Customer service is simply
people serving people. Employees at your utility are the people who create a
service experience every time they come into contact with one of your
customers.
The question is, does every
person at your utility really care about each customer? And does each customer
feel like the company cares about them? The answers to those questions would
be a resounding yes if utilities would stop skimping on something critical to
the service equation – training. Your employees weren’t born with skills for
communication, conflict resolution, problem solving, listening and needs
identification. They need training on those skills and others to be effective
in serving customers.
CRM and other forms of
technology are wonderful, but training is critical because good service is
such a personal thing. Consider these ideas as you start a new year of
serving your customers
Build rapport. A skill known as mirroring and matching is one of
the simplest to use in communicating with customers. Mirroring and matching
involves talking at the pitch and speed of the person you are interacting
with. CSRs tend to speak faster than customers can comprehend the information
they’re receiving. The key is to listen to the speed and pitch of the
customer’s voice and to mirror them. Customers who feel comfortable
conversing with a CSR are more likely to talk about their situation and will
remain calmer when they feel frustrated with technology.
Follow the 80/20
rule. One of the most effective ways to understand
the customer is to create a list of open-ended questions to use in
conversations. Opened-questions are those that require the customer to provide
more than one-word answers. They are vital to those utilities that sell
additional services such as long-distance telephone, cable TV and high-speed
Internet access. In an initial conversation, the customer should talk 80
percent of the time and the CSR 20 percent. The more you understand a
customer’s needs and knowledge of a particular service, the better the
interaction and the less time you spend helping them. When you’re selling
competitively, your people need to identify the customer’s needs and explain
the benefits of choosing your services over the competition.
Practice, practice,
practice. Every customer that calls your utility
has a different level of experience and knowledge about your services.
Treating each caller as an individual requires practice. Give each CSR 30 to
60 minutes a month to practice skills such as building rapport with customers
and listening to their needs. Set up scenarios in which a customer is
frustrated and have CSRs practice being patient and using a calming tone of
voice to reduce the customer’s frustration.
Express empathy.
I recently overheard a telephone conversation at a utility company. A CSR was
answering a customer’s questions about his or her bill. When the conversation
was over and the customer had hung up, I heard the CSR say “once an idiot,
always an idiot” loud enough for myself and the rest of the CSRs in the office
to hear. Empathy is critical to building a relationship bridge with
customers. Your CSRs need to demonstrate empathy in their actions and their
voice for the frustration that customers are experiencing when they call.
Customers hear the sincerity – or lack thereof – when they call.
Measure customer
satisfaction. Most companies worry about their cost
effectiveness. They track every conceivable statistic about phone calls: the
length of the call, the number of calls per hour each employee handles, the
length of time it takes an employee to connect to the next call. You name it,
it’s probably measured – with the likely exception of measuring the customer’s
perception of how the call was handled or the customer’s interaction with your
field personnel. Hire a company to call customers that have established
service. Ask them what they thought of the experience with the CSR who
explained the service and what they thought about the self-install process or
the technician who installed the service.
Know what to do when
things go wrong. Do your CSRs know what to do with
an angry customer? Do they understand how important it is to let the customer
talk? Do they know not to get emotionally involved in the conversation?
Asking the right questions to understand the customer’s needs usually leads to
a solution and, therefore, a satisfied customer. Do your employees know what
these questions are? People call companies every day angry and frustrated for
one reason or another. The skills your employees possess can make the
difference between retaining a loyal customer and the customer telling 20
other people about their poor customer-service experience with your utility.
Research shows that 90 percent of customers with a complaint will still do
business with a company if they feel someone really listened to their problem,
even if they weren’t able to solve it
Practice active
listening. Here’s what’s involved in the process of
active listening. Listen to customers without interrupting them. Ask
probing questions to better understand the customer’s needs. Give the
customer feedback to make sure you have clear communication. Confirm the
details of the customer’s request and let the customer know when they can
expect a solution to their problem.
Your people are the ones
delivering service every day to loyal customers. Do they have the right tools
to provide an excellent service experience to every customer? Excellent
customer service isn’t about that new CRM solution. It’s about people taking
care of people.
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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.
