Articles

In your opinion, do you believe the customer service you get today from other companies is better or worse than it was say 5 years ago? Please explain your answer
I believe the service has declined in recent years. The human touch in contact centers has been limited through automated menues and strict scripting, and agents are less empowered to take action to do the right thing.

Do you believe there is a correlation between the service you receive as a consumer and your loyalty to the supplier? Please explain your answer
I think that as long as revenue generating opportunities exist a supplier will work at optimizing them. If that's what you call service, then yes, a correlation exists.

In your opinion, which industry sectors provide great service and which ones are poor? Please do not name individual companies just sectors.
In general hospitality tends to provide great service, i.e. hotels and car rental companies. They have the ability to provide upgrades that both delight the customer and resolve conflicts that don't necessarily cost them a lot. I see poor service from most of the airline industry and from support arms of companies, especially in computers. As an example, technical agents are having non-technical customers conduct troubleshooting exercises for lengthy periods of time before they will actually deploy an agent on-site.

Can you recall a really good experience recently - where you were WOW'd by the service you received? Please explain in as much details as you would like.
I recently ordered flowers for my wife for Christmas. When they were delivered on December 23rd, it was apparent that these flowers had been damaged by the cold and frost in transit. I called the company at 6:00PM when I got home from work and saw the flowers, knowing that I would not receive a replacement until after Christmas. The agent on the phone was genuinely apologetic and empathetic, told me she would do whatever it took to get a replacement out the next day. I didn't believe that it could/would happen, and I ended the call with my thanks, and was disappointed that there would be no flowers on our table for Christmas Eve Dinner. The next day they arrived and were beautiful. I was WOW'd!

Talking about bad experiences, where do companies go wrong with the service they provide? Give examples to illustrate your response
Companies tell you what they can do to remedy a situation based on internal standards and protocols, and rarely look at the perspective of the customer and what actions are necessary and doable to satisfy. We have a support contract with our PC provider, and have tens of thousand PC deployed throughout the country. In our office we have a technical expert for desktop support that created the image that the manufacturer installed on our PC's, so the fact he is an expert is known to the vendor. Yet every time one of our PC's fail, our expert must call into the vendors support department, spend several minutes going through a scripted checklist with the agent, and only then will a service tech be deployed to fix the exact issue or to replace the specific part our expert knew was needed before the call was initiated.

Have you noticed any differences in service from people from different cultures? Please explain.
I have had several calls recently with agents from American Express, and it's obvious the call center is in India. When dealing with cultures unfamiliar with my own, there is a lack of awareness of what is important to me based on the vocabulary and voice tones I choose, and there is a total lack of sincerity in a monotone scripted apology that disturbs me even more.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding the use of technology in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Assure the technology being implemented improves service in the customer's mind. If it doesn't, it's value to the organization is questionable.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding staff in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Work diligently at keeping the staff satisfied with their work environment, with their management, with the company. That satisfaction will be broadcast to your customers.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding business processes in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Make the process as streamlined as possible so it is easy to implement, and have it be seamless to your customer.

In your opinion, how should contact centers measure the level of service they give?
80% should be feedback from the customers, and the other 20% can be focused on the metrics.

Lastly, can you share with us one of the worst customer service experiences you have experienced recently.
United Airlines. I am at the airport and checked in and boarded on a 6:00AM flight. Mechanical difficulties, repairmen arrive, everyone deplanes, flight eventually cancelled. Total lack of ongoing communication and inability to answer questions. After several hours passengers with connecting flights had been rebooked to flights on other airlines, and I sat. 8 hours after scheduled departure time was shuttled to an airport 2 hours away with 8 other passengers in a stretch limo to make a flight home. Next day called United's Customer Relations and spoke with India, received no satisfaction, but did get insincere apology. Escalated call to supervisor, but had to wait for call back. Received email from supervisor instead of a call, so I called back and spoke to a different supervisor who not only wouldn't help me, but refused to connect me with his manager and hung up. No recourse!

Mark Warner is a Legal Research Analyst for RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs gives you insider access to millions of legal documents online drafted by the top law firms in the US that you can download, edit and print. Search For Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2009/01/10/how-to-be-a-horrible-boss/

Those who don't fully understand the importance of team building often ask the question, sometimes in a derogatory way, "Does team building actually achieve anything?" The answer is quite simple: "Yes!"

Before explaining the value of team building, let me first explain why this view is sometimes taken. Sadly, it is the result of those who organise team away days thinking that they have to develop team bonding, and not realizing that they should be developing team building.

There's a huge difference. Team bonding is all very well, of course, it's good that team members can bond together and get along well as a team of people, but just about any group of people can do that - it doesn't necessarily make a team though. Sadly, any significant improvements gained in team effectiveness as a result of team bonding will probably be coincidental, and not as a result of the experience.

Team building is altogether a different matter. If taken in the context of a team away day, then proper planning, execution and management of the event is critical to the success of the desired team building outcome.

The team activity or activities that the team undertake on a team away day should always be the kind of exercise that needs and involves similar team working approaches that are practised and employed in the workplace.

Of course, the approach used need not appear similar, and certainly should not be so. They should be entertaining and fun and appear to be quite removed from the day to day work activities that team members undertake. However, the underlying basic approach should have a common resonance with the workplace that can mould the team into something more than just a bunch of people having fun on a day away.

One common mistake in team away days and the activities that the team take on is an over-emphasis on the activity itself, rather than on the general direction that the team building exercise is supposed to be taking. The activities are only a means to an end and not the end itself. They are designed to strengthen a team by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of individual members and allocating the appropriate tasks to the appropriate members.

When the success of an activity is seen as the goal, and failure to achieve the desired result of the activity is seen a failure, the team is rarely if ever strengthened in any meaningful way. However, when the activity is seen as a simple and fun way to express the team's ability to work harmoniously together, mirroring their ability to do so in the workplace, then an altogether different and much better outcome is achieved.

Another mistake that can happen in team building activities is employing a too generic approach to the activity at hand. In other words, the activity fails to impart value to the team because it fails to provide any kind of realistic setting that team members can relate to.

This mistake is easy to rectify and only requires that those organizing the event keep their eye on the ball, so to speak. When this is done properly, then yes, team building does actually achieve something!

Written by Caron J Rose

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2009/01/12/does-team-building-actually-achieve-anything/

Too often we get so busy and focused managing our businesses that we forget life is supposed to be fun. I'm as guilty of this as anyone. Running a business is serious work so we seem justified by keeping our noses to the grindstones. Unfortunately, when we do that we often forget to enjoy our businesses and our work.

And that's too bad because after spending 42 years on this planet I am convinced that we are supposed to have fun on a daily basis. They say laughter is the best medicine & I agree. I think we all know that enjoying what we do is healthy for our minds and bodies and our spirits. But, it's also good for our businesses.

Remember, people like doing business with people they like. And, there's no one more likable than someone who is clearly enjoying themselves. Nothing brightens my day more than someone with an easy smile and a ready laugh.

Think of the people you spend time with (regardless whether for business or personal reasons). No doubt there are one or more people who always bring a smile to your face just by being around them. Do you think they affect others the same way? Do you think they have customers who enjoy them as much as you do? I'd bet they do.

So, what do you do when you're NOT enjoying yourself? If you're feeling stressed and harried and your blood pressure is rising, what can you do? Here are some things that always work for me. Maybe they'll work for you too:

1. Laugh out loud. You might want to be in private when you do this but try it, it really works.

2. Smile. No matter what the situation, just smile. It simply feels good.

3. Call or visit a friend, your spouse or anyone who is guaranteed to bring some sunshine to your day. (My wife is great at this.)

4. Find a dog to pet. Dogs are naturally happy, their joy is contagious and they like everyone.

5. Take a walk. Exercise, fresh air and a change of scenery are great ways to pull you out of any slump.

6. Help someone. Few things in this world feel better than taking time to do something for another person. Plus you generate good karma!

7. Pay someone a compliment. Of course it should be sincere but it's usually not hard to do if you think about it.

8. If you're stuck in an office, look up some good jokes on the Internet. I'm partial to Steven Wright, so here is a link to some of his humorous thoughts.

9. Meditate. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and clear your mind. Here's a website with some tips.

10. Write down 10 good things about your life. Once you get started, this is easy.

So, there you have my Top 10 ways to keep your spirits up. No matter what you do, be good to yourself and your business and have some fun every day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Stirtz

Kevin Stirtz is the "Amazing Service Guy". He is a customer service speaker and trainer who helps companies increase revenue and profits by delivering Amazing Service. Kevin has been quoted in such major media as BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, Smart Money and the Chicago Sun Times. Get a free copy of his Amazing Service Toolkit at www.amazingserviceguy.com.

Improvement is one area where you can really shine as a new supervisor. You're already a technical expert because of your years on the front lines, so you know exactly where there are opportunities.

Remember you're not an industrial engineer, you're not the chief quality officer, you're a front line supervisor and you need to get the work in and get the work out as a first priority. But improvements, within your scope of responsibility, represent a great chance to make a difference that will highlight you and your team as significant contributors.

Don't be a renegade in this endeavor. Many companies have formal programs for process improvement that you may need to work within, depending on the scope of your efforts.

Start very small with procedural improvements that require no technology and no investments. Do not run off on your own to do this, get your boss fully involved before you start and then bring in your team to double-check your ideas and build their support for the change.

You might have opportunities to train your team to reduce a particular data entry error. You might be able to improve customer listening on your team. You might be able to communicate expectations and due dates to customers more effectively. You might institute peer-reviews of critical documents that reduce errors and re-work. There are an endless number of improvements that are very small, but that add up to big improvements over time.

Track your team's improvement, but do not get hung up–at this stage–building elaborate justifications or cost-benefit analyses. Your goal should be to make 1 improvement a month, then 2, then 3, until every member of your team is improving at least 1 very small thing each month. As you gain skill and experience you will also uncover improvement opportunities that are enormous, but keep it very simple for the first few years.

These improvements might take one hour of thought to evaluate, ten minutes of discussion to gain approval, and twenty minutes of training to communicate to your team.

The biggest stumbling block to engaging in these improvement efforts is time. People are generally overwhelmed with work on a day-to-day basis and do not have the quiet time available to them to think through the improvement suggestion. 99% of the time, service environments that are overwhelmed, are overwhelmed by re-work. If your team is poorly trained, if your technology is antiquated, if your procedures are not standardized than you will have an avalanche of errors, waste and re-work constantly flowing back into your shop. Not to mention the excessive time on rush orders, escalations, complaints and threats pouring in from the customers and the management. If your company is in such a state that they're not making appropriate investments in the infrastructure, then a constant, diligent focus on hundreds of tiny improvements is the only way to hack through the swamp. No one is saying this is easy, but its more fun to hack through the swamp than it is to just sit there and let the mosquitoes eat you alive.

Your goal, as a leader, is not so much any one improvement by itself, its to get your entire team thinking about how to take the business to the next level. People want to be engaged in something larger than themselves. They want to feel significant in their jobs and they want to contribute to making the customer experience better every day. By setting a standard of excellence you give everyone permission to contribute directly to making the job better, rather than being passive observers at a train wreck.

By engaging yourself, and your team, in this constant stream of improvement opportunities you will energize them and develop them, and yourself, in ways that were not previously imaginable.

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2008/12/26/great-supervisors-drive-great-improvements/

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2008/12/27/awaken-the-leader-in-you-10-easy-steps-to-develop-your-leadership-skills/

A classic Saturday Night Live skit shows Will Farrell walking into a business meeting dressed only in an American flag thong and a half t-shirt. The team sitting around the table is clearly uncomfortable. Laughter ensues. There may be a person on your team that for one reason or another makes you and/or others on your team cringe. There is an obnoxious team member on most teams. It isn't a laughing matter.

At stake is team morale, productivity, and the relational glue that holds teams together. Rarely, however does anyone have the courage to deal constructively with the person. It may be uncomfortable conversation, but it is necessary.

Here are four steps to deal with an obnoxious team members.

1. Do a gut check - What do you feel when this person is around? Some feelings that may be aroused are: discomfort, frustration, aggressive, agitated, uptight, tense, and nervous, just to name a few. Name what you are feeling and make a note of it.

2. Care enough to confront - Team members might say, "Oh well, that's just John…" and sigh in resignation, but are silently are waiting for someone to say something to John. Care enough for your team to do something to begin eliminating the offending behavior that is causing others to cringe. And by confronting the offender, you show care and concern for him or her too. He or she may have no idea that their behavior is causing such discomfort in the group.

3. Determine what you want - You know what you don't want from the person. What do you want? How would you like the person to behave? Again, name it and make a note of it. This will give the offender a positive thing to work on in relationship with others on the team. You may be doing him or her a favor.

4. Speak for yourself - In order to frame what you want to say use his formula, "In situation (x) when you do (y), I feel (z)." Since learning it from psychologists Les and Leslie Parrott, I've used that exact phrase in a number of situations and have found it very helpful to peacefully begin a potentially tense conversation. It diffuses defensiveness and allows the other person to hear the discomfort he or she is causing on the team.

Bottom line - Leave the cringe factor for television producers to entice viewers, and eliminate it on your team. Your team mates will thank you for it.

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2008/12/02/eliminating-the-cringe-factor-how-to-deal-with-obnoxious-team-members/

 

Do not follow the cost-cutting crowd (e.g. those who cut not only "corporate fat" but also "muscle"). Of course, now is the time to be frugal, but be frugal in areas that don't touch the customer. Forget what everyone else is doing. Now is not the time to follow the masses. Now is the time to make difficult decisions that will poise your company for unprecedented growth coming out of the downturn. But you may feel lonely in your decisions. Have you ever noticed that many of the big winners in business were willing to make bets that ran counter to the prevailing wisdom of the time? There are countless success stories of leaders who "zigged" when everyone else "zagged."

If you lead any kind of service business, the conditions are ripe for you to be the next big winner emerging from the current economic stall. 

Here's how:
1. Think and act for the long term
2. Increase all things "customer"
3. Fight the temptation to cut - maybe even spend more.

1) Think and act for the long term
One definition of "sacrifice" is "giving up something good now for something better later." If your mindset is short-term, you might as well stop reading right now. Anyone can temporarily improve profits in the short term by cutting costs, and reducing services. If you do, you might even weather the economic storm, but you'll lose your customer's loyalty in the long term. Want to win big in the end? There's a good chance you might have to suffer financially for a quarter or two. You will need to have guts and a belief that winning the customer service battle now will pay off in spades later.

But this is not just some pipe dream. This is a strategy founded on strong economic principles. You see the cost of losing your customers and the cost of acquiring new ones surely outweigh the costs of keeping existing customers happy and loyal. The long-term ROI leans strongly in favor of a customer-service strategy during a downturn, but for some reason, it just doesn't "feel" right. Shouldn't we all be cost-cutting our way out of this downturn? That's probably what many of your peers will do. But you won't - because you want to win. So, gather up your courage and exert the intestinal fortitude required to fight others' perception that you are "over spending" on service.

2) Increase all things "customer"
Here's your chance to really stand out of the crowd. As the economy tightens up, hold fast to your services and your per-capita customer service spending. Be the business where a customer can actually get served quickly. Have the call center with the shortest "on hold" wait times. Let your business be the one that doesn't skimp on portion sizes, quality ingredients, packaging materials, or add-ons. Be the business that surveys customers on service satisfaction and continuously improves based on customer feedback. Let your business be known for urgency, responsiveness, and quality.

3) Fight the temptation to cut - maybe even spend more.
Prepare yourself. You're going to be tempted to cut. You'll find yourself saying, "I wonder if we can get by with one less staff member," or "maybe the customer won't notice these inferior raw materials," or "everyone else is cutting service..." Don't do it. Don't cave into the temptation of mediocrity. Don't make the popular, but absolutely wrong choice. Fabulous business success stories are rarely "written" during prosperous times. Most are forged during economic downturns where courageous leaders make disciplined decisions that often run counter to what everyone else is doing. Do you want your company to come out of this economic stall in the lead? Then have the courage to make tough decisions now, and increase, not decrease, your attention and your resources on customers: product execution, service delivery, and satisfaction measurement. You'll be glad you did.

Source: http://www.contactcenterworld.com/view/contact-center-article/Recession---Steal-Market-Share-Through-Increased-Customer-Service!.asp

Why Customer Service Needs to Advance with its Web Customers
The customer service industry has been tested the last few holiday seasons. Between longer work days, higher gas prices and a veritable Santa’s bag of stresses and strains more and more consumers looking online to take care of their gifting obligations.

We saw that more consumers did their shopping via the Internet last year than any prior Web-enabled holiday season simply because of the sheer convenience. Last year’s online shopping season sales surpassed $29 billion, up 20 percent from the previous year. This year’s online sales have already been projected to produce another solid shopping season, with many analysts predicting a 20% increase in online shopping sales once again – despite the overall gloomy projections being made for the brick and mortar retail environments.

The fundamental question is: Is your online customer service capability up to the task? In the face of rising traffic many operators still only use email to respond to queries or relying on site search engines to help consumers. With more consumers Internet savvy, online sites need to advance with new Web methods to create a better overall online shopping experience, one that is still humanized and simple to use.

With the holiday season looming before us, the online retail industry needs to raise its level of customer service for a better customer experience as whole by communicating with their customers in a way that all consumers can use and relate.

Responding to the Massive Online Holiday Spirit:
Why are more consumers shopping online? Is it to stay away from the mall crowds? Or is laziness, saving gas money so they can buy gifts or simply the convenience of shopping from home the answer? More people are passing on the “helpful” in-store sales person for the keyboard of their family computer. Does that mean the online experience should be heartless and mechanical? The reason the Internet doesn’t seem human is obvious; it isn’t.

Instead of being an extension of the holiday spirit with a cohesive human-quality customer service, the Internet has become a faceless tool that consumers force themselves to live with. Once online retail sites realize the value in providing consumers with a humanizing experience, they’ll build brand loyalty, higher sales, and an online experience that is worth staying home for on all shopping occasions.

Customer Service 2.0: Upgrade Quickly & Easily
The holidays are fast approaching. The best way to get your Web-based customer service up to human quality and familiar to consumers in time for the holiday season is to make it conversational, in the form of live web chat.

Most consumers prefer texting or sending an IM instead of picking up a phone or filling out a long customer feedback form. This type of customer service software is actually something that can be put together fairly quickly for this holiday season by installing live Web chat software into your existing customer service infrastructure.

There is another method that takes a little longer to set up so you might want to have this ready for next year’s holiday shopping season or even for spring/summer sales. This approach makes use of natural language processing agents can actually learn and thus understand what users are asking for and answer their questions in an automated fashion that seems almost human. Advanced systems can even selectively “take control” and lead the holiday question conversation, to clarify ambiguous search queries, or more extensively to “accompany” a visitor through any number of processes, such as signing up for a holiday discount promotion or obtaining an authorization for a return.

Poorly deployed examples of automated responses or live chat conducted by overworked trained service personnel yield either off-the-mark replies or, just as bad, forcing an answer that doesn’t fit.

If you’re going to humanize online customer service before the holidays are in full swing, consider installing live chat customer service first. After finding success with that method, look into adding automated response chat software with the ability to learn what your customers ask and the capacity to expand its knowledge base to provide complete answers automatically. No matter what online customer service application you use, you should seek a system that permits a seamless transition to a live representative to handle complicated matters and back again without disrupting the customer experience, including an automated response capability calls for planning and time. It is process that takes some weeks but once done, such systems can handle up to 80 percent of the typical questions a customer service group tends to get.

Remove the “Grinch” from Your Online Customer Service:
You can respond to the increase in online customer sales a number of ways. You can offer various discount promotions, you can provide a larger stock selection, or you can even change the site layout to a make online browsing easier. However, the change that’s going to produce real growth and develop a larger, more loyal customer base starts and ends with customer service. Hoping that online shoppers will find what they need by just utilizing search or asking them to fill out a questionnaire with an email response will only lose the sale. A humanized online customer support solution works whenever the customer needs it. Whether it’s as they seek items, compare them, go through the check-out process or deal with technical issues, like what color the wrapping paper might be, a humanized online customer service capability can make all the difference and take this holiday season from ho-hum to hooray!

Written by Robert Williams:
Robert Williams is the CEO of Conversive
source:http://www.contactcenterworld.com/view/contact-center-article/Holiday-Customer-Service-Online.asp

Will all the tasks and balls up in the air that a call center manager contends with each day it can seem as though the only way to succeed if to work more hours. Here is an article that doesn't support that theory.

A CEO of a reputed organization once said he has been working more than 90 to 100 hours a week for many years, and jokingly adds he should have done more. And in another reputed car manufacturing company dozens of employees and managers get cash rewards and appreciation certificates for not taking a single day leave during the last three years.

In yet another case, a jet set CEO was proudly patting his own back stating that he loves his work so much that he often does not see his family or kids for several weeks, and cannot remember when he took a couple of days leave or a vacation. Nowadays the list of such work crazy people are increasing at an exponential rate. And you can very easily spot such people as they will be constantly talking on their mobiles, checking their hand held devices for text messages or always connected to their office via their laptops for never ending emails and so on. Such people have their hands and minds loaded with projects, countless unfinished tasks, endless meetings, emails and constantly sweating the small, medium and big details.

When questioned they claim to enjoy their job so much that they just work, work and do more work, especially to impress the media. And they also proudly believe they can be role models for others. However, contrary to what they believe or self congratulate, such habits are nothing to be proud of, and nor should they be your role models as you will shortly see. In reality, workaholics are always driven by deep internal needs, rather than external ones. Here are some ugly facts about workaholics.

1. A New York tour operator once proudly said, “New York is a city that never sleeps.” For this an elderly tourist calmly replied, “And it definitely looks like it.” Super workaholics are not necessarily the most efficient people even if they stubbornly work 18 hours a day. In fact they are the least efficient of people. They may appear to be working, but internally their brain would have turned off. The output they produce or the ideas they generate when the brain and essential body systems turn off is nothing but trash and mediocre stuff.

2. Workaholics often believe themselves to be perfectionists and role models, and often the media also portrays them as so. But in reality they are neither perfectionists nor can be role models to anyone sensible and knowledgeable about the hazards of overwork. They may have plenty of hollow followers who are as lunatic as themselves, but no sensible person will agree or appreciate this kind of burnout.

3. High workaholics suffer from a disease called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and an inability to let go. Most of them suffer from the indispensability syndrome to constantly prove something great everyday and every minute. They cannot bear being left out and want to be involved in everything always. They are terrified of being left out of the loop or some information.  They are unable to delegate. And they believe nothing can work if they are not involved.

4. Excessive workaholics are appreciation seeking addicts with a deep craving for recognition and appreciation. They suffer from a deep inferiority complex and try to cover it up by proving they can work long hours and days without a break. Just like drugs, once a person gets into the appreciation seeking habit it is very difficult for them to stop. They constantly seek appreciation and will keep doing things to invite more appreciation, even if their mind and body refuses to tag along.

5. Working non stop is perhaps the lousiest of work habits and work life balance. It is also the perfect road to ruining your health and those of others. Poor health and lack of a solid family life leads to poor performance and relationships at work. Workaholics not only ruin their health but also of their subordinates and their family members. Of course, they may earn more money than ordinary workers and access to more materialistic pleasures. But when they get a heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and other nervous disorders it is their family and dependents that will be bear the brunt of looking after a human vegetable. Hence every workplace and home needs mentally and physically balanced individuals that can create pleasantness instead of chaos, stress and constant pressure.

6. Workaholics often don't know whether they are workaholics. They falsely believe they are role models to the younger generation or their peers. But people will often pretend to appreciate a workaholic in front of them. But they laugh and ridicule them behind their back.

7. Finally no one on their death bed ever says, "I wish I could have worked more." And we can conclude this article with a great quote from Bertrand Russell, “One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”

Source: http://www.callcentercafe.com/2008/10/17/workaholics-are-not-role-models