What Does "Service" Mean in Customer Service?

It seems that many companies are investigating their interactions with customers these days. They may be focussing on the wrong issues, however!

One of my clients asked me to check out some improvements they had made to their customer service activities. When I called the customers, they reported almost without exception that they had noticed the improvements, they were beneficial, just not in the customers' highest priority areas for the customer service activities.

In fact, the areas of the highest improvement priority for the customers were the same as I had found six years previously in a similar study: having good language and communication skills on the part of the phone rep, making sure they understand the customer's issue.

While the client was very happy to have invested in success with their improvements, the customers were not all as excited as the client was. The customers were thrilled to be asked their opinion, and happy that improvements were being made. They just wished improvements could be made in other areas. The customers were hopeful because the results were encouraging. The hope was that as progress was made, more important issues would be tackled.

How about your company? Do you know your customers' highest priorities for improving your customer service activities? How many customers actually like all of the phone trees they must navigate to get where they want to go in your system, or even to hear an actual customer service employee? My guess would be....NONE!

The phone trees that I have had to navigate just this week remind me of the days when I worked at GM: we are going to do this to you just because we CAN, not because you want it! Remember, according to surveys as many as 75% of all senior managers and above NEVER talk to a customer. Now, it seems that the companies want to make sure that the customer almost NEVER talks to an employee!

Even when you are able to access an employee in one of the phone trees, you are often asked two or three times for the same pieces of information! ...name, birthday, address, phone number, etc.
Today I stared at the phone when the automated system asked for my birthday for the third time on the same call, before I got to my destination in the tree. Someone blew it when doing the logic for this phone tree!

Do companies understand that this phone call may be their only access to the customer? This is the company's voice and face, and it seems so dense and downright stupid! I wonder what research is conducted on these systems. I have friends who are the "IVR Docs." They try to make sure their clients don't encounter these difficulties.

What are your experiences? Have you found phone trees that work well? Share with the rest of us, please!

Are You Stuck?

Organizations tend to be entities that are difficult to move, to change directions or to make significant leaps...much like a cow!

This image was inspired by a friend who helps people who are "stuck" address their problems and move on (www.LivBig.com). He was a recent student in my class at UCSDx, despite his maturity and business sense. Doesn't this cow look as if it is in pain?

Since the class, I have thought about my friend's business model as applied to my clients: for how many of them is their pain the fact that they are stuck? I would guess this is true for many of them. They have the same customers, the same data from customer satisfaction surveys and they are having difficulty moving the numbers.

A couple of my clients have engaged me to help them see things differently. Where to start? ...by talking to the Customers! For both of these clients, we are listening to customers describe their pains and what is getting in the way of making progress, not just with my clients but in their business world at large. We are in the process of rethinking the customer satisfaction surveys and who the competition is.

In one case, top management is getting bored with what they are seeing in the survey results. Management is even thinking about terminating the customer research efforts, because nothing new was being learned! My client used one of my videos (shown below) to justify continuing the expense. In the video, I tell the story of spending $20K to $30K on customer research and reaping $3,000,000 a year in savings as a benefit, while customer satisfaction went up!

Ask yourself: Am I stuck? Is my company stuck? Do I need to revamp the way I see the customers in the emerging marketplace? More importantly, have I learned how the customers view us in the new marketplace (outside looking in)? That is a tough perspective to acquire! To be successful, you must be able to view your business as if you were a customer looking in. Why should they do business with you? How does working with you help them get more business? How easy are you to do business with? Can you be easily replaced, or can the need for your services dissappear?

If you or your company are "stuck," please call me and talk about how you can get them "unstuck." If you use the video, please share the outcome with me. Maybe I can help you get unstuck! Call (619)516-2864 or visit www.stiehlworks.com.

Business Metrics & the Voice of the Customer

Are You Tired of Selling Features Yet? Shut Up & Listen!

I keep being amazed by how few salespeople know to just listen, listen to what the customer's problems are (their "pains").

I have recently conducted research for a client that included finding out how well their salespeople performed. I know it is a tough economy out there, but the worse sales get, the more talking this company's salespeople were doing. This is backwards!

When I spoke to the customers, they told me they did not want to hear all about the features that were nice, but did not apply to their specific problem area. In fact, the more the salespeople spoke about those features, the more the customer thought, "How much is all that going to cost me?!" Many of the salient features in the salesperson's discussion were neither needed nor wanted, at any price.

The best salespeople in the study actually spoke the least, but were classified as "very good listeners," among other traits. Sales necessarily involves building trust between the salesperson and the customer. The skill of "active listening" builds trust. The best salespeople demonstrated this skill in their work. The customers felt that the best salespeople really understood their pain, their issue. These salespeople only spoke after listening carefully to the concerns of the customer, what their pains were, even if they did not involve the salesperson's product or service. These salespeople spoke about the features that addressed the pain of the customer, or the features that the customer asked about. They spoke of resources beyond or in addition to their own products and services that might be accessible to the customer. When this "active listening" technique was employed, the customers trusted the salesperson, perceived them as knowledgeable beyond their own products and services, and thought the extra features were a bonus, not an unnecessary expense. It was the same device, with the same features, but the perception of the customer was shaped by the behavior of the salesperson.

How do your salespeople stack up?

Ever Thought About Writing a Book? Come to our exciting event!

Chris Stiehl is a panelist at the Marketing with a Book Summit in La Jolla, CA. Henry DeVries is the Host!

Marketing With A Book™ Summit

How to Dramatically Increase Revenue, Gain Credibility and Attract Clients by Publishing A Book With Built-In Marketing

February 20-21, 2010
Location: La Jolla Shores Hotel, San Diego ($119 room rate for this beachfront hotel) www.ljshoreshotel.com
Saturday 8 am to 5 pm
Sunday 8:30 am to 1 pm
Price: $1,000 (but early bird discount of $495 until Feb. 14, 2010)
Register with Paypal here
(You do not need a Paypal account to register)

Headliners:

• Arthur Chou, president of WBusiness Books
• Mark LeBlanc, past president of National Speakers Association and author of the book “Growing Your Business”

Speakers:

• Will Marre, co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center where he translated the concepts of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into powerful leadership courses taught to over one million executives world wide
• Holly Berkley, author of "Marketing in the New Media" and "Low Budget Online Marketing for Small Business"
• Liz Goodgold, author of “Red Fire Branding”

Panelists:

• Chris Stiehl, author of “Pain Killer Marketing”
• Chris Witt, author of “Real Leaders Don’t Use PowerPoint”
• Rhonda Sher, author of “The Two-Minute Networker”
• Jeremy Duimstra, Web marketing and search engine optimization expert

Host:

Henry DeVries, founder of New Client Marketing Institute, author of “Self-Marketing Secrets” and “Client Seduction”, marketing faculty and assistant dean of UC San Diego continuing education

Who should attend:

You’ll benefit the most by attending this program if you are a…

• Management consultant
• Professional service firm
• Executive coach
• Professional speaker
• PR person responsible for consultant and professional service firm marketing

Spots Are Limited

We are only offering 27 seats to this conference and 10 were already taken before we could even launch the Web site. We want this to be a small group so there can be interaction, feedback and a chance for one-on-one time with the presenters. After all spots are sold we will be putting interested people on a waiting list.

How To Register

Please call Henry at 800-514-4467 with questions.

Are You Insane?

You know the old addage: "If you always do what you have always done..." ...but people do!

I recently worked with a team to answer an RFP. I asked if the potential client wanted to research the reasons why people in their target market were not buying, despite obvious benefits to them and to others. The answerf was , "No." How can this client grow market share unless and until they do something different? Shouldn't we at least check to make sure we have all the reasons for rejection? Without changing, expecting to grow the business is insane!

We recently presented to the annual meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, and to a ProVisors group. The "Popcorn Story" worked well with both groups, as it always does. I started thinking, why is it so difficult for people to think of customer needs when they are in a business frame of mind? The example always works. People almost never think of the customer when they are thinking of business metrics. And yet, when they are asked to think of their own needs with respect to a movie theater, they can come up with an extensive list immediately. Why do we have these two separate parts of our brain? Can they be brought together? Are we insane, with two completely separate personalities, the "business" person and the customer?

Do me a favor. Talk to a few of your customers or potential customers. Really concentrate on listening to them talk about their business and their future. Listen for opportunities. Listen for pains or problems. Listen for budget issues. If you need a few questions to get started, look in the front of Pain Killer Marketing: How do you see your business or market changing in the future? How does doing business with us cost you money? How do we help you make money? Who is your best supplier, of all types, and why? How do you choose whom to enlist as a business partner or supplier? Listen. Listen without judgment. Listen without an agenda. But listen.

After you have spoken to a few customers or potential customers, contact us here and let us know how things went. What did you learn? Were you able to solve your insanity and bring your two minds together: the business person and the customer?

This blog posting was inspired by an article written by Stacy Karacostas a few weeks ago on Biznik.com: "Is Temporary Insanity Keeping You From Growing Your Small Business?"

Your thoughts are always welcomed and appreciated!

How Can You "Listen" to Blogs?

Many companies are debating whether to create a blog or not, whether to participate in any form of social networking or not. One of the key questions is: Is it worth it?

As most of you know, besides being consultants, we both teach at UCSD Extension. Many of our students come from local businesses. The class projects of these students have convinced us the some companies could really benefit from listening to and participating in some blogging activity. Blogging is not for everyone, but some companies have set aside hours for executives to respond to bloggers, with success.

Has your company developed a formal program for monitoring, listening and organizing data from blogs about your products or services? If not, why not? Lack of interest? Lack of time? Not knowing the value?

Think about the person who blogs: they are passionate, interested and vocal with their opinions. If you have read Pain Killer Marketing, this describes an ideal subject for qualitative research! Learn which blogs to follow. Occasionally steer the conversation to a topic of interest to you. You may find an incredible source of detailed information on customer pains or Voice of the Customer attributes!

What do you think?

If you want to see the slides from our presentation at Dine America! in Atlanta in September, visit Chris Stiehl's page on LinkedIn for access.

Be sure to see us at our Public Relations Society of America presentation on November 10th in San Diego (convention center) in the morning.