technical support

Customer Service in Times of Change – Insights.

Posted in Customer Service, People-Skills, Soft Skills, Thriving in Change

In my previous post I chronicled a recent service experience with a promoter of National Customer Service Week to highlight a common problem of mistaken empowerment with disastrous business results. I recount the same story here, now with a focus on the challenges that customer service and technical support teams face in times of great change.  Here is what happened and customer service insights on change, change resistance, and rebuilding trust.



The Service Experience

A company actively involved in promoting National Customer Service Week approached me to be an advertising sponsor.  This was the first year they decided to sell advertising sponsorships. They sent information explaining levels of sponsorship, cost, and what each level of sponsorship gave me.  Initial discussions went well. We agreed on the size of the online logo ad pretty easily.  He asked me to send a short paragraph about myself for their first email bulletin. After receiving my text, he replied that the paragraph looked great and they would run it as is. The service experience was easy and well paced.

Things suddenly changed when he sent a proof of the bulletin. I was shocked to see they used only one line from my write-up. To make matters worse, they changed my verbiage into bland, boring words.  His question to me was “WOW, doesn’t it look great?” No it didn’t. I called him and asked what happened? He said, “Don’t worry we want you to be happy. I’ll get back to you.” Before he hung up, I said if we are limited on the number of words, I will be happy to rewrite it. However, the words must reflect my brand.

He emailed me a new version that was slightly longer. Sadly, the words were modified again. To me this was strange behavior and a blatant downward shift in service. It was after hours so I waited until the morning to call him. I left this voice message. “Since I don’t understand what is going on, can’t get any answers, and have no trust that the remaining advertising activities will be handled appropriately, I am going to pass on the opportunity to be a Gold Sponsor.  I wish you continued success.”

Nimble teams win business. Image:GlobalBusinessPosters

He sent me an email saying the source of yesterday’s struggle was the editor of the email bulletin who insisted the bulletin have the same look and feel as it had for the last 10 years! He offered me a discount on the membership and said they would print my paragraph the way I wanted it.  What he didn’t address was the loss of trust from the daylong confusion. When I asked him if he could assure me that my remaining ads, my time, and my brand would not be affected by their internal struggles, he emailed “Evidently you have a bad taste in your mouth about this and it’s best we terminate this relationship”.   

This company, one of the official promoters of National Customer Service Week, undertook a big change – selling advertising sponsorships. What they apparently did not do was change their mindset from continuity and tradition to the new business of representing sponsors for a fee.

Insights

  • This economy presents sudden and intense changes that require flexible agile teams.  Nimble teams win business. Lumbering, slow teams lose. Teams that are intensely focused on procedures — like many customer service and technical support teams – may find themselves in the lumbering category and ill-equipped to deliver superior customer service.  How agile are your customer service and technical support teams? There are ways to become nimble and the time to learn is well before the change. Software development teams are transforming to be more agile: Agility Community Summary.



    Resistance to Change Hurts Customer Service Image:Jorgempf

  • When struggles erupt internally, think long and hard before pretending to the customers that things are progressing normally while projecting confusion. As you string business customers along you are impacting their businesses. They walk away for the sake of their businesses. Are change resistant employees costing you customers, reputation, and revenue?



  • Rebuilding trust after difficulty requires more than one attempt and is not done well through email. Business customers and consumers will take time to trust you again.  When you have broken the trust, talk to the person – don’t write. He mistakenly chose email to communicate rather than the phone. He claimed he emailed to give me time to think.  Yet his second email immediately terminating the relationship disproved that claim. He wanted to be in sole control of rebuilding the trust. He wanted to define the only issues that mattered – price and verbiage in the bulletin. He wanted there to be only one offer.  When I didn’t immediately say “OK”, he severed the sales and service relationship. You can rebuild trust if you share control of those moments with the customer. Prove your value on the issues that matter to the customer not just those important to you.

Customers remember moments. How do you want to be remembered?

Please share your insights about delivering superior customer service during times of change. I welcome your comments below.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, has for 20 years delivered customer service and teamwork training for dynamic teamwork and the ultimate customer experience. See footage of her workshops at KateNasser.com and preview her new customer service and sales training DVD about American regional differences.

The Best Language for Superior Customer Service

Posted in Customer Service, People-Skills, Soft Skills

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?

Best Language for Customer Service Image By:Nancy Wombat

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?

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.

Sales & Customer Service Success: “Get” Your Customers

Posted in Customer Service, Hot Topics and New Bits, intercultural, People-Skills, Soft Skills

As companies try to standardize customer service, customers continue to want just the opposite.   Customers are most comfortable when the sales team, contact center, customer service center, customer care team, or technical support department truly understands them (i.e. “gets them”)!

Think about it.  When you meet someone with whom you share similar mores, accents, cultural beliefs, and outlook, how do you feel? Happier? More trusting? Drawn to them? Witness BP’s action this week to install an American CEO to deal with the crisis in the Gulf. Already we hear comments from the Gulf: “An American in the Gulf intimately understands the real needs of Gulf residents.” Frequently, I am asked to teach customer service/sales to Canadian companies with a large number of American customers. Who better to teach them how to succeed with Americans than an American?

Show Your Customers You Get Them


Comfort and Trust in Similarity

Pundits and critics will debate whether this desire for similarity is good or bad.  Admittedly, when taken to extremes it can lead to groupthink, discrimination, and plagues like racism.  In moderation, it is a positive human desire for bonding and connection. For sales and customer service, showing your customers that you truly understand them produces positive results. Why? It reduces fear, builds trust, and makes interaction much easier. This is a key component. From the customer’s perspective, less to explain means less chance for misunderstanding.


“Get Me” Don’t “Imitate Me”

I am not speaking about the weird attempts of some off-shored call centers to bond with American customers by giving the reps Americanized names.  It was laughable because the strong difference in accents made the names sound very fake.  Rather contact call centers, customer care teams, customer service centers, technical support departments and sales teams with a true understanding of intercultural differences win big.

For example, here in the USA there are vast regional differences across the nation that impact customers’ buying decisions and their expectations in customer service.  Even American based sales and service teams need to learn the regional differences to win over American customers that are from other regions of the USA.


Resources for Intercultural Learning

If you truly want customer loyalty for sales and service, show your customers you “get them”.

  1. You can build intercultural awareness by exposing your reps and sales force to social media streams.
  2. With rare exceptions, the Internet puts worldwide news events at your disposal for learning cultural perspectives and preferences.
  3. Provide intercultural training on that specific country or region. Communicaid Group Ltd and other firms deliver country specific cultural learning for your sales and service success.
  4. If you are doing business with Americans, learn the regional differences in the USA with the DVD “Customer Service USA – What They Expect Coast to Coast & Everywhere in Between”. (Click for preview.)

How else have you learned about cultural differences to show your customers that you “get them”?

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, teaches, consults, speaks, and coaches, on bridging the gap of diversity for success in customer service, teamwork, sales, and leadership. See additional footage about personality differences on this site Http://Katenasser.com

Empathy in Customer Care – Lose Your Fear!

Posted in Customer Service, IT, People-Skills, Soft Skills

Customer care (customer service, help desks, technical support, contact call center) reps,  sometimes struggle with showing empathy to angry customers. Heck, some struggle with showing empathy to any customer!

Throughout 20 years of inspiring and training professionals to understand the customer’s perspective and empathize to build customer loyalty, I have seen some who are naturally good at it, some who learn it, and others who struggle with it.

Most puzzling to me have been those whom I have seen empathizing with customers — except with angry or irate customers. If you or your customer care reps find it difficult to empathize with customers — especially angry or irate customers — is fear of emotion part of the reason?  I believe that it could be. I have met professionals (many not even in customer care) who are afraid to empathize with a colleague, a customer, or even a boss. They have said to me, “What if the person gets more emotional when I empathize?”

Moreover, recent research has taken on the subject of negative emotions and empathy. In one such study, subjects empathized more with those who showed fear than with those who showed anger. Turning Bad Emotions Into Empathy and ProSocial Behavior post reports: “While there is a huge range of human emotion, recent studies have suggested that a fearful facial expression is a more salient elicitor of prosocial behavior than are other facial expressions, such as surprise or anger.”

Empathy - Lose the Fear By:Zaaracollier

Are you more likely to show empathy to a customer who shows you their fear — credit card problems or serious technical difficulties or critical health issues — rather than their anger? Is it because their fear doesn’t frighten you but their anger does?

The issue is critical in customer service, technical support, and customer care because it affects customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Showing empathy to customers, angry or not, builds bonds to your product, service, and brand.

Lose the fear of the customer’s anger to build your empathy skills. Here is a post to help you do exactly that Two Mindsets to Show Empathy for Irate Customers.

What else do you think blocks people’s ability to show empathy? I welcome your comments below.

©2010 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.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, has a Masters in Organizational Psychology and a natural intuition about people. She delivers highly interactive workshops, info-packed webinars, and distance learning DVDs on this and many customer service topics including customer care in technical support.

What’s Your Inspiration to Care for Customers?

Posted in Customer Service, inspiration

Customer care, the true sense of wanting to help customers, is a subject that has intrigued me for many years.   Why do I feel so much inspiration to care for customers?

You might immediately think personality type. Maybe some types are more innately inspired to care for customers. Yet, I am not an amiable on the personality scale.  In fact, I have seen many different personality types working quite well in customer care.

Maturity? I have always felt the inspiration to care even as a teenager with summer jobs.  Money?  Well, summer jobs didn’t pay much. In fact, read the myriad of blog articles that claim CSRs are demotivated because they don’t get paid enough to care.  (I don’t agree with that one.)

Well I have spent much of my professional life inspiring customer service and tech support reps to care for customers. Leader after leader has asked me the same question, “How can we motivate our reps to deliver better customer care?”.   One day, I heard the same question again. This time it hit me that the obstacle the leader faced was not the reps — it was the concept of motivation.

Motivation

The concept of motivation conjures up images of offering comp days if they consistently reach their metrics or scheduling a pizza party if they clear the backlog in the email queue. There is nothing inherently wrong with offering these carrots to accomplish a short term goal. It will not, however, create consistently high quality customer care. The effect of the motivator wears off the same way an advertisement loses its marketing/sales effectiveness over time. It no longer motivates.

Inspiration

On the other hand, inspiration is something deep inside your reps and consistently there. The actual feeling varies in each person. Here is a short list of inspiration points I have tapped in thousands of reps over the years. You will notice a common thread. Inspiration is integral to what makes the individual rep naturally feel good.  What would you add to this list?

  1. Making a difference in the customer’s life that day. To do that, the reps need to be empowered to actually help.   Reading from scripts and having to pass all exceptions to a supervisor is not inspirational.
  2. Seeing how their work contributes to the company and the customer’s success. A director of customer services recently told me that their initial attempt at training reps included a product manager delivering a Powerpoint presentation on the products.  She was in the back of the room and saw the reps disengaging, looking around, swiveling their chairs.   She decided to redo the customer service reps training program and had them actually touching the products, installing them, and so forth.  The results were amazing.  In fact, the results were inspired!
  3. Living what it feels like to be a customer.
  4. Enjoyment and fun. There are people who begin to care about others when they feel good themselves. It doesn’t have to be constant fun — life rarely is. Yet if there is no fun, these reps will not be inspired to give more.
  5. Respect for their individual talents. Perhaps one of the most common inspiration points is people being known and respected for their individual talents — at least in our American culture. In eastern philosophies/cultures, this is not necessarily the case.

©2010 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.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, is an inspirational and activational speaker and trainer in customer service and teamwork. Her years of experience, her natural intuition about people, and passion for people-skills always take your organization to a higher level of performance.  See her video footage on this site.

The Best CSRs Training Crosses Borders – Canada, USA, and More

Posted in Customer Service, Hot Topics and New Bits, People-Skills, Soft Skills

Are your customer service representatives, CSRs and technical support teams, working with customers in other countries? How strong are their intercultural people-skills? Immigrants, ex-pats, and companies doing business in other countries can be far more successful with just a little more attention to intercultural people skills (also known as soft skills). If you want a job, a sale, or a great customer service review, step outside of your own perspective and use an intercultural approach. Customers and employers make decisions from their cultural zone not yours.

Two Examples

Canada and the USA share a common language not culture.

Nick Noorani writes on the blog The Expatriate Mind Nine Soft Skills No Immigrant Should Be Without: “Skilled immigrants often focus on improving technical skills. After coming to Canada, they are shocked when they are told they have no Canadian experience.” Then he cites an example where a courier needing his signature asked him for his John Hancock — an American expression to be sure. Yet the courier was working in Canada!

CSRs outside the USA.

Many USA customer service call centers are now located outside America (some in Canada and some off-shore). How well do the CSRs in Canada and off-shore understand the regional differences across the USA? Adapting to these differences as you speak to American customers distinguishes your customer service from those that don’t adapt. Intercultural adaptation builds customer loyalty.

I have outlined these American regional differences and how to adapt in a new customer service training DVD: Customer Service USA – What They Expect Coast to Coast and Everywhere in Between.

CSRs Offshore Training DVD


You already provide phone and web technology to connect your CSRs and technical support teams with your customers. Turn that connection into a profitable loyal bond with intercultural training. For companies with USA customers, this means adapting to regional differences – North, South, East, West, and everywhere in between. In Canada there are both cultural and regional differences that global companies can learn and embrace to build Canadian customer loyalty.

For companies doing business interculturally, the key to customer loyalty is:
Learn the differences
Respect the differences
Love the differences &
Find the fit!

I welcome your comments, contributions, and feedback below. For information on purchasing the training DVD, please click on the link above.

Please visit this blog again for many other people-skills posts on customer service, teamwork, and intercultural connections.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, is a highly respected soft skills, customer service, and team building trainer. In her new training DVD, she shares 20 years of first hand experience working with customers in every region of the USA. Tap this experience for your company!

The Customer Value Creed

Posted in Customer Service, inspiration, People-Skills

By: Trickybits, Flickr

By: Trickybits, Flickr



Business owners seem to inherently know the value of a customer.  If not, they generally go out of business.  As businesses grow and hire more people, the employees don’t inherently know the value of the customer.

As part of National Customer Service week, I wrote The Customer Value Creed for organizations of all sizes to use as ongoing inspiration for quality customer care.

This creed includes the two winning entries from the customer value contest.  Congratulations and thanks to Kalin Bracken and Joan Koerber-Walker for their winning entries (#12 and #13 below).

The Value of Customers

  1. Customers spark innovation through their demands. Embrace your innovators.
  2. Customers give you an advanced education about people. Respect your “teachers”.
  3. Customers pay for your performance.  Give your best show.
  4. Customers keep your company alive. Feed your blood.
  5. Customers blow your horn. Herald your trumpeters.
  6. Customers are your future Wikipedia. Make many entries.
  7. Customers are your tweeps on Twitter.  Tweet them right.
  8. Customers are your reputation. Protect it.
  9. Customers are gold. Mine for it.
  10. Customers are your greatness. Cherish and nurture it.
  11. Customers are human. Help humankind.
  12. Customers are your muse. Be inspired. ~Kalin Bracken
  13. Customers share their remarks with others. Be remarkable. ~Joan Koerber-Walker

I welcome your additions to the customer value creed in the comments section below.

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

©2009-2012 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.

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

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