Caring in Customer Service

Isn’t it refreshing when you call a company for customer service and they actually care to listen and understand you and treat you like a friend?  You know what I mean.  It’s so rare.

For a customer, the person they are talking to IS the company.  And that single customer service person can make the customer love or hate the entire organization.

Training people on the phone with not only what to say, but how to say it and how to listen is a great investment.  Those people can be a competitive advantage, no matter how good your product or service is or is not.

Try this at the end of a call – 

“Is there anything else I can do for you today?  I have the time.”

Old ideas die hard

A new idea that challenges old ideas can be aggravating. 

The old ideas fight to live; they are not good at dying.

But to make a breakthrough, you’ve got to break something – the old.

Create a school for your team

There is no school to teach your employees how to do what they need to do at your company.

You need to be a school for your employees.

How can you do that?  

Regular morning meetings?  Video training?  A formal academy?

Remove risk to close more sales

When a prospect is shopping your product or service, what risk do they perceive?

That it won’t work?  It won’t be right for them?  It won’t fit?  

How can you take away the risk and make it easy for them to go ahead?

Allow them to return it?  Money-back guarantee?  Try before you buy?

Do you really see people?

This idea is a great one and comes from Brigham Dickson who trains Customer Service Reps to perform at a high level.  There is a difference between noticing people and really seeing them. 

You notice someone is in front of you, or talking to you, but do you really see who they are and the concern or pain or issues inside them?  Can you really connect?  When you do you can respond accordingly and have a profoundly meaningful interaction with them that they will appreciate and remember.

Whether it’s you as a boss working with your team, or your people working with your customers, if they really see people and connect with them more than just on the surface, it can make a huge difference.  

In fact, that kind of connection can be a secret your team pursues to rise to the top.

Assets go where they are appreciated.

Motorcycles.  They wind up in the hands of people who want them, know how to use them and take care of them.

The same is true for businesses.  They wind up in the hands of people who want them and know how to care for them.  If you don’t know what you are doing with a business, you will not have it long.

Buildings, cars, houses….

The same with money.  It winds up in the hands of people who know how to handle money, and out of the hands of people who don’t.  That is to say, out of the hands of people who do dumb things with it, and into the hands of people who do smart things with it.

What do you attract?

Business – solving problems for a profit

Be a great identifier of problems – even the ones your business creates – and figure out how to solve them.

Do it in a way that is as easy, simple and fun as possible and figure out how to make a profit from it.

Be nice to people on the way up

“- They are the same people you meet on the way down.” – Wilson Mizner

Just be a cool awesome amazing and kind person and don’t give anyone a reason to think you are a jerk.

You’ll still run into jerks.  Don’t become one.

Feelings are not facts

When you are feeling down or anxious and think things are bad – they may be.  But just because you feel things are bad doesn’t mean they are.

When you feel this way, you should not make any decisions and go to bed.  You have to sleep before you make any decisions about it.  You can’t let emotions run your business. 

Look at the big picture in the morning.  Do what you can to include all the facts and see all sides of the story.  Then accept it.  Then do what you can and should to make things better.

You are human.  You are emotional. 

Know this, and learn to separate emotions from your leadership.

Feedback on your business

The world is giving you feedback on your business.  If it’s not going how you expected or how you wanted and you take that personally, it can cause suffering. 

But if you are wise, you will see that it’s just feedback on your idea, and what you are providing and how. You’ll take that feedback and make changes to evolve to something the world likes better. 

You understand that people do things for their own reasons and they don’t care about you or your business. So you focus on the value you are giving to customers and their experience of doing business with you.  You adjust and see what results you are getting now.  You shift and tweak again and again – some large moves and some small, until you get the feedback you want.

It’s not personal.  Just feedback.

Take it.