Primal Customer Service

Building Emotional Capital One Client at a Time

While I was conducting a short meeting with my staff one morning, a potential client walked into our office. His first question was, “I see you’re having a meeting, should I come back?” I was immediately taken aback as to why a customer coming into our offices would ask if they should come back. The confusion on my face must have been apparent as he then stated, “We just left a competitor of yours who was also having an employee meeting and they said we should come back after their meeting.” Though I was ecstatic to have a new client, I was astounded as to why any company would ask a customer to come back later. I continued to contemplate this event over the next few days and came to a conclusion. I realized that the more we talk about improving customer service , the worse it is getting!

I am sure you can look back in just the last few months and relate a bad experience you have had in dealing with a business. Did you leave their establishment or get off the telephone confused, frustrated, or downright angry….and wondering how does this company survive as a business? Is this abnormal in the business world? Absolutely not, it happens every day. Even Starbucks, known for hiring friendly, outgoing people is having problems with customer service in some stores as their rapid growth plan leaves them open to not having a large enough pool of good people to hire from.

We are creatures of emotions and we make decisions based upon them. Steven Covey states in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, we all have personal bank accounts with each other. We each make positive and negative deposits in this account in our personal relationships with each other.
The same holds true for businesses. Every company has emotional capital deposited with its clientele in what I call a Primal Trust Account. Like a bank account, every transaction, every interaction adds or subtracts from that account. Sometimes the effect is small and sometimes the result is large, both negative and positive. Only the customer knows when we get to a zero or negative balance, stored in their emotional self. By then, it’s usually too late to keep them as a customer.

The goal is to build an overwhelming positive balance with your customers so that when something bad does happen, you have the emotional assets to weather the storm. I will share three simple but extremely effective tools and strategies to increase the balance in your Primal Trust Account with your customers.

Hire nice people

Yogi Berra, the great baseball immortal was once asked, “What makes a good manager?” His response was classic, “Great Players.” This advise pertains to business and your employees. Hire for attitude and train for skills, not the other way around. Nordstrom succeeds because they hire nice people, not because they hire people who know clothes and shoes. Even Starbucks for the most part, hires social, gregarious people. The old cliché’ we used to hear in job interviews, “I want this job because I like people” rings true today as it didn’t years ago. Here are a couple of clues to watch for in a potential new hire. If they badmouth their old company or boss, if they are rude to your receptionist, they are not the right people to hire. Take them to lunch and what how they treat a wait staff. You will learn more in that half hour than five hours on interviews.

Use the telephone correctly

I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate to call a company, be asked if it is OK if they put me on hold, then hear the click of being put on hold before I can utter a word in response. Why did they even ask me the question if they won’t wait for the answer? The poor use of telephone techniques is rampant in businesses across America. The telephone is normally the first point of contact between you and your customers. Train every employee within a inch of his or her life to use the telephone in a courteous and professional manner. They should answer with at least the name of the company and their name, and if possible, a greeting before. “Good morning, Primal Marketing, this is Rodger.” This doesn’t take any time, tells the caller they have the right company and gives them a name. Your business starts out on a positive note and more importantly, a small positive deposit is made in the trust account of that client.

When the need arises to transfer a call, do not, I repeat, do not cold transfer that caller to another person in your company. What’s a “cold transfer?” That is when you transfer the caller to another company representative and you don’t tell the representative who the caller is or why they are calling. The client now has to start from the beginning and go through the motions one more time. It’s annoying, it’s a pain, and it’s downright horrible. And for goodness sake, if you must put someone on hold, ask their permission and wait for the answer.

Problems

Let’s face it, even the best companies with the greatest, well-trained employees have problems. Maybe it’s a quality issue, possibly a billing issue, perhaps something else, but it happens. When it does happen, every employee must know the correct course of action. Here are some steps to take that will help solve the problem so it turns into a positive.

• Emphasize with the caller. Notice I did not write sympathize. Tell them you are sorry there is a problem, not that you are sorry. It may not be your mistake.

• Listen to them and get clear on what the real problem is. Many times a client will rant and rave above everything that happened to them, not what the true problem may be. You must ask questions or carefully listen to get to the root of the problem.

• If the problem is your companies fault, offer one or more options. You might ask the customer what they would like to happen. Many times, they want to vent and are OK with simply that. Even so, give them something extra for the hassle.

• Decide on the best remedy and confirm the solution with your customer so you both understand what is going to happen next. Make the resolution happen quickly and easily for customer.

• Thank the customer for bringing this problem to your attention and send them a note, letter, or small gift.

• Follow-up to make sure everything you said would happen has happened and that the client is satisfied with the solution.

• If it is the customers fault, emphasize and don’t make them feel bad. Follow the same steps as above. If they are unreasonable, ask again what they want. Comply or simply tell them what you can and cannot do.

• There are those customers that will never be happy with anything you do for them, those that have a negative trust balance with you. If you have repeat clients like this, take a hard look at what you achieve by keeping them as customers and what you gain by letting them go. Learn to graciously “fire” a customer that constantly makes negative deposits in your trust account.Follow-Thru

One of the most important aspects of great customer service is managing expectations. To do that,
you must:

• Do what you say you will do. If you a customer you will get back to them today, get back to them today, even if you don’t have a perfect answer.

• Under promise and over deliver. I know it’s another cliché’, but it’s true. If a product takes two weeks for delivery, tell the customer three weeks. This allows you time in case something goes wrong and make you look good when the product comes in ahead of schedule.

• Help your employees find their own solutions. Have a clear statement on what your company’s policy. If your rule is to let employees find a solution without a managers approval, back up the employees resolution and do not criticize them. Remember, nice people will normally make the right choice.

• Respond quickly. We live in a fast, high paced world. There is always another company who will try to do it faster than you. Reply to clients needs in a quick and orderly fashion.

Let me finish with this question and this challenge. How are you managing your emotional trust accounts with your customers? Are you adding to or decreasing your balance? By creating high trust with your customers you will attain long term, loyal customers and loyal customers help create higher profits!