The Customer is Not Always Right

by: Rebel Brown

I was chatting with Marc Rudov, the WhiteNoise Doctor, last week about clients we have known. In case you don't know, I've been on a Rebel Rant lately about the ridiculous customer service attitudes, or rather lack of customer service, we've all experienced.

Marc reminded me of an important caveat to the “customer is always right” rule. We've both had clients who were abusive, obnoxious and downright unruly - refusing to listen, attacking us and our suggestions - all because in reality, they didn't want to change. They wanted to appear progressive to their boards or venture investors, but in reality - they were hanging onto gravity with all their might.

Such customers are not "always right". In fact they are usually just plain wrong! So there is a flip side to bad customer service - when the customer is wrong.

How can you tell when you should say "Enough is Enough" concerning a customer?

Customers are wrong when:
* They are abusive, nasty, angry or worse, for no reason other than fear of change. That's rude.
* They attack any and every idea you offer - even when you mirror their own ideas back to them. That's just plain cantankerous.
* They refuse to work with you in good faith to help solve their problem, preferring to complain. That's stubborn.
* They fib about their situation - either to protect themselves or to attack you. That's out of integrity.
* They play the passive/aggressive game, agreeing to a solution then changing their minds and wanting more or different responses from you, again and again and again. That's being a PITA.

My thanks to Marc for reminding me of yet another status quo belief whose time has come. The customer is not aways right.

Yes, customers deserve the best support you can provide. When customers are professional and fair - they deserve the best.

But when customers step across the lines above, it's time to take a hard look at whether you really want to be a business partner with them.

Ask yourself - what are your chances of success with this customer. Will they be, or are they, really profitable? If the answer is “slim to none”, move on!

7 Keys to Having a Positive Mental Attitude

By Nancy Friedman, The Telephone Doctor



There's an old joke about a little girl who always had such a great attitude. She was always so happy and upbeat. Her brother was just the opposite. One holiday, just to aggravate her and test her, her mean brother gave her a box filled with horse manure. He was tired of his sister always having such a positive attitude. He thought surely this would ‘fix' her. Christmas day, when she opened the box and saw the manure she exclaimed, "Whoopee...where's the pony?"

Ok, Ok... maybe you had to be there; but what a great attitude! The topic of our monthly email for May is ATTITUDE. Taken from our new Telephone Doctor video program "The 7 Keys to a Positive Mental Attitude." We'll list some of the ways you can have a positive mental attitude despite the challenges life may bring you.

Why do some people have such a great attitude and others a negative one? Well, we wondered the same thing; and through our research, we found 7 ‘keys' that those with a positive mental attitude all share. See how you rate:

KEY #1: Choose your attitude in advance - When you wake up...you have a choice. You can be in a good mood or a bad mood. You also choose your attitude. You can wake up and mutter to yourself "this is gonna be a cruddy day" or you can tell yourself "this is gonna be a great day!" That immediate choice is the start of a great attitude. You've already decided it's going to be a good one. KEY #2: Visualize success - What this means is picture yourself having a successful day. Runners in the Boston Marathon picture themselves crossing the finish line. Maybe not in first place, but still finishing the 26-mile race. Self-visualization is a key factor in having a positive mental attitude. Will it work 100% of the time? I wish it would. However, by visualizing your success, you'll be able to have a better handle on what does happen. And a better chance of making it happen. Key #3: Demonstrate humor, energy and enthusiasm - We call these three items the MAGIC ingredients. Because without each one, creating a positive mental attitude will be very difficult. First, HUMOR. There is normally humor in every situation. Finding it is the KEY. Sometimes you'll need to stretch and dig a little deeper to find the humor in a situation. But once you do, you'll feel so much better. The ENERGY we talk about is important because without some "energy" in your attitude, you'll be dragging along behind everyone. Energy is closely related to the third ingredient...and that is ENTHUSIASM. My father used to tell me "Nancy, enthusiasm is contagious; let's start an epidemic." KEY #4: Resist negative influences - It's a fact. When we have a negative experience with a company, we'll tell more people about it than if we have a good experience with the same company. And many times, when you hear that someplace wasn't very good, you'll believe the person who told you and choose not to do business with that company. However, you may only be hearing HALF the story. Check things out for yourself. Especially if the negativity involves a person you work with or know. I bet we've all heard negative things about someone we didn't know and then when we had the opportunity to meet them ourselves, we find that they're not as bad as someone had alluded to. In fact they might be nice. But you need to be the judge. Take negativity out of your life. Steer clear of those who drag you down and say negative things all the time. Being around other positive people is a good start. KEY #5: Be a WHATEVER-IT-TAKES person - This "KEY" means be a problem solver. Life is going to put obstacles in front of all of us. How we go around those obstacles is the KEY factor. There's normally a good answer to every problem put in front of us. Dale Carnegie said it best. Ask yourself, "What is the worst thing that can happen here?" And move up from that. KEY #6: Embrace change...expect it and accept it - Some people are very good at handling change...and some resist it a lot. We had a fun saying at our house - I can still hear my father saying it: "Nancy, the next time you change your mind...get a good one." The major KEY to handling CHANGE is to accept it. Deal with it. In most cases there's little we can do to stop it. Key #7: Be grateful for what you have - I'm not sure this KEY needs to be explained. So many people have so much. And yet those same people are often the ones that constantly complain. Why wait for some life altering experience to be grateful for all you have? Be grateful, NOW...before something bad happens and makes you aware.

We know there are more KEYS to having a Positive Mental Attitude, but these are the first seven. Get these down pat and you'll find the rest falls into place.

Good luck. And remember, as long as you're going to do the job, you might as well do it with a smile!

Customer Service Can Differentiate a Company in a Competitive Environment

Author: Michael Wolf


Customer service is a lot more than just giving service.  That may sound odd at first, but customer service is not just an act of doing something a customer has requested.  True service is a marketing strategy which can differentiate a company in a competitive environment.  It is a way to create quality within the company which leads to new customers and higher customer retention.
When you talk about customer service, it may be tempting to focus primarily only on what has been defined in your company manual.  As a manager, you teach your staff the procedures and then spend your time insuring they are followed.  The problem is this is not quality service which necessarily benefits the customer or the company.
You can think of it in this manner.  Your manual may dictate when a customer can return a product and how the staff is to handle the request.  But simply processing the return of the product does not necessarily tell you why the customer wants to return it, how the product could be enhanced so the customer would not want to return it, nor whether the customer was satisfied with the return process.
In a successful company, customer service is much more than a set of actions.  It is a focus on the customer and what the customer wants in the way of service.  In other words, the customer defines customer service.  This looks at customer service from the viewpoint of the customer and not from management.  Customer service desires should flow upward to the company and then downward as a management response to customer needs.


Service Brands a Company
Branding a company is a process whereby the company name, image, products, and service are differentiated in the minds of existing and potential customers.  Many people choose a business based on brand recognition because they have found reliability and quality in what the company has to offer on all levels from product offerings to customer service.
High quality customer service enhances company branding.  It is amazing how many businesses lose customers because one employee in the call centre was having a bad day and failed to give good service.  It is also amazing how often companies fail to gather critical information from customers which can be used to enhance current service levels.  The customer does not forget when treated poorly or made to feel as if needs are not important, and in fact will share their experience and feelings with friends and family.  In their minds the brand becomes associated with poor customer service even if the product is of the highest quality.
In a competitive environment, providing true customer service can be the defining strategy which differentiates the company.  True or high quality customer service is a lot more than just implementing procedures.  Customer service training teaches staff how to listen to customers, extract the customer’s real needs during contact, convert those needs into management information for decision making purposes, and implement service tactics which meet those needs.  It is an ongoing cycle that begins and ends with the customer.

Quality Customer Relationships
Businesses need an influx of new customers on a regular basis and high customer retention in order to be successful.  In the best of times it is customer service which often becomes the deciding factor when someone is trying to decide between one company and its competitors.  In difficult economic times, offering quality customer service can actually be the company feature which leads to its very survival.
Excellent customer service includes the following.
* Creates a customer sense of ownership in or commitment to the company
* Inspires confidence in the company, its products, and its ability to meet customer needs
* Identifies customer needs or requirements
* Reflects company commitment to meeting customer needs
Through business training, company staff can learn how to integrate the concepts of exceptional customer service within the business structure.  This training can lead to more satisfied customers, improved branding, and a company better able to differentiate itself in a highly competitive environment.
In other words, customer service creates customer relationships so people return again and again.



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Why we should take customer service more seriously

Author: Sue Barrett

I propose that customer service is an assertive act, a proactive role that has an incredible impact on the attraction and retention of customers.  It represents the ‘front door', the daily face of a business, ideally setting the scene for productive, healthy relationships.  I propose that customer service can often be a much harder, more gruelling role than selling; dealing with the many variables that confront a business, sorting out problems, providing advice, answering technical/distribution/supply questions, coordinating and liaising with various departments, contacting suppliers and, dealing with crises; all the while being polite, friendly, effective and efficient on a consistent daily basis.

The types of people who perform customer service best are people who are interested in people, like regular interpersonal communication, value being part of a team, like organising and sorting things out, get real enjoyment and satisfaction from helping people get what they need, and are resilient, calm and thick skinned whilst being sensitive to the feelings and needs of others.  Who do you know that is like that?

Why then is customer service often seen as a lesser role, a ‘servant's' role, a role where you are required to put up with abuse and bad behaviour, and a role where you are expected to put up with things most other people would not tolerate?  Why do many customer service people feel they have to suffer in silence?

I am in the midst of working on a Customer Service Excellence program roll out with a well respected and innovative manufacturing company in the building industry sector.  They take being ‘excellent' very seriously and as such are ensuring their customer service team are well trained in skill as well as the ethics and vision of a customer focused, quality business.  As part of our work, we discuss how to deal with rude and angry customers.  It was revealed by some of the female customer service staff, on our initial program, that some of the customers (male) were making inappropriate comments of a sexual nature over the phone to them and this was causing them distress – rightly so.  The management team (all male except for one female) who were also on the initial program were shocked at the news, and all agreed that their staff should never have to put up with this or any other type of abusive behaviour.

Asked why they hadn't spoken up previously about these incidents, the female staff stated that they were worried that if they stood up for themselves and told the customers concerned to stop, then they might lose their business.  Credit to these staff for putting the business first however, it should never have to be at the expense of their dignity or professional behaviour.  Management were adamant that this type of behaviour, abusive language or threats from customers or anyone should not be tolerated under any circumstances and if it did happen again the staff were advised to report it immediately to their manager.

We need to make sure that all our staff are safe – free from abuse, bullying and other inappropriate behaviour.  I too often see customer service being undervalued by businesses and trivialised as fluffy, or being nice and ‘the customer is always right' stuff.  It is far from that.  It's a tough job.  It saddens me that people, especially women, do not think they can say something when inappropriate and abusive behaviour surfaces.  A recent newspaper article put paid to the issue that bullying was due to low self esteem, instead it stated that research found that bullies had an over inflated view of themselves and thus set about demonstrating this in various ways including bullying.

Perhaps we should be able to give our people, especially customer service staff, training and coaching in how to address bullying and other challenging behaviour alongside the more traditional customer service skills training.  And then, back this up by a code of conduct; a charter on how we deliver customer service and what we stand for.

I defy any senior manager to sit in the chairs or stand in the shoes of their customer service staff and handle that role for a week and see how they fair.  The program on channel 10, Undercover Boss, gives us a glimpse of senior executives taking on the roles of their staff, often service staff in the front line.   They are usually shocked at how hard these roles actually are and realise that without their customer service staff they do not have a business.  Whether your staff are servicing customers via the telephone or in a restaurant or over the counter, we need to make sure that we back them, keep them safe and help them be at their best, and that includes having the skills and the right to address inappropriate and abusive behaviour without the fear of losing one's job.

Customer service is the back bone of any business, driving home our values, messages, vision and the state of our relationships with each other and our customer community.  Let's take customer service seriously.
Remember everybody lives by selling something.


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Six Keys to Creating “wow” Customer Service Experiences

Author: Robert L Moment

Customers of every kind of business imaginable these days bemoan the state of customer service. While the global economy and the Internet have given businesses the opportunity to serve more clients than ever before, the trend has also given way to impersonal, lackluster customer service. It’s unfortunate that most businesses today don’t realize that they are regularly losing valuable customers if they don’t focus on providing an exceptional customer service experience.

In most businesses, once a customer begins dealing with the customer service department, he or she is already in a negative mindset. The best customer service representatives aren’t those that simply neutralize the problem. Outstanding customer service representatives take a negative and turn it into a positive that ensures the customer is not only happy, but is convinced he or she has had an outstanding experience – the Wow Factor – that he would not have gotten with any other company.

The key ingredients of the Wow experience are:
• Seamless Service
• Trustworthy Service
• Attentiveness
• Resourcefulness
• Courtesy
• Pro-active Service

Seamless Service means providing everything the customer needs, not just what is required to meet the minimum standards. It’s about making sure that they don’t have to wait and wonder. Customers will appreciate a smooth, seamless process for addressing their needs. If there are several steps needed to take care of their concerns, keep them in the loop – update them by email or with a quick phone call so that they know you are working on the situation and progress is being made. By keeping them abreast of what is going on, you are letting them know you haven’t forgotten about them and that you understand their concerns – reassurance and communication are powerful customer service tools.

Trustworthy Service is essential to retaining customers. Promising a customer anything and delivering nothing is the surest way to not only lose a customer, but get the kind of “word of mouth” bad press that can ruin you. Under promise and over deliver – If you promise a satisfactory solution and then go the extra mile to not only satisfy the customer, but gain their appreciation and “Wow” them, you will get word of mouth that will bring new customers to you.

Attentive Service means paying attention during and after the initial contact. How many times have you contacted customer service and been subjected to an obviously scripted response from the customer service representative? Does it give you the feeling they aren’t really listening, but just trying to get to the end of their canned presentation?

Attentiveness should run through every customer service experience, from listening carefully to the customer’s concerns to following up after the exchange is over to make sure their needs have been met. Listening isn’t just about hearing – it is about understanding what is really being said. The words are just the beginning –what about the customer’s tone of voice? Her mood? Is she disappointed, angry or frustrated? Keying in to the customer’s mood and responding appropriately is essential, and it means not following a script.

Resourcefulness means finding solutions when there appear to be none. Many companies have iron-clad policies that must be followed whenever a problem arises; however, sometimes a customer won’t be satisfied by the “company line” approach. Resourceful customer service representatives know that there is always a way to move beyond the standard procedures in order to make a customer happy. Resourcefulness involves finding a solution when a solution isn’t apparent. This may mean moving up the chain of command before the customer demands to talk to your superior. Companies with excellent customer service also give their representatives some leeway so that they can come up with creative solutions on their own. When a customer senses that you are going beyond the norm to help them, they will feel valued and respected.

Courtesy is a commodity that is becoming rarer every day. It takes so little to be polite but it is becoming a lost art. Say please when you ask a customer a question, thank them for their information and take your time talking to them. Nothing makes a customer feel more devalued than being treated like a number. Use the person’s name, make requests rather than demands and know when to apologize. When something goes wrong for a customer, they want to hear that you understand their frustration and that you are genuinely sorry that they are being inconvenienced. It takes nothing to say, “I’m so sorry you aren’t satisfied and I hope we can do something to correct this.”

Pro-Active Service means not waiting for the customer to come up with a solution that you simply follow through on. A pro-active customer service representative anticipates the needs of the customer and follows through. Don’t wait for the customer to ask you what you are willing to do – anticipate the question and answer it before they can ask. If they call and say they aren’t satisfied, apologize and immediately suggest some solutions. Customers want you to take the lead – acknowledge their unhappiness, offer a solution or solutions and explain to them how you are going to follow through. Pro-Active service means taking the lead, which will reassure your customers that you know what you are doing and that you will follow through.

If you keep these six keys in mind – seamless service, trustworthiness, attentiveness, resourcefulness ,courtesy and pro-active service – you will be able to offer every customer the Wow Customer Service Experience that inspires loyalty and keeps customers coming back for more.



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