A veteran of over 40 years in hospitality leadership, I was, until several years ago, a customer service/customer experience speaker. Unfortunately, I suffered a stroke in April 2021. So, I have slightly slurred speech and a dead right side. Since my stroke, I’ve gone from Mr. “Let’s be GREAT out there!” as GM/Managing Director to Mr. Invisible, sequestered alone with my wife in my San Diego apartment. Today, I want to tell you my real-life customer experience story.
On Friday, I was at the downtown CVS Pharmacy sitting in my wheelchair, waiting for my prescription. Meanwhile, a young lady looked at me and motioned if she could go ahead. When I answered yes, she asked the pharmacy clerk for her prescription. When asked by the clerk for her name and age, the young lady responded with her name and birthdate ending in 08. Since I could not easily calculate her age (because of my memory lapses due to my stroke or early onset dementia), I asked her how old she was. She quizzically looked at me, did not respond but looked at the pharmacy clerk. The clerk said that I was asking several people about their age (I did). The young lady didn’t say anything to her nor did she say anything or smile to me. She simply walked away with her prescription. With that, the pharmacy clerk looked at me and shrugged.
I envision that young lady, who I now recognize is only 16 years old, is now a part of the Gen N generation. You may think Gen N is the Now Generation who wants an experience that is quick, easy, and NOW. But, I perceive Gen N as Generation Nobody. Anyone older than Gen N is a Nobody to them. Listening with their earplugs and watching on their cellphones with their friends or young social media influencers, Gen N is oblivious to any older generation around them. In this case, I really did feel that I was a nobody to the young lady.
Now that I am older and wiser, especially given this incident, I advocate this:
QUI QUOTE: Whatever your title or position, be a servant leader who will CARE for people first.
COMMUNICATE with each person with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each person transparently and interactively.,
ACKNOWLEDGE each person’s presence and value to you as a human being with emotions and feelings.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each person’s statements, questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every person.
Instead of asking your people, “What can you do for me and my business?”, through your words and actions, ask them two questions:
“How are you feeling?”
“How can I help?”
When you ask, listen intently, respond empathetically, and act promptly to take appropriate corrective action, your people will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. You will inspire and empower them to develop themselves and engage others. Soon, everyone’s experiences and, ultimately, their lives, will be enriched.
What do you think? Whether you agree or disagree, discuss or not, I’m sure that we, yes, you and me, can interact with each other without being disagreeable. And for that, I very much appreciate you. I look forward to seeing who you consider is a GREAT servant leader.
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues every day about each one of these reminders I published in 2023:
25 QUI QUOTE Reminders about Customers and Customer Service.
You can either repeat these QUI QUOTES or remind yourself, your customer CARE team, or your leadership colleagues about these QUI QUOTES which are collectively published this month in 2024.
ASSETS
Your most important assets are not your customers and your people. It’s how your customers and your people feel about you and your company.
CEO OF THE MOMENT
To a complaining customer, you are not a representative of the company. You ARE the company. So, own it. Be the CEO of the moment. Take it personally. Take it professionally. Take it responsibly. Just don’t take it at home.
COMMON SENSE
Delivering GREAT customer service is business common sense. Your job is to make it common practice.
COMPLAINT
A customer complaint is a gift. Take the perspective that customers complain because they want to help your business. Otherwise, they would walk away, saying nothing, with no intention of ever returning.
CONDUIT
Your relationship with your customers, not their purchase of your product, is the conduit where true value flows.
CSAT CX METRICS
Your customers don’t care about your NPS, CSAT, or CX metrics. They only care about theirs: One to One. Human to Human. Heart to Heart. The value to your customers is in their personal interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions. To earn customer loyalty, don’t get inside their heads. Get inside their hearts. Create an emotional connection. Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.
CUSTOMER
A customer is a person. Not a dollar, Not a satisfaction score. Not an online review. Customers are people. CARE BIG for them.
CUSTOMERS BOUGHT
You know you have customer CARE right when your customers don’t tell others what they bought. They tell others who they bought it from.
DISSATISFY ME
No customer, intent on paying, has ever entered your store to loudly proclaim, “Here I am. Dissatisfy me now!”
No employee, intent on working, has ever started their first day by loudly proclaiming, “Here I am. Dissatisfy me now.” If all you do is lead with top-down, one-way, communication, your employees will soon be disillusioned and disengaged, only working because they HAVE TO. But if you have a servant leadership mindset to CARE for your employees, your people will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. They will loyally return, be more productive, and rave to others on social media.
EXPERIENCE TRUMPS
Your customer’s negative experience of your service trumps your advertising every time.
EXPLANATION EXCUSE
Listen to their complaints with the intent to take action, not to explain. To a customer, when something is wrong, your explanation is an excuse. Customers want action, not excuses.
FINE
When you ask customers “How is everything?” and they respond, “Fine,” just know you “Failed In Nailing Expectations.”
HABIT
If you want your people to make it a habit to deliver outstanding customer CARE, you have to make it a habit to recognize them when they do.
INNOVATION
We need to future-proof the customer experience. We analyze the journey to ask, “What are the potential dissatisfiers and how can we remove them?”, and when we ask and take action, a negative customer experience has turned into a neutral one. But that’s not good enough. Satisfied customers feel their experience is good, not better, just average. Nobody raves about average. And satisfied customers will leave when they find an experience that is better or a less expensive price.
So don’t serve to satisfy customers. Don’t treat customers as they would have expected. Don’t treat them as they want to be treated. And don’t treat them as YOU want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them.
Future-proof the customer experience. In addition to asking “What happened?” to your people answering customer complaints, ask them “What if?” Exceeding the expectations of current customer needs and innovating future potential customer wants will maximize the ROI of CX. So, always be asking, “What happened?” and “What if?” Always be innovating. And always be GREAT out there!
KEEP FIND
Work as hard to keep customers as much as you do to find them.
MARKETING
Marketing is not your advertising online to customers. It’s your customers raving to others on social media about your customer CARE. To them, you’re not just good. You are GREAT out there!
METRICS
Your customers don’t care about your NPS, CSAT, or CX metrics. They only care about theirs: One to One. Human to Human. Heart to Heart.
NOBODY
Nobody raves about a company that meets customer expectations.
Nobody raves about average.
OVERPROMISE
Overpromise and underdeliver and you’re sure to lose a customer’s trust. Don’t make it right and you’re sure to lose a customer.
PERCEPTION
Your customer’s perception of your customer service trumps your advertising
PERFECT PRACTICE
The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake. But you CAN learn something by being perfect … for your customers. When it comes to business, the customer’s value in their experience is just “perfect.” Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect … for your customers.
PERSPECTIVE
Take the perspective that the customer complains because he wants to help your business. Otherwise, he simply would have left, saying nothing, intent on never coming back.
POLICY
If you’re making frequent policy exceptions, then customer perception does not match company promises. It’s poor policy. Fix it.
PRICE VALUE
When customers complain, they don’t complain about the price. They complain about the value of their experience for the price that you’re asking them to pay. On the flipside, customers will pay for their best experience, no matter the price.
RELATIONSHIP
The value to your customers is in their personal interactions, not your “cash or credit” business transactions.
Your relationship with your customers, not their purchase of your product, is the conduit where true customer experience value flows.
SERVE WOW CARE
Don’t serve to satisfy customers.
Don’t treat customers as they expect to be treated. And don’t treat them as you want to be treated. Instead, treat them a little better than they want to be treated. Serve to WOW them. Serve to CARE.
COMMUNICATE with each customer with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each customer transparently and interactively of the product’s or service’s function, liabilities, and advantages to them.
ACKNOWLEDGE each customer’s presence and value to you and your company.
RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each customer’s questions, concerns, and complaints.
ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every customer.
When you CARE, each customer is WOWED and happy, intent on returning repeatedly, spending more money, and raving to others on social media.
VALUE
As their leader, the value to your people is in their personal interactions with you, not your business transactions with them.
VENT
Listen and allow complaining customers to vent. Angry or frustrated customers generally will not listen or accept your apology until they have an opportunity to voice their frustrations.
WORLD’S BEST
The “World’s Best” customer experience is not as the world sees it. The “World’s Best” Is how one customer FEELS it.
Every morning, when you prepare yourself or your customer CARE people to engage and WOW your customers, I encourage you to remind yourself or your customer CARE people during your daily briefing by reciting one of your favorite QUI QUOTES and, in the end, saying, “Don’t be just good. Be GREAT out there!”
English writer Samuel Johnson said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed”. So, I encourage you to remind yourself and your colleagues every day about each one of these fifteen QUI QUOTES about leadership and employee engagement.
ASSETS
Your employees are not your most important assets. It is about how your employees FEEL about you and your company. As a leader, don’t be just good to your employees. Be GREAT out there!
BUSINESS LEADERS FORBIDDEN PHRASE: “We’ve always done it that way.”
Your employees would say to themselves, “Well, if you’ve already done it that way, then we’ll go somewhere else that pays more,” or “We’ll go somewhere else where they communicate, support, and motivate us,” or “We’ll go somewhere else where they recognize and appreciate us for our team and individual achievements, accomplishments, or personalized acts of customer service.” Instead of saying, “We’ve always done it that way”, do better. Don’t just be good. Be GREAT out there!
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
To earn employee loyalty, don’t get inside their heads. Get inside their hearts. Create an emotional connection. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal the employees are.
FIND KEEP
Your business success is not dependent on how many candidates you find. It’s all about how many employees you keep.
FIRST BEST
First, be the best for your employees. Then, you will be first among your competitors. Ultimately, your employees will exceed customer expectations. Do not take for granted the immense impact a concerned, vital group of employees can do to enhance the image and success of your business. Whether it is through recognition programs or your visible management, your employees must sense and believe in your conviction that they are your competitive edge – the reason why customers will return to your business.
HEARTS
If you want to win the hearts of your customers, you, first, must win the hearts of your employees.
INVESTMENT
Your employee should be seen as a long-term investment in your business and not as a short-term labor expense.
KEEP FIND
Work as hard to keep your employees as much as you can to find new ones.
LOYALTY
Customer loyalty to your company starts with company loyalty to your people. Focus as much on creating a GREAT experience for your people and they will do the same for your customers and you will earn the loyalty of both. Soon, without a focus on profits, profits will grow. Everyone will be enriched, your people, your customers, and you and your business, will be enriched, emotionally and financially.
MAGNIFICENTLY BORING TO CARE
Be Magnificently Boring to CARE for your people. Consistently CARE so repetitively that you feel it is boring, but to your people, you are Magnificent! Your people have an emotional connection. The more emotional the connections, the more memorable the experiences, and the more loyal your people are. Your loyal people will repeatedly return to work, be more productive, and rave to others on social media. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships build loyalty. Loyalty builds your business. CARE Magnificently!
PASSION
Work because you HAVE TO is a job. Work because you WANT TO is a passion. Find your passion.
Select for passion over performance. Working because someone HAS TO is a job. Working because someone WANTS TO is a passion. Find their passion.
Your business has a mission statement. As a leader, you should have a passion statement. The best managers are passionate about what they do. Frankly, if you are not passionate about what you do for your people, you have no right to manage others. Be sure to express your passion for your people.
PAYCHECK
“If the only thing your employees get out of their job is a paycheck, you, as leaders, have failed”. Emotional remuneration is just as important to the employee’s well-being as much as it is to their financial health. Employees don’t care much about how big their pay is. They only care about how big you care about them. So, CARE BIG!
PEOPLE FIRST
Instead of focusing on “Profits over People”, envision “People First” as the solid foundation for everlasting business success. With a “People First” culture, no longer are people taking second or third seats to profits or customers. Your people’s emotional well-being would take priority over your business’s financial health.
POLICY
If you’re making frequent policy exceptions, then employee perception does not match company promises. It’s poor policy. Fix it.
RELATIONSHIPS
Relationship capital is the only real currency of value to grow your business. So, when it comes to your people and your business, Think RELATIONSHIPS or Go Broke. Literally.
RESPONSIBILITY
The responsibility of business leaders is not to develop the business. It’s to develop their people.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Whatever your title or position, be a servant leader who will CARE for your people first.
CARE for each member of the team:
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, frequently, and continuously any information that your people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to the people’s concerns, questions, and complaints. Express compassion with your recommendations and encouragement.
APPRECIATE the important roles and responsibilities of your people.
RECOGNIZE and offer accolades for team and individual accomplishments and acts of service.
EMPOWER people to make the right decisions for themselves, their colleagues, and others.
When you CARE, your people will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. With your support and encouragement, you will inspire and empower them to develop themselves and engage others. Soon, everyone’s experiences and, ultimately, their lives, will be enriched.
TWO QUESTIONS
Whatever your title or position, be a servant leader. Instead of asking your people, “What can you do for me and my business?”, ask your people two questions:
“What do you think?”
“How can I help?”
When you ask, respond empathetically, and act promptly to take appropriate corrective action, your people will feel respected, appreciated, and valued. With your support, encouragement, and action, you will inspire and empower them to develop themselves and engage others. Soon, everyone’s experiences and, ultimately, their lives, will be enriched.
If you think my 15 QUI QUOTES on leadership and employee engagement are a little more than I reminded you, you’re right. GREAT leadership is not top-down, one-way, communication to employees. Whatever your title or position, GREAT leadership is servant leadership. Don’t just lead your employees. Don’t treat your employees as they expect to be treated. And don’t treat your employees as YOU expect to be treated. Instead, treat your people a little better than they expect to be treated. Be a servant leader to CARE for your people. When it comes to leadership, don’t just lead them to be good. Be a servant leader to CARE for your people and be GREAT out there!
Despite the business turmoil of the pandemic, Skimpflation, The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and, now, the recession, envision a time when your business will, not only survive but, soon, thrive and succeed. Just exactly when is that time? Well …
Now is the time for a People First Revolution! One caveat is Employees First. Business leaders see themselves as bosses, hierarchical rungs well below their subservient “employees first” at the bottom of the ladder. With a “People First” culture, no longer are people taking second or third seats to profits or customers. Your people’s emotional well-being would take priority over your business’s financial health.
With that your People First in mind, whether your position or title, be a servant leader who will CARE for your people.
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, frequently, and continuously any information that their people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to the people’s concerns, questions, and complaints. Express compassion with their recommendations and encouragement.
APPRECIATE the important roles and responsibilities of their people.
RECOGNIZE and offer accolades for your people’s individual and team accomplishments and acts of service to colleagues or customers.
EMPOWER people to make the right decisions for themselves, their colleagues, customers, and your business.
As a servant leader, ask your people two questions:
What do you think?
What can I do for you?
When you ask, promptly respond, and take action as appropriate, your people will feel valued and respected. They’ll be inspired, energized, and empowered to develop themselves. and engage their colleagues their customers and you and your business.
When you create a GREAT experience for your people, they will do the same for your customers, and you will earn the loyalty of both. Soon, without a focus on profits, your profits will grow. And everyone, your people, your customers, you and your business, will be enriched, literally and figuratively.
So what are you waiting for? Now is the time. It’s time for a People First Revolution! First, you will be best for your people, and then you will be first among your competitors.
Ever since I had my stroke in April last year, writing has been literally a labor of love. I hope that you have gained some insight into how to Deliver the World’s Best Customer Experience by not just serving to satisfy customers, but rather to WOW them.
I want to thank each of you for reading my blog this year. I very much appreciate you. In appreciation, and in paying it forward, for this New Year, I don’t wish you good luck in the future. I wish you GREAT success and fortune, literally and figuratively.
Merriest of Christmases and happiest of Holidays and New Years! May your New Year be GREAT out there!
For many years, there has been a stranglehold of the “Profits over People” mentality in business. Senior executives care about top-line revenue, product and labor costs, market share, the stock price, bottom-line profits, and even their competitors, more than their people. Listening to the sweet cha-ching sound of profits, these bad bosses do not hear their grumbling employees and complaining customers many hierarchical rungs below. Even if bosses could hear, they would wear noise-canceling headphones, oblivious to the employees’ concerns and customer complaints. And “Profits over People” bad bosses would demand “My way or the highway” to the employees. Bad bosses didn’t care much about employees and employees could care less about their bosses or customers.
Today, instead of focusing on “Profits over People”, envision “People First” as the solid foundation for everlasting business success. One caveat is “Employees First”. Managers will always see people as “employees”. Despite preaching “Employees First”, senior leaders would always have the rank and file employees “first”, on the bottom of the ladder, well below the leaders.
Recognizing “People First”, leaders will CARE for their people.
COMMUNICATE openly, transparently, interactively, and frequently any information that their people need and want to know. Listen empathetically to the people’s suggestions, concerns, and complaints. Express compassion with their recommendations and encouragement.
APPRECIATE the important roles, responsibilities, and efforts of their people.
RECOGNIZE, honor, and offer accolades for individual and team achievements, accomplishments, and acts of service to colleagues or customers.
EMPOWER people to make the right decisions for themselves, their colleagues, customers, and their business.
Whether it’s the turmoil of the pandemic, Skimpflation, or The Great Resignation, businesses will invigorate the New Normal with the “People First” culture. No longer are people taking second or third seats to customers or profits.
This cultural transformation of “People First” and the leadership commitment to CARE will enthuse and energize people to be engaged with their colleagues, customers, and the business.
When we create a great experience for people as much as we do for customers, we will earn the loyalty of both. And soon, without our focus on profits, profits will follow. And everyone, our people and our customers, will be enriched, literally and figuratively.
Before I begin, I want to thank Bill for his thought leadership in customer experience elevation and his longstanding support of others like me.
If your answer to that question was anything other than “to create a customer,” you may want to read on.
It’s common for entrepreneurs and business leaders to think they are in business to “create profit”; however, I’d argue you are in business to “create a customer” – since there is no profit without them. Ironically, prioritizing profits can actually lead to business decisions that drive customers away.
As a consultant to organizations of all sizes (from startups to global enterprises like Mercedes-Benz or Starbucks), I’ve learned that “customer creation” (attracting and retaining them) is a simple matter of value!
For my book Stronger Through Adversity, I spoke to more than 140 plus CEO’s and C-suite executives to garner insights on how they create value for their team members and customers in the context of the pandemic.
Their insights reinforce six key components of creating and exchanging customer value to drive success in good times and bad:
Explore value: Understand the wants and needs of your consumers.
Create value: Craft solutions to address your consumers’ needs.
Market value: Communicate the benefits of your solutions to your consumers.
Sell value: Help consumers find sufficient value in your offerings so they will provide something of value to you in return (e.g., make a purchase).
Deliver value: Ensure your consumers receive the value you promised.
Prosper through value efficiency: Deliver value economically to sustain and grow your business (or else you have a hobby).
I will concede that my value formula is a lot easier to capture on paper than it is to deliver in day-to-day operation, so let me offer a few questions to help you ensure you are on the right track:
What have you done to uncover your target customer’s stated and unstated wants and needs (market research)?
How do you know your products/services will meet a sizable need (focus groups/beta testing)?
How can you gain access to the customer segments that will find your solutions attractive (targeted marketing strategies)?
What benefits, attributes or experiential elements of your product/service are you emphasizing during your sales process (sales tool development and training)?
How are you ensuring that your customers receive the value every time they interact with you – no excuses (service skill tools and customer experience design)?
Have you tested pricing options to guarantee you are maximizing profitability to fuel your sustainability (pricing optimization)?
Large businesses benefit from individual departments that focus on all elements of value creation and delivery while smaller businesses benefit from being closer to their customers. In all cases, the businesses that faired best throughout the pandemic were those that most nimbly pivoted to address the changing wants, needs, and desires of those they serve.
In keeping with lessons from Stronger Through Adversity, may you continually and adaptively pursue value that results in customers’ creation, profits, and growth!
You can learn more about Stronger Through Adversity and get your copy here.
Recently in a LinkedIn group, one of the members asked the following question: “The global economy is slowing down, but you’ve been asked to do the impossible: Control costs AND improve customer service experience. How can you do it?” While I commented within the group, LinkedIn limited the space allowed for the response so I wanted to elaborate here.
Here are three low cost ways that have worked for me in improving customer service.
Create a Customer Satisfaction Investigation (CSI) team. Isn’t it criminal to take a customer’s money and then not deliver to meet his expectations? This team, with at least one representative from every department, should meet at least once a week to review customer feedback. Like a CSI team, the purpose of the team is to review all the details of each negative customer experience to see if they can find out why it happened. If you do not have a survey process, ask your employees to document and forward any complaint to the CSI team. For every customer who complains, 26 others didn’t say anything (Lee Resource, Inc.) and simply walked away. No one can afford that kind of customer churn. Once identified, work fast to eliminate the dissatisfier. You cannot begin to satisfy customers until you remove all the potential dissatisfiers. You have got to remove them from negatively affecting future customer experiences.
Continually remind your team of the importance of customer service. One of my favorite quotes is from Samuel Johnson, “People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.” Day One and Done customer service training is simply not enough. It’s amazing how much of the first day of new hire orientation is spent on defining the rules and restrictions, usually required by the legal department, that, if not followed, will result in termination. While that information is important, consider the overall message you are giving new employees at the end of their first day. Balance the message by describing the empowerment processes that employees can use to exceed customer expectations and offer specific stories when employees went above and beyond for your customers. After onboarding, continue to reinforce that message with customer service tips and stories via email, screensaver messages, and periodic refresher customer service training. As many of the luxury hotel chains and fine dining restaurants known for delivering consistently exceptional service, conduct a fifteen-minute daily briefing that reinforces your brand’s core values and service standards.
Recognize and celebrate those who deliver great customer service. Too often managers focus on identifying an employee’s service deficiencies. These “areas that need improvement” are usually only conveyed to the employee at the annual performance review. Instead celebrate throughout the year the stories of employees who have created WOW moments for their customers. Create a booklet of customer service stories to be distributed on Day One of your onboarding process. Every new employee is a sponge of company information on the first day. Let them soak in the stellar reputation of your company as built by your customers’ perceptions of your employees’ exceptional service. To reinforce that Day One feeling, frequently post or distribute via email the positive customer comments. Send a handwritten thank you note to the home of the individual employees who created a memorable moment for one of your customers. You can be assured they will share proudly that note with their family. If you want your employees to make it a habit to deliver outstanding customer service, you have to make it a habit to thank them when they do.
QUI TAKEAWAY: When you systematically remove the potential dissatisfiers, continually remind your employees of the importance of customer service, and habitually recognize and celebrate the stories of exceptional service you will increase dramatically the value of service as perceived by your customer.
In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins writes that “People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”
Customer service is all about building relationships – relationships with superiors, direct reports, vendors and customers. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, claims that success in any job is 20% knowledge and 80% interpersonal skills. Ultimately success in customer service is all about interpersonal skills.
Unfortunately, while there are people who want to work in customer service, many lack the necessary interpersonal skills because they have grown up or interacted with others in a generation far different from our own.
I am convinced that people can only deliver an experience that they themselves have experienced. In order to succeed in customer service, they would have had to personally experience and learn from great examples of others exhibiting stellar interpersonal skills in their day-to-day interactions.
But those opportunities to learn firsthand from face-to-face interactions have all changed in less than a generation. Like many of you, when I earned my first paycheck there was no direct deposit or internet banking. We would have to go weekly to the bank to deposit our paycheck. After a while, the teller got to know who we were, where we worked, what we did there, and regularly asked how work and our company was doing. We learned how to communicate personally as a result of those interactions. But with on-line banking and ATM’s, when was the last time you had to actually go into a bank? We have lost that opportunity for regular personal interactions.
I was a member of after school clubs in school and in that process I collaborated with others in person. Now many young people are more apt to spend as much time with an on-line team of avatars of people they have never met playing Call of Duty or Warcraft. All those hours on-line, but what interpersonal skills are they learning from that experience?
Remember when gas stations used to have the attendant check your oil and tire pressure, clean your windshield and ask us if there was anything else they could do for us ? How bad has customer service gotten when we never see an attendant and actually pump our own gas? Where is the interpersonal skills reinforcement in that experience?
This will date me, but I remember when the baggers at the grocery store would actually take the bags in a shopping cart and help me load them into my car. Not only are the baggers gone, but so are many of the cashiers, replaced by self-serve checkout lines. And even the cashiers who are on duty certainly have no time to strike up a social conversation.
The average Facebook user today has 200 friends. When people posts on their page, they don’t have a loss of self-esteem when only three “like” the post. The other 197 have ignored them – and they are OK with that! Even those that “like” the post rarely leave a comment to begin an interaction. Social media, then, is rarely social.
I have a cell phone and young people have cell phones. But what are they doing with their cell phones? OMG. LOL. I’m so old I remember someone actually laughing out loud on my phone. Texting is really one-way communication. You don’t hear voice tone or inflection or a pause. Two text monologues on do not make a real dialog.
So the experiences for many people are not full of the good examples of emotional intelligence, body language or verbal communication that only face-to-face interactions can teach. I believe that translates in a real world that is OK to ignore the customer and our co-workers. We don’t have to greet our co-workers every morning or every customer who walks through the door. Having not experienced good examples of communication, collaboration or relationship-building skills, how will those people we entrust to take care of our customers be successful? And if we allow ourselves to accept that level of performance as adequate, how will our businesses succeed?
The answer is that we, as managers, are responsible for the education of those who do not have those skills. For us to succeed in this very competitive customer service marketplace, we will need the right people. We will need people who know how to consistently welcome our customers with eye contact and a smile, listen and respond empathetically, and bid them a sincere fond farewell. So we will need to ask the proper interview questions with the specific intent on finding out if the candidates have the necessary skills of expressing sincerity, empathy and trust. And we will be the ones who will have to educate the people we select to deliver the experience our customers are expecting from us. Customer service cannot be “Day One and Done” training. Soft skills reinforcement must be continuous. Only then will we build the interpersonal skills of our staff to drive their success and ours.
I originally wrote this post for Sold Magazine. I’ve made some revisions to the published version.
“How long employees stay at a company, and how productive they are there, is determined by the relationship they have with their immediate supervisor.” Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge
I have had the opportunity to promote many front-line employees to their first management position. My commitment to them did not end at giving them a new title. That’s the easy part. More importantly, I needed to make sure they succeeded in their first leadership role. According to Kouzes and Posner, these managers supervising the staff who were directly interacting with our customers had as much, if not more, impact than I did on employee engagement and subsequent customer satisfaction. And while each new manager displayed strong interpersonal skills that served them well to earn the promotion, managing people requires a different set of skills. We all know of an all-star employee who failed as a manager. So my advice to any first-time manager is to live this leadership mantra: Connect. Inspire. Empower.
Connect
“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” John C. Maxwell
Before making any major changes as a new manager, take the time to get to know your direct reports. Find out their personal and career aspirations. Then work hard to help them achieve their goals. Talk to each member every day. Visit the break area regularly just to chat. Get to know what they like to do outside of work. Given the opportunity, meet their significant others and family. Celebrate your employees’ birthdays and anniversaries. They know when they are scheduled on their birthdays and the date they started working at your business. You should, too. Remember that without involvement there is no commitment. If you are not involved with them, then they simply won’t be committed to you.
Inspire
“Yesterday’s idea of the boss, who became the boss because he or she knew more than the person working for them, is yesterday’s manager. Tomorrow’s person leads through a vision, a shared set of values, a shared objective.” Jack Welch
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather give them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“Communicate everything you can to your associates. The more they know, the more they care. Once they care, there is no stopping them.” Sam Walton
Your business has a mission statement. As a leader, you should have a passion statement. The best managers are passionate about what they do. Frankly, if you are not passionate about what you do, you have no right to manage others. That said, be sure to express your passion to your people. What do you envision for the business? The owner or senior manager has a vision for the business. What is yours? Let your people know. Once they see and share your “big picture”, then every step your people take will be in that direction.
Keep your passion statement short. Say it often. Make it stick. Your message cannot be mentioned only at new hire orientation. You must continually and consistently express your vision.
Empower
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Theodore Roosevelt
Create a work environment where everyone has the necessary tools and are encouraged to take care of the customer. Ritz-Carlton permits every employee to spend up to $2000 making any single guest satisfied. It is no wonder that the brand is perceived by its guests as simply one of the best. For your team to embrace the idea that you are empowering them to do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer, you must establish and explain any guidelines. It could be as simple as the Nordstrom Rules:
Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.
Most likely your guidelines will be a little more conditional, but whatever you decide, make sure you define and cite examples for your team. And continue to monitor, recognize and reward those employees who do take action.
QUI TAKEAWAY: Connect with your people. Inspire them. Then empower them. This is not a one-time thing. It is an everyday thing. And when you live this mantra, you will be an involved leader with an engaged team, all intent on delivering the very best experience for your customer.
"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed."
Samuel Johnson
This blog, along with my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, offer practical tips, insight and inspiration to serve as reminders on how to improve your personal delivery of customer service.
BILL QUISENG | Deliver the World's Best Customer Experience 