Customer Service - Is It a Myth?
Posted by admin - 02/06/09 at 03:06 pmIn 1979, I thought customer service was poor and decided to write a training program that organizations could use to train its employees on customer service. Back then the educational system had no classes or courses on customer service.
The only difference today is the rhetoric level is much higher. Every firm in the last 10 years has tried something. Customer service frankly is not much better today than it was 30 years ago. The objections are still the same. If I train my employees they might leave. The solution is to put a big sign on each door to your business that says, “None of our employees have been trained”. In realty, that is what most organizations do.
Companies still have unlimited marketing money. Very few organizations understand it is 10 times cheaper to keep a customer than get a new one. Empowerment does not exist. Employees are NOT allowed to make decisions that might keep a customer. Their decision might be wrong. Waiving a $39 late fee is too expensive, but the same organization will spend $300 to acquire a new customer. Few companies know the lifetime value of their customers.
Every organization will say we have trained our employees. That is like taking one golf lesson and expecting everyone to be as good as Tiger Woods. If you want to develop a workforce of customer driven Tiger Woods then you need, each year, to introduce 2-3 new customer service training programs that are different.
Progressive Insurance in the US sells car insurance and their TV commercials are really funny and good. EVERY 2-3 weeks they change the commercial. With many firms they create or buy one training program (maybe it was one of SQI’s) and then they use the same stupid program for years. With adults you can only use the same training program once with the same employee. If the average age of your employees is 26 years old, ask yourself can one sermon at church, one customer service training program change their life and make them perfect? NO. Can you take one course at your local University and expect to graduate? NO. To get a college degree in the US you have a 4 year course with a mandated list of courses you must take.
In a rough economy all organizations should spend more time and effort keeping their customers. OK service is not enough. Only Wow or awesome service will work if your goal is customer loyalty and word of mouth advertising.
In my book, Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, I have said for years you should spend 10% of your marketing budget training the total workforce on customer service. One shot training programs become the flavor of the month and eventually die. Usually about 5-10 years later the company says lets do something again. Visualize if your advertising department did the same thing. Crazy.
There is a huge amount of money and business in every market that you can attract through incredible customer service. The good news is your competition is usually very poor at customer service. You have to be twice as good as them not just a little better. This means if you have 40, 400 or 4,000 employees each employee must be trained to deliver awesome customer service. NO exceptions. One rotten apple can ruin a bushel of apples.
Most organizations in developing countries have 25% more employees than they need. When there is an opening they hire 2 people for each position with very low expectations and very low pay. Service leaders hire 1 out of 50 applicants, not 1 out of 2. As you develop your employees you are using fertilizer to help them grow. Some respond and some just die on the vine. Those who die should be sent to your competitors. Too many organizations keep under performing employees. In a slower economy this is not smart. Many organizations have at least 10% of its workforce that are not effective. If the customer training does not work move them out.
The real problem is most organizations believe they provide incredible customer service. Many do some type of customer satisfaction research that gives them a C or D grade and they are happy. I seem to remember in school I would not graduate with D’s. If you want to grow fast, crush the competition, steal market share and develop a killer brand then focus on a customer service strategy.
These are 6 Steps:
1. Understand this is a Strategy.
2. Become more customer friendly. Change some of your stupid rules.
3. Hire only the cream.
4. Demand employees make empowered decisions so the customer wins.
5. Train all employees in the art of customer service with a new training program every 4-6 months forever.
6 Measure the results. Track the return on your investment.
If you do this customer service will no longer be a myth. It is time to own the market. Master the service strategy.
Study: Customer service stinks and consumers are fed up
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/money/2009/05/study-customer-service-stinks-and-consumers-are-fed-u.html
The survey, commissioned by Atlanta-based Jacada, a consulting firm that works with businesses to improve their dealings with the public, concludes that even though consumers expect better customer service in the bad times, fewer companies are delivering it. Among the key study findings:
• Forty-three percent of those surveyed feel that customer service has gotten worse since the economic downturn.
• Sixty-nine percent say they are less willing to put up with poor customer service than they were a year ago.
• More than half of consumers (53 percent) said that they cut ties with a company due to a bad experience with customer service.
• Forty-three of respondents have actually postponed dealing with a problem or issue because they didn’t feel like confronting customer-service reps.
Ironically, the gloomy news comes at a time when consumers are requiring more contact with customer-service personnel than ever. Compared to one year ago, nearly one-quarter of Americans have seen an increase in the number of urgent or serious issues that require service, the study reveals.
Half of consumers surveyed said they have at least one pressing customer-service issue to deal with per month. Usually, it’s about a billing mistake. The next most-common reason was to cancel a service or account.
Interesting, while many companies are opting for impersonal Web-based customer service support, the survey shows that the vast majority of consumers prefer telephone help. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they would have preferred to resolve their dispute by talking to a live human being. That’s no surprise to me. Results show that experiences with customer service Web sites often lead to frustration and annoyance. I’ll second that.
In fact, 62 percent of respondents reported feeling frustrated when having to resolve an urgent or serious issue using a company’s customer service Website. Barely one-third of Americans said they feel online customer service is an efficient way to get answers.
More than three-quarters of those who have used a company’s self-help Web site to resolve a problem use at least one negative term — “annoyed,” “frustrated,” or “confused,” for example — to describe the experience.
How do you feel about online customer service? Does it work better than talking with a real person?
Customer Service Products
Spend some time on our web site www.customer-service.com if you want to review our products in English and Spanish. You can watch segments of our videos, review the leader guides and all participant material online. This site is improved weekly.
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For more case studies, visit our customer service blog: http://blog.customer-service.com
For further discussion on this newsletter or similar customer service issues, join the John Tschohl group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johntschohl
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June 5th, 2009 at 10:48 am
[...] was just reading the latest newsletter from John Tschohl, customer service trainer, who talked about the fact that the need for customer service training is [...]
June 5th, 2009 at 11:00 am
John,
Great article. I added my thoughts over on my blog http://www.makeorbreakmoments.com/2009/06/05/customer-service-training-a-priceless-investment/
Customer service has gotten worse since the economy took a turn - employees are doing the work of two and three people, employers treat employees like they should be grateful they have a job and all of this stress filters down to the unsuspecting customer.
The customer is responding with their wallet - taking their money, their business and their loyalty to the company who puts them first - ahead of the P&L and bottom line profit.
We need to wake up to just how important our customers and the employees who care for them are to our business.
Thanks for the stats and the words of wisdom - I’m a big fan!
Deborah