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Re-Engineering Yourself To Serve Outrageously
Go Back to the Beginning
Re-engineering yourself for customer-focused care is almost like getting a complete body makeover! Let’s begin by taking a hard look at your body language, okay? There is a wonderful little book in your local bookstore called “Body Language” by Julius Fast. In it, the author describes the messages we send through our non-verbal behavior, which includes our gestures, posture and body positioning. I highly recommend this textbook. It has been around for a long time and the content is just as valuable today as when it was written.
What kind of non-verbal messages are you sending to your customers? Do you look approachable, welcoming, interested and friendly to customers by standing or sitting in positions that indicates those qualities? These are positions where the arms are slightly flexed and outstretched with the hands held open with the palms up and kept above the waist most of the time. There is a conscious effort not to slouch or lean on objects or others. The head is held up and the shoulders back when possible and the customer is faced directly or head on during conversations.
It means frequently smiling and having eye contact with your customers and approaching them before they approach you. Wal-Mart actually has a rule that employees (called associates) are to look up, smile and ask “May I help you?” when a customer comes within 3 feet of them. I like that rule.
And what about your voice? Does it make a difference to your customers? Yes, it does. I suggest that you have someone tape you during a conversation when you do not know you are being taped. Evaluate your taped voice. Here is one tool you can use:
A Voice Style Checklist
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Yes
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No
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Your voice is easy to hear without being too loud.
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Your words are clearly pronounced.
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Your pacing is good-neither too slow nor too fast.
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Your vocal tone is pleasant-neither grating nor nasal.
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Your voice energy level shows interest and enthusiasm.
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You make a conscious effort to keep a smile in your voice.
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Here are some tips to help you to achieve a desirable conversational voice. Minimizing or eliminating a monotone is possible once you are aware that you have one. It involves working to get inflection into your voice. Inflection can be incorporated into your voice by putting enthusiasm into your voice. In effect, putting emotion in your voice will give you inflection. One of the easiest ways to start getting some emotion into your voice is to smile while you are talking especially when you are on the phone.
Is your voice too high or low in pitch? Moderation in pitch is pleasing to the human ear. You may have to raise or lower your voice an octave to achieve a pleasing tone. Interestingly, the elderly respond better to a lower octave as their hearing of higher tones decreases naturally with aging. How about the pacing of your words? A moderate pace is suggested as talking too fast or too slow can either result in the customer not being able to comprehend what you say or lose interest and not hear what you say. Thirty-six words per minute is a pace that is well received and understood. Over 60 wpm or under 20 wpm results in problems for the listener. And don’t forget about focusing on clearly enunciating words that end in an n, r or d so that they are not misunderstood. Again, the elderly often cannot hear those words if they are not enunciated clearly.
In the Victorian Age, young ladies received instruction in the social graces which included learning how to walk and sit appropriately and to speak with pleasing conversational voices. I sometimes wonder if we shouldn’t bring back that instruction so that we could all have positive posture, appealing stances and cultured, well-bred voices.
Once you have evaluated and practiced refining your conversational voice, have someone tape you again so that you can evaluate whether your focus on improving your voice has been successful. Good luck!
Well, now that you have achieved a pleasant and melodious voice, let’s use it professionally on the telephone. Would you believe that most people say that they spend about 35% of their work time on the telephone, yet few job descriptions include phone etiquette as a critical job skill. To make it even more astounding, you may talk to customers that you never see such as someone within your organization that works in another area of the building or in a separate satellite site miles away (an internal customer). Or you may frequently converse with an external customer over the phone for any number of reasons. Considering how much time in spent on the telephone, I think an emphasis on telephone etiquette is in order as an intricate part of providing positive customer service. Below you will find a Telephone Technique Checklist Format for you to use to self-evaluate your phone skills before we address phone etiquette.
In this program, we will only be focusing on the very basics of positive phone etiquette which contain the following customer sensitive elements: Answering the phone, Taking messages, Putting a caller “on hold,” and Transferring calls.
Let’s address Answering the Phone first. The best greeting when one initially* answers the phone contains three (3) elements.
1. A Greeting, such as “Hello” or “Good Morning”… because some phone systems cut off the first word of a conversation, a greeting protects the second element of the answering response which is:
2. The Identification Statement…telling the caller who he or she has reached. * Some phone etiquette gurus feel that the caller should identify their role or title in the organization as well. This can be problematic if your title is long and contains highly technical terms such as this title: Technological Phlebotomy Consultant
3. Finally, the Question which asks how you can be of assistance.
* Note: any ringing phone should be answered by the third ring; otherwise, your
customer feels neglected or worse yet that you are not really all that
interested in his business.
Below is a winning way to answer the phone combining the foregoing three (3) elements:
“Hello, you’ve reached Customer Focused, Inc. This is Etta
Etiquette, Customer Focus Representative. How may I help
you?”
Second, let’s discuss Taking Phone Messages. There are actually four (4) elements to this process:
1. Get the caller’s full name, organization name (if appropriate) and phone number where the caller can be reached.
2. To be sure you have the correct spelling of the caller’s name and an accurate phone number where he or she can be reached, read them back to the caller and ask for confirmation.
3. Date and time the message.
4. Put your full name and any other identifying credentials you feel is necessary on the message so the recipient can ask you for any needed information or clarification.
Using a pre-printed form for taking phone messages is recommended. A phone log pad and a pen should be available for use at all organizational phones where business is conducted. Remember, some organizations store phone logs as evidence in litigation so maintaining accuracy in the foregoing four (4) elements is important.
Thirdly, let’s explore the best way to Put a Caller “On Hold.” There are only two (2) elements to the recommended approach.
1. Never put a caller “on hold” without first asking his permission to do so. Wait for his answer. It creates a positive impression of you and your organization.
2. If the caller can’t or won’t hold, take a number and call back asap.
Lastly, let’s discuss Transferring Calls. This approach contains four (4) elements too.
1. Transfer calls only as a last resort.
2. Be sure to give the name and number of the person you are transferring to the caller in case there is any problems with the connection. Do not tell the caller that you are giving them the extension in case there are problems. Doing so would give the caller the impression that problems routinely occur in your organization when calls are transferred.
3. Stay on the line until the transfer goes through.
4. Always talk about the customer in a respectful terms while transferring to another person. Never assume your customer cannot hear you simply because he or she is supposed to be “on hold” during the actual transfer.
A winning way to transfer a call using the foregoing four(4) elements is:
“Mr. Customer, I am going to have to transfer you to Etta Etiquette in the Service Department regarding your request on the status of your bill. She is at extension 420. I will put you through to her now.” Transfers the call to E. Etiquette.
“Etta, I’m transferring a call from Mr. Customer to you. He would like a current update on his bill.” (stays on the phone until she hears them talking).
As we conclude this section of our program on the basics of positive phone etiquette, I would like to leave you with some parting overall thoughts from others about using the phone:
When you answer the phone, your organization’s image is on the line.
A headline in Video Business magazine
If I pick up a ringing phone, I accept the responsibility to ensure the caller is satisfied, no matter what the issue.
Michael Ramundo, President
MCR Marketing, Inc.
Throughout this program we have been alluding to the importance of one’s attitude in working with customers. I think we’re ready to talk more in depth about attitude now. It was olympic skater Scott Hamilton who said that the only debilitating disease is a bad attitude (Karr and Blowiak, p.63)
We have a choice each day how we are going to treat our customers. Our words only constitute 7% of the image our customers receive from us; 55% of what they receive from us is our non-verbal behavior (Karr and Blowiak p. 63-64). With that in mind, here are some very “bottom line” guidelines to remember when dealing with your customers. They convey that you are glad they came to your organization for service (Karr and Blowiak, p. 68)
Now that you have the attitude that it takes to satisfy your customers, I am going to help you to become a customer service Energizer Bunny which means that you are going to “go the extra mile” with your customers from now on. What that means is that you are going to go beyond satisfying your customer…you are going to create what authors Blanchard and Bowles ( p. 13) call “raving fans.” To me the term “raving fan” conjures up images of those wild and wooley grandstand fans at the Nascar events. It is obvious that these fans are thrilled. They yell, gesture wildly and exhibit all manner of behaviors to indicate how much they care about their favorite ” race car driver.” These are the kinds of fans you want your customers to be. How can you get that kind of “over the top” adoration and loyalty?
My answer to that question is to focus on the details of delivering Positively Outrageous Service (POS). Stories of Positively Outrageous Service will be the success stories of the millenium, but only a few organizations will actually serve outrageously and those organizations will be the memorable ones…they will be the ones everyone can tell a story about that will top all the other stories.
Words to describe POS are surprise, fun, unexpected, not necessary, playful, caring, entertaining, and outrageous. Not all of these words will apply every time to every situation. To me the person who delivers POS is indeed the Energizer Bunny, the one who creates memorable experiences for both internal and external customers.
So let’s get down to the “nitty gritty”, focusing on some real concrete things that you can do.
Do the random and unexpected… add an element of surprise and novelty that “jolts” the attention of your customer and creates an experience that’s memorable because it is so different from what is expected. But knowing that you can’t possibly do the outrageous all of the time…keep your customers guessing by doing it only on occasion.
Note: Random rewards beget regular behavior. For example a free dinner given to a couple randomly in a restaurant on a Tuesday evening might just cause the couple to continue to patronize an out of the way restaurant on another Tuesday evening (usually a stay at home night) on the off chance that they just might once again… eat for free.
 
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