5 Ways to Motivate the Customer Service Professional

Motivating co-workers, colleagues and staff to deliver excellent customer service can be daunting. With customers becoming more and more demanding, customer service reps handling higher workloads due to layoffs and cutbacks, and managers feeling overwhelmed with the tasks of managing tired professionals…becoming a cat herder sounds more doable than this does. And yet, some companies are doing it. They’re motivating their front-line people and providing consistent customer service.

Here are five strategies that are working for the successful companies, and they should work for you, too.

1. Get Excited

Managers have to first be excited and motivated themselves. Because employees look to their managers for guidance on what is acceptable behavior, if a manager shows their motivation by smiling, encouraging positive communication, saying a thank you as a pat on the back, getting excited when a customer service rep successfully works with a customer – this is priceless motivation to the employee. Emotions communicate on a deep level, from inside out. If the manager isn’t motivated, the employees won’t be either.

Don’t fake it, either. Every human being is equipped with B.S. detectors – some are better than others – but everyone has it. There is nothing more demeaning to an employee than to have a manager fake their appreciation for quality work, or to be recognized for great service inside a staff meeting but ignored by management the rest of the month. Respect your employees enough to be real, be honest, be ready to communicate your excitement about their successes.

2. Hire Motivated Professionals

If you aspire to have a world-class customer service staff, then hire people motivated by the same goal. They’re not that difficult to find, but they may be difficult to detect – unless you involve a world-class customer service person in the interview process. It’s not just skills, i.e. ability to answer the telephone appropriately, can do data entry at the speed of light, can file correctly while blindfolded, etc. Nor is it just a smiling face, pleasant countenance or willingness to learn the company’s product or service.

Motivated professionals have the “IT” factor. That intangible yet distinct desire to be of service to others. To be helpful. To want the other person to walk away with their needs fulfilled. These professionals get tremendous satisfaction from solving their customers’ problems. They are out there. They are looking for a team just like yours.

3. Empower Your Team

The most difficult part of managing a customer service team is empowering them to make the decisions that will serve the customer well. Too many companies have upper management people that simply don’t trust their front line employees. What a shame. They’re willing to have these people as the first contact for customers, but aren’t willing to let them help those customers fully.

Consider this: a customer calls with a complaint, but the person answering the phone must escalate that complaint to a supervisor. The supervisor is working with another customer service rep, so is unavailable to assist the customer. The customer then gets put on hold and is transferred to a voice mail system, and encouraged to leave a message about their issue. No matter what is done from this point forward, no matter how well the supervisor is able assist the customer…the customer will be annoyed and less likely to do business with you again.

If a well-trained, professional customer service rep is given authority to make decisions that can assist their customers, they will be loyal to the company and the bottom line, and the customer will believe you when you talk about providing excellent customer service.

4. Measure

Are you wanting a world-class customer service team…for real? If you’re serious about motivating your employees, training the professionals, empowering the front-line customer caretakers, then you should be serious about measuring what works and what doesn’t.

Measure something, anything, that is relevant to your employees, your customers, your bottom line. Performance measurements with rewards can focus an employee’s energy faster than knowing the CEO is coming to visit.

Employees get motivated by measurements for many different reasons. Knowing these reasons will be helpful to you when determining what and how to measure their performance. Are they competitive? Do they thrive on being distinguishing their performance from others’, or are they more interested in comparing this month’s results to last month’s? Make this distinction and they will move mountains to reach the wanted results. Keep in mind, though, that there are employees that are not competitive…at all. These are the employees that are motivated by duty and will focus their energy on whatever is the priority they are told to focus on.

5. Reward with Money

If you want to motivate employees even more, tie the measurement to a reward.

Sales professionals receive commissions based on their measured results: sales and sometimes repeat business or renewals.

Administer customer satisfaction surveys to every customer. If the team meets or exceeds a predetermined satisfaction rating, they all receive a bonus in their paychecks.

If the customer service department is set up to provide custom product quotes to customers, then set a goal of % quotes closed/sold for each customer service person. Reward with a bonus in their paycheck.

Because each customer service department is different, it is important to note that money does not always work. There are some companies that reward with catered lunches, others that reward with bonus points to be ‘spent’ on personal time. Being creative will only serve to enhance your customer service team’s relationship with the company and their customer.

Summary

To motivate employees, act like you want them to act. You will attract and hire motivated professionals.

Focus employees’ energy through measurement and reward strategies.

Then…listen for the “Wows” from your customers start to come in.

December is Brutal for Customer Service

Whether you’re in retail, wholesale, manufacturing or non-profit, December is downright brutal to all customer service reps.

Now is the time for all managers to step up and lead their teams to greatness. Remove or minimize any obstacles your people face – from corporate to co-workers, from software to telephones.  Then get yourself in front of them and go. Stock shelves, file orders, decorate a window, pick up trash, answer the phone and engage the customer. Show your team how to be cool under pressure and they will rise to the challenge.

• Laugh often and don’t be afraid to use your sense of humor.
• Cut your team some slack (just don’t let them take advantage of you).
• Bring a fruit/snack tray on the busiest days of the month.
• Praise each team member often.
• Have fun and encourage your team to have fun.
• Jump in when you see a member get tired or in a jam.
• Show your team that it is possible to deliver world-class customer service during the busiest, and sometimes most brutal, time of the year.

And don’t forget to say “Thank You” to your team members and each and every customer.

Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your customers.

Are You Offering Good Customer Service?

How would you know?

It’s easy to measure the bad customer service, just review the complaints that come in. But I recommend that you not stop there. I’ve talked with supervisors and managers who have reviewed the complaints, taken action to rectify the issue and believed that by reducing complaints they’ve improved customer service.

This is simply not a good way to measure your customer service department. There are a lot of people who won’t complain if they get treated poorly. They’re just going to go away and not come back – and will probably tell several other people what a bad customer service experience your business provided.

There are many ways to measure customer service, and the best way is by asking the customer directly.

Customer service surveys that combine ‘level of satisfaction’ answers as well as open-ended questions can provide invaluable information to a manager. The surveys I’ve used all have helped me refine training processes, identify issues with a particular customer service rep, and also identify company policy issues that needed to be addressed to better serve the customer.

Surveys can be delivered to a customer in many ways. You can use an online tool that connects to your company website, send an email to a customer list and await responses. You can use a written survey sent via USPS, maybe postcard form to save on postage. If the survey is short enough, then a telemarketing effort would be a good idea. Why? It provides the customer service rep with an opportunity to listen to a customer and to provide additional service should it be warranted. In the end, nothing beats a personal touch. But, if the survey is more than 2 to 3 questions it can become too cumbersome to handle over the phone.

This is a general customer service survey example that you can use to get feedback about face-to-face customer service interactions; adapt it to your needs by adding other questions specific to your company if you wish.

Customer Service Survey

Dear Customer,
Our goal is to provide our customers with the best service possible. Please take a few minutes to complete the following customer service questionnaire. Your comments will enable us to see how we’re doing overall and find out how we can improve.

Customer Service Survey

                                                                                     Excellent  Good  Average Fair Poor

• Staff was available in a timely manner.
• Staff greeted you and offered to help you.
• Staff was friendly and cheerful throughout.
• Staff answered your questions.
• Staff showed knowledge of the products/services.
• Staff offered pertinent advice.
• Staff was courteous throughout.
• Overall, how would you rate our customer service?

Open-Ended Questions

• What did you like best about our customer service?
• How could we improve our customer service?
• Is there a staff person you would like to commend?
• Name:
  Reason:
• Thank you for taking the time to complete our customer service survey.

 

I hope you can see that the combination of ‘level of satisfaction’ and open-ended questions can glean more information from your customers than simply asking if they believe the received good customer service.

Share the results with your customer service team. Ask them for input on how to improve in areas that become known through the survey. Remember, they’re on the front line and know your customers much better than you do.

Difficult Customers

Customers can be difficult. They can be pushy, aggressive, angry, annoyed, and sometimes even obnoxious. A world-class customer service rep is trained and confident in their ability to handle such customers. They understand the importance of being consistent and courteous, while also garnering the respect of their customer.

Here are some techniques you can employ the next time you have a difficult customer:

1. Neutralize your emotions

Do not take a customer’s negative comments or outbursts personally.  Remember, they hear a voice on the phone…they don’t know you.  Because difficult people can be emotionally challenging, the more your emotions are in check, the more you can be in control of the conversation and outcome of the call.  You can do this by committing to being polite and respectful to each and every caller, by having pride in your work and the company, and by not jumping to conclusions.

2. Listen to the caller to control the conversation

If they have reasonable complaints or requests, and are simply stating them in an unreasonable way (raised voice, curt sentences, demanding attitude), respond in a polite but firm manner by repeating their request or complaint.  Example “what I hear you saying is that the blade is not pretty, but is working just fine.”  Use this technique to clarify the customer’s request, but to also encourage the customer to speak in the same manner as you.

3. Offer a solution

Unless a customer is threatening or abusive, you have the ability to solve their problem.  Always respond with an attitude of “we can do this”.    Never blame a co-worker, never offer an excuse as to why something wasn’t done correctly.  Instead, let the customer know that you appreciate that they brought the matter to your attention and it will be investigated to prevent this situation from happening again.  Then, offer the solution to the problem.  It may be that you have to accept the return of a product, it could be that the customer is willing to purchase a different product, it may be that the product is acceptable but delivery time was not. 

Abusive, threatening calls

If a caller begins by being verbally abusive (name calling, derogatory remarks, swearing), in a calm voice state to the customer that if they stop this behavior you are willing to work with them.  But, if they continue to speak to you in this manner, you will hang up the phone.  If the behavior continues, hang up the phone.  No one needs to tolerate being verbally abused.

If, during the conversation, the caller becomes verbally abusive, get the caller’s attention and remind them that you are willing to continue the conversation if they will calm down and speak to you in an appropriate manner.

My opinion is that one warning is sufficient. Confirm your company’s policies and follow them if they are different than my own. I have always trained customer service reps to respond to abusive calls this way, and if the abuse continues, they are to let the caller know that they are hanging up because of their abusive behavior. Then the customer service rep is to note the incident by date, time, customer name and reason for initial call to be filed with the supervisor. This way if the customer calls back and brings in the previous customer service rep’s name, they can be transferred directly to the supervisor.

 

I work better when threatened….

Though this statement is never uttered, the response to potential job loss, to reprimand, to getting caught is to work better. What a shame.

Many people do as little as possible to do their jobs. After the first 90 days its seems that they’ve found the bottom of the range of acceptability and expectations and work very hard to not exceed it.

These are NOT World-Class customer service people.

Instead, there are those who seek the high end of the range of acceptable behavior and expected work ethics -and strive to not only achieve that high end of the range but to exceed it. Thereby raising the bar and level of service they offer to their customers.

It doesn’t matter what the job description says, what matters is how your customers respond after having a conversation with you.

But I’m Doing the Best that I Can!

Really? And is that within your job description? Honestly.

When hired to do a job it is expected that you will put forth the effort to be the best person for the job. This includes utilizing all of the skills you talked about during the interview. As well as learning the new skills your employer has provided training for. As well as learning new skills on your own.

World-Class customer service is all about doing your job – and then some.

It is all about doing the best you can do – and then some.

It is all about putting forth more than 90% of the effort necessary to do the job.

It is NOT about relying on the ‘understanding’ of your manager, your supervisor, your boss.

World-Class customer service requires that you not only put forth the 100% effort to do the job you were hired to do, but also to throw in an additional 10% or 15% or whatever is necessary to exceed your customer’s expectations.

“But I’m doing the best that I can” is not an acceptable response to anyone asking you to do your job. If that is your answer then maybe you need to seek work elsewhere. Just a thought.

Start at the Beginning

One goal of a quality customer service department should be to prevent complaints.  How to do this? The following three steps are a start:

1. Top executives set the tone and expectation by putting forth customer-friendly/customer-focused policies throughout the organization.
2. All personnel involved directly with customers are trained, not only on company policy, but also on communication skills. Skills such as listening, asking appropriate questions, providing enough information to the customer to encourage the customer to engage. Skills related to the how of communicating as well as the words.
3. Staff members must believe that they have a stake in the success of the business. They must be shown through recognition programs, peer appreciation programs and the occasional pat on the back by the executive that their efforts are noted and appreciated.

Customer Service is Dead!

No it’s not! It’s just not what we want it to be, yet.

Yes, the lament has been heard around the world…over and over and over again. And for good reason, too.

For many years, the larger corporations like Verizon, Dell, AT&T and others have sent their customer service departments overseas. Not a bad idea at first because it lowered their service costs. Not a good idea in the end because it also lowered the service to the customer. And, in turn raised the ire of the customer to such a point that instead of a customer service center being cost-neutral it has now become a revenue loser for a lot of companies.

How does a customer service center become a revenue loser? Consider my last post about giving away product or service to a disgruntled customer. Or offering a dissatisfied customer a discount to continue doing business with you.  Or even worse – not engaging the customer in a conversation that results in exceeding their expectation and making them want to not only continue to do business with you but also to spread the word about your company so that others want to do business with you as well.

Many small businesses understand the importance of engaging the customer. Why? Because the owner or manager is in direct contact with the customer. They hear first hand what the customer has experienced by using their product or service. Small businesses are managed and run by people who have a stake in the success of the business. If the owner or manager hears the customer’s complaint, they’re going to act quickly to resolve the issue.  And the result will be an improved product or service to prevent other customers from having a bad experience.

The larger the corporation the further away the owner, manager, decision-maker is from the customer.

It is vital for any business, regardless of size, to operate so that each person in contact with a customer believes they have a stake in the success of the business. Take away that stake and you’re left with people who read the script, look forward to the end of day, pass the customer to another rep, or continue to say “it’s not my job” or “I don’t know”.

No, customer service is not dead. It is rare though. Let’s work together to make world class customer service the norm when doing business rather than the exception.

Are Freebies and Discounts the Answer?

Regardless of the industry you work in, whether it’s in service like insurance or hospitality, or retail/wholesale like a gift shop or manufacturer of custom equipment, if a customer is not satisfied what do you do?

Some companies have a policy of providing immediate discounts to any customer that calls in with a complaint. While others offer a free service or product to ‘take care’ of the customer.

My question to all companies with these policies is simple: have you measured the effectiveness of the freebies and discounts? My guess would be no, you have not. Otherwise you would see that in some instances, the customer went elsewhere for that product or service. And in other instances, the customer returned a few months later expecting the same freebie or discount.

Evergreen policies are lifetime warranties or guarantees either implied or stated upon purchase of a product or service.

For instance, a company purchases piece of equipment that has a warranty of one year on parts and labor whether or not a service agreement is purchased. A service call is placed at the 9 month mark, and new parts need to be ordered. The one year warranty on the new parts starts at the time of replacement, and because the customer argues the warranty issue with the service manager after the next service call, the manager extends the warranty on all parts and service for another year.

This happens again in 10 months, then again in 11 months, then again in 10 months – it appears that the customer has caught on to the system. Place a service call that includes replacement of a part and extend the warranty to infinity. Saves the customer hundreds of dollars, costs the companies the same hundreds of dollars. Satisfied customer, yes. Company losing money, not a good outcome.

So again I ask, how many of these companies that react to a customer complaint measure the costs of that reaction?

Now for the second question. What about the customers’ wants and needs?

When a customer calls the customer service or service department to complain, and the reaction is to immediately offer a free item or discount the customer’s invoice, then that puts the customer in a position of not being heard.

So, I say to these companies and you customer service representatives – don’t react to the customer, respond.

Engage the customer in a conversation about the problem. Encourage the customer to tell you what it is they want from you and the company. Assure the customer that you have a stake in the outcome of the issue, that you will work with them to resolve the issue. Then, once the conversation is over, begin the process of taking care of the customer’s needs.

This is assuming that the company has a process in place that encourages the service person to engage the customer. If the company does not have a process in place, now is a good time to develop one. How? Begin by talking to your customers, your service reps, and your service managers.

Low Pay, Low Service

How often have you heard the lament “where did good customer service go?”

Has anyone stopped to think that we’re getting what we pay for?

What do you think a quality Customer Service Rep should be paid?  Consider all the aspects of their job before you answer.  The following is a short list of job duties for a basic customer service rep position within a call center environment:

Answer phone, whether in a queue or as a contact within a territory.

Be trained on various software packages including, but not limited to, word processing, spreadsheet, database, customer relationship management, e-mail, and product information data.

Be trained and knowledgable in all aspects of the company’s products, services and processes.  This can, and usually does, include knowing every product and being on top of every new product, knowing people to contact about said products, knowing all aspects of services including contract information and legal liabilities.

Respond to customer requests for order information, product information, process information.

File, copy, fax any and all customer requested or needed documentation.

Be fluent in a particular language, primarily English in the US.  Be able to speak and write well in order to communicate clearly.

Be a team player, willing to jump in when another CSR is either out for the day or in trouble with overload.

Maintain customer contact information for departmental use.

Follow up with all inquiries, whether from external or internal customers.

Sometimes, order entry is also involved, which includes a skill set that involves multi-task capabilities.

Hmmm, I believe I have covered the basics.  If you know anything more, please let me know so I can add it to the list.

 

Anyway, a bank teller, responsible for money! for goodness sakes, has a beginning hourly rate of $8/hour.  Hmm.

A call center employee usually begins at $9/hour.  Hmm.

A retail sales clerk usually begins at $8/hour.  Hmm.

 

Are you seeing the pattern???

Now, I’m not talking about a company hiring off the street, ignorant people.  I’m talking about quality people, some of whom are educated.  Some have an associate degree.  Some have a bachelor degree.  Some have such talent that they could train every customer service rep in the company and still take care of the customer – at the same time.

These people are rarely recognized.  Instead, their managers make three to four times the salary and yet know half as much, expect twice as much from their subordinates while treating them like ignorant, off the street people.  Hmm.  And these people usually don’t last long in these positions because of the treatment they receive.

I applied for a customer service job once that required a bachelor of science degree, existing expertise in the use of a variety of software packages, the ability to learn a catalog of products (approx. 300 separate products) quickly, and be an independent thinker.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  I interviewed twice for the position, then was offered a beginning salary of $10/hour.  No bonuses, no increase in pay until after a year, limited benefits.  Hmm.  I turned the offer down.  Soon thereafter I found a position paying three times more and expecting about the same in experience and skill level. 

I shake my head in disappointment when I hear similar stories on the street…from people with highly developed communication skills, education and the ability to learn new things quickly.  From people who simply love to serve others, who want to make Customer Service a career, but are limited because very few companies actually understand the importance of good pay to keep good people. 

No, its not always about money, but to be able to support yourself and a family while being compensated for outstanding skills is certainly something to think about.

I welcome any and all comments, experiences, thoughts.  Please feel free to leave your comment below!