Quality Service Marketing

The Ten Foot Rule of Customer Service (or Avoidance?)

As a business professional specializing in employee-customer care, I know many companies tout the “Ten Foot Rule” of Customer Service – whenever employees come with ten feet of a customer, they’re supposed to stop what they’re doing and give their full attention to that customer.

As a consumer, I also know that many employees have their own version of this rule – they try to steer clear of coming within ten feet of a customer. And if they do get close, they avoid eye contact and turn in the other direction. Sadly, some employees also observe this practice with fellow employees who are their “internal” customers.

Forget the excuses for bad customer service. The bottom line is the ten foot rule and other prescribed practices won’t be effective when simply issued as top-down edicts. Organizations that want their employees to serve customers in this way need to provide the training, tools, and reinforcement (including measurement and reward) that enable and encourage effective customer service.

It’s something to think about. How do employees apply the ten foot rule in your organization: do they step up to serve customers or do they turn tail and hide?

"I'm Just Happy to Be Here ..."

This was the gist of a conversation I had with Julietta, who works in food service at Mohonk Mountain House. Her “attitude of gratitude” went beyond feeling fortunate to be employed – Julietta truly loves her work. 

I met Julietta during a recent visit to Mohonk. She was smiling all the while she cleaned up the area where the continental breakfast had been set up. We engaged in conversation, and it was obvious that she enjoyed working at Mohonk. “It’s like being part of a wonderful family,” she told me – a family that includes both co-workers and guests. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation.

Julietta: I love my customers, and sometimes, I listen more to my customers than my boss. I want to make my customers happy.”

Me: “If you’re customers are happy, then your boss will be happy.”

Julietta smiled: “Yes!”

And she’s not the only one who enjoys her work at Mohonk. I also met Emily, a young woman who was one of our hiking guides. She’s worked there for less than a year, but it’s a job she literally grew into. Emily explained that her family had been going to Mohonk for years, and she’d been an active participant in its kid’s club and teen program. From an early age she knew she wanted to work there and was thrilled to get hired in the recreation group. “I feel so fortunate,” she told me. “How many people get to live their dream job?” She spoke enthusiastically about her love for the place and the people. 

Since my husband and I began visiting Mohonk several years ago, we met many such members of the Mohonk family, including Rudy (dining staff), Michael, Annie, and Matt (recreation), and others too numerous to mention. This was the first time I met Julieta and Emily, and they reinforced the engagement that’s part of Mohonk’s culture.

How many employees have you encountered lately who truly love their work?

[Note: For more on Mohonk’s guest service culture, see my interview with Jackie Appeldorn, Mohonk’s general manager.]

Do Your Customers Have a Rosie?

I’ve been fortunate in my 23 years as a consultant to work with truly wonderful people. Among them is Rosemary (Rosie) Makosky, who recently retired from Lehigh University’s Office of Distance Education (DE).

Lehigh was a pioneer in offering graduate degree programs by live satellite broadcast to corporate employees in the early 1990’s. I served as distance ed‘s marketing consultant back then, and we relied on relationship marketing for company/student recruitment and retention. Several times throughout the year we visited company sites to meet with current students and recruit new ones. These  visits also enabled us to acknowledge the efforts of corporate staff who helped coordinate the on-site details of Lehigh’s distance ed programs. As DE Director Peg Portz was fond of saying, “Our programs may be by distance, but not our relationships.”

Rosie was the student administrator who coordinated distance ed’s admissions, handled registration, answered student questions and concerns, etc. She was the behind-the-scenes “go to”person for students … but she wasn’t kept behind-the-scenes.  One of my favorite memories working with DE was accompanying Rosie on site visits, especially watching the reaction when she and the students met face-to-face for the first time. “So you’re Rosie!” they’d exclaim. “It’s great to finally meet you in person!” And then Rosie would engage in conversation asking about the student’s classes, family, and work situation. I loved witnessing such powerful connections – these students knew and appreciated how much Rosie cared about them.

I loved watching Rosie work her magic with students. Regardless of when they called, she never treated them as an interruption. She was always responsive, empathetic, and concerned in helping students get what they needed so they could succeed. She shared their triumphs and occasional setbacks. What I call being truly customer-focused is part of Rosie’s DNA. If only we had more Rosies in the workplace …

Thank you, Rosie, for all you shared and taught me when we worked together. Enjoy your retirement, dear friend!

"Customer-Smart" Customer Service

[Note: This guest post was written by Chip R. Bell, customer loyalty consultant and the author of several best-selling books. His newest book (with John R. Patterson) is Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to do About it. He can be reached at www.wiredanddangerous.com.]

 “Are You a Genius or Smart?”

There is really big difference between genius and smart. I traded in my flip phone and Blackberry for a brand spanking new Iphone at my neighborhood AT&T store. Lloyd was the perfect sales person. But, within a week my happy scale had dropped from delight to disappointment - the Iphone speaker would not advance past the whisper level. A keynote in midtown New York put me a few blocks from the giant Apple store on Fifth Avenue.

“I need a genius!” I thought. Vision’s of rapture from the reputation of the Apple Genius bar were dancing in my head as I approached the twenty-something genius. I bounced my description of the no sound challenge off the face of the “I’ve heard this a million times before” expression of the Genius. There were no questions and little eye contact. The genius seemed impatient to begin his diagnostic wizardry. After, ten minutes of checks and tests the Genius announced his verdict: “You have a defective Iphone. You’ll have to take it back to the AT&T store where you bought it for a replacement.” As I backed away from the genius, I could hear, ”Next in line,” echoing in the background.

Fast forward to the AT&T store the next day. As soon as Lloyd saw me in the waiting area, he beckoned me back to the really smart side of the store. “How’s our new Iphone behaving?” he asked, obviously recalling in complete detail the previous week’s sale. Lloyd patiently listened as I outlined the problem and my trip to the genius bar in the giant, really cool New York Apple store.

“Before we take a look at how we need to reprimand our misbehaving Iphone, Chip, let me ask you a few questions.” Lloyd laid the Iphone on the counter as if it were getting in the way of his quest for understanding.

“Did you make any changes in the settings after you left the store last week?” asked Lloyd. His focus was clearly on his customer, not on the product. ”Three questions later, the answer to his “Did you make any changes to the Iphone itself” question brought a smile to his face. “Now, now, Chip! A Blackberry screen protector will not fit on an Iphone! It covers up the speaker!” Peeling off the interloping screen protector, he brought perfect sound into the room. As I left the AT&T store, I thought, “Apple may have a Genius bar but AT&T stores have Smart bars.” And, customer smart will trump product genius every time!

 

 

 

You Can't Keep an Engaged Volunteer Down

Hurricane Irene’s recent landfall on the east coast and my current work in volunteer engagement reminded me of a dear friend and fellow volunteer’s extraordinary experience during Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

I was on the board of the American Marketing Association (AMA) as VP of Professional Chapters back then and had the privilege of serving with many dedicated volunteers on the Professional Chapters Council (PCC). An advisory group comprised of past chapter presidents, PCC members provided guidance and tools to help strengthen chapter leadership among AMA’s network of more than 90 chapters in the U.S. and Canada. We also visited chapters to recognize special achievements - presenting chapter excellence awards, anniversary gavels, and new chapter charters.

Who Said Getting There is Half the Fun?

Chris Bonney, a PCC member from Hampton Roads VA, was scheduled to meet with the Triad chapter in Winston-Salem NC on September 22, 1989. Here’s how he described that incredible trip. (Keep in mind, this was before the prevalence of blackberries and i-phones.)

“Neither rain nor wind nor dark of night could prevent me (although they all tried) from attending the 20th anniversary celebration of the Triad Chapter in Winston Salem. It started with my first plane being delayed nearly four hours because of complications related to an earlier accident at La Guardia airport. Accordingly, I missed the only two connections from Charlotte to Winston Salem – not to mention the baby who threw up on my lap as we circled over Charlotte …

"Having too much time and energy devoted to making this meeting, I rented a car in Charlotte and drove the 90 miles to get to the meeting, arriving an hour and a half late. I was determined not to be forever known as ‘that guy from the PCC who never showed up.’ When I arrived at the meeting room (after spending 15 minutes stuck in the elevator in the hotel’s parking garage), I found the chapter president doing the old shadow-pictures-on-the-wall hoping he could hold the group’s interest until I arrived.”

And for the return trip …

That’s what it took for this intrepid volunteer to reach his destination. Chris’s getting home was no easier as Hurricane Hugo was making its destructive way up the eastern seaboard.

“Having been assured by some [expletive] at the airport that the plane would be flying in the morning, I was crazy enough to drive through the hurricane back to Charlotte to catch my plane home. (By this time Hugo was reclassified as a tropical storm but still packing winds of 60-90 mph.) What a joke! Although Charlotte experienced nothing like the tragedy of Charleston, it was still pretty trashed – thousands of tree uprooted and broken in the highways, flooding, power lines down, billboards and signs asunder …

"With no power anywhere, the city was – according to the car radio message from the two radio stations working on emergency generators – virtually closed for business. I drove the car right up on the curb by the front door of the airport to escape the winds. By 8:30 that morning, there had been so much damage to the airport that they hadn’t even been out on the field to check the planes and runways.”

With all flights cancelled, Chris drove home. It took him more than six hours, and he eventually made it home safely. Despite all the delays in traveling, Chris reported that the chapter visit was well worth it.

I found this description of his harrowing travel experience in a special presentation I made several weeks later to recognize Chris for his dedication, determination, courage and commitment to the chapter, PCC, and the AMA.

Thanks, Chris, for what you did back then … and for the memory of it now.

 

Many Employers Still Clueless (or Why I feel Sorry for HR)

“CEOs are not listening to the message around engagement, because HR is not convincing them of its importance,” according to an HR Magazine post.

“ … employee engagement and loyalty is at a three-year low, but many employers have no clue as to the dismal state of affairs,” reported in a recent study.

I truly feel sorry for the HR folks who work with these CEOs. HR folks shouldn’t have to sell the importance of employee engagement – they should be supporting the CEOs in their efforts to create and maintain an engaging workplace.

Until these CEOs truly “get” employee engagement, I urge HR professionals to start stockpiling sunglasses. Because when the executives’ rose-colored classes fall off, they’re going to be blinded by all the empty space once filled by their employees.

 

 

 

What is Happening to Customer Service?

I’ve been reading a lot about customer frustration these days – due to decreasing customer service levels or decreasing customer tolerance. Probably both.

Here are two prime examples:

1. A customer is put on hold indefinitely and unable to track down a living, breathing person to actually talk with. (“Your call is important to us” … yeah, right!)
2. Based on a unsatisfactory training experience, a customer requests a refund. The training company denies and refutes the request in a series of back-and-forth emails with the customer.

As a marketer, here’s my take on these situations:

1. Put on Hold: The customer eventually got through to the company after sending a copy of her blog post. The company explained the “long hold” situation to the customer as a result of increased call volume due to new industry regulation. Stuff happens, but does this excuse the company? One hopes the company learns from this experience so it can be better prepared (via better planning and agility) to respond the next time it has to deal with increased customer calls. That some companies don’t learn this lesson only adds to consumer cynicism. Consider this comment posted in response to the blogger’s question: “Does it sometimes seem they might be doing this on purpose, as if perhaps they just don’t want to provide customer service at all … ?” “It’s a carefully contrived conspiracy, formulated in strategy meetings at the highest level.”
2. Refund Request: What’s puzzling in this case is the company spent a lot of time and energy defending its training program, ultimately creating greater customer alienation and negative word-of-mouse (i.e., the 21st century version of word-of-mouth that with a mouse click can be instantaneously shared with millions of people). I don’t understand why the company didn’t just refund the customer’s money to “recover” the situation and minimize brand damage. Most customer-focused training and professional development offer money-back guarantees as good business practice. Even some training firms who don’t promote guarantees will prudently refund part or all of a registration fee to a dissatisfied customer. 

Note to all companies: You need not buy-into the "customer is always right" concept. Whether the customer is right or wrong is irrelevant. What matters - and the reality you ultimately need to deal with - is that the customer perceives s/he is always right!

On the bright side, I recently came across these examples of positive customer service: Shannon, a food server at Einstein Bagels in Dallas TX, who took care of her immediate customer and those that followed;. And Sharman, Verizon business tech support, who stayed on the line with her customer for several hours to resolve that customer’s issue.

What do you think?
For every customer service horror story, there is a positive one … and vice-versa. Although we tend to hear more of the negative experiences than the positive, what is your take on what’s happening to customer service these days?

 

A Love Story about Customer Care & Employee Engagement

In time for Valentine’s Day, here’s a story about a love that is lost and recovered.

It’s quite an extraordinary story because it’s about a business: Zane’s Cycles – a business that’s truly passionate about customer service.

Act 1, some time before Valentine’s Day: A customer wants to surprise her husband with a bike from Zane’s Cycles as a Valentine’s gift. She makes a special request to place the bike in the store window - since she planned to take her husband by the store after a Valentine’s dinner when the store is normally closed. She gives the store balloons and a card to place on the bike for display and invites friends from work to see her husband’s reaction to the gift. However, before closing the store that day, an employee forgets to put the bike in the front window. Uh oh …

Act 2, February 15th: Chris Zane, owner of Zane’s Cycles, gets a voice mail from an extremely upset customer complaining that the store forget to display her husband’s gift as promised and ruined her Valentine’s Day surprise. Chris and his retail manager go into customer service “recovery” mode:

• They apologize to the woman and deliver the bike to her home. Even though the bike was purchased on layaway and only partially paid for, Zane’s waives the remaining balance.
• To make up for the disappointing Valentine’s Day, they give the woman and her husband a restaurant gift certificate for another dinner.
• And to make up for disappointing her friends from work who took the time to witness the Valentine’s Day gift, Zane’s sends a catered lunch to the woman’s workplace.

Even though the situation didn’t turn out as initially expected, the customer is happy with Zane’s response.

Act 3, about a week later: Chris receives a letter of apology from the employee who forget to display the bike. The employee knows how much effort went into this customer's recovery and includes a check for $400 to help cover the out-of-pocket recovery costs. As an hourly employee, the check represents about a week’s pay.

I love this story, and not just because of Zane’s Cycles’ extraordinary effort to recover from a negative customer service situation. What moved me most when I first heard Chris tell this story is how the employee acknowledged his role and tried to repay the company. It’s an incredible testament to the customer-focused and engaged culture that Chris Zane has built.

Note: Chris did not cash the check; he keeps it as a reminder of employees’ passion for service.

You can hear Chris tell this story in his own words on The CEO Show. 

Stop Fundraising!

Attention certain nonprofits:  

You already have me as a friend & supporter/donor, and I’m happy to send you a contribution once a year.

In the meantime, PLEASE stop sending me continuous solicitations!

• I don’t want/need frequent reminders to give to your cause.
• I don’t want you to send me any more pins, note cards, mailing labels, decals, etc.
• I don’t want you to waste any more paper and postage.
• Most of all, I don’t want you to waste precious time (mine and yours) – especially when you can take whatever time and expense you’re spending on these unnecessary mailings and reallocate them to  furthering your mission.

I’m not saying that you should stop all your fundraising efforts – just the multiple ones to me … unless you no longer want my contribution.

So I urge you to stop.

Consider this fair warning: donor alienation is just one mailing away.

How to Re-Engage Employees

“It’s sad, really, how a negative workplace can impact our lives and the way we feel about ourselves. The situation is reaching pandemic heights - most people go to work at jobs they dislike, supervised by people who don’t care about them, and directed by senior leaders who are often clueless about where to take the company.”  - Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld

But there is hope! And you can find it in Branham & Hirschfeld’s new book, Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times. The authors analyzed millions of surveys from more than 10,000 employers in Quantum Workplace’s massive database used to identify the “Best Paces to Work.” They share the critical clues and insights they found that distinguish what some companies are doing to create and maintain a winning workplace despite a chaotic business climate.

Their analysis revealed six universal drivers of employee engagement:

• Caring, competent and engaging senior leaders
• Effective managers who keep employees aligned and engaged
• Effective teamwork at all levels
• Job enrichment and professional growth
• Valuing employee contributions
• Concern for employee well-being.

Each driver is described in depth and illustrated by winning companies that exemplify these drivers. The authors also share the “voice” of employees working in positive and negative situations with quotes about what employees like and what frustrates them on the job.

What makes Re-Engage particularly relevant is that the authors also provide guidance in the wake of major challenges to workplace engagement, particularly:

• when a company grows in size (“diseconomies of scale”)
• increasing workforce age diversity (“generational diversity”)
• the continuing economic crisis (“turbulent times”).

Recognizing that workplace engagement is not the sole responsibility of managers, Branham & Hirschfeld also devote a chapter to what employees can do for their own self-engagement.

Every once in a while, you find a business book that’s truly rich in insight and guidance – Re-Engage is one such book, and I highly recommend it.