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.