Customer Service (And Life In General) Will Always Fall Short Until...
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aSmili...@googlemail.com
Nov 21, 2007, 8:58:25 AM11/21/07
to aSmilingWorld(R)
Customer Service (And Life In General) Will Always Fall Short Until...
...We get people teaching the
right methods.
To settle the nerves of those involved in customer service training
may I qualify this (as follows) and then I will move on to the facts
that I hope will help all people in training, in customer service and
life in general...
Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants Bill... how do you know and what makes you such
an expert?
Well, I am only offering a humble opinion but one that was proved when
I turned a FTSE 100's operation around to increase gross profit by
26.8% (in fewer than 10 months) strictly by the right approach to
customer service (and people). Has anyone teaching so called
'customer service' done that or better? If so, great! But, it is a
big win in anyone's books!
Hopefully, from the above, the people who feel threatened will now see
that I might have the experience and success to make some valid points
here.
Good customer service should be the easiest part of business to
accomplish. After all we are all customers and we are all sales
persons it is a necessity of life to buy and sell. So how does it all
go so horribly wrong? Is it apathy, people, methods, companies,
schools, you or me?
In a word - ALL! But
not the way you think!
Most everyone that I have met who have higher levels of success and/or
worldliness agrees that most things work on an 80/20 rule (roughly).
So, bearing with me a moment, let's assume we had to assign the
problem into the 80/20 rule. Where would you put the bulk of the
problem? (My) Reality is that only 20 percent of the problem is the
things I listed above except 'you & me' and therein lays 80% of the
problem.
So, let's step out of the 'big brother mentality' world that surrounds
us and go back in time to the days of people taking responsibility.
If it is you and me how do we change the model so that it will
succeed? How can we be responsible?
First, we kill apathy by setting the standard of non-acceptance of
poor service...
BUT in a
positive way!
I recently had some (business type) cards printed that merely say
Thank You for the great customer service. When I hand them to a
person they beam with a big smile and show their work mates. Don't
you think this will help drive others to see a possible reward to
giving good service? Sometimes, if the place is known for really poor
service, and has that one 'bright star' I'll also give them a five or
ten pound note as well.
If you are a cynic, I am sorry that is your world because this does
work for positive change. Further, if service is terrible, we need to
kindly speak up with something like "I can tell you are having a rough
day, I hope it gets better because you are a customer just like I am
and I wish you happier times and good service wherever you go". Even
if you get a smart remark back, it still went into their brain.
Another key point here is that managers can not accept customers
mistreating staff. If a company can not run off a bully customer and
protect their staff they deserve to go broke and we should all avoid
trading with those companies until they clean up their act. Remember,
money talks (very loudly). Our trade is money!
Secondly, when we (aSmilingWorld(R)) are teaching customer service to
stores and companies we help them understand that telling people to
smile, say hello and say goodbye is not what a customer has go to
their heart... it is plastic, forced and failed....
Companies must be taught that to give customer service you must
address the individual employee's needs and you must understand in a
transaction the customer, the server and the manager are a team - all
equal! Companies need to read and live by the book "The No Asshole
Rule" by Robert Sutton (ISBN 978-1-84744-000-6). This is a complex
area and if response is good to this blog I will elaborate more on how
I teach this in a future blog.
Also, we need to teach companies how to share true personal
development and focus with their employees. If a company ditched the
HR model of developing an employee (to fit the company's needs) and
developed the employee to achieve their full potential as a person,
80% would stay and become great leaders in that company and the ones
that left would total no more than the number that would have left
anyway. The difference is the one's who wanted to help the company
would stay rather than being a large part of the 'leavers'.
This means that instead of accepting a company saying, 'We offer our
employees internet training...' etc., etc., we teach them to offer the
courses and books that develop a person from the inside outward, help
the company teach their employees how to find their mission in life
and help them see where a link is to something in that company that
fulfils that mission. As it is today huge numbers of people hate
their jobs and productivity (in that frame of mind) is shameful... What
is more, customer service is on the floor in shambles. Most people can
fulfil their dreams and desires in a company structure when the
company is based on a 'sorts by others' attitude toward their
employees.
I just returned to the UK from the USA and while some believe that
customer service is good there because the customers carry guns;
reality is it is slipping there, too! However, it is still far better
due simply due to the fact that customers, trainers and people in
general are speaking out - right or wrong, they are taking action!
It starts with you and me -
What would the world be
in a year if:
Every single person set out to do (and did) one kind thing every
single day!
Every single person set out to do (and did) one thing to help make
customer service better!
Every single person set out to do (and did) one thing
to help companies understand that many of today's HR models are
counter-productive.
It would be an amazingly different world for the better.
If we can get so hot and bothered to save the planet why can't we get
excited about saving humanity...
What is a planet if we are all abused, mindless drones? Better
customer service is a good starting point. A smile in one's heart
spills out onto others through the smile on the face and every kind
thought (or gesture) is the hope of mankind. Let's all start working
on this customer service and see what amazing 'spill over effects'
that it creates! You won't be disappointed!
NB: Obviously, we all win in this but for the corporate 'number
crunchers'... remember that a 26.8% increase in gross profit is £26,800
per £100,000! That is enough to make anyone a hero... so are you ready
and brave enough to break from 'old (failed) thinking' and start
looking from a new direction?
...We get people teaching the
right methods.
To settle the nerves of those involved in customer service training
may I qualify this (as follows) and then I will move on to the facts
that I hope will help all people in training, in customer service and
life in general...
Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants Bill... how do you know and what makes you such
an expert?
Well, I am only offering a humble opinion but one that was proved when
I turned a FTSE 100's operation around to increase gross profit by
26.8% (in fewer than 10 months) strictly by the right approach to
customer service (and people). Has anyone teaching so called
'customer service' done that or better? If so, great! But, it is a
big win in anyone's books!
Hopefully, from the above, the people who feel threatened will now see
that I might have the experience and success to make some valid points
here.
Good customer service should be the easiest part of business to
accomplish. After all we are all customers and we are all sales
persons it is a necessity of life to buy and sell. So how does it all
go so horribly wrong? Is it apathy, people, methods, companies,
schools, you or me?
In a word - ALL! But
not the way you think!
Most everyone that I have met who have higher levels of success and/or
worldliness agrees that most things work on an 80/20 rule (roughly).
So, bearing with me a moment, let's assume we had to assign the
problem into the 80/20 rule. Where would you put the bulk of the
problem? (My) Reality is that only 20 percent of the problem is the
things I listed above except 'you & me' and therein lays 80% of the
problem.
So, let's step out of the 'big brother mentality' world that surrounds
us and go back in time to the days of people taking responsibility.
If it is you and me how do we change the model so that it will
succeed? How can we be responsible?
First, we kill apathy by setting the standard of non-acceptance of
poor service...
BUT in a
positive way!
I recently had some (business type) cards printed that merely say
Thank You for the great customer service. When I hand them to a
person they beam with a big smile and show their work mates. Don't
you think this will help drive others to see a possible reward to
giving good service? Sometimes, if the place is known for really poor
service, and has that one 'bright star' I'll also give them a five or
ten pound note as well.
If you are a cynic, I am sorry that is your world because this does
work for positive change. Further, if service is terrible, we need to
kindly speak up with something like "I can tell you are having a rough
day, I hope it gets better because you are a customer just like I am
and I wish you happier times and good service wherever you go". Even
if you get a smart remark back, it still went into their brain.
Another key point here is that managers can not accept customers
mistreating staff. If a company can not run off a bully customer and
protect their staff they deserve to go broke and we should all avoid
trading with those companies until they clean up their act. Remember,
money talks (very loudly). Our trade is money!
Secondly, when we (aSmilingWorld(R)) are teaching customer service to
stores and companies we help them understand that telling people to
smile, say hello and say goodbye is not what a customer has go to
their heart... it is plastic, forced and failed....
Companies must be taught that to give customer service you must
address the individual employee's needs and you must understand in a
transaction the customer, the server and the manager are a team - all
equal! Companies need to read and live by the book "The No Asshole
Rule" by Robert Sutton (ISBN 978-1-84744-000-6). This is a complex
area and if response is good to this blog I will elaborate more on how
I teach this in a future blog.
Also, we need to teach companies how to share true personal
development and focus with their employees. If a company ditched the
HR model of developing an employee (to fit the company's needs) and
developed the employee to achieve their full potential as a person,
80% would stay and become great leaders in that company and the ones
that left would total no more than the number that would have left
anyway. The difference is the one's who wanted to help the company
would stay rather than being a large part of the 'leavers'.
This means that instead of accepting a company saying, 'We offer our
employees internet training...' etc., etc., we teach them to offer the
courses and books that develop a person from the inside outward, help
the company teach their employees how to find their mission in life
and help them see where a link is to something in that company that
fulfils that mission. As it is today huge numbers of people hate
their jobs and productivity (in that frame of mind) is shameful... What
is more, customer service is on the floor in shambles. Most people can
fulfil their dreams and desires in a company structure when the
company is based on a 'sorts by others' attitude toward their
employees.
I just returned to the UK from the USA and while some believe that
customer service is good there because the customers carry guns;
reality is it is slipping there, too! However, it is still far better
due simply due to the fact that customers, trainers and people in
general are speaking out - right or wrong, they are taking action!
It starts with you and me -
What would the world be
in a year if:
Every single person set out to do (and did) one kind thing every
single day!
Every single person set out to do (and did) one thing to help make
customer service better!
Every single person set out to do (and did) one thing
to help companies understand that many of today's HR models are
counter-productive.
It would be an amazingly different world for the better.
If we can get so hot and bothered to save the planet why can't we get
excited about saving humanity...
What is a planet if we are all abused, mindless drones? Better
customer service is a good starting point. A smile in one's heart
spills out onto others through the smile on the face and every kind
thought (or gesture) is the hope of mankind. Let's all start working
on this customer service and see what amazing 'spill over effects'
that it creates! You won't be disappointed!
NB: Obviously, we all win in this but for the corporate 'number
crunchers'... remember that a 26.8% increase in gross profit is £26,800
per £100,000! That is enough to make anyone a hero... so are you ready
and brave enough to break from 'old (failed) thinking' and start
looking from a new direction?
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