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Musings on Effective Meetings from The People-Skills Coach™


In the workplace, leaders and teams still search for ways to hold tremendously effective meetings. Despite years of pundits’ advice, side trips into tangent land, chatty corner conversations, habitually late arrivals, vibrating smart phones and tablets, tunnel vision, resistance, and lack of focus keep everyone from the bulls-eye.

They also leave most people dreading the next meeting.

So I wonder, will we find the Holy Grail if we leave meetings in the dust and instead hold a meeting of the minds?

Words do matter and the word meeting has always been too vague for me. It has confused workplace teams for decades. A meeting and its 21st century cousin, a meet-up, suggest a free form event to which people can arrive fashionably late.

Whereas the phrase, a meeting of the minds, is packed with clear requirements.

A meeting of the minds,

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1. Sounds the knell of knowledge exchange that calls everyone to be there on time — else there’s no exchange.




2. Suggests there is a specific topic and purpose. You wonder a meeting of the minds “on what”? It breeds interest and focus.




3. Prepares the mind to be ready to meet. Most would feel embarrassed to attend a meeting of the minds and say only I don’t know or I’m not prepared!




4. Inherently requires listening, discussing, and participation of all minds. Unless everyone is telepathic, all must engage else the views stay hidden in the minds.




5. Engenders all to speak in terms that others understand else the minds don’t meet.




6. Brings the endless talker up for air to hear what other minds think.




7. Bends the obstinate else why are they at a meeting of the minds?




8. Coaxes all to agreement and decision. After all, isn’t that the meaning of we came to a meeting of the minds?

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In the workplace today we have multicultural teams, virtual technology, global reach, and still that pesky problem of ineffective meetings.

I say we’ve got nothing to lose by giving meetings a new moniker and seeing if it gets us to the Holy Grail.

Maybe we should even hold a contest to see what the new moniker should be if a meeting of the minds doesn’t hold everyone’s attention!

What say you?

From my professional experience (with a wry twist) to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Related Post: 7 Steps from Brutally Blunt to Helpfully Honest

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, customer service, customer experience, and teamwork. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Delivering a super customer service experience is all about the choices. Simply great choices can create it! Poor choices can destroy it.

Frustration with the customer is often at the heart of those poor choices. In fact, frustration with customer behavior can make poor choices very tempting.

The best in customer service find something else even more tempting — the strength and skill to resist temptation and choose greatness!

Frustration, Temptation & Simply Great Choices

The strength to choose service greatness rests within your professional identity.

How do you want to be known? What do you picture as greatness? If service is not in that picture, your attitude and behavior will yield to frustration.

If you want to create super customer experience, here are 7 common frustrations, temptations and the simply great choices!

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1. Your Frustration: The customer wants to speak before you or more than you.
   Temptation: Seize control of the conversation and talk over the customer. Poor choice.
   Great Choice: Let them talk! Your response will be far more accurate the more you understand.




2. Your Frustration: The customer wants something non-standard. This takes time, thought, effort, and takes you out of your normal pace.
   Temptation: Show your exasperation and label the customer as difficult. Poor choice.
   Great Choice: Show your interest — even excitement — in doing and learning something different. This is the chance to WOW ‘em.




3. Your Frustration: You want the customer to completely populate your contact database before you help them and they want some information without being locked in your detailed procedure.
   Temptation: Ignore their preference and continue on with your questions. Poor choice.
   Great Choice: Get basic identifying information like name, account # and then focus on what they need! Once you have the solution underway, validate or get other personal information for your database. Focusing on the customer delivers a super customer experience. Focusing on your database doesn’t.




4. Your Frustration: The customer is upset and venting their anger.
   Temptation: Lecture to them (i.e. There is no reason to raise your voice, I am trying to help you). Poor choice.
   Great Choice: Let them vent. When they are done, empathize and take action. Fix the situation, not the customer! If you don’t, your competitor will.




5. Your Frustration: The customer waits until the last minute for help and has an urgent need.
   Temptation: Tell the customer they should have called you sooner. Poor choice. Criticizing them for poor planning leaves an emotional scar on them that will burden you next time — if they come back.
   Great Choice: Determine whether or not you can meet this urgent need. If yes, do it. Being the customer’s hero is a super customer experience! If you truly can’t, let them know that and refer to other resources that might be able to help them. Expressions of good will and effort build future trust.




6. Your Frustration: Customer doesn’t follow an important procedure and it causes the customer, and you, repeated problems.
   Temptation: Patronize the customer with an insipid rhetorical question like do you remember I said to enter your account id not your phone number? Poor choice. Patronizing the customer is professionally immature and disrespectful.
   Great Choice: Simply give the customer the answer again. Courteous honest answers help and don’t hurt. After you have helped them, ask if there is anything you can do to make it easier for them next time. You might also review any written instructions or online design to see how to make it clearer.




7. Your Frustration: The customer wants to ask questions along the way and you want to go through your whole presentation or explanation first.
   Temptation: Tell the customer to wait until you are done. Poor choice. You are telling the customer that you are more important than they are.
   Great Choice: Dialogue with the customer; put their needs first. You will meet your needs through theirs and deliver a super customer experience.

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The feeling of relief from venting your frustration on the customer is very short lived. It ruins your company brand and your personal and professional reputation.

When you choose great listening, adaptability, patience, reasonableness, competence, and agility for sudden needs, you deliver truly memorable and super customer experiences.

Question
What other frustrations do you have with customers? Add them in the comments section below and I will help you deliver a super customer experience. I deliver the antidotes to your frustration!

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

Related Post: Be Plentiful & Ready to Deliver Super Customer Experience

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on customer service experience, teamwork, and leading change. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

This year for National Customer Service Week, I ask each of you to look behind every customer.

For a moment, don’t look at metrics, scripts, forms, procedures, the structure, the flashing queue light, the long line, or the clock. Look behind every customer to discover the true need, the future, and success. Our future is behind every customer.

Graphic by: Kimb Manson


Customer Service – Stripped to the Core

1. Behind every customer is the unknown yearning to be known. That’s our future of customer loyalty.

Empathize!



2. Behind every customer ID number, is a person with a name whose needs we can fulfill. That’s our future. That’s success.

Ask for their name before their ID number!



3. Behind every customer question – odd, crazy, simplistic, or repetitive — is a chance to move them to the future and success.

Listen with an open mind!



4. Behind every customer is another person whom we impact with our actions. Our care is growth for both. That’s our future and theirs.

Follow-through!



5. Behind every impatient customer is our future success with the tough times of life. That’s a future of skill and ability.

Study up!



6. Behind every customer are the factors that define great service to them. Look behind the customer to reach that future.

It’s a one-to-one match!



7. Behind every customer is limitless potential. Cultivate the future.

Go to the well!



8. Behind every customer is the heart of our success. It beats for our future.

Maintain heart health!



9. Behind every customer is a wealth of knowledge free for the taking. Learn!

Is there a #10? What would you add to this list?


Lead the future of customer loyalty …

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Listen
Emapthize
Assess
Deliver

Don’t leave it behind!

Offer: Subscribe to this Smart SenseAbilities™ blog and download your thank you gift poster of Our Future is Behind Every Customer. Print it and hang in your customer service area for continued inspiration!

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes for customer service and teamwork — that turn interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times of change. See this site for workshops outlines and customer results.

With 8 People-Skills Steps!

Customer service in most cases is a case of sudden relationship. Often it is a startling sudden relationship in a tough moment. Longer term relationships like account based sales provide advantages that sudden relationships don’t have.

This comparison sheds light on the challenges that customer service reps (CSRs) and technical support analysts face on every contact.

Sudden Relationship Challenges

• No existing rapport for interaction with
• Little or no prior knowledge of expectations and
• No history of results thus
• Little trust or confidence to smooth the way


Trust and Openness of Longer Relationships Image by:Liz Smith

Longer term relationships develop and enjoy:

• Understanding from observing people’s patterns of behavior with
• History of results that develop a working comfort building
• Time-based trust and openness that allow for more candor

Because the startling sudden relationships of customer service lack the longer term bonds of understanding and trust, the CSRs, reps, agents, and technical support analysts must adapt to each customer.

They are developing a relationship, solving a problem, and building trust all at the same time! This is why they cannot candidly say whatever they want. It is too startling to customers.

Instead, the best CSRs and technical support analysts turn sudden relationships into bonds.

Here are the 8 people-skills steps they take:

1. Greet courteously with the respect of formality and the sincerity of some informality.
2. Create quick connection by spotting the customer’s personality type and adapting to it.
3. Capture attention by detecting the customer’s listening style and using it.
4. Make it easy to communicate by using the customer’s jargon and language.
5. Close the gap by paraphrasing the customer’s perspective.
6. Smooth the emotion by caring without taking anger personally.
7. Show urgency appropriate to the situation.
8. Deliver help and solutions.

Sudden relationships with customers can turn into bonds of satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals when you make the moment easy, productive, and memorable. Well worth it for the business and truly appreciated — when you are the customer.

Yours in service,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes that turn interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times. See this site for customer service workshop outlines and business results. Fill the gaps in customer service and teamwork with business wins – book Kate now.

The best teamwork in the workplace requires great people-skills. What you say and how you say it impacts productivity and teamwork today and tomorrow and down the road.

Phrases that team members see as disrespectful (regardless of your intentions) can bury teamwork and your workplace relationship.

For all team members and leaders who like practical information for the best teamwork and people-skills, here’s a checklist of 4 phrases to bury and never use again!

 

Bury These Phrases for Best Teamwork

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1. “Whatever!” The current popularity of this phrase does not lessen its sting. You are basically saying to your team member: “your thoughts don’t matter to me”. This will leave scars that damage teamwork. It you disagree with a team member, then say I disagree. If you are frustrated because they are talking endlessly, then say “we are short on time today…”. Bury the phrase whatever and don’t ever dig it up!
   
   
2. “All you’ve done is ….” The culprit here is the word all. It packs whatever you are about to say with emotion — negative emotion. A colleague of mine was speaking with a networking contact who was a driver/driver personality type. The contact said to my colleague about her work “All you’ve done is invent a job for yourself.” The networking contact’s “all you’ve’ done is …” phrase is insulting and demeaning. On a team, this phrase could leave a scar between team members that never heals. Bury this phrase all you’ve done is … deep in the ground so it doesn’t ooze up during a flood!
   
   
3. “Don’t you think …?” Most of the time, people use this phrase to pressure someone into agreement. Much better to state what you believe (“I think”) and ask the team members what they think. “Don’t you think we should or …” is a passive aggressive way of expressing disagreement and often triggers resistance and emotion. To reach an end goal, put the issues on the table for the team members to directly discuss. Bury the phrase don’t you think … and replace it with what do you think?.
   
   
4. “I’m sorry you feel I have …”. This is one of the most common and is a most offensive phrase — whether you say it in the workplace or in your personal life. Said on a team, it is deadly. The culprit here are the words you feel. If someone has told you that you have offended, hurt, insulted … them, offer a simple direct apology I am sorry. If you want to go further, use and I am sorry for the impact this has had on you. Bury your fear of apologizing along with the phrase I’m sorry you feel I have …. You will be respected for your courage and your caring.

What other phrases would you bury?

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have booked Kate for 21 years to overcome the toughest challenges, activate service and teamwork, and channel people-skills extremes into business gains. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Are there people at work or in your personal life that goad and annoy you? They provoke you whether they intend to or not.

You can neutralize the personal invader, the busybody, the micro-manager, the patronizer, the idea embezzler, and those who presume.

Add these 6 great ways to your people skills (soft skills) toolkit and neutralize the effect they have on you.

Used consistently instead of emotional responses, neutral responses become your virtual do not disturb signs that don’t insult or block future communication.

6 Great Ways

1. To very personal questions:
   Silence and look of surprise.




2. To the busybody:
   “Aren’t you full of questions!”




3. To the micro-manager:
   “I’m capable.”




4. To presumptuous remarks or quips:
   “There’s an odd remark.”




5. To patronizers:
   “You must have little ones at home. I can tell.”




6. To those who state your ideas as theirs:
   “I hear an echo.” or “I am glad you agree with me.”

Neutral responses keep your cool while giving others time to realize what they have said or done to you.

To get comfortable using neutral responses, consider that:

1. Detouring to their emotional agenda is not valuable to you, your life, or your work.
2. It’s not rude to hold your own.
3. Inner peace is a gift you give yourself.

Neutral responses show inner strength and inner strength is its own billboard.

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


What responses have worked well for you in emotional moments? I hope you will share your story and voice in the comments section below.

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to turn people-skills extremes into business success. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Whether you are a customer service leader or a customer, you have most likely witnessed great customer service reps (CSRs) or technical support reps. dealing easily with difficult situations. What makes the best CSRs successful is that they define the moments as difficult situations not as difficult customers.

CSRs can change tough situations into successful outcomes with listening, empathy, knowledge, and action. They can’t change people and the best CSRs know this.

In fact, the best CSRs actually beat a common mistake most people make in everyday life — attribution error.

Attribution error is the tendency to over value personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors. (Source: Wikipedia).

Stated simply, we think it’s something inside of the people that makes them act badly. Meanwhile when it is our own behavior, we are more likely to attribute it to external conditions.

Since the best CSRs free themselves from the grip of attribution error, they shine and succeed at:

1. Empathy. They walk easily in the customers’ shoes because they believe external conditions have caused the customers’ behavior. If instead you attribute the behavior to something evil or sinister inside of the customers, how or why would you empathize?




2. Empowerment. They believe that they can fix external conditions and this fuels their desire to work through the details and with the customers.




3. Listening. The best CSRs value listening as critically as surgeons value their instruments. It is through listening that they find the external conditions they must fix.




4. Knowledge. They also use the knowledge of previous customers’ behaviors to prevent future attribution error. The best CSRs have proven to themselves that external conditions cause many of the difficult situations — not malicious customers intending harm.




5. Well-timed Action. CSRs caught in the grip of attribution error, often try to push irate or upset customers to calm down. The best CSRs know that listening and well-timed communication calm the customers and unearth the external conditions leading to action.

The implication for training CSRs is quite clear. Have them do a simple exercise like using another company’s website. As they encounter challenges, do they blame themselves for the difficulty or do they blame external conditions like website design, or internet connection speed etc…? Then raise the issue of attribution error.

The next time upset or irate customers call, the CSRs’ attitudes will be far more empathetic. If you have empowered them to take action, you will also see fewer call escalations to team leaders and supervisors.

BONUS: Lower stress. CSRs who view tough moments as difficult situations that they can fix, experience less stress and greater fulfillment. Now that’s motivation!

Yours in service,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach
M.A. Organizational Psychology

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.

Related post: Hiring, a Natural Call to Customer Serivce

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach is widely known and respected across industries for training the best customer service and technical support reps. See this site for workshop outlines and testimonials.

For years I have been able to spot job applicants who are drawn to service careers. They excel at it. They have an ease, commitment, and skill that makes them, what I call, the naturals in customer service. Theirs is a calling to customer service work and they answer that call very well.

Leaders, spotting and hiring those with this natural calling to customer service work gives your business a competitive advantage. It gives you the trust to empower these naturals to wow the customer. Since they need little if any supervision to deliver outstanding customer service, the customer experiences the ultimate in care and action — in the moment, every time.

What will you spot in potential hires who have a a natural calling to customer service?

Naturals in Customer Service do all these things …

1. Accept the absurdity of life without using sarcasm toward the customer.
2. Easily adapt; need for control is low.
3. Brilliantly balance objectivity and caring.
4. Initiate both caring and action.
5. Know that they can’t change others — only their own perspectives and reactions.
6. Love diversity and are inspired and excited by it. Non-judgmental.
7. Exhibit a high sense of ownership and teamwork.
8. Understand the big picture and show attention to detail; they follow-through.
9. See and hear far more than what the customer is saying and use it well.
10. Continuously learn from interactions and quickly reapply this insight.
11. Love to serve because of the giving — not to be liked or loved in return.

Be wary of job applicants who say they like customer service work because they enjoy hearing thank you and being appreciated. When the difficult customers are there and the thank yous aren’t, these types become frustrated and do poorly. Remember, customer service work is about caring for others not about the customers caring for you.

Job applicants: If you a natural, you will be happiest working for an enlightened company who sees the business value of outstanding customer service to every customer or working for high end customer care departments (in traditional companies) that focus on their top level customers.

Leaders/Employers: The one thing a natural in customer service does not do well is work in very highly structured scripted departments with loads of supervision and rigid rules. If this is how you operate, select nice people whom you can train to work specifically the way you want them to perform. Your customers will not have the ultimate customer experience yet you will spare yourselves the upheaval of the naturals leaving your company.


©2011 Kate Nasser, Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach is widely known for her insight and 20 years of experience in customer service for the ultimate customer experience. Her workshops re-energize caring and activate follow-through. See this site for workshop outlines and what so many have said about the results.

The best service experience for the customer includes being recognized, being known — treated as a regular valued customer. Whether it’s the bagel shop on the corner that remembers your usual order or the greeting in a high status platinum frequent flier lounge, being known is a great experience.

The worst customer experience is not being unknown; the worst experience is to become unknown.

Do you un-know your known customers? The loss that the customers experience causes a huge loss of trust — often an irreparable break. It often happens during times of change. Here’s a checklist to assess and prevent this descent.

From Known to Unknown

1. Have you recently changed business procedures?  Do those procedures treat known customers that you can trust as unknown customers that you can’t? That is how the customers experience it. Remedy: Consider changes in procedure from the view of the customer before finalizing them. Do they serve the customer or just the company?




2. Has your company purchased or merged with another company? Employees aren’t the only people who will struggle with the changes. The customers will struggle if they go from being known long time valued customers to being just IDs in a database. Remedy: Intelligent databases that retain valued information and CSRs who use that information well.




3. Have you recently had turnover in personnel or new hires? The customers can experience a loss when new hires treat them as unknown. Remedy: Brief and train anyone who interacts with customers — receptionists, CSRs, sales, marketing, account reps — on current customers’ buying patterns and preferences. If that isn’t possible due to the size of the business, have the new hires let the customers know they are new hires. It explains the lack of knowledge and prevents misunderstandings.

If customers tell you they are displeased about being treated as a number or an unknown, avoid replying that things have changed. Expressions like, time marches on, it’s the age of technology, one bad apple spoils the bunch, reinforce that they no longer matter as individuals.

It makes matters worse and can irreparably damage the relationships. Instead, use their dissatisfaction as an opportunity to learn even more about the customers and re-secure the bond.

This post is not a plea to stop change; it is a reminder to handle change well to avoid un-knowing your customers.

What else will prevent “un-knowing” the customers? I welcome your thought-filled discussion in the comments field below.

©2010 Kate Nasser, Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, continues to guide and teach diverse businesses and industries how to deliver great customer service for outstanding experiences and long term business success.

Ever meet someone who is very good with people – all different types of people?  In the workplace you see their professional people skills shine in various situations.    You wonder, “What makes them so successful with diverse people and in widely different situations?”  Look more closely or speak with them and you will find the best professional people skills develop from these four practices.

As you read each point, note one thing you do well and one thing you will do to improve.


Practices: Best Professional People Skills

1. Know Yourself Very Well. Your social style/personality type. Your hot buttons. Your fears. Your pet peeves. Your odd quirks that bother other people. Your natural talents. Your work ethic. Your definition of a happy life. Your definition of success…
   
   
2. Observe and listen to others. This is the critical step for developing outstanding professional people skills.  Observe and listen in order to constantly learn more about other people.  The data you collect is the fuel and the guidance system for successful interactions.  Those with outstanding professional people skills are always learning about others!
   
   
3. Practice Flexibility. Most people interact with others by treating them the way they, themselves, want to be treated.   Unless the world is full of clones, this will not breed great interactions. 
   The best in professional people skills use the data they have collected about others to adapt to others.   To do this you must believe flexibility is a sign of strength not weakness.  Flexibility is a skill that allows you to work with diverse people in a wide range of situations. 
   Most importantly, do not mistake flexibility for indecisiveness.  The best in professional people skills use flexibility for successful connections with others – and achieve tangible results.
   
   


Flexibility & Balance for People Skills Image by:Lady_K

4. Achieve Balance.
   How balanced are you in your professional people skills?
   • Balance your drive for action with empathy for others’ needs.
   • Balance honesty with diplomacy to communicate your message clearly without brutality.
   • See the details that others focus on while compiling the big picture.
   • Balance your knowledge and expertise with input from others.
   • Know when to push ahead with your thoughts and when to pull back to deliver your thoughts at the right moment.
   • Balance your need for bonding with respect for others’ need for independence.
   • Deliver even the toughest news with respect for the humans involved.
   • Lead change with inspiration and grit.

Think of all the applications of the best professional people skills.  Leaders who can inspire both morale and great results.  Soaring sales when you connect with customers and understand and meet their needs.  Successful, cost effective, and timely completion of projects from clear communication & teamwork.  

Professional people skills build trust and collaboration that deliver results!

I have noted 4 practices above.  Is there a 5^th and 6^th?  What would you add?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach delivers workshops, keynotes, consultations, and DVDs that develop your professional people skills. See this site for more information and what others have said about her sessions.

Customer Service Reps (CSRs), call center agents, customer care associates, technical support & help desk analysts, are often tethered to a desk or a pager. The best ones are key links in the chain of service or sales and don’t see it as a life in chains.

How do they achieve this zen like state working in what so many others consider to be a stressful and confining job?

Here are the answers I have collected over the last 20 years of teaching these inspired CSRs and technical support professionals:

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• Chained to the desk or a pager means you are focusing on yourself. Remembering you are a key link in the chain keeps you focused on the customer.
• Satisfaction comes from knowing that you helped — made their life easier, found the solution, made the experience fun, lifted them up.
• On tough days, I take pride in how great I am under pressure.  Other CSRs buckle, I don’t.
• I never let envy of other jobs rob me of the joy of my current life.
• Before working as a Technical Support analyst, I was in the Coast Guard patrolling in the Gulf of Mexico. I was shot at daily by drug running boats.  Trust me, tech. support work is not stressful!

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Service is different than servitude (a life in chains). The former you choose that latter you don’t.

Choose your attitude every day.  Why let angry or rude customers change your choice?

Choose to see the value in what you do — a key link in the chain.

Choose to educate yourself about business success by learning directly from the customers.

Choose to be a CSR, Help Desk or Technical Support Analyst at an enlightened company.

Choose, as leaders, to enlighten your organization’s approach to customer service and to help change your industry with your enlightened view.

Choose to evolve and grow every day of your life.

Which mindset will you choose?

or

A Key Link in the Chain of Success

You can choose to be a strong link for others if your mindset is one of service — not of servitude!

©2010 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ.
If you would like to re-post or re-publish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, continues to inspire legendary service attitudes and behaviors across generations, industries, and professions. Her keynotes, workshops, and DVDs re-energize commitment and delivery of outstanding service. Authentic, intelligent, and humorous — book Kate Nasser to transform your next service initiative.

National Customer Service Week 2010 is coming to an end yet the endless demand for superior customer service lives on.  I continue to learn and build my expertise even after 20 years of working with customers across multiple industries.  To honor all who work with customers, I share the following insights to retool, refuel, and revive your spirit even on the toughest day.  I believe you will find inspiration in them for training the best technical support analysts and customer service reps.

In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want. ~ALICE MACDOUGALL

Inspiration for Training the Best

1. Procedures and protocols can block listening. Life is not a protocol. Business is not a protocol. Customers don’t fit into protocols; they build our business. Listen and adapt to them!




2. Compete against yesterday’s high point — not against each other. Some team members are motivated by competition. Replace competition between team members with competition against yesterday’s best service. Beat that everyday and watch service and teamwork soar.




3. Impact beats intention. A Twitter colleague and employee engagement expert, Ava Diamond, wrote that intent does not equal impact. In customer service, I go further and say impact beats intent. Your words and actions must have a positive impact! Your intentions are of little value when the impact of your words was negative.




4. An authentic smile changes everything. Yes, customers can tell when you authentically care and the smile (in person, on the phone, in online chat) is the window to that caring.




5. Being positive to thorny customers does not teach them to be ruder next time. A technical support analyst asked me “Why does a difficult customer deserve to be treated well when s/he is acting badly? Read the answers here … 5 Things to Think With Difficult & Rude Customers.




6. Empathize before you analyze. Verbalizing empathy and commitment to the customer paves a smoother road to problem solving.




7. Kindness Transcends Constraints. A blog post by The Knowledge Bishop reminds all that kindness to the customer keeps the loyalty bond alive while you work to solve the customer’s problem.




8. Scripts are a monologue. The best customer service is a dialogue.




9. Personalize and localize for legendary service. When a customer gives you her/his name, use it when speaking to them. Else you are treating them like a data point. Secondly, learn, understand, and adapt to a customer’s culture. Here’s one positive step in that direction: Regional Differences in American Customers – What They Expect!

What would be your #10 for this list? It could be your original thought or a favorite quote. Leaders, share this list with your team as an inspirational exercise and have them create #10!

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach and customer service guru, continues on in her 21st year of inspiring teams in customer service and sales to transform their daily work to a constant celebration of success with customers. Her workshop Delivering the Ultimate Customer Experience is one you won’t want to miss!

Two recent experiences gave me insight to update this post (original was June 2010) to include even more value of the two magical words. Enjoy this post and the updates shown below in green.
As you read the title of this post, two magical words for the best people-skills (also known as soft skills or interpersonal skills), you might immediately think of please and thank you.  While these classics are still very valuable people-skills words, they are superseded by two words that are magical even when you just think them.

Could the two words be:

Trust & respect? Admittedly crucial yet just thinking them doesn’t necessarily produce great interactions.

Intuition & connection? Some people have little intuition yet they learn great people-skills.

What are the two magical words for the best 21st century people-skills?

“What If”










What if … helps you consider other people’s views.
What if … bonds with diverse customers.
What if … delivers unique customer care.
What if … engages and empowers employees.
What if … builds bonds on teams.
What if … leads people out of the fear of the unknown.
What if … frees you of the limits of your own perspective.
What if … encourages people to think outside-the-box.
What if … allows a fresh start after poor performance.
What if … opens people’s minds to constructive criticism.

What else does this magical two word phrase do? Or do you have another favorite two word phrase for the best 21st century people-skills?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, brings her insights to your organization in workshops, webinars, and dvds on profitable people-skills for teamwork and customer care. See her in action Kate Nasser video footage.

The best language for superior, truly memorable customer service is the language your customer understands. If your reaction is “no kidding”, please give this topic another moment’s consideration. I am not speaking purely about languages like English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Swedish, Arabic, etc… I am not even speaking just about avoiding the use of slang expressions or your company’s many acronyms to ensure superior customer service.

The best language for superior customer service is language that describes your knowledge in ways that the customer can truly understand. It doesn’t matter whether you are delivering internal customer service to employees of your organization or external customer service to those that buy your products/services. If your customer doesn’t understand what you are saying, it isn’t superior customer service. I wouldn’t even call it customer service.

What does describing your knowledge in language the customer understands truly include?

A. Explaining everything from the customer’s perspective and interest vs. your expert view.

B. Using online and print forms that speak to the customer not from your software system’s design. Have you seen many well designed forms — those that don’t need explanation?

C. Designing bills and other financial statements that present info a way a non-financial expert thinks. Bank statements often prominently display “average daily balance” at the end. The number I want to quickly see is ending balance not average daily balance. A hotel bill I once received at Mohonk Mountain House resort displayed the information as double entry accounting — credits/debits. My reaction was “Are you joking?”. Most non-financial people don’t think in terms of double-entry accounting and many don’t even understand double-entry accounting. The makers of Quicken financial software built their business around this simple fact.

D. Presenting website information — especially the online buying process — with words that customers understand vs. words that the finance and technology departments use.

Superior customer service requires that you communicate all your knowledge in ways the customer understands.

What other examples would you add to the list?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, addresses all the frontiers of communicating with diverse customers for superior customer service. Her newest training DVD Customer Service USA – What They Expect Coast to Coast & Everywhere in Between (click to preview) covers the regional differences throughout the USA and Canada to truly satisfy North American customers.

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