A Testament to Good Customer Service

Here’s a customer service success story about Delta Air Lines. Two things of note.

First, I love how the customer responded to his laptop being destroyed. He kept his composure and remained polite and courteous even while insisting on appropriate remedies to his loss.

Importantly, he didn’t yell or exacerbate the situation with hostility.

As we’ve discussed before, good customer service requires both parties to be polite and invested in solutions.

Even when service providers make mistakes, customers should remain civil and gracious to foster a positive relationship, as doing so exponentially increases the chances of a satisfying resolution.

Also, I was amused to see that the story was written by Alex Skolnick, long-time guitar player for the thrash metal band, Testament. Now in his early 40s, Skolick demonstrated great maturity and poise during this episode.

I have to wonder if his reaction would have been the same in 1983 when his band was first starting out.

Admittedly, I remember buying his first record when I was 14 or so, and I guarantee that my reaction to Delta's mistake then would not have been nearly as collaborative as it would be today.

Hope everyone is off to a great 2011!

Wagging the Dog

In a recent post, Ray Sola offered a great observation about the misguided nature of many mystery shopping programs.

Ray is the founder and president of Volition.com, which is “the” mystery shopping community site. It’s completely free and offers incredible resources, especially for mystery shoppers. As such, Ray knows all the ins and outs of this business.

So his remarks carry weight. 

He makes several great points, but I want to focus on an underlying theme:

• Done poorly, mystery shopping actually erodes customer service instead of enhancing it.

There are several reasons why this occurs, but two stand out as particularly ridiculous.  

Frustrated with Success

It sounds impossible but it really happens: management can become frustrated with persistently high scores in certain areas, so they stop rewarding for those behaviors. 

We’ve witnessed this on employee behaviors like making eye contact, smiling, and offering assistance. Typically, a minimum of coaching and sales training can get employees performing these behaviors over 90% of the time.

But as months go by, managers can get impatient and start taking these foundational behaviors for granted. So they’ll reduce the points awarded to these behaviors, or –in the worst cases– stop tracking them altogether.  

Ultimately, the employees learn that these basic requirements of good service are not important to their employer, so service in these areas decreases while they focus on other areas that management deems more important, like up-selling.

(But employees who don’t smile or make good eye contact are not as successful at up-selling!)

Disconnect from Customers

Another huge pitfall that undermines good service occurs when management uses a mystery shopping program to promote behaviors that are not important to customers.

In our recent entry, I discussed a restaurant that emphasized managers visiting every table. So to score maximum points, managers would either perform quick drive-bys of the tables all night, or put a hostess in a manager’s shirt and have her do it.

But focus groups with actual customers who had experienced manager table visits revealed that customers get annoyed by fast, superficial, drive-by table visits.

If a manager visits their table and interrupts their conversation, they want it to be a meaningful interaction.

But too many times, they complained, managers interrupted their meals, asked them if everything was okay, but didn’t even stay long enough to hear their answer.

Such visits are so cursory and perfunctory that customers are actually irritated, not pleased.

If the behaviors evaluated by the shopping program had been driven (and validated) by customer feedback, this error could have been prevented.

But instead, the program was driven by management’s definition of good customer service; not their customers’ definition.

* * * * * * *

Mystery shopping can be a tremendous coaching tool that gives employees first-hand feedback from customers.

But used poorly, the tail can quickly start wagging the dog. And even if scores are improving in the areas that are important to managers, overall service satisfaction may suffer from misplaced priorities.

Want New Customers? Assess Your Service

We could fill a CRM date base with stories about businesses gaining new customers by implementing in-store assessment programs.

It’s a terrific way to get people who might never have heard about (or considered using) your company to visit your locations and try your products and service.

Over the years, we’ve seen evaluators purchase mattresses, join health clubs, and even lease cars.

Yesterday, one of our evaluators visited a bank to assess how well the loan officer handles refinancing inquiries. Here’s what she said afterwards:

• “I thought it was a great experience and I am actually considering refinancing my loan here after this experience.”

Best of all, this type of marketing is far more effective than any billboard, commercial, or radio spot will ever be, because the evaluators haven’t just heard what an ad company wants them to hear.

Instead, they’ve had a genuine, in-depth, face-to-face experience with a company. That’s not marketing; it’s evidence.

And that’s what generates interest, builds loyalty, and lands new customers.

Provide relationships, not information

We have several banking clients, and I’m always surprised by the impersonal, robotic service tellers routinely provide before we start working with them.

All too often, tellers simply hand prospective customers a brochure and wish them well. They clearly suffer a misperception that prospective customers are simply looking for information.

So they hand them the brochure about account options, mention a few rates, and feel like they’ve done a great job.

But people aren’t looking for information;

they’re looking for relationships.

When tellers simply hand out brochures, they are missing prime opportunities to really connect with people and develop the trust and loyalty that lands customers.

People don’t want a brochure listing their options. They want someone to...

• Take an interest in them
• Learn about them, and maybe share something about themselves
• Make an informed, personalized recommendation to help guide them through their options

Because if that’s how the teller treats them, they’ll automatically assume that that is how the entire bank will treat them.

Here are two examples that just came up during our monthly in-branch assessments. Tell me which teller sends a better message about their bank, and which teller is more likely to land a new customer.

Example 1 (bad)

• “Cindy showed me a pamphlet and pointed out five different types of accounts. She did not go over the benefits of each account. She said three accounts had no service fee and required no minimum balance, and that to have a checking account you must have a savings account with a minimum of a $50 balance. She gave me the pamphlet and said to take it and look over it.”

Did you get that? “Here, go read this and come back when you’ve made a decision.” That’s the underlying sales strategy this teller is employing.

And for as awful as it sounds, this is typical for the industry. And many tellers think they’ve done a great job after an interaction like this.

It’s not until you show them what they could have done that they realize the power they have to help their bank land new, loyal customers.

Here’s an example of an interaction with a different teller at the same bank.

Example 2 (good!!!)

• “Ray gave me a lot of information before he ever got a pamphlet. He asked me questions, and we talked for a while. When he finally got the written information, he only used it to reiterate points he had already made. Because he touched on so many aspects of the bank verbally, I believed his knowledge was very good. The associate's attention was focused on assisting me and encouraging me to open an account, and he definitely took his time to talk with me.”

Now THAT’S the kind of customer service that lands a new account and that builds trust and loyalty.

How will we train Cindy to be more like Ray? Easy. By showing her direct comparisons of her customer interactions to Ray’s customer interactions, and working with her to identify the differences and find improvements in her presentation skills.

It’s not that Cindy doesn’t care. It’s simply that she’s been trained in banking, not customer service.

And once we show her the kind of service she can be providing, she will. And her bank will be much stronger for it.

Training from the Inside Out

Ever wish you could clone your 15 best employees?

Stop wishing. There is an effective way to increase your number of awesome service providers, and it doesn’t involve DNA at all.

Check out this great read about encouraging better customer service.

The author makes some outstanding points, but our favorite is #3 (“Champion Your Customer Champions”), as it perfectly mirrors our training philosophy:

“Who creates the best reaction from your customers in your business? Work out what they do, how they do it, what they say and how they say it! Replicate it! Get others to learn from them.”

That’s our training philosophy in a nutshell. Our typical process:

• Evaluate your staff’s performance using our in-house assessment tools
• Interview your customers to get their insights
• Identify your best people and what they do that makes them the best
• Train your staff on these best practices, using your best performers as live examples

Not only does this process improve training tremendously, but it’s a huge boost for morale, as employees LOVE being recognized for excellence.

Please Rate This Question on a Scale of 1 to 5…

Everyone knows that surveying customers is a great source of feedback about your business.

But not as many companies understand the power of surveying their customers about their surveys.

It seems obvious, but is often overlooked. Research departments labor over instructions, question wording, and scales. They hold multiple meetings to discuss flow and answer options.

But they forget that taking a survey is a customer experience, not much different than visiting a web page or viewing a flyer.

The implicit message of a survey is: “This was commissioned by our company and reflects the values of our company.”

So if it’s boring or tedious or poorly crafted, what will that say about your business?

And it’s so simple to know if your surveys are sending the wrong messages…just ask your customers.

A Happier Happy Meal

Consumers have been programmed with customer service expectations for every industry.

With fast food, our expectations are generally low, and so they're easily met when service is impersonal and fast. 

So it's memorable when a fast food employee puts some effort into their service, and these minimal gestures can quickly move satisfaction levels from "met expectations" to "exceeded expectations."

I found this to be true during recent visits to two McDonald’s locations, each within a mile of my house.

One location was as impersonal as I expected it to by, which is fine. But the other location made a few, small gestures that exceeded my expectations.

These visits corroborate many experiences over the years: the second location is simply friendlier and more efficient. More magnetic, you could say.

So which do you think gets the bulk of my business? 

Payment - Location #1

I pulled up to the payment window and the employee spent 20 seconds talking to another employee before opening the window. He said nothing to me at all (no apology for the wait, no “how are you,” etc.) and offered no smile or nod.

He simply took my money and handed me my change. When I thanked him, he said nothing.

Payment - The Magnetic Location

At the payment window, the employee handed me my change, smiled, and said, "You're welcome," after I thanked him.

He was every bit as efficient as the employee at the other location, but it was just a more enjoyable interaction.

Delivery - Location #1

The employee held my bag out the window while his head was turned away from me. He then shut the window before I could even finish saying "Thanks."

Delivery - The Magnetic Location

At the delivery window, the employee handed me my order and said, "Here you go sir. Have a nice evening." I thought that was very polite and something I don't usually get at a fast food establishment.

Efficiency & Accuracy - Location #1

There was one car ahead of me when I arrived, and the entire purchase lasted five minutes. My order was completely accurate.

Efficiency & Accuracy - The Magnetic Location

There were three cars ahead of me when I arrived, and the entire purchase lasted under five minutes. So my experience was more efficient. My order was completely accurate.

Overall - Location #1

At the first location, no one ever spoke to me. The service was as impersonal as fast food usually is.

While this doesn't sound like a great customer service experience, I got what I expected from a fast food restaurant. My food was prepared relatively fast and I had no problems.

Sure, my expectations were low. But this location met them.

Overall - The Magnetic Location

Employees at the magnetic location offered a few, short comments that added no time to my overall experience, and provided a bit of unexpected human contact to what is usually an impersonal transaction.

These small, effortless gestured allowed this location to exceed my expectations and make a very positive overall impression.

When I feel like McDonald’s again, there’s no question that I’ll be going to the magnetic location.

Implications for revenue…

I have minimal expectations of a fast food transaction. Consequently, something as simple as a smile and a "Have a nice evening," took my experience from "met expectations" to Wow!

While both locations satisfied my baseline expectations (quick, efficient service, and an accurately filled order), the second visit really exceeded them and paved the way for more return visits.

Something that simple is going to get that location many more return visits from me. And I bet I’m not the only customer to notice these two McDonald’s, so close in location, are so far apart in customer service.