[ This post is the introduction to my book How Organizations Deliver BAD Customer Serivice. In the weeks and months to follow, I will share with you my 30 TIPS and strategies that turn BAD customer service around! ]
Can you recall the last time you wanted to throttle a Customer Service Representative? Let’s face it. Customer service is B-A-A-A-A-A-D, no…wait a minute. Customer service is terrible — everywhere. People are so accustomed to getting lousy service that when they are treated well, they are often surprised and even shocked. As bestselling author Ken Blanchard says, “Rude is in. Smiling’s a sin.” Nobody seems to care, and it shows. People expect lazy staff, late deliveries, dirty restrooms, faulty parts…and the list goes on.
When people receive less-than-perfect service – not necessarily the world’s worst service, but just not great service – they rarely ask to speak to the owner. But you can bet your booty that if they didn’t complain to the owner, they probably told all their friends. Unhappy customers rarely complain to owners because they don’t think it will do any good. And when given a survey, they will usually say they are ‘satisfied’ because lousy service has become the norm. Here’s the kicker. If you ask these same customers about your customer service and their reply is that your service was ‘fine,’ you better watch out because these are the customers who will most likely leave you the first chance they get.
It’s not enough anymore just to satisfy customers; you need to create your own fan club for your business. That’s because satisfied customers are more flexible than Gumby — the green, clay-pliable television character. They will change their minds in a heartbeat if they get better service somewhere else. On the other hand, raving fans are customers who will come back to you again and again. They will automatically become your own personal sales force because they will tell everyone about you and how wonderful you are.
Studies have shown a high correlation among excellent customer-service ratings, a solid bottom line, and employee loyalty. A Stanford University study determined that 87.5% of our success is a result of our attitude and 12.5% is a result of our knowledge, skills and abilities. So open up your mind, and prepare to take your customer service to the amazing next level!
The purpose of this book is to give you the tools you need to create a memorable experience for your customers that is a positive, or better yet, a stellar experience! Customers determine their satisfaction based on their experiences. When customers have an experience, it becomes a story they remember. And when a memory about a story is positive, they’ll come back to use your services — and tell their friends!
The tips in this book are set up as a dialogue between two fun characters from my live seminars named Negative Nate, the negative employee who doesn’t give a hoot about anything, and POSITIVE PAUL, the positive employee who values highly customer service and sets an example of how customer service should be.
Meet Ned and Paul
A little background: Negative Ned and Positive Paul are twins. They grew up in the same house with the same parents and even attended the same schools. They played on the same little league team and even had the same friends. But somehow, Ned and Paul developed different ways of viewing the world. While Paul viewed everything as a new opportunity, Ned saw everything as a problem and complained about it. This attitude, in turn, affected their results not only at work, but at home as well.
Hopefully, you will come to realize that POSITIVE PAUL’s methods are going to work a whole lot better than Ned’s – unless you enjoy treating customers badly.
Whether you are working on creating amazing customer experiences for your customers, or you are sharing this material with your sales or service team, this book won’t solve any problems…until you implement the suggestions that are shared in this book. I also included several stories from audience members and newsletter subscribers who shared their personal experiences with me. If you have a particularly interesting story you want to share, please email me at stories@badcustomerservicetips.com
For the purpose of this book, and in a perfect world, we are going to assume that:
- Your company’s culture and policies support the delivery of exceptional customer service.
- The right people are in the right positions within your organization to deliver such service.
To create a memorably positive experience for your customers, please implement as many of the following 30 tips as possible. By experimenting with them, you will discover which ones work best for YOUR business. The results of your efforts will be happy, loyal customers who tell others about you. And yippy, yahoo, that’s what you want, right?
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© 2012 by Barbara Khozam Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this message may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the publisher. |