Customer Service: Reconnecting with CustomersHoward Lee
No
one likes to be put on hold or to endure high pressure sales tactics.
Even Business owners, who, after all, are also consumers, probably hate
the “hard sell” that is common at many firms. Yet
Companies often don’t let this shared experience inform their own
transactions with customers. This disconnection from the consumer’s
perspective can make for bad service. It doesn’t have to be this way, says Howard Lee, Founder of Hyperquality.com, a Seattle-based consulting firm that assists Company Call Centers in improving their Customer assistance quality. Lee, who has long studied the good and bad of Customer Service, maintains one of the biggest mistakes Customer-Service workers make is to assume what Customers will say before they say it. Erasing assumptions and actually listening to Customer sounds simple enough, but it can lead to clearer communication, says Lee, who has 23 years of experience in the field, with time as CEO of PhotoWorks and as a Senior Vice President of Disney Direct.
Another major problem for businesses is underestimating the cost of poor Customer Service. Consumers
who experience bad service can be deadly to a firm. Making the extra
effort and expense to communicate with Customers, whether by telephone
or some other means can make a major difference for a business. But
when things inevitably do go wrong, there are proven strategies for
soothing the savage Customer beast. Lee stresses that a Company should
acknowledge the problem immediately and asks, “How can we improve our
service?” And, as difficult as it might be, it’s important to “say it
with a smile,” whether the conversation is in person or over the phone. Here
are some examples of the local businesses that Lee cites as doing an
excellent job with customer service. He categorizes their approach in
three distinct styles: •
“Off-the-charts” service—The Herbfarm Restaurant in Woodinville is one
example of a firm that goes above and beyond Customer expectations,
with details that make Guests feel special: “They go out of their way
to delight you with details,” Lee says. “They have your name on a
plate. They make you feel like it’s all about you.” •
Familiar service—this style is employed by many neighborhood Coffee
Shops by creating a cohesive ambiance that extends from décor to the
baristas who know your order by Heart. Seeing a friendly face in a
familiar environment day in and day out, says Lee, builds understanding
between the Serviceperson and the consumer. •
Deep-knowledge service—Businesses that cultivate encyclopedic product
knowledge among their employees can be as comforting as the “familiar
service” style. Swansons Nursery and Sur La Table are two local
companies, says Lee, that do this well. At Dunn Lumber recently, Lee
encountered another example: “I walk in and said, ‘I need to shingle my
garage.’ They asked questions [and] the next thing I knew, I walked out
with everything I needed to do the job.” As
for companies with poor Customer Service, Lee, of course, won’t name
names. But, as a general example, he points to Auto dealerships and the
inevitable Customer discomfort they create. “It’s universal how poorly
that process is managed,” he says. The root of the problem, Lee
explains, comes from the pressure on the Salesperson from management,
with a commission hanging in the balance. That structure shifts the
experience away from buyers. “It isn’t the Salesperson’s personal
process,” says Lee. “It should be about the Customer’s process.” That, at least, is one thing both consumers and business owners can agree on. |
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