In Challenging Times, Customer Service Quality Matters Most!

An excellent article on the importance and impact of customer service from the most renowned name in Customer Service - Ron Kaufman. Read on - 

In Challenging Times, Customer Service Quality Matters Most!

As the wind of economic cycles blows hard, some businesses try to contain costs by cutting corners on customer service quality. This is exactly the wrong thing to do, because customer service quality matters now more than ever. Here’s why:

A. When people buy during an economic downturn they are extremely conscious of the hard-earned money that they spend. Customers want more attention, more appreciation and more recognition when making their purchases with you, not less. Customer service quality is simply essential.

B. Customers want to be sure they get maximum value for the money they spend. They want assistance, education, training, installation, modifications and support. The basic product may remain the same, but they want more service and higher customer service quality.

C. Customers want firmer guarantees that their purchase was the right thing to do. In good times, a single bad purchase can be quickly overlooked or forgotten, but in tough times, every expenditure is scrutinized. Provide the assurance your customers seek with generous service guarantees, regular follow-up and speedy follow-through on all queries and complaints. Customer service quality matters more than you think.

D. In difficult economic times, people spend less time traveling and “wining and dining,” and more time carefully shopping for each and every purchase. Giving great service enhances the customer’s shopping experience and boosts your own company’s image.

When times are good, people move fast and sometimes don’t notice your efforts. In tougher times, people move more cautiously and notice every extra effort you make. Customer service quality is vital because people will pay attention and remember.

E. When money is tight, many people experience a sense of lower self-esteem. When they get good service from your business, it boosts their self-image. And when they feel good about themselves, they feel good about you. And when they feel good about you and your customer service quality, they buy.

F. In tough times, people talk more with each other about saving money and getting good value. Positive word-of-mouth is a powerful force at any time. In difficult times, even more ears will be listening. Be sure the words spoken about your business are good ones by making your customer service quality exceptional!

The Secrets of Superior Service

Giving high customer service quality in tough times makes good business sense. But how do you actually achieve it? Here are eight proven principles you can use to raise customer service quality. I call them The Secrets of Superior Service.

1. Understand how your customers’ expectations are rising and changing over time. What was good enough last year may not be good enough now. Use customer surveys, interviews and focus groups to understand what your customers really want, what they value and what they believe they are getting (or not getting) from your business.

2. Use customer service quality to differentiate your business from your competition. Your products may be reliable and up-to-date – but your competitors’ goods are, too. Your delivery systems may be fast and user-friendly, but so are your competitors’!

You can make a more lasting difference by providing personalized, responsive and extra-mile customer service quality that stands out in a unique way your customers will appreciate – and remember.

3. Set and achieve high standards for customer service quality. You can go beyond basic and expected levels of service to provide your customers with desired and even surprising service interactions.

Determine the standard customer service quality in your industry, and then find a way to go beyond it. Give more choice than “the usual,” be more flexible than “normal,” be faster than “the average’,” and extend a better warranty than all the others.

Your customers will notice your higher standards. But eventually those standards will be copied by your competitors, too. So don’t slow down. Keep stepping up customer service quality!

4. Learn to manage your customers’ expectations. You can’t always give customers everything their hearts desire. Sometimes you need to bring their expectations into line with what you know you can deliver in regard to customer service quality.

The best way to do this is by first building a reputation for making and keeping clear promises. Once you have established a base of trust and good reputation, you only need to ask your customers for their patience in the rare instances when you cannot meet their first requests. Nine times out of ten they will extend the understanding and the leeway that you need.

The second way to manage customers’ expectations is to “under promise, then over deliver.”. Here’s an example: you know your customer wants something done fast. You know it will take an hour to complete. Don’t tell your customer it will take an hour. Instead, let them know you will rush on their behalf, but promise a 90-minute timeframe.

Then, when you finish in just one hour (as you knew you would all along), your customer will be delighted to find that you finished the job “so quickly.” That’s “under promise, then over deliver.” This can help you gain a reputation for customer service quality.

5. Bounce back with effective service recovery. Sometimes things do go wrong. When it happens to your customers, do everything you can to set things right and demonstrate customer service quality. Fix the problem and show sincere concern for any discomfort, frustration or inconvenience. Then do a little bit more by giving your customer something positive to remember – a token of goodwill, a gift of appreciation, a discount on future orders, an upgrade to a higher class of product.

This is not the time to assign blame for what went wrong or to calculate the costs of repair. Restoring customer goodwill is worth the price in positive word-of-mouth and new business.

6. Appreciate your complaining customers. Customers with complaints can be your best allies in building and improving your business. They point out where your system is faulty or your procedures are weak and problematic. They show where your products or services are below expectations. They point out areas where your competitors are getting ahead or where your staff is falling behind. These are the same insights and conclusions companies pay consultants to provide. But a complainer gives them to you free and can help you raise customer service quality!

And remember, for every person who complains, there are many more who don’t bother to tell you. The others just take their business elsewhere…and speak badly about you. At least the complainer gives you a chance to reply and set things right.

7. Take personal responsibility. In many organizations, people are quick to blame others for problems or difficulties at work: managers blame staff, staff blame managers, Engineering blames Sales, Sales blames Marketing and everyone blames Finance. This does not help. In fact, all the finger-pointing make things much worse.

Blaming yourself doesn’t work, either. No matter how many mistakes you may have made, tomorrow is another chance to do better. You need high self-esteem to deliver customer service quality. Feeling ashamed doesn’t help.

It doesn’t make sense to make excuses and blame the computers, the system or the budget, either. This kind of justification only prolongs the pain before the necessary changes can take place.

The most reliable way to bring about constructive change in your organization is to take personal responsibility and help make good things happen. When you see something that needs to be done, do it to raise customer service quality. If you see something that needs to be done in another department, recommend it. Be the person who makes suggestions, proposes new ideas and volunteers to help on problem solving teams, projects and solutions.

8. See the world from each customer’s point of view. We often get so caught up in our own world that we lose sight of what our customers actually experience.

Make time to stand on the other side of the counter or listen on the other end of the phone. Be a “mystery shopper” at your own place of business. Or become a customer of your best competition. What you notice when you look from the “other side” is what your customers experience every day.

Finally, always remember that customer service quality is the currency that keeps our economy moving. I serve you in one business, you serve me in another. When either of us improves customer service quality, the economy gets a little better. When both of us improve, people are sure to take notice. When everyone improves, the whole world grows stronger and closer together.

The time to make it happen is now.

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You may use this article in your free newsletter, website or publication providing you include this complete statement (below) with active links to the websites:

Copyright, Ron Kaufman. Used with permission. Ron Kaufman is the world’s leading educator and motivator for upgrading customer service and uplifting service culture. He is author of the bestselling “Uplifting Service” books and founder of Uplifting Service. To enjoy more customer service training and service culture articles, visit UpliftingService.com.

For commercial use of this article in a paid newsletter, publication, or training program, please contact us.

Job Search during Difficult Conditions, such as now.

With the Covid19 situation showing little signs of slowing down, jobs are going to slowly reduce. Rather than wait for your pink slip, it's better to prepare.

Here is an article with some great tips on what you can do to search for a new job before being caught by surprise.


https://www.fastcompany.com/90482657/how-you-can-find-a-job-during-the-covid-19-crisis

Finally - Do you

1. Want to get your resume critiqued?  
2. Want to be coached for your interview so that you are prepared for the tough questions? 
3. Show the best side of a Professional You by articulating your strengths clearly? 

Doing all the above will help you get a job where you are BOTH satisfied at work AND earn a decent salary.

So write a note to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call me @ +91-9820155778 for a conversation.
Sessions will be done over Zoom / Whatsapp Video call / in person, as per your convenience. 

Setting your Goalsetting Conversation

While stretch Goals can be useful in forcing people to break old rules, and do things better, they’re worse than useless if they’re totally unrealistic, or if the people who haven’t met them aren’t given the chance to debate them beforehand and take ownership with them 

-          From the book  Execution by Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy

I’m currently reading this book 'Execution' and came across this line.  I was reminded of a time during my corporate stint when the management decided to set targets for the next year at a number that was 3X of the previous year without any discussion or debate with the teams concerned.  The various heads didn't receive any inkling on how the target was arrived at, or the basis for it. While they continued to drive their teams towards this aspirationally stretched target, one could see that actual energy was missing – because they didn’t own the targets. A key reason for this was that the targets were considered unrealistic, and not in sync with market conditions.

Why am I writing about this now?  The world is in a state of chaos thanks to COVID 19, and with social distancing norms, lockdowns and travel bans world wide, many businesses don't know if they will survive this.  Without this crisis, there’s a tendency among some managements to grudge the permission of leave among their employees, irrespective of the reason for the leave.  With the current lockdown in India and other parts of the world, business is pretty much at a standstill. In India, the government has asked organizations not to lay off employees, and pay their dues.  Employers will naturally be considering how to make up their lost business when things return to normal.  They will feel that they have to push their employees extra hard since there’s a lot of catching up to do.  And the first thing they will do is increase the targets above the norm in an effort to make up for lost time. It could be a stretched goal or an aspirational goal.  Such targets are usually handed down, with a minimum of discussion. The discussion on “how to reach the goal” is not open or encouraged, since "there's no time because there's so much to do". This is one example of how it looked in a Dilbert cartoon strip (Thanks to Scott Adams for his kind permission).

In a world economy which is already slowing down since the past 6 months, such a strategy that doesn’t take this into account when setting these new goals, is going to get limited results or find the strategy backfiring.  A limited result would be akin to wanting to win a hundred meter race that is being held at a height of 15000 ft above sea level.  It is extremely tiring and draining and things will only get worse from there, if persisted.  

A strategy that backfires would mean that -

1. The unrealistic aspirational target can demoralize the employee morale since they may get a feeling that the organization doesn’t care for them or their work-life balance
2. The demoralization is further accentuated when the “how” of a stretched / aspirational goal is not articulated sufficiently.
3. The stretch /aspirational goals may encourage employees to "do what it takes to get it done", and may indirectly encourage unethical behaviours (small and large). This will negatively impact the quality of the output, and the culture of the organization.
4. Employees at all levels (who are also quite smart) will quickly recognize that the target is quite unrealistic (they do know what stretch targets really are), and would do their work at a little above lip service to save their jobs.  In other words, they will be quite disengaged, which doesn't serve the organization well.
5. Excess stress will hit those who are working wholeheartedly on the target, leading to burnout and perhaps more unplanned leave, if not resignations due to high work pressure or layoffs for not meeting the targets.
6. The organization’s systems and processes will be heavily strained, causing errors, a dip in quality out and service, possible breakdowns and further delay in meeting the targets.

What’s to be done?  I’m not advocating low targets – every business owner / organization knows their own industry well enough to do this task.  I also encourage stretch targets because they can help you to grow, and it can be very enjoyable and satisfying if the tasks  are aligned to the strengths of the employees.  

Here are some guidelines which could be useful:

1. Be realistic when setting the goal.  Start with “Why” – as Simon Sinek advised.
2. In today’s times especially, one person will NOT have all the answers.  So do engage a neutral, external Facilitator to enable your HODs and their immediate reports to have meaningful discussions on ‘HOW’ the targets will be realized, and pool their knowledge and resources to make it happen. You may even decide to invite your vendors for a part of this meeting, especially when discussing support for the execution of the goals. Use this opportunity to include review dates, specific milestones and so on.
3. Encourage and support interdependent behavior – which is about knowing their strengths and balancing their weaknesses with the strengths of other employees, as this will enhance their performance. This becomes easier if your team has undergone their individual Clifton #Strengthsfinder assessment and have this clarity.
4. Ensure that there is clarity on what support (lead generation, training, manpower and other resources) will be provided by the organization and what will not be provided.
5. Ensure that performance reviews are human, practical and based in compassion (not to condone negative behaviour) across the organization.
6. Ensure that performance reviews are solution-oriented and focused on business outcomes, instead of blame games.
7. Don't go overboard with designing an elaborate rewards mechanism, and do ensure that people are rewarded for consistent results born of collaboration and innovation. One person can't know it all OR do it all.

As you can see, this is going to take time, which you may feel that is not worth the investment.  I would submit that it would be more costly (financially and otherwise) not to take this approach. I would also like to point out that this approach will positively impact the employee engagement within your organization, because they will feel feel trusted, and involved in the future of the organization, rather than turning up to office for a paycheck..

Want to know more?  I'd be happy to have a call on +919820155778 to discuss more with you. Or you can leave me a note at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com