Making Lemonade in a Crisis – Part 3

This is my last email about my webinar with Lee Milteer and how I’m using it to:

1. Cement my relationship with clients
2. Get something done that I didn’t get to before
3. Create a new product for my business

Again, the intent here is to inspire you to do the same three things right now in your business, not to toot my horn.

On Monday, we’ll discuss one of my incredible private clients’ who is not only getting through this, but setting her sights on a whole new income stream when it’s over.

Back to my webinar with Lee

The webinar with Lee started out as me trying to give you something for free that you can use now.

I invited Lee, who is the best GET YOUR HEAD SCREWED ON PROPERLY person on the planet to join me.

Members of my Customer Service and Leadership Monthly Membership Program get Lee’s Millionaire Smarts Program on “proper thinking for business profits” with their membership.

For some time I’ve wanted to offer Lee’s Millionaire Smarts to you even if you don’t want to be in my Customer Service and Leadership Membership.

Until I started planning the webinar with Lee I didn’t know she doesn’t allow that.

Here’s why she doesn’t allow it…

Her program is designed to be included as a bonus to members of business coaches programs… like I do. She wants to keep the value of that bonus as high as possible. If the program is out and about for anyone, it might reduce the value in the eyes of the members and coaches.

BUT…
When I told Lee what I wanted to do she said, “Keith, I don’t allow that, but these are crazy times. Let’s do it.”

So… now I have another product to offer you that I would not have except for this crazy virus… Making Lemonade!

You can get that product for free for two months here

In review… with the webinar with Lee I have:

1. Cemented my relationship with you by giving you something of value for free
2. Got something done that I didn’t get done before
3. Created a income stream for my business

On Monday, I’ll be talking about my amazing client, Kyong Lee from Nutley School of Music, in Passaic NJ – just outside of New York City – Covid 19 Ground Zero.

She thought she might need to close her business and maybe not come back. Instead… her sales are down only 7% and she’s planning of a whole new stable income stream when this blows over. She’s amazing!

And I’ll be discussing another client who wrote to me, “My business faces collapse. What is the way forward for me?”

After I talked with him he wrote, “Thank you very much for your time. Great human being such as yourself are what any entrepreneur needs around them – especially in this rather testing time. Your words of wisdom an encouragement were very inspiring and I will make sure that I make the best of opportunity that this tragic incident of corona virus presents.”

That client in London will be using the same strategy to stay in business as Kyong is using and he will very likely create a new stable income stream when this is done.

If you think this is valuable, share it so other business owners can use it.

Stay Safe

Grumpy Must Be a Make-You-Happy Customer Service Fanatic

Whenever I speak on the topic of customer service, I ask a few “audience participation” questions at the beginning to get the group warmed up and introduce my topic.

One of the questions often ask is, “How many of you get “Who’s the Boss” Customer Service? The level of customer service that says to you, This business really understand that I, the customer, am the boss. I give them every pay check they’ll ever get.”

How many of you get that kind of customer service most of the time? No hands go up.

When I say half the time, a few hands go up.

When I said 25%, a lot of times most of go up.

When I said 10% of the time, again, a few more hands go up.

Frankly, I am usually surprised by the number of people who say they receive “Who’s the Boss” customer service 25% of the time. For me, it’s more like 10%

I think it’s because I’ve harped on exceptional customer service so long that I have become jaded. Maybe my expectations of exceptional customer service have gone beyond what’s likely to happen.

I do get it 10% of the time, so I know it’s possible, so I’m going to keep my expectations high. I’m going to stay with my fanatical approach to exceptional customer service.

But I need to warn you, when you get to the point where I am, you’re likely to be grumpy more often because you’ll go into places wanting and expecting exceptional customer service, and you’re not going to get it.

Like today, when I went to lunch. Most of the time when I go shopping or to a restaurant, I’ll say something to the clerk whether the clerk says anything or not. You probably do the same.

But every once in a while, because I’m a customer service fanatic and teaches others how to deliver Make-You-Happy Customer Service,  I don’t say anything… just to see what happens.

I’m absolutely amazed at how often the clerk on the other side of the counter says absolutely nothing.

OK, I really don’t get Grumpy because I know that my clients who practice Make-You-Happy Customer Service love competing with, and beating the competition who doesn’t.

You can get my book, The Happy Customer Handbook for free, just click here. I simply ask that you pay $2.97 for shipping and handling.

Create an Experience

My wife, Patty, and I spent almost all of April on a vacation in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.  Here’s a customer service lesson from that amazing trip.

Today in lots of businesses, it’s about, The Experience. People shop at Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop for the experience.  American Girl Doll is about the in store experience.  When my wife and I we in London last year, regardless or the time of day, the line to get into the Lego store was at least 50 long.

Cruising on The Crystal Symphony is all about the experience.

Can you make what you do an experience?

Follow along with me. You’ll see exactly what I mean. Go to the internet, get Louis Armstrong’s, “What a Wonderful World” and start playing it now.

Picture this. You grew up in a lower income family. The address on my birth certificate is #9 Fink Trailer Court, Minot, ND. Vacations were great. I loved them. I got to see my cousins. But visiting far off lands was for rich people – certainly NOT ME. I certainly never pictured myself on a luxury cruise ship in Bali, Indonesia. You’ve just had a wonderful time ashore discovering a new exotic land. You’re dressing for a casual dinner. You realize you’re leaving port so you step out onto your balcony as the sun sets and you hear Louis Armstrong’s, “What a Wonderful World” playing over the ships speakers. As I’m writing this today, I tear up.

“I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world”

Now you hear a winsome single cry from the ships fog horn.

By the time we left our last port everyone was outside to hear Louis Armstrong and wipe away tears. No one on that cruise will ever hear that song again and not think of their Crystal Cruise.
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Then later that night, after leaving our last port the ship’s captain gives delivers toast.

“Here’s to tall ships.
Here’s to small ships.
Here’s to all the ships on the sea.
But the best ships are friendships so
Here’s to you and ME!
Until we meet again.”

And yes, we made new friends. With only 850 passengers, verses up to 6,680 on the biggest ships it was easy to meet people. We plan to visit Willie and Elaine Montgomery in Ireland in two years.

Please don’t miss this, again, the big thing for Crystal Cruises is doing high end cruising well, but the hook… the way they get you back and have your raving to other is the emotional experience.

I’m guessing they’ll book 20 cruises from people I’ve told about Crystal.

How can you create an emotional experience
for your customers, clients, patients or members?

On Crystal, it starts with the size of the ship. The Crystal Symphony has 850 passengers. An average cruise ship today has around 3,500 passengers and the largest have more than 6,000. With the smaller ship you see many of the same staff often. They get to know you and you get to know them.

When Patty and I were not with my brother and his wife and Tirso saw us he asked, “Where are Ron and Mary?” When he saw us in around the ship he’s exclaim, “It’s martini time soon. Will I see you on Lido deck?” That’s doing a little thing right… and it becomes a big thing.
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You also start seeing people who like to do the same things as you. The entertainment on the ship was fabulous and that’s where we met Willie and Elaine.
They had an early show and a late show every evening. Willie and Elaine, my brother and his wife, and Patty and I went to the late show and we always sat middle left. We were soon talking with Willie and Elaine all over the ship.

Follow this link and discover how to deliver
WOW, emotional customer service in your business.  

Did You Know.. Tinker Bell and the Tooth Fairy are FRIENDS?

In June our entire family… our kids, grandkids and Patty and I went to Hawaii.  For part of the trip, we stayed at Disney’s Aulani Resort on the island of Oahu.

When I owned American Retail Supply we had a distribution center in Honolulu so I had a bunch of Hawaiian Airlines miles saved up. Enough for all seven of us. Yeah!!!

Our granddaughter Whitney had a very loose front tooth and when she bit into here shave ice (like a snow cone), out it came.

Jen, Whitney’s mom, went to the Shave Ice counter and asked for a napkin mentioning that Whitney had lost her tooth.

The cast member at the counter exclaimed, “Oh My Gosh, did you know Tinker Bell and The Tooth Fairy are friends? With a wink of her eye, she told Jen to go to the concierge desk and let them know Whitney lost her tooth and they would make sure Tinker Bell told The Tooth Fairy.

Jen and Whitney went to the concierge desk to get Whitney’s Lost Tooth Certificate and make sure The Tooth Fairy knew Whitney was at Aulani.

And then surprise, surprise, not only did Whitney get her normal fifty cent piece from the Tooth Fairy under her pillow, she got a special pin from Tink.

Bet she’ll tell all her friends, likely keep forever, and tell her children! When it comes to getting Guests back Disney doesn’t just think about current Guests, they think generationally.

Disney doesn’t miss a step in finding ways to WOW their Guests! Sure, their demographic guarantees that they’ll have more lost teeth than most places, but they can’t have that many.

This front line Disney Cast Member didn’t miss a beat in tell Jen to visit the concierge desk. That doesn’t just come about. It’s trained. Be sure that you’re training your team to WOW your customer, client, member or patients.

Share this story with your team and ask if they have ideas for WOWING your customers.
This article is example of the content in The Team Member (Employee) Newsletter I provide my Inner Circle clients.

Do you think your team members would remember to WOW your customers, clients, patients or members if they got weekly reminders like this?

Right now, for a limited time, you can get The Make-You-Happy Customer Service System for just $67 and test drive the monthly customer service newsletter, emails and videos for free. Plus you’ll get some very cool marketing resources for FREE

Click here for details

What Would Walt Do?

You may have seen that I’m leading a Customer Service Expedition to Disney World with my friend Vance Morris in February.

I’ve, mostly, been discussing it in my Customer Service tips and newsletters, but it’s critical to understand that ALL GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE STARTS WITH GREAT LEADERSHIP.

While at Disney World, you’ll discover the secrets Disney leadership uses to get minimum wages employees (cast members) delivering, what is considered by many to be, THE MODEL for The World Best Customer Service.

My friend and mentor Dan Kennedy is a self described curmudgeon (a bad-tempered or surly person), yet he seldom goes on vacation anywhere other than Disney World. He says, “One of the reasons I go to Disney World is that I am never told no.”

Vance Morris, my co-host on our Disney Business Accelerator Service Boot Camp is a past ten year executive with Disney. I’ll be asking this question to Vance and other current Disney execs we meet with at the boot camp. “My friend says he comes to Disney World because he’s never to no. How do you train your team to not say no when the answer is no?”

What question will you ask the current
Disney execs when we meet with them?

P.S. February in Orlando sounds pretty nice eh?

What would Walt do
with your business or practice?

There is an insidious decline in customer and client service in America with many customer service departments focused on neither service nor customers. This gradual, seemingly harmless, decline may not be easily noticed, but it is having a grave effect on the profits of businesses across America. And if Walt Disney were to rescue some these laggards of customer service, here is what he would do…

The first thing Walt would do with your business is to infuse some magic into it. But not the magic that you may be thinking of… A different sort of magic.

You generally do not hear or use the word magic in business, unless of course you are a magician. You won’t find magic on a balance sheet or in a financial statement of any business. Most bean counters will probably not be able to measure the return on investment (ROI) for magic, nor is it depreciated or amortized over the next 20 years. How then, does the Disney company, a multi-billion dollar global enterprise manage to generate so much money around magic?

We all know that there really is no magic. Only the illusion thereof. To the audience the magic show is something that can be completely amazing, filled with wonderment and joy. Not knowing how the trick or illusion is performed is all part of the fun of a magic show. However, to the magician performing the show, the perspective is the polar opposite.

A magic show is merely a very systematic event, a series of repeatable steps designed to create a specific outcome; the delight and amazement of the audience. Now to answer the question posed above… Disney really has practical magic all figured out. I hate to burst your bubble, but contrary to popular legend, Disney does not have a mine where pixie dust is extracted and then showered on the cast members (Disney speak for employee) before every working shift. They just have a REPEATABLE, replicable system to perform their show.

It is practiced.
It is updated.
It is practiced again, and again and again.

Then it is performed. Whether it be at a restaurant at one of the resorts, an attraction at a park or the route the buses take, all the magic at Disney is created with repeatable, replicable, practiced systems.

The next thing Walt would do with your business would be to implement some WOW components to how you serve your clients. The question Walt would ask you is “how can you create an experience out of the mundane”

The Wow Component means not only to meet the expectations of your clients or guests, but to exceed them, on a repeatable and consistent basis. To be sure, there are many companies that may WOW their clients occasionally. Maybe the occasional “above the call of duty” experience. Getting upgraded for free on a flight, extra whipped cream on a sundae, or an employee just did everything possible to make an unhappy client, happier.

But to truly Disnify your business, you need to make exceeding your clients’ expectations your standard operating procedure. In order to consistently exceed your clients’ expectations, you must be dogmatic, strict and unyielding in your pursuit. Analyzing your clients’ experience (from their perspective, not yours), understanding your Client Compass (Needs, Wants, Stereotypes and Emotions) and committing every part of your business (Processes, Infrastructure, Design and Training) to creating a magical experience.

The next thing, Walt would introduce to your business is to have an obsession with details. Walt Disney was famous for his attention to every detail and he dictated that everyone had the same attention that he did.

Every business should be about the details. One small oversight of the smallest of details is the beginning of the end for you. You must be unwavering in your demand for adherence to every detail in your business.

One of the chief causes of failure today is the striving for unearned success. Doing just the bare minimum in providing service and then wondering why your client never calls you back. I recently had an appliance repair company come to the house to fix a noise in the drier. When they arrived the technician was in a clean uniform (it was already 2 oclock and he had been working), placed a mat on my porch to wipe his feet, placed a towel under his tool bag and used special mat to slide out the drier so he would not scratch the floor. Now mind you, the drier is in my basement on a concrete floor and he still used the special mat. Deciding on the right “level” for each thing we do is important.

Walt once said: even if I’m the only one that notices, some things are still worth doing, because I need to be prideful to be motivated. I’m paraphrasing, but I’m close. I have to be proud of what I do, at least comfortable with it, regardless of others’ appreciation. And if I lived on others’ appreciation, my service would be nowhere as powerful as it is. Few clients can appreciate every nuance, my reasoning and the psychology behind the service I provide, many take it for granted, hardly anybody faints from awe or gives my technicians standing ovation.

Walt would then create a Service Theme and Service Standards for your business. Disney’s Service Theme is “To create happiness for people of all ages everywhere.” Vaguely sounds like a USP, doesn’t it? This Theme is the foundation and prerequisite for all undertakings at Disney. Every decision made by the cast and management is measured against it.

Service Standards are then set to create the specific actions that are necessary to achieve the Service Theme. Disney has ONLY FOUR Service Standards. Here they are in order of importance: Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency.

This is cut in stone.
It is immovable.
There is no questioning it.
This is the guiding principle for everything that happens at Disney.

Safety: Safety is built into everything they do. It is the first consideration when they are designing Rides and Resorts, Emergency Services, Environmental Protection, Prevention, Training and Policies & Procedures.

Courtesy: Courtesy is taught from day 1. The fundamentals include Treating every Guest as a VIP, knowing the answers to questions (or finding the answers), giving the personal touch, using friendly phrases and gestures and being aggressively friendly.

Show: Show is integrated into every element of setting and theme. This includes Cast Appearance, Costumes, Documentation, Show Quality reviews, Standards Manuals, and of course, Cast Members are performers as well as service providers.

Efficiency: Efficiency involves both the utilization of facilities and systems and the cast members who operate them. Points that are considered include: Capacity of Facility, Guest Flow Patterns, Sales, Speed of Service, Space Utilization and Operational Readiness.

In order to have over 75,000 employees providing a seamless, exciting and memorable experience to millions upon millions of people 365 days a year, you must have a systematic process to avoid the utter chaos that would ensue.

There are processes for every little thing that occurs at Disney. From putting air in bus tires, to the bus drivers’ greeting to guests, from how many lanes are needed at the entrance to the park to how the parking lots are filled up, there is a step-by-step, exacting procedure for each.

And as with any good plan, process or system, there are clog or combustion points, and breakdowns can occur. And instead of creating a happy memory for a guest, that clog point can turn a good day into a bad one rapidly. One example we worked on was the “Lost Car” problem.

Imagine if you will that you have rented a car, (Continued P10 – What Would Walt Do?)
that by the way looks like just about all the other rental cars in Orlando, and you parked it in a veritable ocean of other cars early in the morning. Then after 8, 10, twelve hours at the Magic Kingdom, they emerge only to forget where they parked. Was it Goofy 5, Pluto 4 or Daisy 9? (Disney names and numbers its’ lots after their characters). The tram drivers also announce those locations as guests board the trams, but still, cars are lost.

Now instead of leaving those sunburned, exhausted and weary tourists wandering will-nilly through the acres of parking lots, the cast came up with a fix of sorts. Since the parking lots are filled in a specific order, the tram drivers began keeping track of what lot and row they were in at the time the cars were parked in the morning. That list was then distributed to the next shift of parking attendants. So if the guest could remember at least an approximate time they arrived, they could narrow down where the car was.

Examining your processes and choke points could reveal some serious client and guest pain points.

Finally, and this really is the bottom line point: You are running a business. Disney, at the end of the day is a BUSINESS. And the whole point of running a business is to generate PROFIT. As of this writing, Disney has just increased it park entry tickets by another 5%, and NO ONE is complaining. If they are, they are doing so quietly, as the theme parks are having record attendance. Also, as of this writing, Disney announced that they have raised their stock dividends a whopping 34% after a year of record results.

IF that’s not a reason to Disnify your business, I don’t know what is.

Join Vance Morris, ten year Disney exec and me at Disney World Ferbruary 27 – March 2 and discover how to Disnify Your Business.

Get your Invitation and complete details at https://keithlee.com/disney-info.

How Would You Like an Unpaid Employee?

“You have reached the highest level in sales when your Client views you as an unpaid employee.”                                                                                           ~ Zig Ziglar

That statement has had a profound impact on my life and now that I teach customer service I change it to, “You have reached the highest level in sales when your Client views you as an unpaid employee.” 

I’m not bragging, but when I was a sales rep I did very well, and it was because I believed and practice the statement above from Zig Ziglar.

When I started at American Retail Supply (Thompson Marking Service) in 1978 the only products we sold were hand-held price marking equipment and labels.  My job was to drive, or walk, from one retail store to the next, sell price marking guns, service the guns for existing Clients, and sell them labels for their price markers.  I was paid on straight commission.

Zig’s statement of, “You have reached the highest level of sales when your Client views you as an unpaid employee” was right in line with what I learned from Dick Thompson, the founder of American Retail Supply.  Dick said, “You can only get in direct proportion to what you give.”

With Dick and Zig’s advice, along with parents who taught me the same principles, I headed out to sell price marking equipment and labels.  The Client’s in my territory hadn’t had anyone calling on them for almost three years and I found that most of them had started buying from another company who had a sales rep coming around periodically.

As I entered the Client’s store I looked at the labels on their product to determine the type of pricing equipment they used.  While I did this I looked for labels that weren’t printing properly.  In those days the price marking equipment needed periodic adjustments and the tracks needed to be cleaned for the price marker to work properly.

As I introduced myself, many of the Clients told me they didn’t buy from us any longer because we had not been around to service them and another company came in once in a while.

I had learned from my parents that what you say isn’t nearly as important as what you do, so I simply told them that’s fine, and let them know I would still love to clean and service their labelers.  If they hesitated, I would point out the labels that weren’t printing properly and almost always was able to clean and service their labelers.  Then I showed them what I did to fix the problem and often gave them a hint or two on maintaining the labelers.  Sometimes I walked out with an order.

Most of the time I thanked the Client and told them I would be back in a few months.  Most of the time when I told them I would be back in a few months they reminded me that they didn’t buy from us any longer.  I simply replied, “That’s fine.”

When I showed up a few months later I was often reminded that they no longer buy from us.  I again serviced the labelers and left with more orders.  Over the three years I was an outside sales rep almost every Client who originally told me they no longer bought from us became my Client and many are Clients today.

Zig’s lesson that, “You have reached the highest level of sales when your Client views you as an unpaid employee” served me well as a sales person, and is still our goal today at American Retail Supply.

I originally published my newsletter for my American Retail Supply in 1993 with the thought that I would research an issue and bring what I found to my customers with the hope that it would be of value and help their business thrive… which of course, meant they would need more supplies and fixtures.

“You have reached the highest level in sales when your Client views you as an unpaid employee.”                                                                                           ~ Zig Ziglar

You can learn more about Zig Ziglar at www.ZigZiglar.com

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You for free.  We just ask that you pay $2.97 to help cover shipping and handling.  Go to www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.

Who’s Your Competition

The Competition is Anyone the Customer Compares You to

I learned this from Disney.  One of the ways people experience Disney is by telephone. Disney gets thousands of calls every day.  Many of the calls are from the same people who call businesses that are known for their great telephone service.  Businesses like LL Bean, Cabela’s, and FedEx.

So when the same people who call Cabela’s or FedEx, or anyone with superior telephone service, call Disney, Disney understands that they are being compared to the service people get when calling Cabela’s or FedEx.  Disney then does what they need to do to “compete” with FedEx’s telephone service.

So the lesson is, don’t just think of your competitors as the businesses that sell the same things you do.  Think of the competition as anyone who deals with your customers in any way. Learn the best practices from anywhere you can, determine how you can use them in your business, and implement them.

Here’s an example of how we did this in our business.  Many years ago, we did what everyone in our industry did.  When we got an order for a stock item it shipped two to four days later.  I happened to call Cabela’s to get some fly fishing supplies and they said the order would ship that afternoon.  So, thinking of what I learned from Disney, I said to myself, “We need to do that,” and we did.  Today if an order is received within 30 minutes of our FedEx pick up, it ships that day.

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

We Always Have Perfect Customer Service – NOT!

We Always Have Perfect Customer Service – NOT!

In all of my businesses, we make mistakes.    We spend lots of time and money to make our procedures as efficient and foolproof as possible, but we still make mistakes.  So, where do I get off telling people like you that you need to have Exceptional Customer Service?

While nobody likes to be at the receiving end of a mistake, we all know that people make mistakes.  Exceptional Customer Service requires that we first person your customer talks to solve the problem?”

Does everyone in your business know how to help an upset customer?

Do your customers know that Exceptional Customer Service is what they should expect from you?

I get a few phone calls each year from customers who don’t think they are getting Exceptional Customer Service from us.  Almost all of these calls start with, “I read in your newsletter that customer service is important to you, I don’t think I’m getting very good service…” or “A few months ago when I was on hold I heard that you wanted me to call you if I had a problem that wasn’t being taken care of…”  Sure nobody likes getting calls like this but in another way I LOVE GETTING THEM!

What’s the alternative?  For most businesses it’s a customer who really doesn’t want the hassle of complaining.  The customer who goes to the competition and not only doesn’t recommend you to others, but maybe even bad mouths you.  I love customers who give us the opportunity to MAKE THEM HAPPY.  Find a way to tell your customers that you want to know if they are not happy.

I stole an idea from Stu Leonard’s Supermarket in Connecticut.  He has a big sign with his picture that says, What Do You Like?  What Don’t You Like?  I’d Like to Know.  Every invoice we send out has a flyer that asks the same questions Stu Leonard asks.  While it is redundant to send it out with every invoice, we do.  I want to be sure that every customer knows that they should expect Exceptional Customer Service and that I want to know if they don’t get it.

Act

The video, In Search of Excellence, says most suggestion boxes get little to no use.  They say the reason is customers know that their suggestions will get no action.  Stu Leonard’s box is filled, mostly with good comments, every day.  Why do people take the time to write?  The video says it’s because they know something will be done.  If customers take the time to contact you, take the time to let them know what you are doing.

Every customer who writes to us at any of our businesses, whether it’s a good comment or a complaint, gets a response.

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

11 Customer Service Lessons from One Phone Call

I called one of our very good clients who has a brick and mortar store, excellent mail order business, superb telemarketing organization, and a top notch web site.  They don’t have a retail store in my area, so I usually order online or call them.  I order from them for a number of reasons:

  • They are a very good client of ours.
  • Their products are superb.
  • Their service is almost always at the Make-You-Happy level.

 

But even the best businesses fall short, and that’s why we need consistent and persistent reinforcement of Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  One of the areas that continually amazes me is how often people assume they know what you are going to ask and therefore don’t really listen to what you’re saying.

 

I had ordered top quality expensive wading boots from them – I use them for fly fishing in rivers. When I got them, they were too narrow.  I looked through their catalog and saw that the only boot they had in the catalog that was available in wide widths was a lower price model.  Now, I’m not snobby, but my feet are old enough that I need the support and extra sole thickness that most low price models don’t have.

 

So I called the 800 number to ask if they had any higher quality boots in wide widths.  A very nice, good customer service person told me that was the only boot that actually came in a wide width, but suggested that I call back in the morning and ask for a “boot product specialist” and see if one of the boots “ran” wider than the model I ordered.

 

I thought that was a great idea!  I buy New Balance Tennis Shoes for that reason.  I don’t need to get a “wide”, their shoes just “run” wider.  So I called back the next day and asked for a product specialist.  I told him that I had already found out that the only boot they carry in a wide was their inexpensive model and that the customer service person suggested I call back to see if any of the more expensive models “ran” wide and might work for me.  He said, “Let me check.”

 

It was quiet for a while, so I thought he was “checking” with someone else to see if any of their boots “ran” wider.  But then I heard him mumbling on the phone.  He was reading from the web page.  I told him I had already read everything on the web and none of the other boots came in wide widths and asked again if he or anyone there knew if any brands “ran” wider.  He just went back to reading the catalog.  Finally, I just said, “Never mind” and hung up.

Keith Lee's Free Book

I went to the local fly shop that is not very convenient for me to get to and found that they didn’t have any boots that came in wide widths either.  But they did have a great boot that ran wide.  I bought a $139.00 pair of boots.  And yes, you guessed it.  The company I called in the first place has the same boot.

 

The “product specialist” was very nice and polite and I’m sure he had customer service training.  The company’s customer service is consistently too good to think it just comes about without training.  With that said, there are at least 11 lessons to learn from this one call.

 

  1. Train your team to truly listen.

    Pay particular attention to people in your organization who tend to answer questions from you and others before they listen to the entire question. Pay particular attention to those who like to finish questions for others.  Truly listen and don’t assume that you know what someone is going to say.  You know what happens when you assume.  You make ass-u-me.

 

  1. Monitor your customer service.

    This seems almost too obvious, but while it may be obvious, almost no one does it. Whether you use secret shoppers, your own people, or recordings, don’t ass-u-me that your people are doing what they’ve been trained to do. And don’t ass-u-me that they do the same things when you or another manager are around and when you’re not.  You surely can’t monitor every customer service interaction, but in this case, over time, the business I called would certainly hear a similar customer service interaction and be able to address it in their training.

 

  1. Make sure your customers know what to do when they are not being served properly.

    This is included as Customer Service Secret #4 in The Happy Customer Handbook. Be sure your Customer’s Know Your Extraordinary Customer Service Expectations.  But they not only need to know your extraordinary customer service expectations, they need to know what to do when they don’t get Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  In as many ways as you can, tell your customers what them to do when they don’t get Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  Tell them when they are on hold on the phone.  Tell them in any communication that you send to them.  Tell them with signage.  At American Retail Supply we tell our clients to call us at 800-426-5708 if we ever let them down and if they are still not happy call me, Keith Lee, the owner of the company, at 253-859-7310.  If I had been told, “If we ever let you down, please call Bill at xxx-xxx-xxxx I would have likely called Bill who would have found out that they do have a great brand of wading shoes that runs wider.  They would not have only thrilled me, they would have me writing an entirely different story about their Make-You-Happy Customer Service and I would have told you their name and I would have spread a huge amount of positive word-of-mouth advertising!

 

  1. Know Your Product.

    I’m not going to harp on this too much because we are human and we can’t know everything. But I do think that a “boot product specialist” should have known if any of the brands “run” wide.  And if not he should have been trained to do #6 below.

 

  1. Know Your Customers.

    I am a very good customer for the company I called. Good enough that they send me a hard back version of their master catalog that is about an inch and a half thick. I believe in giving every customer Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  With that said, your best customers should be taken care of even to a higher degree.  Yes, the customer that buys $200,000 a year from us gets Super Duper Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  But you say, “How can they know that you’re a great customer?”  That’s Make-You-Happy Customer Service Secret #27.   Have a Great Data Base. I’m going to be blunt here.  With the price of computers and software today, there is simply no excuse for not knowing who your great customers are, and you are throwing money away by not marketing to and treating them differently.  And that difference should not affect giving your other customers Make-You-Happy Customer Service.  In this instance, the product specialist should have pulled up my account, saw that I was one of their best customers and done something special to take care of me. What could he have done?  He could have called someone in the company that knew my answer and called me back.  He could have called his manufacturers and called me back.  He could have gone to the warehouse and tried on some boots to see if any “ran” wide. He could have done something.  Should he have done those things for someone who buys $3.95 a year?  Probably not.  But he should have for one of their best customers.

 

  1. Train people to know where to go to get answers.

    I covered this a bit in #5. There are a lot of things he could have done to answer my question, but the biggest frustration was that he never seemed to listen well enough to hear the question properly. We have a lot of products at American Retail Supply. So regardless of how much training we give them, there is absolutely no way our new reps can know everything when we put them on the phones.  So we spend a lot of time in our training teaching them where they need to go to get answers.  When they start, we constantly remind our reps of the most important sentence to learn, “I’m sorry, I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you by …”  And then get back to them when you told them you would.

 

  1. Create loyal customers.

    In this instance, one of my favorite places to shop let me down. But that’s unusual.  Their service, products and delivery are usually superb and because they are, I’m loyal and I’ll continue to shop with them.

 

  1. You can learn multiple lessons from poor customer service in your business.

    The normal response to bad customer service is to simply blame the person who delivered the poor service. As you can see by the ten things we learned from this one phone call, you can learn a great deal from one instance of poor service and there are lots of things that could have been done so that this didn’t happen.  It’s not just the reps fault.

 

  1. If you truly believe in, and practice, Make-You-Happy Customer Service you will have multiple ways to catch and fix poor customer service.

    When you implement Make-You-Happy Customer Service, you have many more ways to identify, catch, and fix service that is less than Make-You-Happy. One of the basics of Make-You-Happy Customer Service is that you can only expect what you inspect.  In others words you need to have systems in place to inspect your customer if you expect Make-You-Happy customer Service.

 

  1. Your customer service will improve when you implement the Make-You-Happy Management System with the Make-You-Happy Customer Service.

    When you implement the Make-You-Happy Management System all team members are trained to recognize service that falls short of Make-You-Happy Customer Service. They are trained to not only recognize it, but also do something about it.  I don’t have room to go into the Make-You-Happy Management System here, but it not only reinforces Make-You-Happy Customer Service, it creates it!

 

  1. Three Fingers Pointing Back at You.

    I learned a lot of wonderful lessons from my mentor Dick Thompson. One of them is, “remember, when you point your finger at someone else, three fingers are pointing back at you”.  If I’m with someone else and we get poor customer service the other person will often say “I can’t believe how rude (stupid, incompetent, whatever) that person was.”  My response is always the same, “That’s management’s fault.”

 

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

Grumpy Must Have Been a Make-You-Happy Customer Service Fanatic

A story from a Customer Service Fanatic…

Often when I speak to a crowd, I ask people in the audience how often they get “Who’s the Boss” Customer Service” (See secret #40 in my book – The Happy Customer Handbook)  It’s the kind of customer service that shows they really understand that “you, the customer, are the boss.”

When I ask, “How many of you get that kind of customer service most of the time?”  No hands go up.  When I say, “Half of the time,” a few hands go up.  When I say “25% of the time,” most hands go up.

Frankly, I’m surprised that people say they get “Who’s the Boss” customer service 25% of the time, because for me it’s more like 10% of the time.  I think it’s because I’ve harped on exceptional customer service so long that maybe I have gotten a bit jaded.  Maybe my expectations of exceptional customer service have gone beyond what’s likely to happen.  Well, I do get it 10% of the time so I know it’s possible so I’m going to stay where I am.  I’m going to stay with my fanatical approach to exceptional customer service.

But I need to warn you…

When you get to the point where I am, you’re likely to be grumpy more often, because you’ll go into places wanting and expecting exceptional customer service, and you’re not going to get it.  Like today, when I went to lunch.  Most of the time when I go shopping or to a restaurant, I’ll say something to the clerk whether the clerk says anything or not.  But every once in a while, because I’m a customer service fanatic and a guy who writes customer service newsletters and gives customer service advice, I don’t say anything.  I want see what their customer service is like if I don’t saying anything.  I’m absolutely amazed at how often the clerk on the other side of the counter says absolutely nothing.

When I went to restaurant today, I did my little test and planned to not say anything until the clerk did.  The clerk came to the register and looked at me – no smile – not a word.  She just came to the register and looked at me.

I gave her my order, she told me the price – I gave her my money – she gave me my change – and said nothing.  In the entire process the only word that was spoken by the clerk was the price of the meal.  No greeting, no thank you… nothing – just the price.

While you may be Grumpy more often when you become a Make-You-Happy Customer Service Fanatic, it will also put a smile on your face when you realize how crummy most service is.   You’ll smile as you realize that the more people get crummy customer service, the easier it is for you to give what is perceived as Exceptional Customer Service!

You can get my hardcopy book (not an e-book), The Happy Customer Handbook, 59 Secrets to Creating Happy Customers Who Come Back Time and Time Again and Enthusiastically Tell Others About You at www.TheHappyCustomerHandbook.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.