Service Untitled

I was reading a blog post recently about a clever way to do a reference check. The method is simple and can be highly effective if done right.

Basically, get several references from the potential employee and then call each of them around lunch time or after hours. The point is to call at a time when the reference will not be in the office (not a typo). You then leave a message saying something along the lines of “Bob Smith is in the process of interviewing to be an ABC Engineer here at XYZ Corp and listed you as a reference. Please call me back if you feel he was outstanding.”

While not everyone will get the message or call you back, the idea is that it will all be relative depending on the strength of the candidate. If you call five references for candidate A and get four calls back, that’s a good sign. If you call five references for candidate B and get no calls back, that isn’t such a great sign.

People will usually do whatever they can to give positive references if they’re well deserved. People legitimately leave jobs on positive terms and when it’s handled well, bosses (or whoever was named as a reference) often have nice things to say.

However, if a candidate is less than outstanding, a lot people are hesitant to say that much. The threat of lawsuits is always there and reference checks for employees who weren’t great tend to present a lot of potential problems for very few benefits. This method lets those people say something without actually saying anything (or going out of their way) and still lets the good people get great reviews.

photo credit: mangpages

A company I work with is in the process of updating its training process and procedures. A new thing they want to implement is giving homework during the training period. I have never heard of this happening during a training process, but I think that idea has its merits. What do you think?

Homework could of course consist of many different things. Some of the ideas I had were:

• Worksheets with customer service situations on them and then questions asking what went well, what went wrong, what could have been better, etc.
• Recordings of calls and critique sheets that have to be filled out saying what went well, what went wrong, etc.
• Short answer questions that ask about the company, customer service procedures, etc. that trainees respond to.
• Exercises that can be completed from home (e.g. find this knowledge base article, locate this piece of information on the web site, etc.).

And similar homework activities. What would be assigned for homework would obviously depend on what the training class went over, but the general idea is interesting. It keeps people thinking about their training and makes it easier to process the information in the scope of the training period.

Do you assign homework during training? If so, is it effective? If not, why not?

Given the economy, this is an oddly timed post for a lot of companies, but believe it or not, there are still many companies that are growing quickly and that still need to hire people. These companies need to know how to hire the right people and to do so quickly. Rapid growth is not an easy thing to deal with, so the more prepared companies are, the better. Here are some quick tips on how to prepare for a big hiring push:

Train other employees on how to interview.
During periods of normal growth in most companies, human resources handles a majority of the interviewing and of the hiring. When they need to hire more people, more people need to be trained on how to do the interviews. Human resources should work with supervisors, senior employees, and other managers on how to interview potential employees and then begin using them to do the actual interviews.

Hire an administrative assistant to take care of the busywork.
Scheduling interviews, responding to applications, following up on paperwork, etc. is an annoying, but essential part of the hiring process. The HR department should hire an assistant or someone similar to take care of this. That way, the actual interviewer can focus on the real work of reviewing applications and hiring.

Have checklists for the entire hiring process.
The entire hiring process should be completely laid out before any hiring push. Everything from application submission to the candidate’s first day of work should be outlined on some sort of chart or document or checklist. With a system in place, there is less guesswork, which makes it much easier for a busy HR department to get its job done correctly and efficiently. Each candidate should have a paper and/or digital file and each part of the process should be kept together, so it can be easily referenced and addressed.

Formalize processes.
Again, with the goal of making it easy for additional people to help, formalize existing processes to make sure people will be able to step in and help.  No more ad hoc interviews, no more informal scheduling, etc. Write the processes down so other people can help out. 

Continue to refine.
As the hiring push continues, the person in charge of HR should be focusing on how to refine the existing processes and to make them more efficient.  If they can come up with something that saves 10 people 20 minutes a day in one hour, it is a lot more efficient than them spending an hour interviewing a candidate. Think about the long term and the scale of the operation and keep that in mind. Doing so will make the hiring push a lot easier in the long run.

I came across a blog post about how Apple recruiters are finding people to work at the technology company’s popular retail stores. Their method? Have a clever business card that says that the recruiter enjoyed his or her customer service experience and wants to get in touch with the employee if he or she is interested in changing jobs.

The card isn’t overly aggressive, but it does make a point – if you want to change jobs, consider the Apple Store. It is surprising that more companies don’t do this – especially considering how easy it is. It’s more direct (and I think effective) than a recruiter giving his or her card to an employee and it is obviously has a very specific purpose.

Apple, like Nordstrom and other customer service leaders, realizes that you can hire the smile and train the skill.

This tactic isn’t limited to retail. Assuming you train your employees and there isn’t a large amount of prior knowledge needed to work in your customer service department, this can work for your company as well. Look for great customer service and offer the card to people who seem like they might be a fit.

If they work out, great. If not, oh well. Hiring is just as much an art as it is a science and a fact of both aspects is that it is hard to find and retain great people, so it is important to work hard at doing so.

[Image courtesy of MacNN.]

Different employees respond to motivation in different ways. It’s unrealistic to expect that every customer service representative you hire will be a highly motivated, self-starting A player. Most customer service representatives just aren’t those types of people and as a result of that, they often require some motivation and nudging.

There have been plenty of books written about pushing employees to their potential and encouraging them to work their hardest so they can reach their full potential. There are branches of psychology and management that focus on the subject. Like a lot of things, over analyzing it isn’t always prudent or feasible for smaller customer service organizations, so these smaller customer organizations just need to follow simple advice with pragmatic solutions.

An effective way to handle many employees that aren’t reaching their full potential is to simply set a deadline / performance requirement. Note that the performance requirement is just that – a requirement. Not a goal or an ideal point to reach in an ideal amount of time – a requirement.

Make it a requirement that they work on X number of tickets and maintain a customer satisfaction rating of Y or make it a requirement that they go through X number of calls with a first call resolution rate of Y. The metrics have to be simple, trackable, and sensical. Anything less than that and the nudge can easily backfire.

It is helpful to initially set the goal low. Set it only a little bit above what they are currently doing. As they meet that goal, increase it further and continue doing so until the employee is at the ideal level. Make it clear at each point that the goal is something that is going to be increased and that X performance level is the ideal level of performance. Praise the particular employee each time they reach a performance requirement (see this post). It is a simple thing to do and it can be very effective for employees that are talented, but seem to just lack the motivation to really do their best.

Hiring people typically represents that a company is growing and doing well. However, with each person hired at the average company, there is a set of operations and processes that need to be completed called onboarding. Though HR experts may disagree with me, I’ve always defined onboarding as the process of getting a new employee setup and ready shortly after hiring them.

Onboarding can be a tricky process, especially for a company that only hires one or two people a month and hasn’t been around that long. It takes a defined process to be successful and generally it takes a fairly sizable HR and/or training department to make the onboarding process smooth and consistent. However, companies of all shapes and sizes can make use of and implement an efficient onboarding process.

1. Understand what each new hire needs. Every new hire at your company probably needs certain things to be able to do his or her job correctly. Email, computer logins, employment contracts, etc. are all pretty standard and are all things that should be part of the onboarding process. The company’s IT person or department should be notified as soon as a new employee is hired and a company’s HR or accounting person can usually take care of the paperwork and have it all ready before the employee comes into work.

2. Send stuff in advance. There is no reason that an employee needs to spend his or her first day on the job filling out paperwork and reading manuals. Employees should be sent all of that a few days before they come in for training. That way, by the time they walk in the door on day one, they are ready to get going.

3. Have mentors and training assigned. Almost all companies have some sort of training process. At some companies, it is more defined than others, but essentially every company has some sort of process. If HR or the employee’s new manager can have a mentor assigned and/or the employee enrolled in whatever training programs on day one, that new employee can get started right away.

4. Take the time to revise the process. Chances are, as your business changes, your onboarding process will have to change as well. Be sure to have the process written out and be sure to take the time to revise it on a regular basis. If you notice new employees are sitting around waiting for something after they have started working, then the onboarding process likely needs to be revised to alleviate that problem.

The best customer service companies hire employees that understand their customers. And by understand the customer, I mean, the employees they hire are able to relate to the customers. Employees that are passionate about what the company does and whatever the customers do are extremely valuable.

For example, bookstores hiring people that are passionate about books. Music stores hiring people that are passionate about music. The Apple Store hires people that are passionate about Apple products. The result? Employees that are knowledgeable from day one and that love what they do (the Apple Store is not the best paying retail job out there, yet there are plenty of people who want to work there and get turned away). Companies that work with the customers over the Internet can do this, too. If you cater to web designers, try to find former web designers to work in your support department. If you cater to florists, have people that are familiar with flowers and how florists work in your customer service department.

The concept is extremely simple and logical when you think it through, but it’s still incredibly useful. Companies should ask their most passionate and dedicated customers if they want jobs. If they are in your store all the time and seem to be answering other people’s questions or if they are always posting on your forums with useful solutions, thank them first and if it’s appropriate, offer them a job.

The people that “get” your company and what you do are the people you should have working for you. If someone is willing to do some work for free and do a pretty good job, imagine how well they would do if you gave them formal training and formalized their commitment.

A lot of companies that have a thorough understanding of customer service have formal processes in place where they certify their customer service representatives in various areas, on various products, and in various subject areas.

The certification usually shows that representatives have passed a test and that they (hopefully) have a certain level of understanding of whatever they were tested on. Once certified, companies will often let the particular customer service representative service and work on that product or area. The more sophisticated companies have a way of tracking where each employee is, what they need to be tested on, and how they have done in the past. The systems let managers quickly determine where their teams are at and where they need to go.

Like many similar processes, the beauty of a system that requires representatives to get certified in different areas is that it formalizes what is usually an informal process. Formalizing the process usually helps to ensure that it will get done and that it will be followed correctly. It sets a standard that everyone can be held to and it helps to deliver a consistent customer service experience. Training is often done in inconsistent ways, but a standardized test at the end ensures that everyone is learning the same material and can perform at the same level.

By taking it a step further and using the tests to ensure that people are competent and certified in different areas, customer service organizations can make the best use of their people, their training teams, and their time.