FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Tom Ellis
March 22, 2007 Ellis Communications, Inc.
Phone: (417) 881-5635
Email: tom@elliscomm.com
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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Measure-X is a measurement, training and recognition company that specializes
in customer service and sales skills. For more information on Measure-X, call
888-644-5499 or visit its Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
