Category Archives: Customer Service

If you have ever heard me speak about customer service, you know that I believe you should CASE (Copy and Steal (or save) Everything) from your competitors or from a business in another industry to find some idea that you can incorporate into your business to Deliver the World’s Best Customer Experience.

Having had a 30 year career in luxury resorts and hotels, I feel that the hospitality industry can offer strategies that can help B2C businesses improve their delivery of customer service. To that end, this guest post is written by Nick Meiers. Nick writes about leadership, team development, and service excellence in the hospitality industry at his blog, Essential Hospitality. For other customer experience CASE ideas from hospitality, be sure to follow Nick on Twitter @HospLeader.

In this post, Nick explains how the Kano Analysis method can create an exceptional guest/customer experience. 

The expectations, requirements, and demands of our guests don’t all carry the same weight; they’re quite different from each other. Leaders must realize that:

• There are some things demanded by guests that they will not go without.
• The quality of some elements will either make or break the guest experience.
• Guests want a lot of things they don’t even know they want.
• Some of what you do doesn’t impact the average guest at all.

Confusing these different attributes of the guest experience can lead to:

• Eliminating the wrong things from the guest experience.
• Spending too much money on things that don’t matter to guests.
• Failing to differentiate one’s operation from that of a competitor.

This is a long post, but I’m going to show you how we can sort out guest demands and prioritize appropriately. This is a process, and if you skip to the end none of it will make any sense.

Kano Analysis is a tool used to determine which attributes of a product or service are most important to guests. Knowing which are most important will allow you to prioritize improvement efforts that will result in greater guest satisfaction.

Imagine you’re looking for ways to examine what is important to guests at your resort, specifically in your casual, full-service, tropical-themed restaurant.

First, let’s look at the five attributes of customer satisfaction. You need to understand these to apply the tool.

Understanding different attributes of guest requirements

“Must-Bes”

These are the basic requirements of your guests. You don’t get bonus points for having them, but you don’t have a chance without them. When was the last time a guest at your restaurant said, “Finally, a restaurant with chairs!” Of course you have chairs. Adding more tables to the restaurant wouldn’t make the experience any better if the kitchen can’t support them. Getting tables made out of the world’s most expensive wood wouldn’t provide an appreciable increase in guest satisfaction. Some things, you just need to have.

Other Must-Be (without these at a restaurant, you’re dead): Food, waitstaff, utensils, plates

“Satisfiers”

The more satisfiers you have, the better. Customers generally demand satisfiers—they’ll eat a restaurant with more satisfiers. If your food is good that’s great…if it’s reasonably priced that’s even better. If your waitress is friendly that’s great…if she knows the menu and makes good recommendation and tells some jokes that make your family laugh, all the better. But, it goes both ways. If your food is bland and expensive, and the waitress is boring then your guests will be less satisfied.

Other Satisfiers (make sure you’re doing a good job on these things): wait time, ambiance, comfort, pace of meal, accuracy in preparation, food temperature, proper use of music

“Exciters”

These are the unexpected surprises that meet your guests’ unspoken desires and make their experience great. Imagine you put little umbrellas in the drinks or deliver a birthday cupcake upon overhearing that the family is celebrating Dad’s birthday. The family didn’t ask for a celebratory cupcake—but they did (indirectly) ask for a good time—and you surpassed their expectation. Note that the absence of exciters doesn’t decrease guest satisfaction, since they weren’t expecting anything anyway.

Other Exciters (sprinkle these in and satisfaction improves): anything unexpected that meets a guest’s unspoken desires

“Indifference”

The indifferent elements are those that don’t directly influence your guest’s satisfaction or their decision to do business with you. For example, your guests don’t care about the brand of quarry tile in the kitchen; it doesn’t impact their experience in the slightest. Frankly, they wouldn’t care if you were cooking on a gravel floor.

“Reversers”
These are the extra processes that your guests don’t like. Obviously, you want to keep these to a minimum.

(And remember— Exciters evolve into Satisfiers and Satisfiers evolve into Dissatisfiers. Paying by credit card was once an Exciter—a novelty. It became a Satisfier and is now a Must-Be, especially for the younger generation, as you know if your restaurant doesn’t accept credit cards.)

Now that you understand these different attributes, let’s consider how we would design a customer service survey to determine into which categories guests would place certain aspects of their experience. You may think you know what your guests think, but you want to be sure.

(Note: The Kano Analysis process is complex and out of the scope of this blog; we’re going to look at this on a basic, practical level.)

What do MY guests think are Must-Bes, Satisfiers, and Delighters?

Good question! You might not know if something is a Must-Be, Satisfier, or Delighter. This is where surveys come in handy.

Imagine your jungle-themed restaurant has jungle-themed live music every night. You’re wondering if this is worthwhile. When designing your survey, you’ll ask the question in the functional (positive) form and the dysfunctional (negative) form:

1.) How do you feel when live musicians are performing during dinner at our restaurant?
a) I like it.
b) I expect it.
c) I don’t care.
d) I don’t like it.

1.) How do you feel when live musicians are not performing during dinner at our restaurant?
e) I like it.
f) I expect it.
g) I don’t care.
h) I don’t like it.

You’ll use this chart to see what your guests’ answers mean. I’ll tell you how to read it below.

What can we learn using this table? Let’s suppose that guests responded that they expect to have live music and they dislike it when it’s not there. What would you call this? (Look at the chart). It’s a Must-Be. What if guests responded that they like it when the musicians are performing, but they don’t care when there is not live music. This points to an Exciter. In a large-scale survey, you’d setup a table like this and see where most of the results fell. You can even separate the data by age, sex, or other demographics. Certainly, everybody doesn’t see things the same way.

What do I do with these categories?

Great, you understand your guests’ preferences. What’s next? You might start by making a chart that divides elements of the guest experience into their categories. For example:

Of course, the list would continue…

Now it’s time to design a Voice of the Customer survey that will show how you’ve been doing on these things. Questions would be in the format:

How was the cleanliness of the dining room?
a.) Very Good
b.) Good
c.) Neutral
d.) Poor
e.) Very Poor

If the data were to show that guests are not happy with your dining room’s cleanliness and you know cleanliness is a Must-Be, you’ve identified an area where you might be losing market share. Improving this won’t dramatically grow your business, but it’ll keep you from losing ground. If your waitstaff aren’t friendly, you will know that investing more resources in training your staff will result in increased guest satisfaction, since this is a Satisfier.

That’s a start. I hope you now have a better understanding of this powerful tool, or at least a new way to see what your guests are really thinking.

This is a guest post written by Micah Solomon, a customer service and marketing speaker, strategist, and author of the new book, High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service.

Find Micah at http://www.micahsolomon.com or visit his blog: http://www.collegeofthecustomer.com

 
“Why don’t the old ways work with customers anymore?” … I hear this question frequently when I’m speaking at a business event or starting a new  customer service consulting engagement.

First off: in certain, important ways, the old ways do still work.  Let me explain. What makes you great at social media and online customer service are very often the same skills that made you great before Facebook (sorry:  TheFacebook) was even invented. In other words, social media is a dramatic amplifier of the positive, and of the negative—and if what you do for customers in your business is positive enough (great product, great problem resolution process, consideration of the emotional aspect of every interaction with your customers), the word can get out on a much bigger scale than ever before.

But the context of our work has undeniably changed, because of the recent changes that have swept through the world of commerce. Changes of which social media is only one. Since the advent of the internet, and, most specifically, the broad use of the Web starting in the mid-1990s, there’s been a dramatic transformation of the competitive landscape. The changes brought on by these new communication and distribution channels are in many ways revolutionary, and they’re causing disruptions akin to those of past revolutions.

For example, our sense of timeliness: What was plenty fast this time last year feels draggy now to the very same customers because of changing expectations brought by mobile technology, social media–induced restlessness, the incredible efficiency of vendors like Amazon.com, and other factors.

For a parallel, look at the changes of the mid-nineteenth century. During this period the stability of rural and village life was thrown into disarray due to a host of technological advances, including those making it possible to preserve and transport food. Customers could now purchase edibles from across the country or around the world: The farmer in New England who had been able to count on a captive local market for whatever would graze or grow in his stony fields was now competing against topsoil-rich Illinois and lamb-friendly New Zealand. The result was a mass abandonment of farms throughout the region.

The transformation was striking: Go for a walk in the woods of New Hampshire or Vermont and you’ll still see the proliferation of old stone walls and foundations that attest to the abandoned farms and homesteads of this era.

Or just remember your high school poetry. This New England exodus is the backstory of Robert Frost’s stuck-in-his-ways neighbor still trying to mend a fence: He doesn’t realize times have changed and the fence, at most, is now preventing runaway trees. There are no cattle to contain anymore.

You can’t afford to be similarly left behind by today’s transformational technologies. It’s crucial to invest brain cells, time, and money to keep up with what it takes to hold on to your customers, now that we’re all playing on a global, digitally connected field.

Often after one of my presentations, an attendee will approach me to tell me of a terrible customer experience with one of the big brands.  They ask me, “If they say that customer service is so important, then why is it so bad? Corporations are people, too. And if they are people, then aren’t they customers at some point? Don’t they experience what we experience? Don’t they get it?”

I respond to them by saying that no matter how much those companies say they value customer feedback, don’t expect their delivery of customer service to get better any time soon. While C-level executives must be customers and experience service for themselves, they experience it like they do in the first-class section flying on a plane. Since they are not personally paying for the ticket, they do not worry about getting their money’s worth. They do not weigh the experience with the expense to assess value like we do. Going to the front of the line and with ample leg room and access to whatever their needs might want, they are blind to what we real customers must endure behind that first-class curtain. As we complain about cramped leg room and rising baggage fees, they simply do not hear any of it through their noise-canceling headphones.

When they are back in the office, they do what they were hired to do which is to maximize profits. While executives have a base pay we would envy, they are moved to maximize profits to earn their incentive pay of bonuses and stocks. And if sales are flat because customers can’t afford to spend much, then to protect their profit margins, executives dictate layoff and other cost-cutting measures, oblivious to its impact on the customer experience. To them, customer-centricity measures do not quantify with an ROI on a profit statement. So I understand why they do what they do. I understand it. That doesn’t mean I agree with it.

Unfortunately, customers don’t hire the people who serve them. Companies do. And companies, led by those executives, don’t care. The fish stinks from the head down, but the head does not know it’s stinking.

I believe the real question is “How does a customer service representative who wants to give exceptional service survive in a company that doesn’t care?”

QUI ACTION STEPS:

If you are one of those C-level executives: Don’t wait for Undercover Boss to call. Make it a part of your daily leadership regimen to get out of the office to find out what is really going on in your operation. You can’t build the business without sales. And you can’t build sales without satisfied customers. If you don’t know what’s going on, one employee could kill your business and you won’t even know it when it happens. I can tell you that every C-level executive who has been spotlighted on Undercover Boss finds out that the company isn’t performing as well as he/she thought it was. I can also tell you that any viewer of Undercover Boss who is an employee in any company can tell you that they saw it coming.

If you are an employee: Theodore Roosevelt said, “Success, the real success, does not depend upon the position you hold but upon how you carry yourself in that position.” You do not need a CEO title to act like a leader. Know this: At the moment that the customer is interacting with you, you have as much ability to build customer loyalty as your CEO. Make the difference for your customer. Your goal: When the customer walks away from you, he says to himself, “Wow! That person really cared about me.”

Learning to treat individual customers as individuals is a key to business success. But being aware of underlying trends in the marketplace is also essential for the success of any business that relies on significant numbers of transactions and forward-looking planning. Here are six major customer trends I identify in my new book, High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service.  Continue reading →

This is a guest post by fellow customer service advocate, NBRI. Via their tweets and blog posts, I know they share the same passion as I do to help businesses deliver an exceptional customer experience. You can find out more about them at the end of this post.

You don’t have to be a professional to distinguish between great and poor customer service. It’s the difference between a smile and a sigh from the employee handing you your coffee. It’s vital to your survival as a company to deliver amazing customer service from top to bottom.

Delivering amazing customer service requires continuous focus. It’s a journey not a destination. As a leader, you are continually setting an example that encourages others to follow your lead. Here are three things that you can do to set an example within your own organization that will lead to increased customer satisfaction:

When Asked, It’s Not Someone Else’s Job

Whether you’re in a retail store or a corporate office, you’re asked to do a lot, both from customers and fellow employees. If you’re approached by either, it’s off-putting to continually redirect them to someone else. Especially when it comes to customers, complete the task for them if at all possible. Show them to the right aisle or answer their question. If the customer has a need, personally fulfill it when you can. The customer does not know that what they need is someone else’s responsibility, nor should they care. If other employees continually see you ‘passing the buck’, they will follow your course.

Smile

This is the easiest, yet most overlooked part of customer service. Even over the phone, you can tell if someone is smiling when they speak. Smiles are contagious, and there’s no easier way to put a smile on your customer’s face than to put one on yours. Set the example! You’ll be happy with the results. Check for an employee engagement issue if your employees are struggling with this simple, yet very effective part of customer service.

Positive Words

It’s commonplace to use words such as ‘sure’ and ‘no problem’ when you’re approached with requests. And while there are worse words to use, there are options that are more effective. Your front line and customer service employees should use words such as ‘absolutely’ and ‘definitely’. These words are more powerful and active, while the former are more passive. It’s a subtle difference, but your customers will notice and respond accordingly.

If you’re ready to start providing amazing customer service, you’re in the right place. These tips are a great start, but it takes an organizational commitment to customer service to stay competitive. Our research shows that 70% of the companies with exceptional customer service records have used customer feedback to get where they are. Bill is a world-renowned customer service training expert, and NBRI can track your customer feedback over time to make sure that improvements you’ve implemented are having the desired effect. Most markets are highly competitive. Don’t let customers slip through your fingers because of a customer service problem that could have been fixed if you had only known it existed.

ABOUT NBRI: Since 1982, NBRI has been a leader in measuring Customer and Employee Satisfaction and Engagement and designing Action Plans to maximize financial performance. NBRI employs industry leading experts, with over 30 Ph.D holders on staff. You can read their blog and follow them on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. Japanese proverb.

According to a study conducted by the Rockefeller Corporation of Pittsburgh, 68% of customers stop doing business with a company because of an attitude of indifference by an owner, manager, or some employee. Now do you really think that an owner or manager would not care about their customers? You can almost take for granted that they “get it.” So who is left? And the statistic does not say “some employees.” It’s just one. To the customer, just one employee IS the company. And that one employee could cost your business big.

Just before Christmas 2011, a security video of a FedEx driver nonchalantly dropping a computer monitor over a fence went viral on YouTube with over 2 million views in 48 hours. Today it has over 9.4 million views.

In 2012, a picture of a Papa John’s receipt with its racial slur was retweeted 25,000 times in two hours. And in October, 2014 a similar incident happened at a Pizza Hut. These incidents generated huge press coverage for the wrong reasons for their brands and prompted apologies from the C-level of both companies.

Leadership development speaker Mark Sanborn posted in his blog about being told that to catch an earlier flight but with a downgrade from first class to coach, it still would cost him an additional $75. It didn’t matter that he was a United 1K Elite traveler flying over 2 million miles with United.

People Skills Coach Kate Nasser posted in her Smart SensAbilities blog about her confrontation with Karen, the manager at the Hilton Garden Inn in Eagan. When Ms. Nasser went down to catch the cab that would take her to her appointment, the cab driver asked for her room number. Of course, she didn’t want to give it to a complete stranger. So she asked the cab driver to come back into the hotel so that they could confirm her cab reservation. Ms. Nasser explains to Karen at the front desk that she did not want to give out her room number and could Karen confirm to the cab driver that she was the client for the reserved cab. Here’s the rest of that conversation:

Karen to the cab driver: “Her room number is 210.”
Ms. Nasser: “Excuse me, you just gave my room number to this man.”
Karen:  “The cab company requires it.”
Ms. Nasser, “You just gave this man my room number.”
Karen: “Nothing has ever happened.”
Ms. Nasser: “You just gave out my room number. How are you going to fix this?”
Karen: “Are you going to argue with me or are you going to get in the cab?”

Nick Meiers posted on his Essential Hospitality blog about this conversation he overheard in a restaurant:
Guest:  “How is the rib-eye?”
Server: “I’m not sure, I’ve never eaten here. You know how it is, you don’t want to be at work when you’re not working!”

I am convinced that in each of these incidents, these employees didn’t see anything wrong to act indifferently to the customer as they did. And here is the “killer” part.  In each of these cases, their manager or owner had no clue that these employees did what they did. Of course, the owner or manager would have handled each situation differently. But they weren’t there. At that moment, the reputation of the brand was in the hands of the one employee who was. And in each case, with the amplification by social media, the brand lost big time.

So what can you do to make sure you don’t have even one of these business-killing employees?

QUI ACTION STEPS:

• Define customer service expectations during the onboarding process. Include customer service standards in each job description. Create and review your customer service manifesto with each new hire.
• Use these poor customer service examples and those you read or hear about to remind your team of how the actions of just one employee can damage the business and brand. Discuss proper responses in handling similar situations that could arise in your business.
• Take immediate disciplinary action when an employee displays rude behavior to a customer.
• Share customer feedback, good and bad, regularly with your team. Involve your employees in defining alternative responses in handling the situations that generated negative customer comments.
• Motivate your team continuously with daily huddles to keep focused on delivering exceptional customer service.
• Constantly ask your employees if there are any incidents or questions that need to be resolved today so they can be better equipped to handle them in the future.
• Empower your employees to bend the rules to take care of your customers.
• Reward, recognize. and celebrate the random acts of kindness that individual employees offer your customers.
• Serve as a role model to your employees when interacting with your customers directly.

When you do this you will keep every one of your employees involved, engaged and committed in only offering the kind of “killer” service for which you DO want to be recognized.