Customer Recovery Skills

On some occasion, no matter how hard you have tried, the situation with a customer has gone haywire and you must do some recovery. Below are some skills to help you:

1. Thank them. Customers can tell when you are faking it. Be sincere and thank them for taking the time to come to you with this. This a time when tone of voice and body language are all important. Use a tone and express feelings in the same manner as you would if you had been wronged.
2. Take responsibility for fixing the problem. Don't lay blame and don't make excuses, just solve the problem. Many customer-focused organisations have a policy that the associate first hearing of a problem owns it until it is resolved. That may mean getting others involved, doing some research, and then getting back to the customer with an answer.
3. Solve the problem quickly. Customers want a resolution to the problem, and they don't want to wait very long for an answer.
4. Involve the customer. Find out what is most useful to them, not what is easiest for you. Involving the customer is easy to do but is a skill often forgotten in service recovery.
5. Apologised at the end of the inconvenience, the disruption, or whatever the problem has caused. Then very importantly, do something EXTRA. Correcting the problem is not enough. Recognise the 'hassle factor' that your customer experienced. A complementary gift or discount are examples of little extra that don't cost much and make the difference in winning back a lost customer.
6. Follow up. Make sure the customer is satisfied. Follow-up telephone calls are particularly effective.

Dealing effectively with angry patrons is one of the most important challenges you face in retaining and expanding your customer base. 

This is why I have so much passion  for customer service, I love to deal with challenging patrons.  

Customer Righteouness

The customer always thinks he or she is right, and that is all that matters in the customer service business. If we want to keep customers coming back, we must treat that perception as reality.

Most customers are great. They are friendly, understanding and tolerant. They are also knowledgeable, demanding, conscious of the value of their time, and high expectations for quality of products and services. You as a service providers should never take them for granted. They are the ones who make your jobs rich, rewarding, and, hopefully, profitable. On the other hand, even when customers are wrong, you must respect their perception.

Why do customers get angry in the first place? Put yourself in their place. You are, after all, a customer too! What makes you angry or upset? Chances are the same things that press your hot button have the same effect on your customers.

Some reasons why customers get angry in the first place:

1. Customer did not get what was expected- it is just like when you expect a lot of actions scene in a movie but when you watch it, there was only a few. You will feel disappointed cause the movie did not match your expectations.
2. Someone was rude- nothing can make a customer angry more quickly than rudeness. Many times the customer is perceiving, not receiving, rude treatment. Again, it's perception.
3. Someone was indifferent- have you ever asked a question of a service provider and been greeted with, " I don't know, I just work here," or "That's our policy." Words, actions, and attitude of frontline service people frequently communicate a "can't do, can't help you" message to customers. The solution? Make sure your associates feel like a part of the team and give them the authority and support to make a difference with customers.
4. No one listened- when customers are giving feedbacks to your organization, read or listen carefully with empathy, then do something with the feedback.

Most of us are pretty good at dealing with customers when they are rational, reasonable, and logical because we can analyse situations, provide facts, and give information and technical answers.

The 10/5 Rule

One of the more powerful behaviors you can adapt is the 10/5 rule. It's something that has existed in the hospitality industry since the beginning of time, and yet it's surprising that it is not used more fully in all types of organizations.

Whenever you pass someone(employees or customers) within 10 feet of you, it is your responsibility to give this person eye contact and a smile. If you pass within 5 feet of someone, then you offer a personal greeting.

Is this a cultural behavior in your organization? So often I observe organizations with people passing one another, heads angled to the floor, or eyes on the phone, no eye contact or greetings. And yet, we then expect the frontline of the organization to go out and be our face to the customers. How unfair and unrealistic is that expectation? When one embraces an attitude of service, it's lived 360 degrees, and without boundaries as to whether it's internal or external.

Most of us have had the experience in a fine hotel or restaurant where these greetings are standard. Immediately you feel more welcomed, more invited, and more comfortable. When the greeting comes from a housekeeper in the hallway versus the front desk personnel, it's even more noticed because it is less expected. Can you see how this type of simple behavior would make a positive difference? If so- what can you do to begin to install it? The very first step is to lead by example.

Match the customer's speed and style

This strategy may appear unusual. It is extremely useful, however, in gaining rapport and building connection with the customer. If you are serving a customer who is speaking rapidly, when it is your turn to talk, adjust your rate of speech to more or less match his. The same applies if the customer is speaking at a moderate or even a slow pace. You probably will find that you are already doing this subconsciously. If a customer is using a very simple vocabulary, modify yours so he will be able to understand your message. If she is talking to you in academic language, haul out some fifty-cent words yourself. Obviously, you will never get as slow as certain customers or as fast as others, but try and make yourself speak more like them. Take care, however, not to mimic them, especially if you are talking with someone with a foreign accent.

Match your customer in intensity of concern and emotion. Don't get angry with them if they are shouting at you, but modulate your voice to reflect your customer's intensity level. For example, responding to a customer who is obviously upset and angry using a soft tone of voice will not be as effective a saying: " I understand you concern. If this had happened to me, I would be angry too. I am glad you let us know about this so we can fix it." By matching the customer's speed and style, particularly if he is angry, you can gradually bring him down in intensity by first bringing yours back. Try it. It works!

 

Choose your words carefully and avoid jargon

Even though words themselves represent only a small percentage of a message, poorly chosen words can kill communication. One of the biggest problems we observe in this regard is the use of jargon- words and phrases that you and your co-workers understand and use everyday that mean nothing to your customers. Professional people- doctors, attorneys, technical support people, engineers and accountants- are notorious for using jargon.

So avoid jargon and acronyms. I have great respect for people who can explain highly technical products and services such as computers, consumer electronics, advanced manufacturing systems, medicine and law in understanding terms. It's part of the personal touch that helps you build a partnership with your customers.

If you have to use jargon, make sure you define the word or phrase to your customer so that he or she can explain it to someone else later if need be. Here's a tip, regardless of your profession: When dealing with customers, particularly if explaining a policy or answering a question, pretend you are talking to yourself. Then talk to that customer as you would like to be spoken to. It's variation on the Golden Rule.

5 steps to become a better listener

Let's get down to some really basic customer skills- communication. When you think about it, exceptional customer care really means exceptional communication skills- effective listening and clearly articulating your message.

In customer care, the need for effective listening is even more important than  in many other lines of work. It is very difficult to provide assistance to customers until you know what they need or want. Below are the 5 steps:

1. Be ready to listen: requires total focus on the customer at hand, whether in person or on the phone. You need to block out both internal and external noise before starting. This may mean having the computer screen cleared of the last transaction and ready in front of you, or clearing your head and focusing on the person in front of you or on the other end of the phone line. The key is to focus.
2. Ask the right questions: Time is valuable, to both you and your customer. It is important that you do everything possible to ask the right questions and get information needed quickly and accurately. In general, there are 2 types of questions- open-ended and closed-ended. Open-ended questions are phrased in such a way to bring out free-flowing responses revealing wide range of information. They encourage the customer to explain, describe, explore or even elaborate. Closed-ended questions should be used to narrow the discussion and bring out specific, detailed information.
3. Take notes: Taking notes helps you to listen better because you are concentrating more. Listen for key words and phrases and jot them down. Customers tend to be more confident when you start to take notes, it shows them that you will take actin on that situation, moreover, it will also keep irate customers from repeating themselves over and over again.
4. Show you are listening: One of the quickest ways to kill a good conversation is for one of the speakers to lose interest. Eye contact is only one method of showing someone you are listening. It's part of what we call "attentive silence". Head nods, attentive body position, eye contact are all things you can do with face-to-face customers to show interest and encourage them to give you more information. Use attentive words while you are researching information for the customer. By doing this, you keep the customer from talking and bringing up unrelated issues, which may happen if he or she is uncomfortable with the silence. Sound personal and not programmed.  
5. Restate: In order to be an active listener you must be involved in the conversation and make sure you understand, or heard correctly, what the customer was saying. Restating or rephrasing what the customer say in your own words is a kind of human psychology. It will also help you avoid missing information that you may not have heard and allows you and the customer to at least agree on the facts of the situation.

Service is defined by customers

What do customers want in the way of service? It's important for you as a service provider to understand how customers define quality customer care, because it is against these criteria that perceptions are formed and judgements made. There are 6 dimensions to quality customer care:

1) Reliability: remember the 'grandmother rule', be consistent on your service.
2) Responsiveness: tune into your customers' needs and taking action to meet and even exceed those needs- being able to anticipate what a customer wants or needs before they ask.
3) Feeling valued: just as customers are looking for the best value for their money, they also want to feel they are valued by service providers.
4) Empathy: Of all the ingredients to exceptional customer care, empathy is perhaps the most important, yet it is the tool most lacking in the arsenal of service associates. Not only do customers want to feel important, they want to know that you are on their side, that you understand their point of view.
5) Competency: attending to the basics-Does your product or service meet my requirements?
6) Dealing with one person: Don't give them the run around- When customers call, they want to deal with one person. Fixing a situation may involve getting help from other departments, but the responsibility for follow-through and responding to the customer remains with the associate who first learn of the complaint.

It's all about customer experience

Consistently optimising each customer's experience with your organisation is  no small undertaking. There are several critical aspects of your organisation that impact the customer's experience. The customer experience cycle above provides an overview of what is involved.

Customer Understanding
The customer experience begins with the customer. Assessing the customer experience must begin with the understanding of unique customer groups and their related characteristics and behaviours. A customer's experience with you and their perceptions of your organisation, and your ability to implement CRM strategies, will vary depending on who those customers are. Therefore, ongoing data collection efforts should be pursued as a means of populating and maintaining key customer information. Needless to say, this initial customer understanding is the basis for evaluating the customer experience with your organisation.

Customer Purchase Cycle
Once unique customer segments are established and the profiles of each segment are understood, we then come to defining unique purchase cycle.

• The stages of purchase cycle: awareness, decision making, purchase, and consumption
• The length of each cycle: this may vary significantly by customer segment
• The related complexity of each stage: the time taken for decision making varies with the involvement of products
• The indicators of when a customer enters a stage: it's the combination of behaviours and questions asked
• The frequency at which a customer repeats the cycle: it depends on products and services
• The level of resources directed at each stage: the focus and direction of your organisation

Understanding on these purchase cycles is critical in defining and then acting on relevant experiences.

Customer Needs
Each customer has unique needs at each stage of purchase cycle. These needs may relate to information, convenience, efficiency, price, reputation, and many more other issues. It is critical to understand how these needs vary by customer segment, and how these needs change as a customer progresses through purchase cycle. Understanding both organisational and individual needs is critical to furthering a purchase process.

Customer Interaction Opportunities
Finally, all the above needs now is the wide range of customer interaction opportunities. These opportunities are:

• Tied to specific stages of the purchase cycle: your opportunity is to communicate product features and benefits to a customer, providing personalisation and customised service to your customer helps to improve relationship with your customer
• Inbound and outbound: Interactions includes; phone calls, emails, websites, roadshows and events
• Cross-channel and cross-media: Indirectly interactions through information serving environment
• Situation-driven or driven by deeper understanding of customer needs and behaviour: The types or ways customers want promotions to be send to them via.  

The sum total of these interactions- those supported as well as those not supported today- form the customer's experience with your organisation. You may find that this experience is very positive for some of your customer segments, but less positive for others. This could be based on their needs, behaviours, and preferences. Once you realise the extent to which you support and enhance a customer's experience, you can put a game plan in place to adjust your efforts accordingly. Customer satisfaction can foster loyalty; in turn a customer's loyalty forms the basis of a valuable relationship with your organisation.    

Why are complaints good for us?

When things go wrong, customers will complain. That can be good for you and constructive for your organisation. Customer complaints can:

• highlight areas where your systems require updating or improvement
• identify where your procedures are a pain in the neck and need to be revised
• reveal information that is lacking, erroneous or has simply gone out of date
• identify staff who need more training or closer supervision
• help monitor service levels and check consistency between shifts, departments and locations
• get important news straight to the boss's desk
• educate everyone about what customers experience, expect and insist upon receiving
• prevent complacency whether amongst veteran staff or throughout an entire successful organisation
• new problems keep humility high and teammates on their toes

On top of that, complaints also:

• help focus your attention, priorities and budget
• work as a trigger for taking new action, catalysing positive change
• help raise staff morale as changes and improvements are made throughout the organisation
• keep you in touch with emerging trends and changing customer expectations
• present new business opportunities for raising revenue, solving problems and increasing value t customers
• provide competitive intelligence, letting you know what others in your industry are doing that you are not
• indicate which customers are willing to speak up. These people can be invited to participate in customer focus groups, beta-tests and on-site visits
• give you case studies and needed content for your in-house training programs
• provide dynamic feedback for you to publish, with your replies and action steps, inside your company newsletters

Most of all, complaints give you an opportunity to reply, respond and win back customer loyalty. Most upset customers just walk away and complain about you to their friends and colleagues. The few who speak up are giving you another chance! Take it! Accept it! Drive on it! 

How fast is this line moving?

Everyone waits in line. Few people enjoy it. Making a line move quickly is one way to keep your customers happy. Making your line appear to move quickly also makes customers happy.

Managing appearances means managing your customers' perceptions. It takes imagination. And then it takes action.

Here are some proven ways to do it:

• Be sure to have a line, not a mob scene or a crowd. An orderly progression towards the service area gives customers- and service providers- a scene of calm.
• Keep the line narrow. Single file lines move more quickly than two or three abreast.
• Arrest the line so those waiting can see the person currently being served. Watching another customer being served makes your place in line appear closer. When the actual service is out of sight, around the corner or down the stairs, your turn can seem many miles away.
• After each customer is served, use a light, arrow or pleasant chime to announce to everyone 'Next!' This keeps the next person alert (saving time between customers) and gives everyone a regular assurance that the line really is moving.
• Put a time estimate on digital display. Let people know what to expect the minute they join the line.
• Provide information alongside the line to attract the attention of those who are waiting. Hang posters, provide brochures, put reading material where they can reach it. When customers become involved, time files faster.
• Play music in the waiting area. For a young crowd, choose upbeat and energetic tunes. For more mature audience, choose instrumental or classical compositions.
• Put a television or video-screen in clear view for those in line. Choose an appropriate channel for your customer base.
• Hang mirrors along the line if possible. Hanging mirrors allows people in line to eagerly check on their appearance. They get so involved, hey hardly notice the time taken.
• Engage the remaining senses. Play music, display freshly cut flowers, offer something to drink or a selection of sweets.
• When the wait is truly long, send your staff to 'comb the line', interacting with customers in advance. You can answer questions, provide information and thank them for their patience.

So many ways to manage perceptions, just while waiting in line. Any customer perception point can be effectively polished to a positive moment of truth. Pick one now that needs your attention and start trying it in your organisation.

Don't wait! Get started!    

Service Cycle

To build a reputation for UP Your Service!, you must go beyond the momentary one-shot deal. You must cultivate expertise in providing transaction satisfaction, creating reliable relationships and building powerful partnerships into the future. These styles of interaction are all circular in nature. They are characterised by completed service cycle. Each service cycle is a series of interconnected conversations: explore, agree, deliver and assure. not every service provider does a good job in all 4 areas. In fact, most are chronically weak in at least 1.

1. Explore: understand each other, speculate, discover, generate new possibilities and fresh ideas, build awareness and rapport
2. Agree: make clear promises, make beneficial promises and commitments, develop contingency plans, negotiate constructively and establish clear terms and conditions
3. Deliver: do what you promise, execution is the key, dedicate adequate resources, get the job done correctly the first time round and track your agreements
4. Assure: confirm satisfaction, confirm client and partner satisfaction level, find ways to improve for the next time, make sure all parties are fully satisfied with the results, if not explore what needs to be done.

You can depend on this cycle in all aspects in your life, like in a business, planning your wedding, buying of insurance, selling if insurance, buying a new phone or even upgrading of your old computer system.

UP Your Service! Standards

Basic is the bare minimum. Basic is so disappointing.
Expected is just the average. Expected is nothing special.
Desired is what people hope for. Desired is what customers prefer.
Surprising is leading the field! Surprising is something special.
Unbelievable is truly world class! Unbelievable is astonishingly great!

Unbelievable products and services:

• the product is extraordinary, producing results far beyond anything you have experienced in the past
• the product comes with an extra upgrade at no charge, plus a lifetime supply of parts, add-ons and other materials
• the price is an once-in-a-lifetime special

Unbelievable delivery systems

• the product arrives and automatically installs itself while simultaneously upgrading, maintaining and fine-tuning the environment around it
• the delivery team go all the way to produce an exceptional customer experience. They are entertaining and educational, leaving you in a fabulous mood to face the future

Unbelievable service mindsets

• staff regularly exceed all customer expectations. They constantly seek ways to surprise and delight you
• key staff members are dedicated to personally support and manage your relationship with the company. Overtime, they become your friends and confidants. They earn it.

Unbelievable relationships

• the company provides an ongoing value-added service to understand your changing needs and provide you with exceptionally well-suited products
• you are only charged for what produces practical and valuable results

With all the unbelievable actions above, there isn't any risk involve, while your complete is 100% guaranteed.

What it takes for an UP Your Service! Mindset

Below are 6 characteristics to illustrate the UP Your Service! Mindset.

1. Abundant generosity: Generous with your time, expertise, prices, products, mood and manners.

Quote: The more you give, the more you will receive. Life is a replenishing resource.

     2.  Genuine compassion: Whether face-to-face, telephone, or sending out a message, your genuine compassion touches others with care and kind attention.

Quote: Life is not a zero sum game. the kindness you show others is quickly multiplied. Meanness is divided.

     3.  The 'can-do' spirit: Do you approach difficulties with enthusiasm, challenges with interest and commitment?

Quote: CHALLENGE? I love a challenge. What would life be without a challenge?

     4.  Eagerness to learn and grow: DO you have an insatiable appetite to improve as a person, a colleague and UP Your Service! Provider?

Quote: Every waking moment is an opportunity to learn something new. Life offers an unlimited and ongoing education.

     5.  Take personal responsibility: personal responsibility doesn't mean always knowing the answers. Sometimes the responsible thing to do is admit you are in over your head.

Quote: If it's going to be, it's up to me.

     6.  See the world from your customer's point of view: It takes an effort to see the world from another person's point of view.

Quote: Each of us sees a different world. Imagine what variety exists through the eyes of those around you.

Ongoing monitoring of customer satisfaction

The ongoing monitoring of customer satisfaction is an important element in sustaining a service initiative. Action which can be taken includes:

• using CRM techniques to identify most profitable target customers
• using CRM techniques to tailor your offered services
• measuring customer satisfaction on a regular basis
• conducting an annual audit of customer satisfaction
• sending questionnaires to internal as well ass external customers
• undertaking telephone and internet surveys
• visiting customers on a regular basis
• providing a Freephone telephone line for customers to phone in with their comments
• doing the same for staff
• holding focus groups and user panels with customers
• conducting attitude surveys among staff
• improving the time it takes to conduct and feedback results of surveys
• telephoning competitors
• asking customers to identify those areas most in need of improvement and auctioning these improvements
• reviewing the effectiveness of measurement systems on an ongoing basis
• feeding back results to all employees
• conducting an internal audit on employee care
• publishing a league table of results of customer satisfaction surveys
• linking measurement to reward systems
• making awards for the most significant service improvement
• reviewing how results of customer surveys are presented
• taking action as a result of customer feedback
• involving employees in this action
• recognising successes 

Developing role of managers towards customer service

Line managers have an important role to play in coaching and developing their staff to deliver excellence service. This can be achieved by:

• sharing ideas and information with staff and colleagues
• including service criteria in the recruitment and selection processes
• involving customers in the selection of new recruits
• developing and reviewing department action plans
• linking customer satisfaction to performance reviews
• setting up and encouraging problem-solving teams
• sharing progress and ideas on service improvements with customers
• adopting a customer
• making time to be with staff
• measuring supplier performance
• undertaking 360 degrees appraisal
• publicly recognising the service excellence
• issuing questionnaires on the quality of the service the department or function provides
• encouraging visits to customers among staff
• becoming mystery shoppers
• attending external conferences on service quality
• providing feedback from customers to staff
• reporting regularly on departmental or team progress
• facilitating training sessions in customer service
• agreeing specific goals and performance standards with staff
• encouraging creativity and new ideas
• facilitating the setting and revision of standards
• ensuring regular contact between front-line and support staff
• recognising the cost of quality, conformance and non-conformance
• holding informal discussions with staff on the importance of service quality and welcoming and acting on their feedbacks
• setting up a management quality action team, with managers seconded on a rotational basis from all parts of the business
• having managers in the organisation's customer service and complaints department, rather than members of staff
• developing a customer service training package for line managers to use in coaching their staff