with and can direct them to the appropriate person.

There are only a couple examples out of an unlimited number of possible ways you can use color coding in your business. All of these examples help the respective business recognize and appreciate a particular customer or group of customers and customize the experience around their needs.

Any business can use color coding in customer service in one way or another. Just think about something special that needs to be easily emphasized or made known. Also think about certain elements that can be used to identify that group or need and then come up with a simple system to make the color coding practical.

Color coding is usually simple and inexpensive to implement. It is typically a small process change and then a matter of letting employees know what a certain color indicates and them acting accordingly.

From my experience, color coding is almost always worth trying. There is a lot to gain and little to lose. Do you use it all in your business?

I spent Friday and Saturday in New Orleans for WordCamp NOLA and part of my traveling experience was going through the Charlotte International Airport to catch a connection flight (each way). I’ve been to a lot of airports and I have to say that Charlotte is one of the nicest ones I’ve been to for a few reasons.

Nice amenities. It is a little (but pleasantly) surprising to see a live pianist when you walk into the central terminal area in a big airport. There was a nice business center, lots of restaurants that served real food, lots of places to shop, plenty of nice seating, wi-fi, and all of that. It was definitely a step up from the plastic chairs in weird rows that you see at most airports.

Lots of bathrooms. My local airport has like two bathrooms per terminal. Charlotte had a set of bathrooms like every 200 feet. Even more importantly, the bathrooms were large and clean. They even had mouthwash and little cups that you could use to freshen yourself up after a long flight. I’ve never seen that in an airport before, but it makes for a nice touch.

Kept clean. The entire airport (not just the bathrooms) was kept quite clean. You walk through some airports that are grungy and nasty, but Charlotte’s airport was kept extremely and consistently clean.

Air travel is tough, so it’s especially nice to see and go through an airport that is nicer than most. You can apply the same idea to your businesses – check out your competition and see what you can do better. Try to understand your customers’ pains and troubles and work to address them. That’s what Charlotte International Airport did and it worked for them.

First contact resolution is one of the most important things in customer service. Customer service statisticians have found that solving an issue during the first contact (as opposed to over the course of two, three, or more contacts) saves time, money, and increases customer satisfaction in the long run.

Think about each way that first call resolution helps:

• Saving time. It is easier for a representative to fix an issue during the first contact than for several representatives to try and fix the issue over several contacts. With one contact, there is no need to “catch up” on what has been done, research the problem further, etc. When an issue is resolved on the first contact, one representative handles the issue and knows what it is about.
• Saving money. Less time spent by representatives on the phone, over chat, etc. saves the company money. Because customers don’t have to keep calling or emailing back to get their issue resolved, representatives are able to move on and help other customers instead of having to go back and keep addressing the same problem.
• Increasing customer satisfaction. The less time a customer has to spend trying to get a problem resolved, the happier they are going to be. There is also the psychological factor of the customer hanging up feeling his or her issue was resolved. It is a lot more satisfying for the customer to end the first contact with a resolution than it is to end the call knowing that time was wasted and that a resolution is no closer.

Customers contact companies to get questions answered or issues resolved. The faster and easier the question can be answered or the issue resolved, the better. Resolving issues on the first contact is the easiest and fastest way to ensure customers end the call feeling their time on the phone was productive and that they got the help they needed.

In the long run, increased first contact resolution will almost always reduce contact volume (and costs) and incrase customer satisfaction. It is worth spending a little bit more time on the phone or working a little bit harder on the email issue to get a customer’s issue resolved the first time around. Customers will appreciate the extra effort and the balance sheet will reflect it.

Yesterday’s post focused on how to avoid situations in which different representatives will give conflicting information to your customers. While avoiding the situations is obviously the ideal thing, chances are, you will encounter problems with misinformation being given at least a few times and find yourself having to deal with it.

So what do you do when a customer tells you he or she was told something else by another representative?

• Apologize for the miscommunication. First of all, apologize for the miscommunication. Clarify what the correct answer / information is and then apologize to the customer for having to hear the wrong information.
• If possible, provide proof. Many customers become a little bit suspicious (understandably) after they experience a situation in which they have been given misinformation. Whenever possible, provide proof to backup the correct answer. Email an article, point customers to a place on the webpage, etc.
• If it’s simple, give it to the customer. If the thing that was miscommunicated is easy to do or follow through with, just do it. Apologize to the customer again and say “we will take your word for it and honor this for you.” Then, do what the customer said was promised to them and let them know the results.
• If it’s complicated, try to compromise. If it’s complicated to follow through with what the customer said was promised to them, try to compromise. Offer to do what is the standard process and then do something like offer a gift certificate or service credit to make up for the miscommunication. This is usually a simple way to help the customer calm down.
• Tell the customer where to get information in the future. Another good way to help put a customer at ease is to let them know where they can go to get the correct information. Point them to your company’s knowledge base, FAQs, online manuals, etc. This should help comfort customers and let them know that there is an easy way to get a definitive answer.
• If possible, follow up with the original employee. It is always important to follow up with the original employee who gave the wrong information whenever possible. Let the particular employee know what the correct answer is and ensure that the particular employee gets all of the training he or she needs.

Do you do anything differently in these situations?

Misinformation in customer service is pretty common. It’s probably something you’ve experienced firsthand as well. You call a company and you’re told one thing by one representative. Then you call back a few days later and you’re told that what the first representative told you isn’t true. The service doesn’t work that way. It really costs more than that. The fee does apply to you.

When this happens, customers get frustrated. Being told something is one way by one person and then being told it is another way by another person is one of the most annoying things that a customer may have to deal with. So, as a company, how do you avoid situations like that where inaccurate, and often conflicting information, is given to a customer?

The first and most obvious suggestion is to not misrepresent the information in the first place. Consistently accurate information comes as a result of experience, training, and easy to access resources to verify information. Many customer service representatives like to assume an answer and tell a customer without really knowing or bothering to check.

Companies have to work very hard to strongly and actively discourage the giving of inaccurate information. Make complete accuracy a major quality standard, ensure that quality assurance people are noting the accuracy of the information, review phone calls and emails to ensure the information being given is correct. Let employees know when they give wrong information and take it seriously.

One way to ensure information is as accurate as possible is to ensure that employees have extremely easy access to accurate information. This means having an extensive internal knowledge base or wiki (that is reviewed reguaraly by supervisors / management) and a representative having plenty of people to ask in case he or she isn’t sure of something. An internal IM system, easy physical access to a supervisor, an internal chat room, etc. are all great ways to encourage that type of quick communication.

The supervisors or senior employees being asked should encourage employees to ask questions. If the answer is available in the knowledge base or wiki or on the company web site, that supervisor should let the customer service reprsentative know that and keep the interaction positive. Employees who are afraid to ask for help will usually resort to just making the answers up.

Last, but certainly not least, companies need to train well and train often. Accuracy usually comes from knowing the ropes. Employees starting at companies with good training programs typically start their “real work” knowing more than employees starting a companies with bad training programs. And training does not stop after the first month, either. Ongoing training will ensure that employees are kept up-to-date about the latest changes and updates and are able to provide the most accurate information. I talk about training a lot because it’s so important. Don’t underestimate it at all.

What have you done at your company to help ensure employees give the most accurate information? My next post will cover how to actually handle a situation where there was conflicting information given.

I was in a store the other day and asked where something was. The sales person said “Let me show you.” and walked with me to the part of the store I needed to go to. He then offered to get the item for me and helped me check out at the cash register closest to the item. I got what I needed within 5 minutes and the customer service experience was simple and easy.

Are you training your employees to go the extra mile and show customers where to go instead of just telling them? Even if you don’t have a business where you can or need to show customers where things are, you can apply the general thinking to any business – the customer asks a question, you go a step above when answering.

The challenge is half cultural, half procedural. Some companies have developed an “overachieving” service culture where that sort of service comes naturally. Others have developed a service culture of mediocrity where going the extra mile is unheard of and maybe even discouraged. In addition to the culture, you also need procedures in place. Encouraging employees to actually lead customers instead of just telling them is a step in the right direction (no pun intended).

What are areas of your business in which you can show the customer where something is instead of just telling them?