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There is a hidden opportunity for a competitive edge in the wireless service market. Have your call center follow through with the same brilliance that marketing started. If marketing gets the customer to call, hey call center — don’t blow it!

The Story
Marketing, You Got Me. Call Center You Blew It!
AT&T Wireless sent me a mailer about a deal for wireless service. I had been thinking of changing wireless carriers so I opened it, read it, and called the 800 #. Marketing you got me!  

A short voice response menu asked me if I was a current customer or not.  Press 2 and I was put through to a rep.  I thought wow this is great and then the path to success blew up.

The call center rep actually read a sales script without a breath and at the end asked me if I wanted to buy now. Call center you blew it!

Sales and service are not a monologue from you with a burp at the end from me. The scripted call center rep blew the brilliance of the marketing in 12 non-listening seconds.

Wireless carriers take heed — customers today are doing their homework and call with specific questions.

Drop the sales script and start dialoguing. Your marketing-to-sales conversion rate will soar. Lose the script or lose the sale!


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


How do you react to a scripted sales or service rep?


Related Post from BNET: Why Sales Scripts Are a Waste of Time

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

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, inspires and trains corporate teams, customer care professionals, call center agents, and technical support teams in the greatest people-skills for sales and service success. See this site for workshop outlines, customer feedback, and footage to view. Turn interaction obstacles into business success — book Kate now.

It was on a trip through Scranton, PA that we stopped at a Burger King for a quick bite. 
At first my mom said she wanted only a cup of coffee.  I replied, a coffee for you and a fish sandwich for me.  She said, “Oh well, get me a fish sandwich as well — it will be hours before we eat again. But I just want fish, lettuce, and tomato on the bun.”  She then went to grab a table because the lunch crowd was forming. 

I approached the counter to order two fish sandwiches and one cup of coffee.   The Burger King sales associate called me forward and I said:  “Hi, I would like two fish sandwiches. One with lettuce and tomato and one with lettuce, tomato, and sauce.  Also one cup of coffee.”   The sales associate stared back at me and said with a bit of panic in her voice — “What do you want me to hold?”  I didn’t know what to say.  So of course I just started over and spoke more slowly.  She continued to ask me “but what do you want me to hold?” 

Suddenly the manager came over and asked me what I wanted to order.  I repeated “Two fish sandwiches — one with lettuce and tomato and one with lettuce, tomato, and sauce.”  He looked at me and said “Ma’am, we’ll be very happy to help you when we can figure out what you want to order.”  Huh? 

Exasperated that I was stuck in a scripted loop,  I simply replied “I’ll take two fish sandwiches and one cup of coffee please.”  He started again saying they would be very happy to help me when they could figure out what I wanted.  I replied, “You will make me happy if you just give me two fish sandwiches and one coffee.”  I paid, picked up the tray with the fish sandwiches and the coffee, and went to find Mom.

When I reached the table where she was sitting, she said “Wow that was quite a wait.  Long lines?”  I said, “Nope”.  “Well what happened?”, she asked.  I said, “You won’t believe it. In order to get food here, first you have to know how they make it so you can tell them what to subtract.”  She stared at me in disbelief.  I then told her the whole story.  Her reaction was, “Let me in there. I could make 20 special ordered fish sandwiches in that amount of time.”  And well she could!

How many times have you been stuck in a scripted customer service nightmare on the phone?   No matter what you say, the rep continues on a journey without you onboard.  This isn’t just customer service gone bad it is customer service designed badly.   Let’s use some basic logic.  How many customers will know that what you have said to them, you have consistently said to the previous customer?  More importantly, how many customers will care?  Most people want to be treated as if they are special — not as if they are routine.

Yet scripts are designed to do two things: Deliver consistent service and move on to the next customer.  With a chuckle in my voice I say, they sure do that!  It is consistently bad service that pushes customers away from you and toward your competition. 

Scripts create this nightmare because A) They don’t account for the customer’s journey and B) The customers didn’t come to your script rehearsal!  Scripts breed non-listening, non-thinking, robotic reps who replace thinking with reciting and a caring heart with a bar chart on numbers served.

Wouldn’t it be better to use great listening to understand what the customers want?   Replace scripts with ACE – Authenticity, Commitment, & Ease - http://tinyurl.com/cdpxfe.   ACE your next customer service and sales moment and watch your customer referrals and sales soar!

On the Road Again: New Journey w/Each Customer’s Request

You have heard them many times – customer service reps that sound scripted and robotic.  Do they impress you?  I doubt it.  In all my customer service consulting work, I have yet to hear a single customer tell me they prefer it. 

Does hearing a script make you feel confident?  No.  Quite the opposite.  If a rep doesn’t sound like a thought-filled caring professional then you wonder what s/he can possibly do for you.  Scripts make companies feel secure that they are controlling the message the customers receive.  Yet each customer wants to feel the service rep is focusing just on them.  The more scripted the customer service seems, the less caring it appears.

Some skeptics shoot back with customer service reps don’t get paid enough to be caring and thought-filled.  My answer to the skeptics:  Inspire and train reps to do an excellent job.  Your customers will reward your company.

 

Finding the Balance.   Give customer service reps the components to cover: in the greeting, for meeting the request, and in the closing and follow-up.  Train and coach them to find the balance on how to deliver all of this without scripting.  The return on the company’s investment is the ultimate customer experience delivered to each customer every single time. 

 

Delivering Consistent Quality Customer Service in Diverse World.  The challenge of excellence is consistency — consistent high quality not repetitious and scripted.  The key to achieving this in a diverse world is to adapt!  Sounds like an oxymoron?  Consistency in customer service does not mean saying the same words to every customer.  Right here in various regions of the USA, there are different expectations of great customer service.  Things you would say in NYC you might not say to someone in Texas or in the Midwest.  Moreover, different cultures vary in their customer service expectations.  To deliver the ultimate customer experience, you must deliver your message in culturally acceptable way.  Listen to  more key concepts on this topic in video footage on this site http://katenasser.com/category/video.

 

(You are welcome to share the text in this blog with other people, on other blogs, on other website, and in articles.  I ask only that you credit me as the source with URL link www.smartpeopleskills.com to continue sharing.)

 

I am interested in your customer service stories.  I am especially interested in any geographic or cultural differences you see as important in delivering great customer service.  Please post in the comment section below.  Many thanks!

  

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

Training and Keynotes for Customer Service, Teamwork, Thriving in Change

908.595.1515 (USA)

Thanks for 20 years and counting …

MA Organizational Psychology

Continuous Learner