Customer Service in an Instant offers techniques and tips for maintaining customer loyalty, finding new customers, understanding customer concerns, using technology to develop relationships, and developing essential skills for customer service success.
Customer Service in an Instant offers techniques and tips for maintaining customer loyalty, finding new customers, understanding customer concerns, using technology to develop relationships, and developing essential skills for customer service success.
Customer Service In An Instant: 60 Ways to Win Customers and Keep Them Coming Back
160
Customer Service In An Instant: 60 Ways to Win Customers and Keep Them Coming Back
160Paperback
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Overview
Customer Service in an Instant offers techniques and tips for maintaining customer loyalty, finding new customers, understanding customer concerns, using technology to develop relationships, and developing essential skills for customer service success.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781601630131 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Wheel/Weiser |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2008 |
| Series: | In An Instant |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.10(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.30(d) |
About the Author
Karen Leland is a partner in Sterling Consulting Group and co-author of the best-selling book Customer Service for Dummies and Watercooler Wisdom: How Smart People Prosper in the Face of Conflict, Pressure and Change. Her consulting clients include American Express, Roche, Marriott Hotels, and Oracle. She is a frequent guest of the media and has been interviewed by TIME, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal, Women's Day, The Today Show, and Oprah. She lives in San Rafael, California.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Assess Your Working Style
Your customer is a cautious type who craves facts and figures, your boss thrives on challenge and competition, and all you want is for everyone to just get along.
Service superstars understand that success means learning how to work with customers, coworkers, bosses, and vendors — many of whom have a different working style than their own.
Understanding the core working styles (and each one's attitude, approach, and expression) increases your ability to solve customer problems and decreases the amount of time it takes to get there. The place to start is by identifying your own individual working style.
Exercise: How do you see yourself?
Consider each of the following attributes separately and assign a score to each one listed based on the following scale.
0 = Does not describe me at work.
1 = Describes me occasionally at work.
2 = Describes me a fair amount of the time at work.
3 = Describes me most of the time at work.
Keep in mind there are no right answers to these questions, so base your response on how you are today, not how you think you should be or would like to be in the future.
______Achieving (A)
Now count up the total score for each of the letters A, B, C and D and write in your scores below:
My total A score is .______A represents the Power Player.
My total B score is .______B represents the Passionate Persuader.
My total C score is .______C represents the People Pleaser.
My total D score is .______D represent the Problem Solver.
Research in the field of individual styles goes as far back as a Greek medical philosopher in the Roman Empire named Claudius Galen who developed a theory of personality based on the four humors. Since then, many famous researchers, consultants, and psychiatrists (chief among them Carl Jung) have studied and further developed the concept. One thing many agree on is that these styles measure two important aspects of a person's behavior:
1. Assertiveness: This is expressed as confidence in the way you state your opinion, idea, position or claim, and the willingness to be strong and forceful as needed.
2. Emotional Expression: This is expressed as easily and strongly showing a great deal of feeling and emotion.
Each of the four core working styles has a different level of assertiveness and emotional expression.
The Four Core Working Styles
1. The Power Player (your A score): Power Players have a high degree of assertiveness but a lower degree of emotional expression
2. The Passionate Persuader (your B score): Passionate Persuaders have a high degree of both assertiveness and emotional expression
3. The People Pleaser (your C score): People Pleasers have a high degree of emotional expression but a lower degree of assertiveness
4. The Problem Solver (your D score): Problem Solvers have a low degree of both emotional expression and assertiveness.
Your primary working style describes the most common approach you take in dealing with people and situations at work. Although everyone tends to have a smattering of each style within them, usually one or two working styles act as your default position. The style in which you scored the most points is likely to be your primary working style.
If you have two scores that are the same or very close together, you can figure out your more dominant one by reading the specific descriptions for each style later in this book. If you're still stumped then ask a coworker to fill out the questionnaire — they can usually peg you on the spot.
Lastly, don't fall into the trap of thinking that one style is better than another. Everyone expresses him- or herself differently, and each style adds to the diversity of the workplace.
CHAPTER 2
Avoid Negative Filters
Stupid, jerk, lazy, liar, pushy, crazy, and crabby — negative names you call customers in the privacy of your own mind, or occasionally out loud to a coworker.
Negative filters get their start in life when you pin a not-so-nice label on a difficult customer. For example, you might decide that a customer, who keeps asking what seem to be obvious questions, is "stupid."
Having a negative filter is like wearing rose-colored glasses. The difference is that negative filters don't paint a rosy picture, just the opposite; they foster a critical and unhelpful attitude that begins a downward spiral from which it can be hard to recover.
Once you have a negative filter in place, it distorts your perception. Your customer might be the next Einstein, but if you've decided they're "stupid," everything they do and say becomes evidence of how dumb they are.
Consider this conversation between a customer and an associate (with a "stupid" negative filter) at a large, office supply warehouse:
Customer:"Excuse me, I'm looking for a small drafting board."
Associate:"They're on aisle four." A few moments later ...
Customer:"I looked on aisle four and I can't see them."
Associate:(huffing) "Well that's where they are. They're big — Idon't see how you could miss them."
Customer:"Could you show me?"
Associate:"Well, they are definitely there ... okay (begrudgingly),I'll take you there."
Being a professional the associate knows better than to come right out and say, "Hey, lady, you're not too bright, are you?" but the negative filter "stupid" still comes through, loud and clear.
Negative filters click into place when customers behave in a way that reminds you of a particular filter. For example what are some of the specific actions that you associate with a "pushy" filter? They might include: Not following instructions, demanding to see a supervisor, not taking no for an answer, or asking the same question over and over.
Remember there are many reasons why customers act as they do. For example a customer may ask the same question over and over again because:
• Your explanation was unclear.
• They got distracted and stopped listening.
• They didn't like the answer and hoped for a different one.
• Their spouse was sick at home and they were worried.
• Their dog just died.
Regardless, viewing them through a filter, instead of addressing their needs, leads to lost time, wasted energy and increased irritation on both parties parts.
Exercise:
Below is a common negative filter(a few common ones we can't put in print). Take a moment and write down what observable behaviors you would expect to see for this filter.
Negative Filter: Rude
Example: When a customer doesn't listen to what I'm saying.
Look at the behaviors you wrote down and now ask yourself what other reasons there might be for the customer behaving that way:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Example: A customer may not listen to what I am saying because they are upset or concerned.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Inevitably, you will have negative filters about some of your customers, some of the time, but you always have a choice about whether you are going to focus on them. The trick is to avoid getting stuck in Negative Filters and switch to a Service Filter.
CHAPTER 3
Backtrack Key Words
No matter how focused and attentive you are, it's easy to misinterpret what a customer is saying. Backtracking helps reduce the gap between what the customer says and what you hear. By repeating to the customer, in your own words, what they have just said to you, you give them the opportunity to correct anything that you misheard and ensure that you are both on the same page.
For example, the customer gives you a long explanation such as, "I have a variable mortgage and I'm thinking that I might be better off refinancing and switching to a fixed — although the last time I inquired the fixed rates were a lot more expensive."
Rather than repeat back parrot fashion what the customer has just said, backtrack by saying, "So you are wondering whether to switch to a fixed mortgage — if the difference in monthly payments isn't too much?"
Besides backtracking whole phrases, you can also backtrack key words. When customers hear these words repeated, they feel that they are talking to a person who understands them and a more collaborative conversation takes place.
For example, if the customer says, "The last time I called in I was told that there were a handful of viable options available to me. That was a month ago, have rates changed enormously since then?"
Words such as "handful," "viable," "options," and "enormously" all stand out as unique to this customer's way of describing their situation. The service provider can now backtrack some of these keywords by saying to the customer, "Let me look and see what viable options are currently available."
Exercise:
Review each of the following customer statements and list the keywords that you would backtrack if you were talking to this customer.
1. "Whenever I call in to place an order I am put on hold for an inordinate amount of time. Are you short on staff?"
2. "I bought these shoes last week, and they squish my toes. Do you have them half-a-size up?"
3. "Can I get the magazine subscription for a month, on a tentative basis, see if I like the read, and if I don't, cancel it for a reimbursement?"
4. "Can the help desk get this fixed ASAP or am I going to forego the use of my equipment for the rest of the day?"
Answers:
1. In ordinate and short. 2. Squish and half-a-size 3. Tentative, cancel, and Reimbursement. 4. ASAP, Forego, Rest of the day
CHAPTER 4
Be Web Wise
The Web offers a great option to better serve your customers, but, used poorly, can backfire and create distance instead of the closeness you had desired. To ensure that your Website woos without woe:
Make Your Site Easy to Navigate
Customers who get frustrated because they can't navigate your site with ease will leave. The brave new frontier of cyberspace has brought with it the expectation that it should take no longer than a nanosecond to move from page to page.
Confusing, awkwardly designed, and poorly labeled sites are a major cause of customer frustration. You can make your site navigation more customer-friendly by:
• Providing a short description under any links, so that visitors understand to what page they will be connected.
• Placing main navigation buttons together on the page, rather than spreading them out. This makes them easier to find and use.
• Clearly and logically naming the sections of your site, so that they are easy to understand. In addition, highlight the section of the site that is currently being explored, so customers know where they are located.
Offer Alternative Contact Options
A recent trend in Website design is omitting company phone numbers or burying them so deeply that they are impossible to find (the thinking being that email is less expensive than having to answer the phone). But sometimes only a phone call will do, and then the potential of alienating a customer can cost your company dearly. The bottom line is, do business with your customers the way they want to do business with you. This means listing all contact information, including phone, fax, street address, and e-mail on your site.
Provide Speedy Downloads
Most customers start getting antsy if a download takes longer than 10 seconds. If your site provides this type of material, be sure that it doesn't take forever for customers to receive it. The usual suspects for slow downloads are:
• Inadequately compressed photographs and images.
• Animated and overly fussy graphics.
• Over-complicated page layouts and text effects such as an overabundance of drop shadows.
Keep It Simple
It can be tempting to use all the bells and whistles that Web design can provide but doing so looks unprofessional and confusing. Customers like a site that clearly provides the information for which they are looking — without confusing backgrounds, spinning animations, undecipherable fonts, and ugly graphics.
It's always a good idea to have a few users, who are unfamiliar with your site, visit and report back any problems they encounter or ideas for improvement.
Provide FAQs
Many customers who visit your site have questions that you have answered a thousand times before. Offering an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section allows customers to search for an answer from your cataloged list without you having to respond to the same inquiry over and over. FAQs work well as long as you provide alternatives for getting answers to questions not found in the FAQ list.
What's in a Name?
Keep in mind that the first contact your customers have with your company may be your domain name popping up after a Google search. The domain name you choose creates a first impression and can make it easy (or hard) for potential customers to find your company in the first place. The Web Wise know that the most successful domain names are: Easy to remember.
• Easy to understand.
• Relevant to your current business.
• Easy for people to spell and pronounce.
• Not being used by someone else.
• Doesn't resemble, too closely, another company's domain name.
Because buying, creating, and selling domain names has become big business, it's now a bit harder to come up with an original URL or even find one that is available. To pick a winner try the following:
1. Brainstorm key words. What words represent your company name and the product or service you offer? What words represent the values and/or qualities you stand for? What words represent your customers buying criteria?
2. Select key words. After you've filled up a few flip chart pages with potential words ask yourself – how do these words feel? How do they sound? Narrow down the list and pick three to six key words you might build your domain name around.
3. Put it together. Try mixing and matching the words you've chosen into various combinations that may work. Because many domain names are already spoken for, a few tricks to try to make yours more available include:
• Use a name you like and make it plural.
• Add a hyphen.
• Put a word in front of your keyword such as: The, About, My, Get, Find, Your, and so on.
• Place a word behind your keyword such as Place, Shop, Deals, Info, Central, Zone, and so on.
• Add geography by tacking your location onto the front or back of the key words.
4. Pick a domain name that travels well: The proliferation of the Web has made it possible even for small businesses and entrepreneurs to market their wares around the world! While some names work like a charm in the United States, due to cultural differences and translation, these same names may be a disaster in another country.
Just for Good Measure
If you already have a Website up and running and are not getting the response you want, consider the following areas where updates or changes may be needed:
• When compared to your competitors, how does your site hold up?
• Are you currently well positioned in the search engines so that potential clients can easily find you?
• Do you need to freshen up your content to encourage people to come back?
• Is your contact information easily found on your homepage?
• Are you maximizing the use of metatags on all pages?
• Have you included too much information on a page, making it crowded and hard to read?
• Do you provide visitors something for free on you site?
• Can you do something to make your site more interactive?
• Are you collecting the e-mail addresses of your visitors, so that you can contact them?
• Do you have an e-newsletter to which your visitors can subscribe?
• Are all your links currently up and working?
• Do you accept credit cards online, making it easy for customers to buy right away?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Customer Service in an Instant"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Keith Bailey and Karen Leland.
Excerpted by permission of Career Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Dedication,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
Chapter 1. Assess Your Working Style,
Chapter 2. Avoid Negative Filters,
Chapter 3. Backtrack Key Words,
Chapter 4. Be Web Wise,
Chapter 5. Beware of Burnout,
Chapter 6. Bridge the Language Barrier,
Chapter 7. Build a Bridge,
Chapter 8. Choose Your Level of Conversation,
Chapter 9. Conquer Complaining Customers,
Chapter 10. Counter Coworker Conflict,
Chapter 11. Create Customer-Friendly Systems,
Chapter 12. Define Customer Needs,
Chapter 13. Deliver Constructive Criticism,
Chapter 14. Ditch Your Default Response,
Chapter 15. Evaluate Your Service Skills,
Chapter 16. Find and Fix E-mail Mistakes,
Chapter 17. Focus on Essence,
Chapter 18. Gather Feedback,
Chapter 19. Get to Know the People Pleaser,
Chapter 20. Go the Extra Mile,
Chapter 21. Handle Complaints With Care,
Chapter 22. Hire Some Help,
Chapter 23. Improve Your Listening Habits,
Chapter 24. Inspire a Learning Environment,
Chapter 25. Integrate Voicemail Excellence,
Chapter 26. Keep the Service Message Alive,
Chapter 27. Know Your Stress Response,
Chapter 28. Learn the Art of Complaining,
Chapter 29. Locate Your Stress Level,
Chapter 30. Make Your Service Tangible,
Chapter 31. Manage Abusive Customers,
Chapter 32. Master Body Language Basics,
Chapter 33. Navigate a Heated Conversation,
Chapter 34. Open to Feedback,
Chapter 35. Pace Your Way to Better Rapport,
Chapter 36. Pay Attention, Really,
Chapter 37. Play With the Passionate Persuader,
Chapter 38. Practice the Art of the Compliment,
Chapter 39. Provide Empathy,
Chapter 40. Raise Questions,
Chapter 41. Recover From Service Blunders,
Chapter 42. Redefine Your Service,
Chapter 43. Reframe Your Outlook,
Chapter 44. Respect the Power Player,
Chapter 45. Rev Up Your Recognition,
Chapter 46. Say "I," Not "You",
Chapter 47. Say No With Style,
Chapter 48. Set Expectations on the Spot,
Chapter 49. Strengthen Service Habits,
Chapter 50. Style Step,
Chapter 51. Switch Filters,
Chapter 52. Temper Your Telephone Tone,
Chapter 53. Think Through Outsourcing,
Chapter 54. Treat Your Colleagues as Customers,
Chapter 55. Tune Up Your Telephone Etiquette,
Chapter 56. Turn Service Into Sales,
Chapter 57. Understand the Problem Solver,
Chapter 58. Upgrade Your Influence,
Chapter 59. Walk Your Talk,
Chapter 60. Work Out a Working Styles Profile,
Conclusion,
About the Authors,
About Sterling Consulting Group,