Are You Exceeding Your
Customers’ Expectations?
By David Saxby
A few weeks ago, I was driving across Alabama
on a business trip and as I drove, I thought about the great customer
service experience I was going to receive at a particular Holiday Inn. You
see, I had an expectation because I had stayed at this hotel on two previous
occasions and each time I was amazed by the quality of the service.
As it turned out, my third stay was equally wonderful. What did this hotel
do that made my stay such a great experience? It was the small things the
staff did consistently that made me feel that they valued me as a customer.
If you contacted the last 50 customers who walked into or called your
utility, would they all agree that your company exceeded their expectations
and that they felt valued as a customer? Those small things your utility
does during the initial greeting right through to the closing of the
interaction go a long way toward answering that question.
Every utility should strive to create a consistently high quality
customer-service experience. Here are several things to consider as you work
to reach that goal.
Customer service standards. Establish standards for how employees
treat customers, whether they’re working with a customer who calls in to
discuss their bill or helping a new customer turn on their service.
Communicate those standards to every single employee who has customer
contact. Confirm that every one of those employees understands the standards
and can demonstrate them when interacting with your customers.
Greeting. Are your employees offering a warm and friendly greeting
every time they interact with your customers? Are they speaking at a
comfortable pace during the greeting so that customers can easily confirm
they have reached the right business? During the first few seconds, are your
employees offering their name to improve customer rapport?
Customer’s name. In many interactions, employees must refer to a
customer’s account record to respond to a request. Do your employees use the
customer’s name during the conversation? Customers would rather be referred
to by their name than by their account number.
Listening without interruption. Your employees probably hear the same
requests from customers a number of times each day. Because they’ve heard it
all before, employees tend to interrupt customers to save time. Train you
employees to allow customers to explain their issue. Being interrupted in
the middle of an explanation conveys the message that you care very little
about your customers’ problems.
Ask questions. Are each of your employees skilled in asking
appropriate questions to identify a customer’s problem and create a
solution? We routinely call utilities to measure their customer service and
we have discovered that if the customer doesn’t know what to ask about a
service, the employee may not be able to figure out what the customer needs.
Create a list of questions that your staff can reference when talking with
customers. Also provide a checklist of the items they need to cover with
customers. Have employees post these lists on their computers so they can
easily reference them.
Appreciation. Be sure a heartfelt “thank you” is the last thing a
customer hears at the end of their interaction with you. Do your employees
use a sincere tone of voice to consistently convey the message that they
appreciate customers? Your employees should give customers their name again
at the close of the conversation. This further strengthens rapport and gives
customers a positive comfort level should they need to call again.
Consistency. Is everyone in your company providing the same level of
service to every customer in every situation? Think back to a business you
interacted with in which you were the customer. The first time you visited
or called that business, did the person you talked with make you feel
special and important? If that was your experience, I’m certain you left
with a favorable impression of that company. Now let’s say your second
contact with that company didn’t go nearly as well. Which experience do you
think you will remember?
Practice the skills. Make sure that your staff has the knowledge and
the skills to handle all customer situations. For example, when a customer
service representative lacks the proper skills to deal with emotional
customers, they tend to react instead of trying to create a solution. Have
employees role play various customer-service scenarios. Coach them on the
appropriate way to handle a customer and make sure that each of your
employees is comfortable demonstrating those skills. It only takes one poor
interaction for a customer to change their impression of your utility.
Coaching. Improving customer service is a never-ending process and
management plays a key role in guaranteeing its success. Management needs to
listen to employees interacting with customers to confirm that every
employee is consistently providing excellent service. When service fails to
live up to established expectations, management needs to play a coaching
role and help employees understand how they can improve their customer
interactions. When employees do provide top-notch service, management needs
to acknowledge them for doing a great job.
Record customer calls. One of the most affordable and effective ways
to coach your employees is to record their conversations with customers.
Review calls with employees and let them identify what they did well and
what they could have done better. When employees identify what was lacking
in these calls, they will have more ownership in making improvements.
Recognition. Just because your utility has created new expectations
for customer service doesn’t mean every person in the company is committed
to meeting and exceeding those standards. Most people are uncomfortable
doing something new and different. Your employees have been taking care of
your customers for a number of years. Asking them to change or improve that
interaction is like asking someone who has been smoking for 20 years to quit
cold turkey. Set up a system to recognize your employees when they meet the
new standards. Identify a customer expectation that is easily measured so
you can reward employees for providing it.
Measurement. How do you know your customers’ expectations are being met? How
do you know if they enjoy their interactions with your company? Ask your
customers if they believe their expectations for service are being met.
Survey customers who have recently interacted with your utility to learn
what they thought of the experience.
Do all the customers who call or visit your utility see you as the Holiday
Inn of customer-service experiences? These ideas will help you boost your
customer service to that level. If your customers look forward to contacting
your utility as much as I anticipated arriving at my favorite Holiday Inn,
you are truly providing stellar service.
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
