How does your service rank? - Another Article from Blair Singer

AOL or Nordstrom? What's your policy?

This article got me thinking. I am a customer service support representative here at Rich Dad's office. You should always consider when a customer calls you how long do you keeping them waiting when they call you for a solution to their issue? How do you make them feel when they are complaining to you? Do you keep putting them on hold? And so on.................... Another thing I should be thinking is monitoring more my agents at USA800 in the way they are handling the calls. Are there room for improvement? How are they making them feel when speaking to them, etc. Read the article below and you will see what I mean:

Hi Linda,

Fly in your soup? Brakes are fixed but the engine now
clunks? Wrong medical operation?

Service problems can go from the simple to the horrific and
downright torturous. When was the last time you really
reviewed and tested your customer service policies?

Here's a real-life case study for you. Now, there's a lot to
learn here, both good and bad and I'll point out a few
things as we go through the study...

Internet service provider AOL studiously tracked how long a
person was willing to be on-hold before hanging up when
calling in to cancel their service. Initial studies found
that it was about 5 minutes. When someone called in to
cancel, AOL placed the person on-hold and would only route
them to an operator after the 5-minute mark.

(The good: studying and tracking your customers behavior
patterns. The bad: purposefully and maliciously manipulating
them.)

When AOL saw that people were waiting longer, they increased
the on-hold time. Once a customer reached an operator, the
operator was instructed to follow a specific probing
process...

Operator: What do you use the internet for?
Customer: Research
Operator: What kind of things do you research?
Customer: Prices, directions... that kind of stuff
Operator: Do you research things for work?
Member: Sometimes...
Operator: What kind of work do you do?

They had specific instructions to keep digging until the
customer "decided" to keep their membership.

Customer: I don't need it, I don't want it, I don't use it.
Operator: So when you use this, is that for business or
school?
Customer: I don't want the AOL account, can we please just
cancel it?
Operator: On June 2nd, I see 72 hours of usage...

(The good: adapting your business to meet customer patterns.
The bad: not listening to your customer and trying to force
your will upon them.)

How would you feel in the above situation? Granted, it's
pretty extreme and AOL was eventually fined for these
practices and no longer uses them.

Compare this with Nordstrom's Customer Service Policy...

For many years, new employees were given an employee handbook
- a single 5 x 8 inch gray card containing 75 words:

"WELCOME TO NORDSTROM"

"We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one
goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both
your personal and professional goals high. We have great
confidence in your ability to achieve them.

"Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use your good judgment in all
situations. There will be no additional rules.

"Please feel free to ask your department manager, store
manager, or division general manager any question at any
time."

So, take a look at how you and your company interact with
your customers. What can you improve upon? Can you make your
service legendary?

Find out what successful businesses are doing and how you
can apply their strategies for your greater results

They had specific instructions to keep digging until the
customer "decided" to keep their membership.

Customer: I don't need it, I don't want it, I don't use it.
Operator: So when you use this, is that for business or
school?
Customer: I don't want the AOL account, can we please just
cancel it?
Operator: On June 2nd, I see 72 hours of usage...

(The good: adapting your business to meet customer patterns.
The bad: not listening to your customer and trying to force
your will upon them.)

How would you feel in the above situation? Granted, it's
pretty extreme and AOL was eventually fined for these
practices and no longer uses them.

Compare this with Nordstrom's Customer Service Policy...

For many years, new employees were given an employee handbook
- a single 5 x 8 inch gray card containing 75 words:

"WELCOME TO NORDSTROM"

"We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one
goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both
your personal and professional goals high. We have great
confidence in your ability to achieve them.

"Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use your good judgment in all
situations. There will be no additional rules.

"Please feel free to ask your department manager, store
manager, or division general manager any question at any
time."

So, take a look at how you and your company interact with
your customers. What can you improve upon? Can you make your
service legendary?

Find out what successful businesses are doing and how you
can apply their strategies for your greater results

http://www.salesdogs.com/e/mastery.html

Be awesome,

Blair


Be awesome,

Blair