It was another day of sitting on hold for Jane. She had been waiting for an hour, listening to one boring song after the other. Finally, she hung up and tried again. Once more, there was a long wait before it could become her turn to speak with a customer service agent.
Jane was so frustrated she wanted to scream. She took a deep breath and started over by contacting her local store rather than the company’s toll-free customer service number.
“I’m sorry — for that issue you have to call our customer service line. Be prepared, it’s a long wait. We’re experiencing high call volume,” the local representative said when he answered.
This time Jane angrily hung up without waiting for him to finish his sentence. It didn’t matter that she’d waited all this time – even the local store couldn’t help her promptly and in the manner she had hoped.
For many of us, Jane’s story creates a “been there, done that” response. Just like Jane, you have likely had a similar scenario occur when you were the customer seeking help.
However, when was the last time that you asked yourself an important question: is this a similar experience to the one that your customers are receiving?
This should also lead us to seek additional insight: How do we deal with customer frustration? How can we make customers happy despite their frustrations and our shortcomings?
Our job is to help people. When they call us in a time of need, we must be there to serve them in the manner they have a right to expect. We cannot create distinction if we fail to deliver an Ultimate Customer Experience® to those who want us to be of service to them.
How do you deal with these challenges?
A few strategies:
Recognize where customers might be coming from when their expectations aren’t met and how your organization may have failed them.
Obviously, not everything will go right every time but by displaying empathy to customers — even when their upset isn’t our fault — we can move them from frustrated to engaged.
Listen to customers — sometimes the problem they first state (for example, an issue with a product) isn’t what really has them agitated.
Sometimes a customer’s first response will be frustration but if you listen closely enough, you’ll discover that underneath all that anger is the kernel of a real concern that needs addressing.
For example, it might be they felt disrespected by one of your team members. Don’t just hear the problem — listen for the root cause of the dissatisfaction.
Acknowledge they aren’t alone. When customers are upset, they often feel like no one cares about them or their problem.
One of the best ways to make someone feel better is by letting them know that what happened was an isolated incident, will be corrected, and is not something they should take personally.
Apologize to customers when they’re upset. “I’m sorry for the issue you’ve experienced. Is there anything we can do to make it right?” is always a good approach
Providing proactive, positive feedback to our customers as often as possible.
Act promptly: Follow up as soon as possible with any requests made during your conversation.
Frankly, there’s no excuse for a customer to be exasperated like Jane was from her dissatisfaction in attempting to obtain assistance. However, by taking the proper action, we can move customers from frustration to engagement. It’s an important step towards creating distinction.
If these insights resonated with you, please share it on your social media! And learn more about our Iconic Inner Circle membership program. (https://IconicInnerCircle.com) We’re ready to help you create a plan for success that will help drive you to meet your goals and dramatically increase the value of experiences that your customers receive!
There probably is not one single entrepreneur or leader of a large enterprise who would suggest they would want their customers to become less loyal to the business. Yet, even with good intentions, that’s exactly what they are creating.
You may have heard me mention (and maybe many times) how much I dislike the show, “Undercover Boss.” It portends to present a boss who becomes enlightened and finds elements to make better for employees and customers. Instead, in my opinion, it exposes how little some leaders know about what front-line employees and customers are experiencing in their engagements with the business.
Their study discovered that during the pandemic, loyalty programs at many businesses made customers less likely to do business with the organization in the future.
Here’s basically what would happen: a “platinum level” (among the best customers a company can have) would call the special platinum line to get help with a problem or issue. However, the staff on that line either weren’t trained to solve that problem – or the staffing had been cut and were not responsive.
This means they were then bounced to a general area of problems solving – meaning it took more calls and more time for great customers to get help than prospects or average customers!
The study reported, “The results showed that members of loyalty programs not only experienced more service friction than other shoppers but were more likely to struggle to have their issues resolved. For instance, loyalty members surveyed in May required an average of four contacts with the company before reaching a solution, and the process took 5.1 days. Nonmembers needed just 2.8 contacts and 3.3 days.”
In ICONIC, I reveal that my study clearly shows that those leaders and organizations at the highest level of distinction display “Reciprocal Respect.” In other words, Iconics know that if they want their customers to be loyal and engaged, then they must be loyal to and engaged with those customers.
As our world inches toward a return to normality, we all need to be asking these three questions:
What’s important to our customers right now?
What problems in the immediate situation could cause the most problems for our customers? (It may not be what was most important a year ago!)
How have we adjusted so we solve their problems and deliver what they want now?
If you want loyal customers, you must determine what is important to them…right now.
And if you’d like to take your business – and yourself – to the ultimate level of distinction, join our Iconic Inner Circle. There is zero risk – you can cancel at any time – and your first month is FREE. Go to https://IconicInnerCircle.com for more information.
I hear companies testify they are “customer-centric” or “customer-focused.” Yet, when I ask them if their customers – and how they will be impacted – are at the core of every decision they make, the subtle response is, “You gotta be kidding, right?”
Instead, our customary concerns are how decisions will impact our stock price, or our market share, or a myriad of other aspects… rather than the impact upon the customer. We step over potential dollars in customer loyalty and repeat business to save dimes on reduced staffing and training.
We should always be searching and learning – and filling the gaps between what we deliver and what our customers and clients really want.
It begins with the first interaction you and your colleagues have with your customers, clients and prospects.
IBM just released an interesting study that surveyed 14,000 people in nine countries. It revealed that more than 70% of people are now more likely to work for – or continue their employment with – a company with a good record or reputation on the environment. It also said 55% of people are now more willing to pay more to purchase from a company that represents itself as “sustainable and environmentally responsible.”
CEO Daily reports that IBM also found that now 84% of CEOs stated in a separate study that sustainability will be important to their business strategy for 2022 – as opposed to just 32% who said it in 2018.
Yet may I be so bold to suggest that these numbers aren’t simply about the environment and health of the planet.
Instead, it’s about putting people first.
It is obviously incongruent to suggest that 70+% of people want to work for a business that has a good record on climate change – but doesn’t care about their employees or customers.
What I believe these figures state is the vast majority of today’s customers – many of them from the Millennial generation – are tired of working for and purchasing from organizations that are putting their products and programs before the people who make and use them.
(Consider there are over 72 million Millennials – and the oldest of that generation is now hitting the age of 40. Too many Boomers and Gen Xers have talked about them like they are the “coming generation.” Bull! They’re here and they are changing the way you must do business.)
In other words, what’s happening right now is a major reinforcement of the Four Cornerstones of Distinction. You’ve got to have Clarity regarding your commitment to people and the planet. You need to be Creative in your approach, so you become more attractive and distinct to the customers you desire and the quality of employees you engage. You must Communicate the story of your commitment to people and the benefits they receive from your values. And these times require a Customer Experience Focus so the promise you make is backed by the performance you deliver.
These steps will create distinction for you in a time that demands we put people first.
By the way, if you’d like to drill deeper into how you can create the ultimate level of distinction, I’d love to have you try our Iconic Inner Circle.
When you join, you’ll have immediate access to specific virtual programs on how to craft and deliver a Distinctive Story…what you need to know to use the tools of today to communicate virtually, whether on a sales call or a group meeting, with Post-Pandemic Events…and discover the specific program to make your over-reaching values and your daily actions congruent with our course on Personal Distinction.
In addition, I present a weekly lesson on a single, specific step you need to take to reach this ultimate level of distinction. AND we’ll soon launch a monthly live virtual program for all members of the group to answer your questions and discuss your challenges.
Here’s the best part – your first month is absolutely FREE.
I believe in this program so much, I know that once you experience it, you will want to continue. (Especially since it’s such a small investment for such an extraordinary return!)
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost the perspective that what we do impacts the lives of others.
It seems we live in a time of character assassination for mere sport. Anonymous online haters who don’t know the facts – or don’t care – irresponsibly attack others to draw attention to themselves. They connect imaginary “dots” that exist only in their own minds, without concern about the consequences to the victims of their venom.
And, it becomes so common that many of us just shrug our shoulders and say, “Haters gonna hate!” and move on – never imagining that we could someday be an unfortunate target.
Maybe we would all be better off if we remember the wisdom that my grandmother used to share with me:
“It doesn’t make you a bigger person to make someone else smaller. It just makes certain you stay less than they are.”
The level of customer service — not to mention the even higher standard of the customer experience — is genuinely, consistently pretty awful.
Especially during these challenging times, managers believe they can save X% by cutting back staff and reducing service. Guess what happens? Customers go someplace else…
But, here’s the rub: the organization’s leaders then blame the decline in sales on the pandemic economy or the competition. They never say, “We screwed up. We should have been investing in serving you more — instead of cutting overhead and caring less about your repeat business.”
Another element in the level of customer service provided is caused by lazy employees who don’t care. One of the ways that Steve Jobs kept the best employees at Apple is that he wouldn’t tolerate those who weren’t “all in.” If you don’t terminate those who aren’t committed, you will eventually lose those who are.
Sure, I realize you must compensate and treat them right. But your best employees are tired of carrying the load for the slackers. Sooner or later, this discontent will either show up in their performance… or their absence.
