Archive for the Customer Service Category

Some companies make you feel as though it’s a privilege to be their customer.  What they fail to realize is there’s always a choice.  Always another company who provides the same service or product.  People stay with a company because they choose to not because they have to.  Trust takes a long time to build up and quickly unravels with one misstep.

Comcast is no stranger to these customer experience mishaps.  Last summer, a routine cancellation call turned ugly for 20 minutes when the representative became aggressive, condescending, and simply refused to turn off the service.  I’ve had my own frustrations with the cable provider, primarily multiple missed service appointments with no explanation or apology.  We eventually solved the problem by switching to Verizon FiOS.

You’d think Comcast learned their lesson.  As a result of the negative publicity over the cancellation call, a public apology was issued.  Except the embarrassment continues.  A few months ago, a man was transferred to other departments and placed on hold for over 3 hours.  If that wasn’t painful enough, calling on another phone at the same time discovered the service center had closed!

This past week, a customer with the last name Brown wanted to scale back on the service and had his first name on the bill changed to “A-hole” (except not the abbreviated version).  Then, I read about these Philadelphia residents who suffered through 14 missed appointments (including days off from work to be home for the rep).  Ultimately, when a newspaper columnist helped the connection finally happen, the company shamed them by sharing that another customer would suffer via a cancelled appointment because of their good fortune.

This can happen to you.  You’re not the only one out there.  Make a personal connection with your customers and give them a reason to stay with you.

During a town hall meeting today, a senior leader told a couple hundred people that the biggest reason clients leave us is due to a change in their service rep.  I couldn’t disagree more.  That’s only painting half the picture, isn’t it?  Transitioning to a new representative is typically just a symptom, not the cause.

Over the course of an ideal and successful partnership, a service representative (regardless of what you call it – account manager, client success manager, service rep, solution center consultant) will have built a great relationship with the client.  Traits such as: understanding the client’s business, consulting on underutilized/unknown features that will grow their business, being proactive and working issues with urgency, and overcommunicating status, go a long way in building trust with the client.

You can easily tell when you’ve built that trust.  Adjectives will gush from the client (real life examples of recognition I’ve heard about my team):

• …been the driving force
• …speaks our language
• …lucky to have her
• …worth his weight in gold
• …incredible at what she does
• Wonderful, fantastic, amazing – I think you get the picture

So what happens when this person needs to be replaced?  There are a myriad reasons it might happen, ranging from a promotion, to maternity/paternity leave, or leaving the company for a new opportunity.  What’s the client’s perspective?  Put yourself in their shoes.  We just had this amazing partner … and now you’re giving me an unknown.  Will s/he ‘get’ us?  Will they be able to step in immediately with no service quality drop-off?

Let’s think through some hypotheticals:

1. You soft transition to the new rep.  The trusted outgoing rep doesn’t leave right away but allows the new rep to burn-in slowly and build rapport before an official departure date or a soft fade into the background.
2. A hard cut over to the new rep.  The new rep doesn’t know the status of the account, feels ‘green’ (a lack of training), doesn’t resolve issues in a timely fashion, etc.

In both situations, you’re putting a new rep on the account.

Back to our town hall meeting earlier today.  Based on his synopsis, you’d assume the client would be looking to terminate the relationship in both instances.  That’s obviously not the case.  In scenario #1, while I may miss my old rep, I feel like I’m in good hands.  In scenario #2, I feel like you don’t care about me, and yes, if the situation doesn’t get addressed soon, I may start looking for a new vendor.  The issue here isn’t necessarily transitioning to a new rep but a lack of adequate training and preparation.  A symptom not a cause.

There’s also the negative situation where a rep is being replaced due to performance issues.  However, if a client is leaving based on this experience, ask yourself why you didn’t know about it sooner and/or why you didn’t do enough about it.  As a service leader, you need to have a firmer pulse on the satisfaction of your clients.  Once again, transitioning to a new rep is a symptom, not cause.

You aren’t always afforded the luxury of lead time when talent is going to leave your organization (exactly why you need to invest and develop in these high performers).  But a change of rep doesn’t spell doom.  Plan ahead and think through what you need to do to maintain the high expectation of service quality and excellence.

Energy matters.  What you say is obviously important but so is the way you do it.  Your mood, body language, and tone speak volumes, even when you don’t realize it.  Your clients – including internal clients such as fellow coworkers and even your boss –  will pick up on it and respond accordingly.  Negative energy can have disastrous consequences.  As I mentioned previously, the internet has increased competition in virtually every field.  Consumers have more choices than ever before.  Which would you rather work with, someone with a spark in their voice and a smile you can “hear” over the phone?  Or a sourpuss?  This isn’t just limited to a negative attitude.  Tired, stressed out, and overworked can have the same impact.

In The Energy Bus, a best seller by Jon Gordon, the author reveals 10 secrets for approaching your personal and professional life with positive energy. Quite simply, it works.  People can feel the energy and enthusiasm and want to be a part of that culture.  Clients want to be serviced by someone who is happy to be there.  This message needs to be shared by all members of your organization.  As a manager, you need to weed out the “energy vampires,” who only want to complain and bring everyone else down.  There’s no room for those types of people on your bus.

Keep in mind, it must be genuine.  The only thing worse than dealing with someone who is miserable is faking happiness.  We’ve all had bad days but you can’t let it seep through to your interactions.  Find some work you can do alone, “behind the scenes,” or even take a day off.  If the negative feeling persists daily, perhaps it’s a signal to start looking for a different job that will make you happy.