Webinar: How 2 Give GR8 #CustomerService & Have Your Followers 'Like' You in All Social Channels

Customers are increasingly turning to social media to air their service issues – especially when they feel companies could give a tweet about them through other channels. In the process, your service reputation is now out in the open for everyone to see. But some companies are leading the charge to use services like Twitter, Facebook, and virtual communities to brand their 21st century service identity.

This webinar will show you how to leverage social media for better service if you’re new to it, and how to sharpen your virtual service image if you’re an old pro. Topics we’ll cover include:

• Why your service is going public and going viral: a look at today’s digital consumer
• Social media service success stories: Comcast, Southwest Airlines, Zappos, and more
• Understanding virtual service channels:
  • Twitter: A public dialogue that takes place in real time
  • Facebook: Building a community around your brand
  • Virtual communities: Communications channel or feeding frenzy
  • The blogosphere: Everyone has a soapbox
• Do’s and don’ts: How to communicate effectively in a cyber service world

A copy of this presentation is available in our SlideShare profile.

If you missed the webinar, the recorded version will be available soon. Share your thoughts and continue the discussion here.

Webinar: Why Customer Service is NOT Enough

The webinar “Why Customer Service is NOT Enough” was attended by hundreds of customer service and support professionals who submitted numerous questions during the webinar. Due to the time constraints of the event, Lisa was unable to answer all of the great questions submitted; however she has been gracious enough with her time to answer each one within our blog.

Whether you attended the webinar or not, you may find that the answers to these questions may also help you understand some of the strategies for improving the customer experience.

If you did not attend the webinar, we invite you to watch it now. Share your thoughts and continue the discussion here.

What about organizations who don’t really need to be on the phone all the time? We have an email to phone ratio of about 80:20. We only get on the phone if the issue is complex or critical, and needs personal explanation. We schedule calls with customers, and then get on the phone.

It sounds like your approach is a good one. Make certain your email responses are timely, within 4 hours is considered fast. Go back and check the content of the responses – eliminate jargon, write in complete sentences, be respectful and conversational. When on the scheduled call, have the “right” person on the call. Make certain that person is prepared and calls when promised and buy the Employees lunch…pizza, etc.  This would give the leaders a chance to visit with the Employees of the locations.

-Lisa

Customer service strategies should be implemented throughout the org. How can we sell the value to management so they participate in training and are a Champion? You have a great approach, fab stories and new ideas. Thank you! -Carol Davis, Inspiring More

Management typically responds to data. Your best sales strategy may be via data and best practices from other companies. Give them examples of management involvement in training as well as championing efforts. Invite management to listen in on calls or supply them with a link to listen in. Make it easy for them – download calls on to an iPod. Also create a role for them in training classes. Have them talk about purpose and the service culture.

-Lisa

What in an organizational culture reinforces a customer service mentality? Especially when you can’t give pay increases…..

How you treat people is important when no pay increases are available. Consider these options – Compliment their service efforts and do not take them for granted. Keep customer service on the agenda at team meetings so they realize how important their role is for the organization. Ask for their improvement ideas. Find ways to celebrate them with some fun rewards like food, movie tickets, gift cards etc.  Also be direct about the limited pay. Not acknowledging this issue will only lead to frustration and turnover.

-Lisa

I heard what you said about a businessman being a consumer but do you think B2B Customer Service needs to be a different level?

B2B customer service does need to be different yet many of the same elements must exist. B2B requires a closer relationship and possibly have a team “assigned” to the customer. The service should be more proactive. With a close relationship, you should be anticipating needs and working to meet them via conversations.

-Lisa

Don’t you find that the simplest things often make the biggest differences? -Vess

The simplest things can make a huge difference. You heard me say that the best get better by focusing on the fundamentals and the basics.

-Lisa

Why did you continue to use Delta Airlines when the service was so bad? -Michael

Good question – it is a pretty simple answer. I fly out of Atlanta where Delta is headquartered. They have the most direct flights going where I need to go. Luckily, they have flashes of improved service so it keeps me hopeful!

-Lisa

How do you effectively route customer questions to networking sites and other media such as text messages and Web chat from call centers while keeping the same enthusiasm?

Go ahead and answer the issue. Once you have taken care of them, educate on other ways to access answers in the future. Give them the “bonus” to using that method next time, i.e. time saving, convenience, 24/7.
-Lisa

When working in a tech support call center, we are looking to ‘reduce’ the number of people calling in to reduce cost. Is there a way to reduce calls and still maintain great customer service?

Consider technology; there are many customer service software suites available that can arm your organization with multiple channels of support in addition to phone. Self-service options such as a knowledgebase and downloads, online ticket submission and even chat for live assistance. Customer’s today want choices for their preferred method of support. Of course we recommend Parature Customer Service software to:

• Reduce support requests, issue resolution times & repetitive inquiries
• Raise the productivity of customer service representatives and reduce volume
• Improve your overall level of service & satisfaction increasing customer retention & loyalty

To learn more about the value of providing customers with choices for their preferred method of support, we invite you to read our free white paper entitled Multi-Channel Service: Enhancing the Customer Experience.

-Parature

We have a supervisor who is constantly late, absent but very good in using our system which is Five9. What should we do with her?

First the obvious question, does she know her tardiness and absenteeism are problems? Have you asked for a change, offered consequences and given her timelines for the change to occur? Too often we don’t do the basics. Stop ignoring this behavior. I don’t care if she if that good at your system. I bet someone reading this may be equally competent and would like that job.

-Lisa

Could you give some examples of how companies are moving toward valuing Customer Service as vital to their business revenue rather than a just a cost?

Pick up the books by Frederick Reichheld. His latest is “The Ultimate Question”. He is the expert on loyalty and provides great company examples on the value of loyalty. Reichheld was one of the first to put metrics to retention. Zappos is a company that definitely knows customer service is vital to business revenue.

-Lisa

How do you put metrics around customer loyalty and retention?

See answer above.

What do you think is the single greatest mistake organizations make that derails their customer service improvement aspirations?

Customer service is seen as a cost not vital to their success. There are many others – such as jumping from one service initiative to another, single minded focus on the shareholder, no one really owns the data and champions the efforts. Most organizations know what to do but execution seems to elude them.

-Lisa

Do I need to praise my boss? Is that needed to be done?

I love this question – go ahead and praise your boss if it is deserved. We all love praise when it is sincere and specific. Do it out of honesty and respect. Don’t do it if you are hoping it will get you praise in return.

-Lisa

How do you implement this philosophy with internal customers (a.k.a. fellow employees/captive customers)?

This is a culture issue. Make it clear from day one that how we treat each other is part of “the customer service philosophy” of the organization. If we do not serve well our internal team, then it is tough for them to serve the external customer.

-Lisa

What do you do if the front line CSRs are giving excellent customer service and other departments of the organization don’t provide the same and the front line has to make up for their inadequacies (lack of service.)

Start documenting the actions and then the costs of how other department’s inadequacies affect the bottom line. Is your team recovering in a way to costs the organization – free shipping, credits, discounts etc? Put those cost together and present to the leaders. Costs will get attention. Invite other departments to sit in on calls. Ask for their ideas on how to they can work together more effectively. For example, the IT team may need to “see” it from your view however you must be willing to understand their issues also.

-Lisa

What is a good way (in fact a best way) to handle the disconnect between the customer service professionals and their IT requests when IT team does not get back to their requests on time – Sasha

See answer above.

How do you keep the positive, energized team when they feel overworked and you can’t hire additional manpower even though they really need it?

Same answer as to a previous question.
How you treat people is important when no pay increases are available. Consider these options – Compliment their service efforts and do not take them for granted. Keep customer service on the agenda at team meetings so they realize how important their role is for the organization. Ask for their improvement ideas. Find ways to celebrate them with some fun rewards like food, movie tickets, gift cards etc.  Also be direct about the limited pay. Not acknowledging this issue will only lead to frustration and turnover.
-Lisa

The estimator at one of our largest customers (Customer “A”) willingly admits that we are his supplier of choice, and provide the best service and take the best care of his product. However, if he receives a lower quote for another supplier, he feels it unethical to call and ask if we have any room on our price, and will award the job to our competitor. He does not go out for lunch… we have a very friendly relationship, yet he has a wall up when it comes to discussing how we may get more of his business. How do we build our relationship to that higher level?

Sounds like quite an interesting customer. I am glad to hear you have a friendly relationship. Your best bet is to simply continue to encourage a two way conversation. Let him know how important his business is and how happy you are to be the supplier of choice. Then don’t be shy about approaching this issue. Your honesty about wanting him to call and your willingness and desire to work with him may play into his ethics. You are being ethical with your honesty, respect, delivering as promised and responsiveness. I wish you the best with this one!

-Lisa

How do you handle a situation when you did not receive sufficient training?

Start to track the issues and questions where you feel your training and knowledge is lacking. Then ask for help from the team leader or appropriate person. Look for resources that might be online or on a shelf around your department. There may be some soft skills training DVDs available if that is your need. My DVD series, How to Give Exceptional Customer Service, is used by many for ideas on handling customer situations. It can be found at www.lisaford.com. Another idea may be to find a more experienced person who is willing to mentor and help you.

-Lisa

I work for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) organization, are there different ways of measuring customer loyalty besides focus groups? 2. Would you recommend a feedback link on the webpage?

I certainly recommend a feedback link on the webpage. Make certain someone is assigned to tracking the feedback. Only ask for information if you are willing to act on it. You can also use some of the surveys available such as surveymonkey.com and polldaddy.com. The one question I recommend asking is – If there is one thing we could do to improve our service, that one thing would be….?

-Lisa

Good customer service telephone habits?

Here is a laundry list – a short greeting, enunciate the greeting, avoid jargon, keep hold times brief when checking information, always thank the customer for waiting/holding, when transferring do a warm hand off if possible (get the other person on the line), use a tone of voice that is appropriate and respectful. The key is when the call is over did the customer feel served or processed?

-Lisa

Bad telephone habits to avoid?

Bad habits are when the greeting is so rushed and difficult to understand, poor listening so the customer must repeat themselves, transfers to voicemail, too much time with silence while the rep is checking on the answers and employees who lack knowledge or have an attitude.

-Lisa

Our agents are all home based so how do we keep then motivated and excited when their work load is very high with little time for breaks?

Ask for their ideas. You may want to create a forum for them to discuss their issues. They need community and a chance to feel a part of something. Then start thinking about how you can surprise them with some perks. I do believe small stuff works – send them a gift card, iTunes card, food, movie tickets.

-Lisa

I am wondering how Southwest came to be considered a standard for customer service excellence when they seem to randomly apply rules and regulations for customers of size. I have heard they have no standard for enforcing this “size” policy and that it varies according to agent. This seems a rather discriminatory policy to me, and a terrible customer service experience.

I do agree that consistency needs to be applied on the issue you mention here. However Southwest has been able to be a service star in many ways. Some of their strength has been in allowing employees to be empowered and use their judgment on behalf of the airline while balancing the needs of the customer. They also shine due to how they treat the employees. It does show in how employees create a fun service experience and help each other out. On the customer of size issue, I bet they are the first to admit that there is plenty of room for improving that process. The best organizations know every service can be tweaked and fixed.

-Lisa

For more information on Lisa Ford, please visit www.lisaford.com
Check out Lisa’s Customer Service Blog
To check speaking availability and fees, you can contact 760.603.8110 – Speakers Office
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Webinar: Why Customer Service is NOT Enough

Today’s customers want an experience that engages them and gives them a reason to remain connected to you. Their mindset is one that is fickle, demanding, vocal and not very loyal.

In this webinar, customer service expert, Lisa Ford outlines her strategies for improving the customer experience.

• Go beyond average service to a relationship
• Ask tough questions to examine the quality of your experience
• Learn the customer connection rules
• Focus the culture on everyday service excellence
• Create a team that is inspired to keep customers loyal

A copy of this presentation is available in our SlideShare profile.

If you missed the webinar, the recorded version is available here. Share your thoughts and continue the discussion here.

Moving the Needle on Customer Satisfaction Ratings

More than once during my management career, I have been involved in successfully “turning around” customer satisfaction levels in customer contact centers. It isn’t an accident, nor is it just the result of hard work – it is a reproducible process that has more science behind it than you might think. Here are what I feel are the four keys to changing customer satisfaction levels.

1. Move from smile training to skills training
   The phrase “customer service training” has nearly half a million hits on Google. But many of these involve attitude-based “smile training.” In my experience – and more important, according to research – you need customer skills training targeted to specific contact center scenarios. So instead of hiring a motivational speaker to teach courtesy, teach people skills like active listening, defusing anger, delivering bad news, and managing customer expectations. More important, follow service leaders like FedEx and Southwest Airlines  and use role-playing for the most common scenarios in your organization.

   This is one area where your customer service software can help you drive your customer sat ratings. Mine your system for common training scenarios, and then use it to correlate training outcomes with service metrics. In time, your goal should be to make organizationally-specific skills development part of your orientation, your in-service training, and ultimately your culture.

2. Move from deficit-based coaching to strength-based coaching
   Most of us practice deficit-based coaching with our teams: in other words, we find something wrong and try to correct it. But this is precisely the wrong approach to use in a high-stress job like customer contact. In my experience, improved customer sat goes hand-in-hand with creating a blame-free, criticism-free environment centered around learning. Here are the basics of strength-based coaching:
   • Start in a safe place. For example, change “you did this wrong” to “walk me through how you handle this situation”
   • Ask good questions and take a learning posture
   • Understand mistakes and turn them into learning opportunities
   • Troubleshoot facts instead of criticizing performance
   • Speak from the agent’s incentive: more confidence, more skills, greater leadership

   Ultimately, your goal is to move from a stance of “You did X wrong” to “Here’s how to be great at this.” Agents often feel they lack control and are over-measured, so they resist and reject criticism. As a result, coaching works best as part of a broader career development and personal growth process.

3. Measure (and react to) the right things
   The quickest way to ruin performance is by measuring the wrong things. If you demand short calls, for example, then you will certainly get short calls – along with higher turnover and lower customer sat.  The right measures motivate people, while the wrong ones demoralize them.

   Think about what metrics directly benefit customers and the bottom line. I recommend publicizing primary metrics like customer sat and revenues, but keeping secondary metrics (like average handle time, time in seat, first call resolution, etc.) close to the vest – use them to coach people who stray far from your norms, and let everyone else feel they are doing great.

   Above all, think hard about the unintended consequences of your metrics. When you have 12 different performance criteria and a high bar for each of them, you create an environment where people feel they are never good enough and are constantly being pushed in the back. Instead, leverage your own metrics as a strategic tool that bolsters performance AND motivation.

4. Create a culture of leadership and responsibility at the cubicle level
   Look critically at the title and responsibility pool of your agent base: leading organizations put more responsibility and authority at the front line level. When people on your team go from being faceless customer support agents to being training coordinators, team leaders, and subject matter experts, their own motivation and leadership will drive your customer sat. Look at areas like peer coaching, a team-based hiring process, and greater industry visibility in your in-service training.

   By employing techniques like these, you can turn customer sat from something you want into something you plan for – and the results will have a dramatic impact on your morale, turnover, and profitability as well as the obvious benefit of happy customers. Best of success!

Rich Gallagher is a communications skills expert, author, and former help desk executive. His book What to Say to a Porcupine: 20 Humorous Tales that Get to the Heart of Excellent Customer Service (AMACOM, 2008) was a national #1 customer service and business humor bestseller that was a finalist for the 2008 Business Book Awards, and his latest book How to Tell Anyone Anything (AMACOM, 2009) explores the mechanics of difficult workplace conversations. Visit Rich online at www.pointofcontactgroup.com

Parature Day with "I Wear Your Shirt"

This blog was originally posted by “I Wear Your Shirt” Thanks to our friends Jason and Evan! Great videos guys!

Good customer service is the best marketing you can do. Parature offers software for customer service including customer support help desk software, knowledge base, case management, and trouble ticket helpdesk software. So what does that mean?

Parature gives your company the ability to reduce the cost of supporting your customers through software and support. Their on-demand software is custom tailored to your website and your customers will never know the difference. Join companies and organizations like Citrix, Rosetta Stone, IGN.com, Colorado State and many more that use Parature’s software.

You can also follow @Parature on Twitter,  like Parature on Facebook,  and see how Parature integrates with Facebook. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Photos | View All Video Clip | Watch on YouTube | View All Live Video | Watch on UStream | View All

Photos | View All Video Clip | Watch on YouTube | View All Live Video | Watch on UStream | View All

Determining the 'chatters' on your support team

If you use chat as a support channel, should everyone on the customer support team engage in chats with customers, or just a designated set of agents? That was one of the questions raised at last month’s ParaFest, with varying opinions. While there’s little doubt that live chat can add both an additional level of service and credibility to the overall customer experience, is it best handled by a designated set of agents most skilled in live online conversation? Should it be used for both sales and service? Forrester’s most recent research indicates that live chat is the most preferred communications method when a visitor is having trouble finding an item or experiencing an error on your Web site, for example. Tammy Woodruff from Coremetrics says their specialized best practice team handles chat exclusively. What about your organization? How do you make the call?

Measuring 'Customer Happiness Index' One Step at a Time

Jon Landau is Director of Customer Engagement for huddle.net, a highly popular online SaaS collaboration platform growing by leaps and bounds.  (BusinessWeek has even said huddle.net ‘may be the next Google’!) When Jon spoke at this month’s ParaFest, he’s not shy about the ambitious plans he has for huddle.net. Simply, Jon is out to make huddle.net the first in the biz to deliver what he calls ‘enterprise level delight’.  In a nutshell, Jon wants to take the highly successful, customer-centric Zappos model to B2B. In fact, huddle.net folks talk about customer satisfaction in terms of ‘chi’ – ‘customer happiness index.’

To measure ‘chi’, they’re doing a lot of the right things right: with just one support agent, they’ve got an impressive 95% self service rate today. And they’re looking to deliver 98% self service from the support portal. So naturally the quality of the knowledgebase is a top priority. For Jon, providing “outstanding self-service material” means not only is the content up to date; it goes beyond text to include screen shots, video, tutorials to appeal to varying customer preferences. Regular ongoing surveys help ensure the knowledgebase is doing its job.

They also have a pretty innovative approach to account management. Account managers carry no up-sell targets; their focus is squarely on giving customers a great ROI and keeping renewal rates – and the ‘chi’ – up.

Huddle.net has different SLAs (e.g. free users = automated only; web = 24 hr response to tickets; enterprise = five hour ticket response). John uses the Parature support portal as the first point of contact for all users across the board, both from the main website and from within the application itself.

What do you think? What does it take to deliver ‘enterprise level delight’ to a business audience?

Watch: How Southwest Airlines Built a Culture of Customer Loyalty

The webinar “How Southwest Airlines Built a Culture of Customer Loyalty” was attended by hundreds of customer service and support professionals who submitted numerous questions during the webinar. Due to the time constraints of the event, Lorraine was unable to answer all of the great questions submitted; however he has been gracious enough with her time to answer each one within our blog.

Whether you attended the webinar or not, you may find that the answers to these questions may also help you build a culture of customer loyalty.

If you did not attend the webinar, we invite you to watch it now. Share your thoughts and continue the discussion here.

How did you communicate ideas to your employees?

We had an extensive communication network at Southwest Airlines.  Here are some of the processes we put into place:

• We mailed letters to Employees’ homes (information, commendations, etc).  We felt they would have a greater chance of not only reading it but sharing it with their families as well.
• We had a monthly Employee newsletter called “LUV LINES” which we published in color.  It had a fun look to it, full of pictures, company news, events, commendations, contests, etc.
• We published a weekly update and printed it for employees with no access to company computers.  We also ran it as a front page of our internal Employee (SWA Daily) website the day it came out.
• We held yearly “Messages to the Field” in our top 5 locations.  These were events held in giant auditoriums and Employees would get a message delivered by Herb giving them the direction for the year.
• Leaders from Headquarters were dispatched to every location once a year to visit employees in the break rooms, deliver updated company news and buy the Employees lunch…pizza, etc.  This would give the leaders a chance to visit with the Employees of the locations.
• We put reader boards up in the flight attendant and pilot lounges to ensure they would get the latest company information as they checked in for their flight or waited between flights.
• We sent out mailings with Employees’ paychecks.

-Lorraine

What made you think of having an internal mission statement? How could our company come up with one?

This goes hand-in-hand with the two Customer concept. An effective way to start creating an internal mission statement is to hold focus groups with employees from all different departments and ask them what they would like to see in that mission statement.  Then appoint a committee of employees to put one together.  Use your internal trainers (facilitators) to lead the focus groups and be involved on your committee.  If you need any professional outside help with graphics, messaging, etc. perhaps use your local advertising agency or internal communications group if you have one. You could also do an internal Employee contest to come up with the mission statement…make it short, fun, sweet and to the point.  Hype it up; give it a lot of buzz…
-Lorraine

How do you motivate someone that is on the edge of being disengaged, but is still doing the absolute minimum?

Assuming you value that person and want to keep them:

First thing I would suggest is to find out why this person is de-motivated.  Is it company or personal issues?  Have you had issues in the past with this person?  Is there a history of performance issues?
Once you get that person’s feedback (and the meeting should not feel like an inquisition, rather a concerned leader wanting to truly understand that person’s state of mind) start rebuilding the trust. During the conversation don’t just concentrate on the negatives, but point out some positive behaviors/actions this person has exhibited.

Leader could try weekly coaching (read book Greater than Yourself) and make that person feel valued because you are investing time and effort in them.  Monitor progress…if no progress, then don’t waste any more of their time or yours.

If appropriate, find a small project for them to be in charge of and give them the empowerment to complete project.
-Lorraine

After hiring right employees with right attitude and everything – how does Southwest measure customer loyalty?

Internal:  turnover and morale of group.
External:  One of the metrics that Southwest operates under is Customer complaints to Customer compliments. These numbers were shared with all departments. Contests were put into place to motivate better performance, or consequences put in place to correct problems.

Southwest had an open door policy with not only their Employees, but Customers as well. Thus, calls from Customers were always handled in an expeditious manner. A compilation of good Customer letters was put together monthly and shared with all Leaders who would in turn share them with Employees.  Southwest would monitor the status of our frequent fliers and if someone showed little to no activity, a phone call would be generated to find out why.
-Lorraine

White Paper: Lessons in Loyalty: How Southwest Airlines Does It - An Insider's Point of View

Southwest Airlines recognized long ago that they were in the Customer service industry, they just happened to fly airplanes. Subsequently, they built and maintain one of the most faithful Customer bases in existence today.

Parature is pleased to offer you this free white paper entitled Lessons in Loyalty: How Southwest Airlines Does It – An Insider’s Point of View

Phenomenally successful Southwest Airlines is renowned for its stellar Customer service. Their continual dedication to achieving the highest level of Customer service led them to:

• Always capitalize the “C” in Customers to emphasize their importance
• Imbed each employee paycheck with a reminder message that their “Customers were responsible for providing this paycheck”
• Design a hiring system to attract and retain “Warrior Spirits” with innate Customer service skills
• Implement a recognition system and invite the external Customer to help recognize employees
• Utilize fun as a strategy to find the kid in everyone

Read this white paper to discover the principles and practices that, when implemented correctly, will boost the level of Customer loyalty in your organization, ultimately positioning your company as a leader in your industry and giving you a tremendous competitive advantage.

Quick Tips from Organizations that Have Brought Customers to the Forefront

Earlier this month at ParaFest, the panel was asked to give one parting tip. Both Tammy and Jon focused on the knowledgebase. Tammy advised using the knowledgebase to create a valuable internal resource for your own team. Jon said don’t underestimate the power of integrating video, screen shots, and tutorials into the knowledgebase to account for different preferences. Doug stressed the importance of continually evaluating your system: touch base with your CRSs regularly to get a reality check on your configurations. Along those lines, Scott stressed the importance of planning and talking to your team before implementing anything new. Hugh also stressed the importance of planning – for instance, looking at keywords for Facebook carefully when deciding what to monitor.

Please share your quick tips on what your organization does or that you think organizations should do to differentiate their customer support.