There's customer service, and customer service

I was recently in Melbourne and Sydney this month, and was baffled at the inconsistent levels of customer service being offered by both city and urban establishments. It became painfully clear that there were two types of customer service transactions happening, both with very different outcomes. Delivering great service is easy when things are smooth, but once things become difficult, that's when standards drop.

While finding amazing customer experiences was difficult on my trip, there were unfortunately plenty of examples for sub-standard service delivery; everywhere from train stations to cafe's and restaurants; even a luxury hotel in the heart of Sydney!

What was most evident to me was how predictable the service level would be if my transaction was "off the menu", so as to speak. Ask for something slightly different from the norm, and suddenly demeanor and politeness were swept aside and replaced by rudeness and arrogance. What concerned me was whether these companies were measuring the effectiveness of their customer service based on how well they handled straightforward robotic transactions (which I know the majority of front line staff prefer because it's easier), or the more difficult non-standard ones?

The sign of a robust customer service process is it's ability to effectively deal with any request the customer makes. This isn't easy, because humans are inherently unpredictable beasts; a major reason why strategies like Six Sigma don't do any justice for CS processes. You can map as many processes as you like, but eventually a customer will come along and throw a curve-ball, and your frontline people need to deal with these professionally.

The major hurdle here isn't the business, it's the human. Dealing with non-standard transactions has to mean engaging your brain with the customer, turning off robot mode, and activating the intelligent parts of your experience; something any human finds hard to do at the best of times. You can only achieve consistency if the customer's experience is the same regardless of whether the request is simple or not, and the responsibility for this begins with the person serving the customer.

If you work in the frontline, remember this: it's all too easy to label a customer as "fussy", and to drop the level of service you provide. Not only is this lazy, it's a missed opportunity to deliver outstanding customer service. Yes, it'll require more time and more of your energy, but it's what your paid for, and the repercussions for your company could be long term and ultimately come back to bite you.

Customer service challenges for 2012

It's that time of the year when many professionals can see the approaching new year on the horizon and wonder to themselves "what's going to happen in my industry next?". A new year means new strategic plans, changing financial environments, probably higher targets, and plenty of new initiatives -- but that's just the usual suspects! Our industry is now so strongly linked to technology, that the pace of change is faster than it has ever been before; so best to be mentally prepared, at the very least.

External trends and drivers generate internal challenges for every company, and those challenges (if not ignored) are headed off by implementing new initiatives, launching company projects, and developing new procedures and policy. Whenever these things happen, there's a high chance customer service will somehow be involved.

Sometimes customer service will be challenged to take the lead because of it's proximity to the customer, at other times it may be tapped for support to assist in company wide changes. Whatever the role, it's being part of these game plans that makes our industry the most interesting for me personally. This involvement exposes customer service professionals to all aspects of a company's internal operations, but also places increasingly higher demands on it's people to step up and help the company achieve it's goals.

The core challenge our industry has always faced is meeting and exceeding the expectations of our customers -- it's what we're paid for. The difficulty is, those expectations are usually generated outside our industry, and we very quickly feel the knock-on effect as customers become accustomed to whatever experience they're having elsewhere, and soon expect it everywhere.

The area of "communications technology" has made contact centers scramble in recent decades, as multiple channels of communication became heavily adopted by the general public and ingrained in almost every aspect of day to day corporate and social life. Fax machines, mobile phones, SMS, email, internet chat, and now the new boy on the block -- social media; and all of them have presented various challenges to us : integrating the technology into our existing infrastructure, teaching our people how to use it effectively, and in terms of maintaining service levels consistently across the whole range.

Challenge #1

The first challenge in 2012 has been triggered by this evolving communications technology -- mobile technology; the ability for customers to interact with your company regardless of where they are. This trend is going to drive an increase in demand for mobile-enabled applications that allow your customers to easily locate and retrieve information and manipulate services, just as they can on any other channel. Remember too that when we say "mobile technology", we don't just mean mobile phones -- it includes all forms of handheld devices, including PDA's and the infamouse I-range (IPads, IPods and of course IPhones).

In terms of challenges, here's a simple one for you test your readiness against -- do you know for sure that your company website has 100% functionality on all handheld devices? If you don't know the answer, then chances are it doesn't. For example, if your website uses Flash for it's animations, then guess what....IPad and IPhone users won't be able to see any of it, because Apple's products don't support Flash (and most likely never will, although in September this year Adobe, the creators of Flash, have released a new version of it's Flash Media Server that does support delivery to Apple devices. This means that moving forward, any Flash animations created under Flash Media Server 4.5 will work on the Apple devices). IPads and IPhones do support Java, but in a limited way; meaning some functions that work on a regular PC may not work on the IPhone/IPad platform. You also need to consider that the screen dimensions differ on these devices when compared to a laptop or desktop computer, so your website should be flexible enough to modify it's content and layout to react accordingly.

Many companies have already faced this demon, and do a very good job of making sure their web content works equally well across all forms of mobile technology, and some have even developed their own nifty applications to integrate their customer service directly (and securely) into the back-end of their operations -- the real challenge, however, is that customers now expect all of us to have equally effective content delivery, regardless of how big or small the company.

Challenge #2

The second challenge in 2012 is also a consequence of the expanding number of communication channels, and it's global adoption by the mass markets -- continuity; the ability for a company to recognize a customer and know everything about them as they move from channel to channel, seamlessly, and while providing the same service levels.

Your customers are now expecting that when they talk to you through email, telephone, SMS, or Facebook and Twitter, you not only know exactly who they are, but you also have at your fingertips the same historical and profiling information you'd have if they called through the telephone.

This is no challenge to wink at, and anyone who's attempted this with earlier technology like IVR and web-chat will know full well the obstacles and hurdles that lay ahead. The first barrier one encounters when dealing with this issue is the integration of multiple databases and various internal IT structures. Most companies still haven't centralized their customer relationship data, and without a unified framework to build upon you'll immediately find problems when adding new layers like social media.

Contact center hardware/software companies have been slow to get off the mark in providing solutions that can seamlessly integrate mediums like Facebook and Twitter, although I think we've all been a little caught by surprise at how quickly social media has been adopted by the masses. Just this year Avaya launched a new version of it's Aura Contact Center which now has the social media manager add-on fully integrated, making tracking and actioning of social media posts much easier, and offers the advantage of supplementing customer profiling information from the entire back-end system.

Having integrated technology is one thing, having a smart human who can quickly digest all of that information and take the right action is another. So is having the right internal structure to support social media, because you have to remember that Facebook has no IVR -- it's a one stop shop, and agents can receive, and are expected to respond to, a plethora of situations that will span your whole company's infrastructure and operations. To react quickly means frontliners must have straightforward and timely access to accurate information (a topic we'll be covering in the next post), as well as the right empowerment to make decisions.

One large obstacle that you'll have to be mindful of when integrating social media into your business is the sad fact that many senior managers, CEO's and CFO's simply don't have any experience in social media themselves. They don't use it, and some even abhor it. Yet the expectation of your customers will persist regardless, and your first hurdle may indeed be a buy-in one. Finding a management team with the courage and patience to delve into this dark ocean won't be easy, but it's mandatory for any company wanting to stay alive!

In my next post i'll be covering some even broader topics like knowledge management and the double edged sword of customization and personalization - we might even talk a little about unified desktops. There's certainly enough in this post to keep you thinking though, and hopefully it won't keep you up at night....too much.

Understanding customer stress

As a customer service professional, understanding the mechanics of stress and the vital role human interaction plays in the process can be an advantage in diffusing volatile situations. We all know what it's like to be on the receiving end of customer fury, but do you really know what's going on in your customer's mind while it happens?

When things go wrong, most people experience a mix of emotions - everything from anger to disappointment, and everything in between. Add on top of that the frustration at not being in control or being able to fix things yourself, and you can see how a normally calm and loyal customer can become a frontliner's worst nightmare.

The only thing that will change from situation to situation is the level of stress, and this usually correlates to the perceived "value" of the transaction at hand. Some situations are just a plain nuisance (your bank statement gets misdelivered), others super-frustrating (your cell phone gets unexpectedly disconnected), and some situations are just plain heartbreaking (the package with your wife's anniversary present doesn't arrive). Depending on the potential consequences and inconvenience of the situation, you can expect a customer's stress levels to match accordingly.

All stress responses have an associated physiological reaction in the body's nervous system, triggering a rush of hormones (including adrenalin) that do everything from bumping up the heart rate to constricting blood vessels. At extreme levels, a customer can actually "see red", and have little control over their physiological reaction to the stress, let alone their emotional reactions!

There's generally three different ways a person will respond to this "fight or flight" reaction:

Pedal to the metal: Hyper-emotional, angry and agitated, hot tempered.

Slam on the brakes: Withdrawal, shut down, emotionally depressed.

Go Stop Go Stop: Outwardly frozen and lacking emotion, but seething with fury underneath, too angry to do or say anything.

Another element to understand is that competence in judgement is always compromised under stress. For most people, this means that when stressed, they generally make poor judgements and therefore poor decisions; while others may actually experience improved performance in this area (astronauts call this "the right stuff"!).

Stress also narrows the focus of attention for individuals, meaning their ability to take in new data or pay attention to areas outside of the stressful situation are limited. A consequence of this can be exaggeration of the situation and/or consequences, due to the fact that the customer can't see the "bigger picture" at the time.

To top all this off, if the customer was already stressed before the incident, and encounters a new stress on top of the old stress, this too can exacerbate the response and reactions to the new situation. You can see this when people move into a new house only to discover the electricity hasn't been turned on yet, and it's 5pm and getting dark -- beware the frontliner taking that call!

As well as having three distinct reactions to stress, people also pass through three separate stages of stress; however depending on the situation they may not pass through all of them.

The first stage is obviously the "alarm" stage, where all those hormones I mentioned already get triggered, and the body reacts to the situation at hand. Depending on how quickly your customer can get in touch with you after the incident, they'll generally still be experiencing this "hormone high" when they land in your lap, and can be the most difficult stage to get them through.

The second stage is "resistance", and if the alarm stage isn't resolved quickly a person slips into a different state of mind where their energy levels start reducing, and they can feel impatient and exasperated. During this stage, customers may have trouble remembering important details, may focus on trivial matters (like how long you kept them waiting on hold), and become less rational.

Finally, after quite some time, the customer enters the final stage of stress: exhaustion. The customer becomes both physically and mentally drained, experiences despair and even depression, and can become quite retaliatory in their interactions with those trying to help them. Overly sensitive, customers can quickly slip back to any of the previous two stages at any sign of volatility. They're difficult to deal with at this stage because they feel defeated, have given up, and are more interested in just complaining that getting things fixed.

You can see from this journey that the earlier you can diffuse the stress for the customer, the easier it'll be for you as a frontliner to deal with them. The further along in the stages the person goes during stress, the harder it will be for you to talk them down. It's important, too, that you understand the different reactions and communication methods a customer will use during each stage, so you can identify roughly where they are in the cycle and react accordingly.

There's some big lessons here that can really help you when dealing with a stressed customer, and the first is to always remind yourself -- the customer is generally not their normal selves. Their ability to think straight and make rational decisions is impaired, they attention span is narrowly focussed on you and your company and the problem at hand, and this situation may well be the icing on the cake for what could already be a bad day.

Getting a grip on these concepts will help you use your number one tool when combating a stressed customer -- empathy. I've talked before about customer service frontliners as the gate-keepers to all the solutions a company can offer a customer, and empathising with not only their situation but their mental state can increase your ability to de-stress the customer, get to the bottom of the problem, and solve it quickly. Having human interaction with someone outside the problem can immediately begin lowering the stress response in a person, so long as that person is open, welcoming, receptive, empathizes and can help work out a solution. Remember : a problem shared is a problem halved! Taking 50% of the problem off the customer's hand is the least you can do!

Remember, too, that stress begets stress, and after you've solved the problems of the world, you, too, need to de-stress, calm down, and tend to the wounds you get from being a frontliner in the battle for customer service.

First impressions really do count

You hear about first impressions counting as a standard mantra when people talk about job interviews, and it's a super important aspect. That said, it also matters when dealing with customers, and for one simple reason : credibility. If the aim is to be taken seriously, then you have to manage that first contact and make it count.

There's a litany of resources on how to make sure you make a good impression at a job interview; everything from how you dress to how you address the interviewer -- even your very first email contact. All should be well presented, and portray the correct image you're wishing to convey to the audience. But what about when it comes to dealing with a customer?

In my last article I talked about "knowing your stuff", and how critical this was to establishing your credentials with the customers; but you won't even get to demonstrate those elements if you don't make that first contact count, so here's a few tips:

1. The introduction says everything

The first obvious contact your customer will have with you is that initial introduction you give when you introduce yourself or answer the call. This is your very first opportunity to set the tone for the whole transaction, and establish your credibility. When I listen to customer service employees, it's easy for me to spot the confident professional -- their tone is strong and balanced, and there's a faint sense of pride in just saying the phrase that has their name and the name of the company they work for. You also get a sense of helpfulness and embracing from the speaker, letting you know that they are in control and there to help. Speaking clearly, confidently and with a sense of "I do this every day and love it", will surely set the right tone for the rest of the call.

2. Immediately take control of the call

Your next mission after properly introducing yourself is to give the customer an opportunity to express their immediate need, but then instantly take control of the call. Remember, the customer has just arrived through the workings of your PABX into a world they know little about, they just know they need help. The probably don't even know what they need to tell you, so this is your opportunity to build on the credibility by showing them you know exactly what needs to happen. Make a strong reassurance to the customer that you can help them, and begin to ask the right questions to establish the facts, so you can move onto solving their problem.

3. Keep the comfort levels balanced

The trickiest aspect in customer service, I personally feel, is maintaining a balance between looking after the customer in front of you while diligently dealing with the internal systems you need to interact with to solve the problem. This is a significant opportunity for you to loose credibility, so it's here that you must be able to equally divide your attention between both aspects. Many frontliners overcome this by using the trusty hold button, but in my mind this is as good as physically turning your back on the customer while you go type on a computer. Real credibility comes from being able to keep the customer engaged and comfortable while you do your thing, maintaining that level of assuredness and credibility so the customer knows they are not alone for any longer than need be. Of course, there are times when you have to put the customer on hold, but you must use your skills here to balance that out against expectations, and if necessary make a call back promise -- just remember to keep it!

4. Build the bridge

In many cases you won't be able to immediately solve the customer's problem, and there's going to have to be a follow up. Here's another opportunity to build your credibility, but you're going to have to work hard for it. Your first mission is to compel the customer to have faith in your ability to do what you need to do, and that you will fulfill your promise to call them back with the results. If you've done well building credibility in the first three steps, this is easier - if not, you're going to have a hard time getting them to believe you won't put the case in the trash and go to lunch. A good dose of empathy will go a long way here, because if the customer really holds a belief that you "get it", it'll be easier for them to believe you'll do as you say. Remember, you're aim here is to take control, take the problem off their hands, and let them get on with their lives while you do the ground work to solve the problem. Let them know what steps you're going to take, and roughly how long you think it'll take, and make a sensible commitment to get back to them as quickly as you can.

5. Bring it home

The crescendo to any performance is the finale - the part where the audience finally gets that sense of satisfaction because the journey has peaked, and now it's over. If you think customer service isn't a performance, go read my other articles! Remember, the finale for your customer is resolution -- an end to whatever problem triggered their call in the first place. In movies, it's where the hero returns near the last act to save the day, and if he doesn't turn up you can only guess how the audience reacts! You must, no matter what, deliver on the promise you made to the customer at that bridge point -- at any cost. Your bonus points for credibility, and the credibility of the company you represent, shoots up ten fold at this stage of the game. It can be the make or break of a customer's loyalty, and if you've ever thought your job meaningless, here's a good opportunity to really reflect on the potential lifetime value of the customer you're holding in your hands, and the bottom line effect you have if you don't keep your promise and bring it home.

I've talked here about your personal credibility as a professional, and how significant it is to your individual success when dealing with customers on a daily basis -- but remember, the bigger picture is the company you represent and the trust that's been put in you to deliver outstanding customer service and beat customer expectations. Credibility, both that of your company and yourself, and key elements in being a successful customer service professional, so don't let either of you down!

Knowing your stuff matters

If you ask a customer what they look for when interacting with customer service staff, they'll give you a list a mile long. Let's face it, the expectations are as varied as the customers are; yet there is one key area that probably matters more than the customer knows -- confidence. This can only come from a foundation of "knowing your stuff", and making the customer feel that you're in control of the situation.

Have you ever been dealing with someone in customer service and caught that fleeting moment when you knew instantly that the person you were interacting with didn't "know their stuff"? That hesitation, that pause, that "ummm", that gave away their hand? The minute you sensed it, you'll remember that deflated feeling in your stomach when your intuition told you "this isn't going to be as easy as it should". No matter how perky, charming and assuring that customer service person is, from that point on it's all uphill.

Don't get me wrong; i'm not implying that customer service staff need to know everything about everything within their organization, that's simply impossible. However the customer knows even less about how your company works, and the first thing they want when they interact with your customer service is to feel that the person who's looking after them "knows their stuff".

I recently dealt with Bank of the Philippines credit card team and had the pleasure of being looked after by an agent who really did know her stuff. She was obviously experienced, knew the right procedure and process I needed to follow, and had me dealt with quickly. In a situation where I was already anxious and stressed, this level of confidence instantly put me at ease. This was really important because I was already expecting the lengthy and stereotypically daunting process of dealing with a bank.

Customers use customer service because it's the gateway to a businesses core operations, and when they contact it they want to be wrapped in the warm blanket of confidence, to know that things will be taken care of, and that the person who's dealing with them really does have their best interests at heart. So you're next homework topic after patience is to know your stuff.

Build your personal knowledge bank of tips and tricks and have it ready to deploy whenever needed. Take the extra effort to learn things most other people can't be bothered knowing, even if it has nothing to do with your department. Talk to other people and find out how their job works, learn where those processes go after they leave your group, and discover the answers to questions your customers may potentially one day need you to know. Oh and whenever your company offers training, sign up! Learn learn learn.

A true customer service professional is a jack of all trades, as well as a master of at least one - and that one should be information and knowledge. Get cracking!

Customer service is a team sport

The first day in any customer service job is a daunting one; and although it does get easier the longer you're in the role, it takes a long time to achieve "master" status. But fear not, because customer service is a team sport. It works at the collective level, and becomes a sort of "hive mind", so if you learn how to tap into this network of information your chances of success increase dramatically.

The biggest stumbling block for people in customer service is the overwhelmingly large amount of information their customers demand they have instant access to -- everything from product codes to troubleshooting procedures, all must be readily available to keep transactions moving swiftly. This challenge is compounded by the fact that no company on Earth has a fool proof information system, making it extremely difficult for those on the frontline to easily get their hands on the tidbits of information needed to serve their customers.

No one person, no matter how clever they are, will ever know everything there is to know about their workplaces processes and procedures (although plenty will pretend they do, we've all met them). However, it is much easier for a group of people to hold knowledge collectively amongst them, so long as the environment is there to tap into it; and this is where the hive mind comes into play.

Amongst your team there will be people of varying experience and backgrounds, and this mix of knowledge is generally how most service environments survive. Someone, somewhere in the group, will have already encountered the situation in front of you, and the key information needed to solve the problem. Therefore a frontliners ability to tap into that knowledge bank is critical to their success.

Some companies encourage the use of knowledge bases, blogs, twiki's, even live chat rooms to help give their people direct access; and this is a fantastic way to get the information you need, so long as the person seeking that information has the cooperation of the "hive".

We've all been the newbie in the workplace, and suffered the teeth-grating experience of not knowing anything about anything, needing help for even basic things like the directions to the washroom. We also know that the term "newbies" immediately highlights a distinction between those who've been at the workplace for a while versus those who haven't. This gap can be incredibly difficult to overcome, and it's generally for this reason that many workplaces pair new employees with veterans, to help initiate them into the environment and give them an access point into the hive mind. If the workplace doesn't foster this kind of relationship, then the "newbie" is left with some basic training and a procedural manual, and wished well on their adventures as they begin dealing with customers.

Even if you've been in the workplace for a while, cooperation only works when people actually want to help you, and there could be plenty of reasons why they won't. Professionals know this, and know how to work the environment to make sure they don't get cut off from the support they need to be successful.

First impressions certainly count, and we know that the first impressions you make with co-workers will shape your future relationship with them, so keep that in mind when you break your first bread at the lunch room. More importantly, work out who really knows what they're talking about and who doesn't, what areas each of your co-workers are strong in, and what experience they've had in the past. All this information will be vital in working out who to turn to in your time of need.

Remember also that the biggest killer of any workplace relationships is gossip, followed closely by office politics -- areas any seasoned professional avoids like the plague. Crossing work mates, or getting involved in the affairs of others can ruin a good working relationship, and cut you off from a resource you might be in need of down the road. Easiest thing to do is just avoid getting involved in these situations altogether.

The critical tips and tricks will be stored in the heads of your co-workers, so it's important that you foster positive relationships to keep yourself in the loop, ensure you get the support you need to be successful, and stay ahead of the competition by being the best customer service employee you possibly can; none of which can happen without information and cooperation.

Cooperation from colleagues isn't just about information either. Remember, those people working along side you will be involved in the processes and procedures you'll be relying on to solve your customer's problems. Whether it's cross-department or within your own team, you'll be looking for co-workers to enable you in whatever transaction you are doing, so it's key to foster relationships and make sure that when the time comes, your needs (or those of your customer) don't get put at the bottom of the pile because of bad mojo with colleagues. Tread lightly!

If you don't like team sports, stay out of customer service. Like army soldiers crouching in the ditches avoiding enemy fire, you're reliant on the people most closest to you to ensure survival, so watch where you point your gun and avoid friendly fire wherever possible!

Trying your best

Tip:the phrase "trying your best" starts with "trying". Magic in customer service doesn't just happen, it has to be made to happen,and that only comes from trying. Give every customer your best and you'll be the one reaping the rewards for years to come.

How taking your time actually improves efficiency

The world today is measured in transactions per minute, resolution time, and other time bound metrics that determine whether others believe we are doing things well -- but what if I told you that taking more time to do something is actually better for efficiency in the long run? Contact centers, hotel front desks, even banks, can all benefit from taking more time rather than less.

The rationale is simple: If you rush, you make mistakes. Mistakes are costly, in both time and money, because they distract resources away from new transactions, and this can have a massive ripple effect all the way to the bottom line.

When I say mistakes, I mean more than just plain old errors (ordering the wrong product, mis-keying the customers contact details, or sending the wrong repair technician); I also mean all the little things that could and should have been done to totally satisfy the customer and resolve the issue completely. Everything from providing the customer with all the information they'd need so they don't have to call you back, to preemptive actions that could eliminate a recurrence of the problem in the future (like taking a few minutes to type a proper entry in the call log, or to fix a misspelling of the customers street).

Quite often people feel that by cutting edges they're actually doing everybody a favor because they can serve "more" customers, but the reality is that back-jobs and call backs chew up everyone's time and do no one any favors, so as the saying goes, "a job worth doing is worth doing well".

The conflict comes when management doesn't understand this, and people with spreadsheets and statistical models get to determine the path your company takes for delivering customer service. If you're old enough to remember the good old days when shop assistants would take a few minutes to talk with their customers beyond the basic "next please!", you'll remember the fantastic experience and great rapport that was built, and the loyalty that was generated from taking the time to do things right. We need to bring this back if we're to succeed in such a competitive marketplace and meet the demands of our well-informed customers.

I'm not saying that you should stretch every transaction out just for the sake of taking more time; this will just back fire on you; and I also realize that this "taking extra time" will be tough to do in your own job because of of the metric constraints I mentioned earlier. Yet if you put it into perspective, even just taking an extra 60 seconds with a customer can have a dramatic effect on their experience.

If your supervisors or managers push you, explain to them where you're coming from (even show them this article), and if they still don't get it, then, unfortunately, it means they aren't serious about customer service and maybe you should find a company that is, after all, businesses that don't embrace these cultural changes won't be around for much longer anyway!

Remember: with a customer, every second counts!

A pitfall for social networking in customer service

I was recently talking with a group of people who are beginning to develop strategies for using social networking to gain improvements in customer service. It's a hot topic in the industry at the moment, and people are keen to learn from others on the ups and downs of integrating this approach. More importantly, they were looking for pitfalls, and there are plenty of them!

The pitfall I want to talk about today is that of "replying in kind". It's best described in this scenario: if I send a "tweet" to a company asking a question about their products or services, generally, it's perfectly fine for them to "reply in kind" by sending me back a tweet. It makes sense because it's leveraging the benefits of the technology such as rapid response, resource optimization, and multi-tasking. Where this becomes a potential pitfall is when these immediate benefits are outweighed by a major negative for non-voice/non-video electronic communication - "miscommunication".

We discovered the plights of this pitfall when email hit offices en masse in the 80s and 90s, around the time local area networking boomed; and it's still being felt today by anyone who makes the social faux pas of misinterpreting a single sentence in an email, and then blasting off a furious response, only to discover they had misread the intention of the sentence altogether.

Electronic communication misses out on the regular social cues inherent with face to face or even verbal communication, and makes it extremely difficult to build a fundamental aspect of social interaction - rapport. It also tends to make more complex transaction times longer because it's harder to get your exact message across to the other party.

Replying in kind without detecting the point at which the conversation should switch to a voice/video medium can turn loving customers into critics and cynics, and can even trigger a shift away from using the social networking channels altogether, based on these potentially negative experiences. In the end, you lose all the benefits you were chasing by using social networking in the first place.

I tend to go for the "rule of three" when trying to decide when it's time to shift to a phone call. That's three transactions from either party. This includes the customer's original query, your reply, and a possible follow up by the customer. Unless that third transaction is a "thank you" because the issue is resolved, then, pick up the phone and start dialing.

For certain industries, this is going to be a real challenge; particularly, those which involve customer identification and confidential information. Due to restrictions placed on the verification process for a customer's identity, quite often email and social networking mediums simply aren't robust enough to deal with what can quite often be a lengthy process. If certain inquiries will require such steps, it's best to warn customers upfront and then switch to voice communication where possible, or incorporate the steps into a web form where it can be done securely online rather than through Facebook, Twitter, or even email.

A few things to remember:

1. The aim of the game is speedy resolution of the customer's issue - nothing else matters.

2. If the technology is hindering you from achieving that aim, then it's time to shift back to normal communications for that transaction.

3. The primary benefit of these social networking tools is that it makes it simpler and easier for your customers to get in touch with you, not necessarily easier for you to deal with them.

It'd be a great shame to see the uptrend in social media usage wither away, just because companies start to use technology as a tactic to deal with customers "at arms length".

As a customer service representative, you need to make sure you do your part in detecting that point in time when you should switch, and do it promptly unless you have the express permission or insistence from the customer.

Even the giants go back to basics

Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications body, formerly government owned until 1997 when it began several stages of privatization, is a behemoth. It's emerged from it's days under the Post Master General and morphed and adapted to the changing technologies and markets over the decades, but the end result is a mix of organizational structures, processes, and internal politics. This has naturally led to ongoing customer dissatisfaction, and now the giant is making moves to shake itself of the reputation for being disengaging to its customers.

The eternal problem for "big" companies is that the more complex they become, the easier it is for customers to get lost in the system, and this is a huge trigger for dissatisfaction and churn in the customer base.

Recently Telstra recently tapped Gerd Schenkel to revamp its websites in an effort to make it easier for customers to access information and services online, a feat being mastered by the banking industry. Telstra is eager to engage its customers through online strategies that make dealing with the massive company and its various internal units more straightforward. Not a small task, but well worth the effort.

Now, they've announced the appointment of a Chief Customer Officer, who'll head the companies newly formed sales and customer service divisions and focus on turning around operations and streamlining internal processes with a focus towards improving customer satisfaction with Telstra services.

It's a smart moving combining sales and customer service because it recognizes the flow of value from sales to service, and having it centrally managed gives the opportunity to bring consistency, remove barriers and roadblock, and ensure a consistent theme of "customer first" across all angles. What it says to the general public is that regardless of whether you're about to buy from them, or have already bought from them, we're here to serve you. All too often, companies focus on the sales side and make customer service its distant cousin.

The new Chief Customer Officer doesn't have an easy job ahead of him, but if Telstra, or in fact, any company, is truly serious about customer satisfaction, it absolutely must build it into the organizational structure for any efforts to have a chance of making a difference. Sweeping powers and authority, overarching accountability, and central principles are all key to this challenge, and at the very least, Telstra seems to be making genuine moves to make a real difference, rather than implementing superficial steps that appease no one but the PR department!

Broadband remuneration schemes, and why they're important to customer service employees

If you're serious about customer service as a career, one important topic that will cross your mind is remuneration -- how will you get paid like a professional, in a sustainable fashion that will ensure the prosperity of you and your family? The thinking has always been that to earn more, you need to do more; whether it's more hours, or by taking on more responsibility; eventually leading to a management position. For a lot of people, management simply isn't their thing; so if you're going to go pro in customer service, how do you continue to develop more earning power without having to step into management?

Traditional remuneration schemes are what I call "narrowband", in the sense that each position offers quite a limited scope of earning potential, driving the notion that people have to get continually promoted to earn more.

I see two downsides to this: firstly as an employee, it creates a situation where I have to move further away from what I love doing (looking after customers); and secondly as an employer, I have to promote people to their "level  of incompetence". In essence, it's more often a lose-lose situation for everyone.

I cite these downfalls primarily from my experience in the contact center world, where all too often I saw employees who were fantastic customer service representatives pushing themselves towards supervisory and managerial roles that they really didn't want, simply to earn more money and provide a better future for their family.

The immediate result is a square peg in a round hole; someone who doesn't want to be in the job, irregardless of whether they had the skills necessary for the role. Desire and passion are first and foremost in determining the level of any employee's performance. Without these two elements, you basically have a robot, and ultimately the situation will go south.

The long term result, and the real impact these "promotions to incompetence" have, is that they starve the frontline of superstars; people who's desire and passion for customer service made them excellent performers. Unfortunately it's this very same passion and desire that puts them on the radar for promotion in the first place.

So not only does the employee lose, and eventually the employer, but also the customers are losing in the most direct way possible -- losing those that serve them well.

Broadband remuneration schemes recognize this dilemma, and address it through overlapping pay grades that allow employees to be remunerated broadly while staying in the same position, generally linked to performance advancement rather than promotion. Basically, you can earn the same or more as you would in a higher position, without leaving your current role. By simply excelling at that role and going to higher levels of performance, you then have the ability to access the pay rates of higher positions without becoming a supervisor or manager.

Here's an example of one scheme I developed and implemented:

The scheme recognizes three distinct bands, called here "inbound", "backend", and "operations". Within each band, there are varying grades defined by set performance metrics or additional responsibilities within the role, that employees to expand their skill sets and deliver better results, without having to consider shifting bands unless they really want to.

At first glance, many people push back at these schemes when they see, for instance, that a level 5 customer service representative will earn more than a level 1 supervisor, because the traditional mentality would then ask "why would anyone want to become a supervisor, if a senior customer service representative is earning the same or more?". It's a valid question, but it's steeped in the old world thinking that people only go for higher positions to earn more money.

By turning this concept on it's head, we now recognize that people want to go for higher positions for career and skills advancement, which does eventually offer better pay (generally only after performance levels are established), but it's now a more long-term action, rather than simply meeting the short term goal of increased remuneration.

Those that love doing what they do, and who aren't interested in climbing the corporate ladder, can now focus towards becoming the best they can be at their present position; ensuring the front line will always have ample supply of excellent performers, while also fighting the battle against attrition. Employers also benefit from having appropriately motivated people moving up the career chain, and in the long term everybody wins; employees, employers, and customers.

You'll start to see more and more companies implementing similar schemes in the near future, as they scramble for new strategies to ensure longevity in their customer service resources, and take steps to retain their talent and avoid the costs of attrition.

Similarly, those in the frontlines will become more committed to fulfilling their career goals by staying in a role that they love passionately, that fulfills them, and gives them the satisfaction that they are actively contributing to the success of the companies they work for.

Going pro in customer service is a serious opportunity for employees, so start thinking about how you can use this strategy in your business sooner rather than later, and reap the benefits from having a motivated group of people serving your customers with excellence and passion.

Cultural differences and service delivery expectation gaps

I recently returned from a week in Hong Kong, and in my travels encountered many "customer service crises" that piqued my interest in the cultural differences that affect the expectations for customer service. From country to country, region to region, the expectations of service change in line with the various demographics and cultures -- but what if you serve an international client base?

Many travellers and expats have experienced the briskness, if not downright rudeness, that can be received from "customer service" staff in Hong Kong. Yet this even happens in establishments that deal with international travellers regularly, and where you'd expect better -- such as in a good hotel, a McDonalds branch (who are reknowned for their cookie cutter style service), and even Disneyland.

What's worse is that it appeared to be the norm, and one can't help but think that businesses actually believed they were doing a good job. A little digging confirmed my suspicion that this was a cultural difference between east and west. In western culture you're taught to be polite and proper in public, whereas in eastern culture the emphasis is on politeness to those you know (such as family members and friends). OK, it may not be as simple as just a culture difference, but I think it's got a great deal to do with an inability to "love strangers", something that seems to be both nurture and nature.

What I did find in Hong Kong was a great deal of emphasis placed on efficiency; taking your order quickly for instance (so quickly that they didn't want to waste time repeating it for verification), is deemed more important than greeting the person with a pleasant smile. This was such a striking attribute that when I did eventually find someone who delivered great customer service (an older lady working in Disneyland), it was instantly noticeable.

The "gap" between my expectation and that of the person delivering it, really is the key element in this disconnect. The absense of something that is necessary to meet a customer's expectation ("I expect to be greeted by a warm welcoming smile" from an international western customer, versus "I expect my hamburger to be served quickly, no questions asked" from an eastern customer) can kill a relationship quickly, regardless of the efficiency of the transaction.

The only way people in customer service will learn the different expectations from an international customer base is through exposure, but the key to learning is knowing it's something you have to get better at. Next time you're dealing with a customer, think for a moment about their attributes -- nationality, age, profession, social status, and even religion; all these elements play a part in developing the expectations a customer will have, prior to anything brand or product related.

If you can tap into this information and use it to tailor your service delivery, you'll find customers connecting with you and allowing trust to be built; which is 80% of your journey done and dusted!

To get you started, here's a great resource that'll tell you about the different cultures, etiquettes and taboos of various countries; as well as some basic facts and figures about the countries themselves.

Surviving in customer service

I've mentioned before that most customer service operations have a major problem with attrition, and recent threads on LinkedIn have talked about a few of the underlying reasons (besides money) that cause people to leave their jobs. Having worked in many pressured environments, I know that one big factor that can cause a lot of people to walk out the door is stress.

Sometimes it's stress because there is always a lot to do, lots of phone calls coming in, lots of follow ups to take care of; but more often than not, the stress from being at the frontline can be the biggest contributor. Being the bearer of bad news, the receiver of customer rantings and abuse (and sometimes their downright bad manners) can all build up to ruin a perfectly good day. Go through it day after day, month after month, and it's easy to see how this can lead to the decision to pack it in.

The fact remains that these pressures will always be part and parcel of the job, and whether it's face to face or telephone/internet service delivery, employees will not be able to change how customers behave; but they can change how they themselves react.

The real key to successfully managing stress in the customer service environment is focus. Contact centers, for instance, are loud and distracting; you are surrounded by people constantly talking, moving around, having conversations, and even mini-meltdowns. Trying to get into the zone and focusing can be difficult, but it can be done.

This has to start the minute you arrive at the office, so it's important that when you walk through that doorway you leave all your non-work related baggage at the step. Being distracted by the kids, the house, the dog, the bills etc. will stop your brain from focusing on the job. A friend of mine used to arrive and then sit at her desk and do a little visualization, and actually imagined each of the things outside of work as little boxes, and she'd visualize arriving at the office and placing each box down on the step outside, and as she laid them on the ground she'd say "this is my worry about the children" and "this is my worry about paying the bills tonight", and then when she was finished with all the boxes of worry, she'd visualize herself walking into the office and sitting at her desk. Remarkably simple, yet very effective.

The next thing is to understand the rhythm of your daily routine. Every job has an ebb and flow, and if you understand this flow and learn to work with it, you'll find your day much easier to handle. In most contact centers there are peaks and valleys in the call volumes, and identifying when these happen and preparing yourself accordingly can be important in maintaining performance levels without stressing out. The message here is to pace yourself.

Many customer service employees go into high gear at the start of their shift, and by the middle point they are exhausted and drained, have probably already lost their patience, and spend the rest of the day watching the clock. This means that when the peak hits you're unprepared, you will make mistakes, and you won't be ready to deal with the "happiness" your customers will bring you.

One trigger for this attitude is the metric of "CPH" or "calls per hour"; a measure of the number of calls per hour the representative takes. Most people will work themselves to the bone taking as many calls every hour to try maintain this number, but if you understand that this number is an average of the TOTAL calls you take in a DAY divided by the number of hours you worked, and take into account that at some hours of the day you'll naturally receive more calls than at others (those peaks we were talking about before), then you'll see that pacing yourself is actually a positive strategy.

Viewing your work day as a long distance marathon, broken into segments of low valleys (where you can throttle back) and high mountains (where you need to gear up), and using your energy according to this rhythm, will ensure you can have the energy when it's needed to perform. The better shape you're in for those mountains means less stress, and that's our overall aim.

Where you're running marathons you find water stations dotted along the course -- these are your scheduled break times; and just like a runner you need to "re-fuel". So when your break time comes along, use it to the fullest. Leave the work environment completely, get outside if possible and stretch, relax your brain, and unwind. Try reading a book or magazine, have a snack or take your lunch, even watching a bit of television can help switch off for a bit. Don't nap, don't talk about work with your colleagues, and absolutely never EVER work through your break as a habit. This short time is your opportunity to prepare for the next segment in your marathon.

Another part of your daily rhythm will involve scheduling; whether it's the time to do your follow ups with customers, make return phone calls, or just doing your paperwork -- and if you have all this under control, it'll be easier for you to keep your cool. Use your Microsoft Outlook to block out your day, and use the Tasks feature to keep track of your things-to-do; or if you're old school, keep a journal book and write your daily task list in it, and then refer to it regularly.

During the day as you're jogging up one of those peaks, you might find a nasty black bear who could threaten to turn your day sour. A customer who's had enough and decides they're going to make your experience with them hell on earth. The customer's issues aside, this presents a challenge for you as a frontliner -- how to keep the customer happy and solve their problem, while taking the brunt of their fury for a problem you probably had nothing directly to do with. It's critical in these situations to do two things.

First is to avoid taking it personally, which sounds harder than it is when you are having your ear chewed off by an angry customer. Therefore it's important for you to find some tricks to remind yourself of this fact during the heat of battle. Whether it's a little post-it note on your computer screen, a picture of your family or parents, or a poster of the perfect beach side setting; anything that you can look to which will help you remember: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.

Second is to learn the signals from your body that will alert you to the fact you're ABOUT to lose your cool. It could be that your heart starts to race, your voice might become raised, you're face might redden; there's a bunch of different signals that'll give you a heads up to the fact you're about to have a melt down. Learning what these signs are will help you avoid hitting the wall, and keep the higher levels of stress at bay. When you see or feel these trigger signs, find an alternative to break the cycle. For some people this could be a simple as a stress ball, or standing up from their chair, or even looking out the window. What you're trying to do at this stage is break the escalation cycle, because after the triggers you'll hit a point of no return and things can become very nasty!

If you find the anger still creeping up and your tricks haven't worked so far, then ask the customer if they'd mind you putting them on hold (or if it's face to face, excusing yourself for a moment), and take 30 seconds or a minute to break off and calm yourself down. Don't slam the phone on the desk, or hit the computer screen, or anything violent -- just BREATH. Close your eyes for a few seconds, and count it out. We're trying to bring the stress levels down so you can resume dealing with things.

If that still doesn't work, then it's time to get help from either your supervisor or a colleague. You don't have to win every battle, so asking for help isn't giving up; and it ensures that both you and the customer are better off for the experience. Have someone else take the call so you can re-center yourself and prepare to continue the marathon. Later on, go back through the experience and work out what buttons were pushed to trigger your stress, and learn from the experience for the next time. Get someone to coach you on practicing to deal with the situation so next time you'll be as cool as a cucumber!

Should the situation really get to you and start to make you doubt yourself, take a minute to reflect back through the days and months of your job and actively search out some positive experiences where you really did make a difference to a customer. Maybe read a compliment or note from a customer, or some positive feedback from your supervisor, or an award you received -- anything to remind you of why you're doing what you do, and that you are indeed great at it! Don't let one bad experience bring you down.

Finally, when the working day is done, it's time to do a reverse of the visualization you did when you began the day. Once you've completed all your items on the to-do-list, you've logged out and clocked off, take a few minutes to visualize leaving boxes for the work things you need to do tomorrow, placing them on your desk, and visualize yourself leaving the office feeling light and relieved of them -- then make it a reality and get out of there! Congratulate yourself on another daily marathon done.

Go spend time with your family, your dog, your friends, anything to keep a healthy work/life balance. By taking a look at the bigger picture of your working day, developing some tricks and tools to help you maintain control, and establishing the right kind of focus to deal with the challenges of being in customer service, you're assured of keeping the stress-monkey off your shoulder and bounce back day after day doing the thing you love -- satisfying customers!

Mind the Customer Service Gap

Disconnects between differing expectations have been the basis for conflict for as long as humans have been around. Gaps in expectations between husbands and wives, children and parents, employers and employees, and customers and providers, will all lead to deteriorating relationships in one way or another; and when looking through the eyes of "customer service", obviously the customer/provider disconnect is a key concept for professionals in the industry to understand.

Quite often this topic is overly simplified into idioms like "build it and they will come", or "give the masses what they want", providing false comfort that all you need to do is simply ask customers what they want, build it, and then give it to them; soon you'll end up in service heaven. The truth is that there are many types of expectation, each playing a different role in determining whether your customers love your brand.

The podcast reference in this blog link is an interview between BTalk and Nick Coster from Australia's Brainmates, a product management agency that consults on everything from pre/post go to market strategies; including product planning, marketing, and support.

Nick Coster refers to a methodology that has its roots from the mid 80's called SERVQUAL, a 10 point concept developed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry, who established quantitative measures for benchmarking and evaluating the effectiveness of customer service strategies, and who also contributed to defining the "zone of tolerance", which was described as "the difference between desired service and the level of service considered adequate".

SERVQUAL was clunky and complicated, and later simplified into the RATER model, which focused on five key disconnects:  those between a customer’s expectations and perception, between what customers expect and what managers think they expect, between management perception and the actual specification of the customer experience, between experience specification and the actual delivery of the experience, between the delivery of the customer experience and what is communicated to customers.

There were plenty of detractors for SERVQUAL, and I certainly don't endorse anyone adopting the methodology without thought, but I find it an excellent basis to begin the journey of making customer satisfaction an intrinsic business concept. Those who are looking for somewhere to start can do no wrong in using the five gap areas as a basis for opening discussions with their customers, and formulating key actions to improve how they deliver their services.

I find a good (and novel) place to start is the gap between what the customer expects and what is communicated. The unspoken word can be such a powerful influencer, and preconceived ideas based on previous experience such a difficult concept to change, that becoming explicit in plain language about what you're going to do, how, why, and when, can immediately set a level playing ground between customers and providers.

A majority of customer complaints come from having paid money for an expected level of service, mostly because the provider wasn't upfront to begin with. This does mean having a good strong look at your competitive model, but that's part and parcel of being in the red ocean.

I also love the fact that these gaps have zero to do with your frontline -- it focuses on the gaps that are caused by management and the decision makers of the provider, and it's at that level of the organization where those disconnects need to be identified and closed.

There are case studies on the Internet that you can take a look at which will help you formulate your questionnaires and research for determining your scores using the SERVQUAL methods. Reading the case studies is good, but my opinion is that the scores really do not matter, and I certainly wouldn't encourage using them to determine whether you're doing better by looking for higher scores. At the end of the day, these are statistics, and we all know how these can be misinterpreted. I am a strong advocate of the belief that you'll know you are doing better if your customers start telling you so.

Instead, use the model to help define where you'll begin your journey, and then map out your path picking whichever gap areas you think are the most important. Talk to customers directly, and then investigate their concerns against your internal procedures, policies, capabilities and infrastructure, even your marketing, and match the concerns/problems against the gap categories. Whichever category has the most grievances would be where I would devote my time and resources.

One by one, day by day, you'll improve in your key areas -- those that have the biggest impact to your customers. Stick to your roadmap, and avoid shifting direction purely based on the prevailing winds.

Pretty soon you'll start to feel the impact through a decrease in customer compliments, getting more new customers, lower churn, reduced employee attrition, and best of all higher sales.

India warms to social media for customer service

In a country with over 1.2 billion people and a growth rate of 1.58%, businesses in India face a unique challenge in continuing to deliver high levels of customer service, when the size of their customer base increases in leaps and bounds.

More customers equate to more inquiries, calls for support, and complaints; and therefore more humans to deal with the volume. The problem is you cannot keep expanding your infrastructure infinitely, otherwise in 5 years time we'll see call centers the size of small suburbs. Every human, desk, computer, phone line, and all the other costs associated with handling a customer, also eats into valuable margin. Companies eventually reach a point where they become reluctant to just keep adding more.

In the past, this was "easily" solved - just outsource! Lower costs meant you could have double or triple the assets for the same price, and instantly beef up your customer service resources as needed. Yet companies soon saw the pains associated with outsourcing, such as cultural and language barriers, hesitation or outright rejection by the customer base, and a loss of direct control and a diminished care factor that comes with someone "outside the business" taking care of their dirty laundry. The outsourcing horror stories were painfully comical, so long as they were happening to someone else.

Even before outsourcing, there was also a trend towards what was known as "self-service"; essentially removing the need to provide additional resources by implementing technology solutions such as IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and very basic internet portals. These options would allow customers to service their own needs without the need for additional people. However, many companies noticed that these systems tended to generate problems themselves -- customers randomly bashing the phone keypad simply to talk to an operator, or filling out online forms with nonsensical messages and outright abusive rants, after having been shoved along a path where they felt they were being abandoned by the companies that they supported. These arms-length clinical approaches left customers feeling neglected, and very soon businesses were looking for the next solution.

Then, between 2004 and 2006, we saw the uprise of Web 2.0, a new form of the Internet that encouraged interaction, self design, open source, and more importantly an equal playing ground for anyone with a laptop and the desire to get involved.

It has taken many years for companies to even consider adopting such confronting platforms like Facebook and Twitter, preferring to leave them as "tools for fools", and treating them as very "anti-corporate". However, this time the tables were turned, and as customers have become more sophisticated and tech-savvy, they've considering this format as both convenient and engaging; and they want more. They now actively seek out companies who use social media, and have made it part of their personal buying criteria. They rely on peer referrals, and even reviews by people they don't know, choosing instead to leverage on the swarm mind in helping them decide who to transact with; and more importantly, who to trust.

Yes, you'll still need more humans, but Web 2.0 offers you the ability to retain your customer service talent in-house, use multi skilled agents or even home based employees to ramp up your numbers, and start engaging customers in a way that is becoming mandatory for commerce in the 21st century.

No, it's not as easy as plugging in more telephones and training hundreds of employees on scripted call routines, but it's the way of the people. This is a revolution, and companies who choose to ignore it (or even worse hide from it) will get left behind.

There are many consultants and advisors who can help companies to adopt strategies for integrating Web 2.0 into their business operations, and the rewards that will come from meeting your customers needs by getting online and making yourself available in these mediums, will easily outweigh the minor costs to make it happen.

Houston airports try high-tech surveillance to improve customer service

Houston airports have trialled a great idea of combining their existing surveillance systems (which given the threat levels in the last decade must be substantial) with predictive customer service models to deliver streamlined processing of customers, and a tool to better understand the bottlenecks and natural flow of traffic through the airport.

Use of technology in situations like this gives a very different skew on hearing the voice of the customer, which I think is a good balance given the sometimes biased feedback we know market feedback can be susceptible to. And rather than waiting for situations to occur that could give rise to customer complaints, such as lengthy check in queues, these systems will in time predict potential operational problems and flag for the necessary action well ahead of a crisis point.

Does it raise privacy concerns? Of course it will, but the technology is there whether we like it or not, and the fact that the positive aspects can outweigh any negative ones is certainly encouraging. I'd be more concerned about the security of data storage and access retrieval rather than being watched by a supercomputer as I traverse the airport terminal! I would just hope that the supercomputer prioritizes it's no-fly-list facial recognition software before the long-queue-detection-algorithm, lest I be queue jumped by a terrorist.

The emphasis here for professionals and businesses who care about customer service is the shift from reactive to proactive strategies. Given the horrendous encounters many people often experience in airports, I would imagine technology like this may be greeted with applause rather than suspicion.

Electrical stores ramp up customer service

The Financial Times released an interesting article showing how the white and brown line consumer goods industry is recognizing customer service as the new "battleground", now that the flames of the pricing parity war have subsided and the dust has settled to show no clear winner.

The UK consumer goods industry has been rattled in recent years by the entrance of digital retailers and large supermarket chains, who have been slowly staking out territory in what's commonly been high street turf -- something we also see here in the Philippines. With the appearance of these players, price wars were inevitable, as groups vied for market share at almost any cost - but such tactics cannot be sustained for very long in most cases, and blue ocean strategies are now being looked for to differentiate the players. Add to this the complexity of the products being sold, and it's easy to see many opportunities where value added customer service (ala The Geek Squad) becomes a prime area for investment.

Identifying customer pain and developing new services to essentially outsource those problems from the customer, then combining those services with technological solutions that can potentially eliminate phone calls to call centers or repair service attendance, have become the arsenal of companies looking to outdo their competition.

You'll notice in the article that Dixon's "Knowhow" customer service platform took two years to plan and develop, with a hefty price tag. Yet they had the vision, forethought, focus, and long term goal of profit over time, to help them set a direction and stick with it. They know the hefty margins that can come from value added services, and are seeking to exploit this opportunity as much as possible - while using it as market differentiator at the same time.

We're seeing similar strategies being employed in the finance, travel, and hospitality sectors too. As the Internet levels the playing field, and websites like "Not Good Enough" and "Twitter" hook in social networking, you can bet that consumers will come to expect the same service offerings to start appearing in other industries as well.

Without a road map, and the conviction to stick to a plan and avoid letting the daily ups and downs of the market distract you, most companies will flounder and fall to the wayside over the next 12 to 24 months, as the competition for consumer brain space and the pursuit of exceptional customer service becomes key corporate strategy.

You don't need to spend billions or even millions, to get a head start in this game -- but you have to get the facts right by hearing what your customers want, and then exceeding those expectations time and time again, across multiple delivery channels, 24 x 7.

It's a long distance marathon, not a sprint to the finish line, and the sooner companies realize and embrace this reality, the sooner they can get on with aligning themselves to the paradigm shift that's taking place.

Call center worker has own tale of woe

This is my 20th year in customer service, and although it's been a few years since I have been on the front-line taking calls, I can still connect with the story of this call center worker and his frustrations at trying to deliver customer service, while working in a tightly controlled "numbers environment".


For those who haven't worked in a call center, it's got to be the most measured environment you can possibly be in - everything from toilet breaks to pauses in your speech, how long you talk to your attendance (down to the second).


For those who have or do work in call centers, I need not say more, and i'd love to hear your comments first hand!


This "numbers environment" structure comes from an outdated model that stretches back to the late 19th century when the first electromechanical automatic telephone exchange was invented by Almon Strowger, and the first switchboard operators began appearing. In the early 1900's, as these exchanges began to handle more and more calls, engineers began struggling to develop ways of efficiently handling the growing traffic through the use of statistically predictive models - most notably starting with the "Erlang", which was developed by A.K Erlang.

The Erlang began as a way of calculating how many lines you would need to handle a certain number of calls lasting a certain amount of time, but soon spread to calculating how many people you'd need too. Thus began the micro-measurement of the call center environment.


What was overlooked in this clinical approach to "handling calls" was of course "handling customers". Customers themselves are such a highly unpredictable variable in your calculation, that it's the bane of any call center manager or workforce planner. What if you're customer is hard of hearing? Or doesn't have just one question but ten? Or your computer is running slow because of a Windows update? Although their is room for some variation in the calculation, overall the method tends to ignore these as "anomalies" that can be dealt with  by someone else (namely the person taking the call!).


In an industry where the focus now is to go beyond handling calls, or even just delivering customer satisfaction, and into the realm of delighting customers and turning them into cult followers of brands, one has to ask what new approaches are being taken now to move away from this old antiquated model and look for a new way of embracing technology and people in such as a way that all parties win.


Attrition is the killer of call centers, not just in terms of cost for acquisition and training, but in terms of interruption to service, transition of account management, team morale, and the hurtful fact that knowledge is walking out your door.


If the industry cannot adopt a new attitude and implement enablers for staff to deliver the level of service we all know we want, then we're sadly heading towards a zero sum game.


Don't get me wrong, this isn't a simple weekend project. There are many factors to weigh up, many angles to consider, but the key is businesses have to begin thinking and implementing now, to ensure alignment with their people on the ground and the organization goal of delighting customers.


I encourage you to read the story and let me know you're thoughts!

JobStreet.com JOBGANTIC Career Fair 2011 this August 2011

If you're looking to change your job or career, or are just starting out in the work force, then job/career fairs are a great way to get yourself on the radar of the right potential employers. With summer over, it's time to get cracking on establishing yourself in a career, rather than aimlessly hopping from one job to the next.

You might think careers are for doctors and lawyers, but careers in customer service offer legitimate long term opportunities for anyone serious about going professional. Jobs put food on your table today, while careers feed your family for tomorrow and beyond.

Before you even consider registering yourself for the fair, here's a few tips:

First, get your resume into order. Not only do you need to make sure it's current, you need to make sure it sells yourself in the right way, for the kind of job you're looking for. If that's customer service, then you need to demonstrate not just your academic history, but also clear evidence that you're putting yourself on a path to professionalism.

List any outside activities, training courses or seminars that you've attended that focus on aspects of customer service. Emphasize any jobs (whether part time or full time, or even voluntary) that were in the service of others. Better yet, include written references from people who can confirm your skills in this area. Don't just put "references available on request", put names and contact details to show you're upfront and honest.

Ensure the timeline of your resume is complete, and any gaps are clearly explained. Put an introductory paragraph that explains what you're looking for, why you think you'd be a great asset to the employer, and that you're thinking "long term career" rather than a "job for a year".

Keep in mind that your resume will be amongst hundreds, if not thousands, of other applicants. So step it up and make your resume an advertising tool -- don't just submit a "bio-sheet" with data. You need to tell your story in a concise and clear way so that it will attract the eye of potential employers, and make them pay attention when you get to the interview.

Remember : professionals choose their careers, so make it clear to anyone reading your resume that you're going pro. High caliber customer service professionals are sought after and in demand, and there are opportunities to make excellent money, to travel, and to do extra study -- and this doesn't mean you have to become a call center manager either. Commissions and incentives are being offered by employers to stop attrition and retain talent, so make yourself valuable and get in the game!

Once your resume is ready, register your it with JobStreet.com early because they'll have tens of thousands of applications to sift through!

Next, start to polish your interview techniques ready for the big day by doing a practice with your family or friends. Think through your answers to common questions like "what attracts you to this field?", "what qualities do you bring to the job", and "what are your strengths and weaknesses". Run through this as many times as you need until you're confident. And remember, the interviewers have done this thousands of times and have heard all the corny generic responses, so be creative, honest, and different.

You also need to be very clear about what you want -- will you work night shift, weekends? Are you prepared to travel, or even relocate? What salary expectations do you have? What do you really know about the type of job you're applying for? You need to prove you've done your homework BEFORE the fair itself.

In the DOLE May 2011 job fair, over 70,000 people attended and only 12% received job offers on the spot. Tough competition! But I can guarantee you that those 7,000+ people that got job offers were not picked purely based on their academic or job experience -- they were picked because theystood out from the sea of 70,000 other people.

On the day, dress like a professional, know yourself inside and out, and go in with a positive attitude -- and get their early! The fair opens at 10am, so be at the doors at 9am or earlier, make sure you have a good hearty breakfast, and be prepared to change your life -- and that of your family too!

Be serious and go pro...best of luck!

Your Travel Complaints Now Settled by Technology

An excellent tactic if you can efficiently manage both your service levels AND your technology -- beat your customer to the punch, and initiate compensation for bad service BEFORE they even ask for it! This can only be done using smart technology, so businesses who are serious about service recovery need to wrap their heads around this stuff sooner rather than later, because it's guaranteed that the competition is!!

Customers Chat One-to-One in Bank’s Virtual Facebook Branch

The financial sector pushes along with using social technology to close the gap in dealing with customer service, while minimizing the ever growing costs of managing a larger customer base - a fine balance indeed, but better that the the millions in *other* fines we're recently seeing (see previous story on Lloyds). Invest now, or pay later.

STORY - Outstanding Customer Service

It's important to remember the human side of customer service, because after all it's where those at the frontline can have the maximum impact with your customers. As this story proves, it doesn't have to be about gimmicks and tricks, service level agreements or market feedback - a simple act of empathy can turn a consumer into a fan....give it a try!

How to Turn a Customer Complaint Call into a Customer Retention Strategy

Great site on handling customer complaints and turning them into a customer retention strategy that'll generate long term business opportunities from negative situations. A handy reference to get you thinking about how to apply the basic principles into your own operations and win win win! Good also for frontliners on how you play a significant part in the retention process.