Service Untitled

One of the most unique challenges that was my mentioned at my workshop was this one: technical people don’t like interacting with customers. I think I laughed out loud when I read the suggestion (the person who suggested it was someone I knew from before the conference), but I then remembered just how true it is (in some situations).

We’ve all seen the funny videos on YouTube and similar sites making fun of socially awkward customer service (especially technical support) representatives. They don’t know what to say or how to say it, but they do know their stuff technically. The question is: how do you get them to work with customers effectively?

My usual suggestion for companies dealing socially unadjusted technical support representatives is to work with them in the same way that they would work with foreign customer service representatives. Because the foreign reps don’t usually speak English as a first language, it is often difficult for them to communicate and interact with American customers naturally. The basic premise is the same; neither group is good at interacting with customers for one reason or another.

To reiterate the basic ideas and procedures:

Work with employees before placing them on the phone.
The key to getting employees adjusted is practice. Do lots of mock calls, mock emails, and the like. Provide constructive criticism and work with the employees to improve their skills. Some companies work with voice coaches, others work with specialized trainers; there are plenty of options. Effective training will usually help employees feel more comfortable working with customers.

Consider having them work behind the scenes.
If training and other types of practice aren’t proving to be effective, then it might be appropriate to look into placing that employee in another department. Having these types of employees work behind the scenes and work with other employees (instead of customers directly) is most likely a better use of their skills and talent. It depends almost entirely on the individual employee, but in general, those that don’t work well with customers may be better suited to work behind the scenes.

Hire with personality in mind.
If you aren’t doing it already, it might be useful to include personality tests or at the very least, personality focused questions, in the interviewing process. In the perfect world, you don’t need to and won’t hire people that don’t like working with customers. Ideally, everyone should enjoy working with, talking to, and serving customers.

Warning: consider how they work with others.
It is important to consider how the employees work with others. If they are totally social awkward or have trouble tolerating others, they probably won’t work well within your company. Everyone has to be able to work with others to some degree and if they can’t, it will be tough for them to fit into any sort of company. Even people who work behind the scenes need to be able to work with others on their team and within the company. Teamwork is a huge part of every successful company.

For more reading on this topic, check out my interview with Robert Stephens from the Geek Squad. He has some unique solutions for the problem.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Customer Service Experience, Hiring, Training

Tony Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos, a $800 million a year online retailer that sells shoes, handbags, and more. The company started in 1999 with almost no sales and is on track to do more than $1 billion sales in 2008.

In addition to being a very successful retailer, Zappos is a well known customer service company. They have a great reputation (see my post about them here) and really do go out of their way to provide the best customer service possible.

This is the first part of a three part interview with Tony Hsieh. In this part, Tony talks about what Zappos does, how big they are, how many report customers they have, the company’s “wow” philosophy, and a bit about their very generous return and exchange policies.

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37signals is a smart company. Not only have they seen incredible success with their product line, but they run an extremely successful blog, have gotten more press coverage than most companies 50 times their size, and have a very good reputation. They also read other blogs and knew not to make the same mistake that DreamHost made when they had some issues with their service.

Last week, all of the products/services made by 37signals were offline for about two hours. The problem was with their load balancer affecting their connections. It seems like a pretty technical issue that most customers probably wouldn’t understand if explained fully to them.

37signals did a lot of things right with their announcement:

• They said what happened.
• They addressed a big concern early on. Was data lost? No.
• They apologized.
• They said they weren’t happy about what happened and apologized again.
• They offered compensation to affected clients, even though they don’t have a formal SLA plan that requires them to do so. They also made this process easy.
• They said they had the best service provider out there, but the company dropped the ball (see below).
• However, 37signals repeatedly said the problem is ultimately their problem and their fault. They claimed full responsibility.

Commenters on the post pointed out that 37signals only used one load balancer (when two are often standard), which is their fault, not their service provider’s fault. An employee from 37signals replied and said they will be adding one. As mentioned above, they claimed full responsibility for the downtime. It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is, but it is their problem.

37signals was also pretty responsive to comments on TechCrunch. They updated their status web site frequently during the outage. Basically, 37signals handled the situation as well as any company I’ve seen.

There are very few companies who do things as well as 37signals did with this situation. From what I’ve read, how 37signals handled this situation is how they handle most others - very well. Kudos to 37signals.

Every year, Fortune (and/or one of its sub-publications) publishes its list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. Dumb moment number 51 was customer service related:

Nine-year-old Shea O’Gorman sends a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggesting ideas for improving her beloved iPod Nano, including adding onscreen lyrics so people can sing along. She gets back a letter from Apple’s legal counsel stating that the company doesn’t accept unsolicited ideas and telling her not to send in any more suggestions.

I can see why this made it to the list. I can also see why this got a lot of media attention. And unfortunately, I can see Apple why did what they did. However, despite the potential legal issues, I think this deserves to be a dumb moment.

The reason this was a dumb moment was because Apple took a standard policy and overdid it. I’ve talked about the importance of flexible company policies before (and so have others). When company policies are not flexible, they will eventually backfire.

Apple’s policy about rejecting unsolicited ideas is not flexible. They send angry letters to nine-year-olds who love their products and take time to write letters asking for new features because it’s inflexible.

As a company, sometimes you need to take that very small risk of a nine-year-old secretly trying to get a Fortune 500 company to copy her ideas so she can sue to be human. Being human is probably worth that small risk.

I like lawyers and they are often very useful. However, with all due respect to lawyers, most lawyers can’t run most companies. They are programmed (and paid) to be protective and assume the worse. They are programmed (and paid) to minimize risk and protect their clients. These are great traits for a lawyer, but often bad traits for someone designing a policy for a consumer electronics company.

Unreasonable policies are usually for inflexible companies that think unreasonably. Most people don’t think of Apple as one of those types of companies, but in this case, the company’s overprotective policies

Thanks to AllBusiness CS for this pointing out.

Being a customer service representative is a stressful job. There have been plenty of articles, books, and blogs written about just how stressful a CSR job is. However, I feel like I’m going to add my two cents and write about the stress of an average customer service representative.

The level of stress as a customer service representative depends entirely on the company an employee works for. I’ve seen representatives that love their jobs as CSRs, but that is because they work for great companies that care about customer service.

On the other hand, I’ve seen customer service representatives who hate their jobs. They work for companies that could care less about customer service and care less about them as employees. They put unreasonable controls and policies in place and everyone hates their job. As a result, the employees often give inferior service. As a result of that, the customers get mad and yell at the employees. Everyone gets stressed out and no one is happy.

Being a customer service representative at a company that doesn’t usually provide good customer service is stressful because the customers are usually stressed out and angry themselves. The job turns into a viscous, unrelenting cycle of one angry customer after another.

Besides the actual angry customers yelling and screaming at the representatives, what are some of the things that can stress a regular customer service representative out?

• Bad managers. It seems that there is no shortage of terrible call center managers, especially the shift and floor supervisors. Some are really great, but others are terrible.
• Worse executives. The ultimate blame should be put upon the executives who are setting policies and procedures that are unreasonable and don’t allow for the provision of good service.
• Call times. The companies that track call times and discourage longer calls are actually working against their customers and subsequently, themselves.
• Strict procedures. Procedures should serve as guidelines, not scripts or policies that are set in stone. It’s impossible to script and predict everything, so procedures that are inflexible are a waste (and an additional thing to stress employees out).
• Bad computer systems. Bad computer systems can stress anyone out, especially when your job depends on them. Having to wait for bad computer systems, try to figure out ways around them, etc. can make a job that has the potential to be okay very bad.

What are some other things that you think might stress out customer service representatives? Anonymous Cog - are you reading?

I’ve talked about the importance (and how to) confirm personal details before. The confirmation of personal details is an important part of any customer service experience. Not all companies deal with sensitive information, so it isn’t a necessary part of the experience for all of them, but for many, it is. A company where it is important to verify personal details is a bank.

It wasn’t long ago that I wrote some nice things about Bank of America. I stand by those nice things I said and have actually have some more nice things to say (pretty unordinary for a bank, right?).

I had to call Bank of America today for an unrelated issue. Besides the menu being somewhat (not very) simple and being connected almost immediately to a friendly, English speaking representative, the experience was very positive. The 198,000 employee banking behemoth has what seems to be a top of the line phone system that is pretty well designed.

As soon as I called the phone number for Bank of America, the phone system came on with the company’s trademark jingle and a calm phone system voice. I was immediately asked to enter in my social security number or tax ID number. I entered mine in and the phone system then said I was calling from an authorized number and that everything was okay.

I picked the option I needed to and was connected to the right person. He asked me for my name and then said he had to ask one quick question to verify I was the account holder. He asked for a verbal password. I had no idea what it was, but he explained that it was not a problem and could ask another question. He asked the question, which I answered without too much trouble and my account was all verified. The process was painless and took about 30 seconds.

That is a good way to verify an identity. Have the technology do the majority of it. That way, I don’t have to give my social security number to someone I don’t know. It’s important to use technology to help you (Apple did, as I wrote about here) and your company.

Kudos to Bank of America for making this usually annoying part of the customer service experience pretty painless.

I talk a lot about how companies should monitor the blogosphere for mentions of their names - good and bad (if they don’t already). I was having a conversation with a public relations manager from CarMax (interview here) before the holidays and he told me about how he responds to bloggers.

He responds to bloggers that write positive and negative things about CarMax. If they write about how they were unhappy, he makes sure they know how to get in touch with customer service and offers any help that he can provide. If they’re happy, he sends them a thank you note and a little gift such as a tire pressure gauge or a road atlas.

This PR manager has the right idea. It is important to thank the people who write positive things about you as well. Many companies focus solely on the bad reviews. This is of course a good thing to do, but it is also worth spending time and effort thanking those who write good things about your company and service. If they feel appreciated, the chances of those people continuing to write good things goes way up.

It is always a good idea to thank someone when they do something nice for you. The exact same principle / etiquette guideline that your mother taught you as a child applies to business and public relations. If someone writes something nice about your company, thank them. They will appreciate it. All you have to do is post or email something simple like:

Hi John,

I saw your post about Company XYZ today and wanted to thank you for the kind words. We try our best and it makes everyone happy to see customers write about exceptional, positive experiences they’ve had with us.

Thank you again for thinking and writing about us. Feel free to call on me if you need any assistance in the future.

Best wishes,

Bob Bobsen
Public Relations
Company XYZ
212-123-4567

Some people may disagree about giving the small gift. I’m personally okay with it, but can see how some people might think it’s a bribe. As cliche as it sounds, it’s the thought that  counts with this sort of situation. As long as you post the thank you comment or send the thank you email, then you’ve done plenty. Sending the gift is optional - feel free to do it if you want to. It probably won’t hurt and it is certainly a nice gesture.

To take it a step further (in a good way), include a hand written thank you note with that little gift. The note can just be a nice little piece of paper with the logo on it (your company has a branded notepad somewhere, right?):

Thanks again for the nice words about Company XYZ!

- Bob

What are your thoughts on thanking people for writing nice things about your company? What about gift giving?

For Christmas, my parents gave me several DVDs that they purchased at FYE. Of the four DVDs they gave me, I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing two of them (it’s the thought that counts!) and went to return them at the store last night. I figured I’d have about $36 from the return that I could put towards some new DVDs.

I go to FYE every now and then and have always had okay experiences. Not bad, not great. I’ve always been fairly indifferent towards the store, which for a store I don’t shop at too much is just fine. However, my most recent experience annoyed me as both a customer and a customer service writer and consultant.

I had receipt for the DVDs and the credit card that was used for the return. I went into the store and browsed around for a while. I picked out two DVDs that I liked and figured I would even have some money (roughly $8) left over to use for a future purchase. I took everything up to the counter, waited in line for a bit, and got to the employee.

The first employee was friendly enough. She seemed a bit confused about how everything was going to work, but she was working. I gave her my name, address, etc. for the return. Apparently, though, what she was doing was not working because she went away (without saying a word to me) and got someone else to help her.

This second woman (who I think was named Tonya) did not even acknowledge me (I was simply he for the entire customer experience). Tonya talked to the first employee about what was going on (and what I/he bought and did) and apparently there was a problem (I was not told of this). I gave my name and address again and that did not matter. There were still problems and she asked for the credit card to refund the extra $8 or so. They couldn’t give me a gift card, but that was fine. I gave her the credit card and then I was suddenly made aware of a sale that my parents took advantage of that included buy two DVDs, get one free. One of the DVDs I was trying to return was the free one (since it was the cheapest). The sale was no longer going on, so the value of my DVD was $0.00. The receipt said it was valued at $7.99 or whatever it was, but apparently there was a sale on “select items” which had completely disappeared and was no longer valid.

That was the fatal flaw in the experience. The whole point of bringing in a receipt for a purchase is to have the clock set back to the time of purchase. If prices change, it doesn’t matter - the receipt is the way of proving that. Apparently, at FYE, that is not the case. The sale was no longer going on, so I didn’t have the option of picking a new DVD to get for free or getting a refund of the price of the DVD at the time of purchase (which I think would be fair). Tonya didn’t want to honor what the receipt said.

I pointed out to Tonya that I was getting a refund of $0.00 for one of the two DVDs I was trying to return and that I might as well keep it. She really didn’t appreciate that observation and it made her even shorter and ruder than before. Reluctantly, she gave the DVD back. I paid for the second DVD I wanted and left. Not one apology for the misunderstanding or hint of empathy from anyone.

Personally, I found the situation to be unethical. I can see and understand FYE’s position, but I think the practice is generally unethical. A receipt should let you set the clock back. The experience was horrible. Tonya was the quintessential example of an employee who clearly did not like her job/the customers she was dealing with. The experience was just a negative one and I don’t forsee myself shopping at or recommending FYE again.

This situation can teach customer service providers a few things:

• Keep your customers in the loop. One of the reasons this experience failed completely was because no one told me what was going on, took any time to explain anything, etc. Keep your customers in the loop and let them know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
• Acknowledge the customer. Tonya should have introduced herself and addressed me by my name. They had my name (I gave it to them twice) and never used it. Using “he” or “she” when the customer is standing right there is unacceptable.
• Don’t be cheap. I had expressed interest in buying more DVDs at FYE (hence why I asked for a gift card) and was obviously an interested customer. If I were Tonya, I would have just given me the 8 bucks and have been done with it. Nordstrom would have done that. Most stores would have.
• If you can’t, be nice. If the computer wouldn’t let Tonya do it or she would get yelled at by her manager for doing it, that is okay too. It isn’t really about the eight bucks for me. She could have apologized, expressed empathy, or done something besides just glaring at me. There is always something you can do and she did nothing.

I filled out the store survey mentioned on the receipt and will send the URL of this post to FYE. Let’s see what, if anything, happens. In the mean time, I think I will buy my DVDs from Amazon.

I saw this “tweet” on Jeremy Wright’s (friend and former boss) Twitter feed yesterday:

Bad appetizer at restaurant (*really bad*). Waitress response: “well you’ll know for next time”. Hah. First time for that comment evar

I laughed out loud when I read this. Then, I came to the realization that the waitress actually did say that. At point, I got a scary reminder of just how bad customer service can be. The particular phrase isn’t on my “Big List of Things Not to Say,” but I do feel it is implied.

There are so many things about that comment that are so bad. Here are my thoughts about the comment, how to avoid it, and what to do if it happens:

It is completely unacceptable. Saying something like that is completely unacceptable. If I overheard an employee saying that, I would fire him or her on the spot. If your company culture tolerates those sort of answers, your customer service has no shot at being any good.

Don’t hire people like that. If at all possible, do not hire people who give answers like that. See this post on avoiding bad job candidates. If you have to, use personality tests and potential employees assessments. You must screen for (and avoid) people like that.

Train people to do the opposite. Part of your training should focus on being empathetic towards customers and their concerns, dealing with common problems (i. e. bad food in a restaurant), etc. If you train people to do the right thing, the chances of them doing the wrong thing will decrease significantly.

I don’t know if there will be a next time at that restaurant from Jeremy. With bad food and bad service, I would hope not. It is a lot easier to lose a customer than it is to gain one. Make sure you aren’t losing customers because of ridiculously unacceptable answers.

On Tuesday, I told you about my process for writing and sending out holiday cards. It is a somewhat involved, but still doable process.

A big question that a lot of people ask, search, and email about is what to write on the inside of holiday cards. Most of the searches and questions to date have been about thank you cards, but also what to write on holiday cards.

Last year, I provided some (good) suggestions about what you can write on your holiday cards to professional associates, clients, etc. Here are the ones from last year (with the dates updated):