Category: Customer service

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Customer service Marketing

Customer Care – Why Sweating the Small Stuff is Good

I loved Sean D’Souza’s article about creating “accidental evangelists” in a recent issue of Marketing Profs.com.  And it got me thinking how it’s the little things that truly make a difference in connecting with customers.

This reality was also reinforced by a client’s Customer Experience Team who met recently to report on what they’re doing to improve communications & relationships with their customers; for example:

  • Sending a small welcome gift to new customers and acknowledging a current customer’s order with a thank you card
  • Referring a customer to another supplier for a product line that the client doesn’t yet offer
    (shades of “Miracle on 34th St.” … customer response was just as positive as in the film!)
  • Checking on product ship dates to ensure there’s no disconnect between a promised ship date and delivery
  • Letting customers know where to access their account numbers when they need to call in for something
  • Identifying the source of a problem with frequent repairs & letting Customer Service know so they can help customers avoid future problems.

In today’s hectic world we’re told “don’t sweat the small stuff.”  But often times it’s the little things we do that matter the most.

In what small, but impactful ways, do you show your customers that you care?

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: Internal Customers (Part 3)

As mentioned in my last post, overall job satisfaction is affected by an employee’s relationships with managers & co-workers. And the quality of these relationships trickles down to the bottom line – you can’t build strong external (customer) relationships without strong internal (customer) relationships.

That’s why internal marketing considers employees “internal customers.” When employees take care of each others’ business service needs, they tend to do even better for customers.  In other words, internal customer service drives external customer services.

Who’s your customer?

Too often, customer relations training is focused only on staff with direct customer contact. But it applies to everyone – Purchasing has its internal customers; so does Human Resources, Information Systems, Operations, etc.

Think of it this way: if you’re not serving the ultimate customer (those who purchase your firm’s offerings), you’re serving someone who is … for example, the sales staff, customer service rep, call center staff, delivery person, store manager, etc.

To what extent does your organization acknowledge and serve its “internal customers?”

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: What Matters (Part 1)

I just finished reading the July issue of Presentations magazine and its feature an article on workplace etiquette … very timely given the recent “flip-flop flap” at the White House.

This post isn’t meant to bemoan a lack of manners in general or get into any fashion dispute. I just want to reinforce the importance of common courtesy and respect for others in the workplace.

Respect is a fundamental element of internal marketing. It includes treating people cordially, with civility and sincerity – not the drone scripted recitation of “Thank you for doing business with us … have a nice day” that you hear from some service providers.

But for many employees who truly care about their customers, sometimes the issue of professional courtesy can be a stretch. It’s hard to show respect for customers when workers don’t feel respected in their own organizations.

How employees (and customers, in turn) are treated is a reflection of corporate culture. What’s it like in your workplace?

More on this in my next post, including how to assess your organization’s culture …

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Customer service Marketing

Customer Discrimination is Risky Business

A recent posting on Adrants featured a bank promotion that’s getting some bad press in the blogosphere.  It’s one of those promotions that offers a great premium to (attract) new customers, while offering ‘bupkis’ to existing customers.  A great lesson in How to Alienate Current Customers 101.

It’s a business development dilemma for most companies — how to recruit new customers and not alienate current customers in the process.   The challenge is current customers are likely to notice ads from companies they deal with, and when they see a promotion for new customers, they’re likely to ask the company “So what have you done for me lately?”

Delivering customer value on an ongoing basis is key.  The smart companies are driven to continually ask: “How do our loyal customers know we value their relationship?” and they focus on delivering that value.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Voice – What Are You Saying?

An essential element of internal marketing involves connecting employees with customers – finding ways to reach out to your customers and proactively listen to them. Employees need to hear the “voice of the customer” to gain insight into customer needs and how they can be better served.

In addition, employees also need to provide the “voice to the customer” … a term I found recently in an interview with my friend & diva marketer Toby Bloomberg.  Toby talks about companies who use multi-author blogs to give customers “a broader look at the voices inside the company.”

What a great reminder that the voice of the employees in an organization is also important! The stronger the rapport between employees and customers, the stronger the relationship between the customers and the organization/brand.

Assuming that the voice to the customer is a positive one. (To be continued … )

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Happy Employees, Happy Customers

“Happiness in the workplace is a strategic advantage.”

So says Hal Rosenbluth in his book, The Customer Comes Second (2nd edition).  He explains: “Service comes from the heart, and people who feel cared for will care more. Unhappiness results in error, turnover, and other evils.”

I agree with him 1000% … it’s what internal marketing is all about.

Beyond the inherent logic linking employee and customer satisfaction, there’s a lot of research that supports a positive, mutually reinforcing relationship between employees and customers.  (Check out The Service Profit Chain in addition to Rosenbluth’s book.)

But do happy employees = happy customers? (It’s a question I’m often asked in my internal marketing seminars.)

It’s an oversimplification to be sure … but you can’t have one without the other.  Remember, if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers!

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Customer service

On-line or In-store Shopping? It’s the Experience That Still Matters

Do you prefer to shop on-line or in a store?  While the factors affecting your choice may vary (depending on store location, access, time, convenience, etc.), the outcome is still the same — a satisfactory shopping experience

So who’s more likely to be satisfied with their customer service experience — on-line or in-store shoppers?  According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation’s NRF Foundation and American Express (reported in a recent Marketing Management magazine article), it’s on-line consumers.

Interesting? Yes.  Surprising? Not really … especially given my recent in-store experience.

Who Are They Kidding?

I went to return a purchase I had made earlier in the week.  Since I was a fairly new customer at the store’s location, I approached a sales clerk at one of the registers located in the front of the store.  (If I lament about the old days when sales registers and sales staff were located throughout the store, I’d be giving away my age.)

Me: Where can I return this?

Clerk:  You have to go back to customer service.

Me: Thank you. (Feigning politeness while thinking I’m the customer and I don’t “have to” do anything.  If you were trained properly, you would have told me: “Some one can help you in Customer Service” while pointing the way.)

So I walked back the length of the store to where Customer Service was located … under a sign proclaiming “Customer Convenience Center.”  (Yeah, right … if it were “convenient,” it would have been located in the front of the store!)

Maybe next time, I’ll shop on-line.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 3 – continued)

When connecting employees with customers, it’s important to focus on ALL employees, not just those with customer contact who are usually the recipients of most customer-focused training.

So, how do you make this connection with non-contact employees?

A great example is Celestial Seasonings, the herbal tea company.  They created a composite of their typical consumer and personified her  —  she’s known as “Tracy Jones.”  When staff consider product or packaging changes, they ask” What would Tracy Jones think?  How will this affect her?”

Here are some other ways to link non-contact staff and customers:

  • Visit customers — send non-contact employees to accompany sales reps or business development staff when they call on customers.  Let them see and hear “the voice of the customer” up close & personal.
  • Ambassador program — at one of the former Bell telecomm companies, non-sales employees volunteered to serve as “ambassadors.”  They visited customers on a quarterly basis to check in on how the customers were doing … to let them know the company cared about them.
  • Adopt-a-Customer — a professional association with chapters across the country used a variation of this in their “adopt-a-member” program.  Association headquarters staff (e.g., in accounting, membership, information services, the mail room, etc.) adopted chapters and were placed on their contact lists.  Staff then received information on their adopted chapter’s programs, membership changes, publicity, etc. … to learn first-hand how the chapters served their association members.  And the chapters benefited by having a direct contact at the headquarters office.

The key is to find ways to make a tangible connection to customers, so your employees (regardless of their level of contact) will see them as real people, not just faceless names or account numbers.

Your customers will also benefit by being able to put a face or voice on their contact with your organization.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 3)

So far this posting series has focused on connecting employees to their organizations as well as within their organizations.  This week I’ll address the last of Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections — connecting employees with customers.

Customer-Focus is Key

It’s no secret that customers judge an organization and its brand by how well they’re treated by everyone in the organization they come in contact with.  When asked why consumers switched companies, one study found that nearly 70% left because they felt the attention they got from the company was poor or they hardly got any attention at all!

Connecting employees with customers — ensuring employees are customer-focused — is a key component of internal marketing.

What does being customer-focused really mean?

It’s understanding your customers (including knowing who they are and what they want from your company), and it’s being attentive and responsive to their needs.  To achieve even a basic level of customer-focus, employees need to be educated about your customers.  They need to know:

  • Who your customers are
  • Why they come to your organization in the first place
  • How they feel about your organization — from customer complaints, feedback, and satisfaction surveys.  (See Pop Quiz: Customers 101.)

The more your employees know about your customers, they better they can serve them.  So don’t forget to get employee input on how to improve customer satisfaction.

Here’s a thought-provoking starter question you can use in staff meetings.  Ask employees: If you were head of this organization, what are the three things you would do to improve customer service or satisfaction?

Some other ways to connect employees with customers:

  • Host an “Open House” where you invite customers to your place of business to meet & mingle with staff.  I remember hearing about a small company that would host small groups of clients on Friday afternoons (tied-in with the firm’s casual day) for a social hour.
  • On a much larger scale, General Motors Saturn car division hosts an annual get together of Saturn car owners.
  • One of my favorite examples is QuadGraphics, a Wisconsin-based printing firm that hosts a three-day “camp” where customers attend educational seminars and fun events to learn about printing processes… they also learn more about the company and connect with its staff.
  • At some catalog companies, employees will “mystery shop” the competition.  They actually shop their competitors to learn what it’s like to call & place an order (either by phone or online), check out merchandise quality, or see what’s involved in handling a return.  The value of this exercise (where appropriate & applicable) is that employees develop empathy for the customer experience + gain insight on how to improve their company’s own operations.

These internal marketing tools can be used with all employees, not just those with customer contact.  But non-contact staff pose a unique challenge — in what additional ways can you connect them to customers?

I’ll cover that in the last post of this series.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Employee Satisfaction: Happiness Pays

“Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.”  It’s one of my favorite quotes from nonprofit leader Frances Hesselbein, and it’s an important reminder for all organizations.

To all those reading this blog: how many people do you know who are truly happy in their workplace?  Most of my friends in this situation are the ones who are self-employed; i.e., spared the BS of inane office politics and the incompetents in charge.  (As I’ve explained to friends & family over the years, the reason I’m happily self-employed is because I work for someone I respect.)

Why should management care about how its people feel?  The benefits of a positive workplace go beyond the warm & fuzzy directly to the bottom line.  According to the Customer Loyalty Research Center, which specializes in measuring both employee and customer satisfaction & loyalty, employees who have better relationships with their companies are more likely to:

  • Stay with the company, reducing turnover costs.  (You want sticker shock? Ask Human Resources what this really costs.)
  • Recommend the company to other potential employees, reducing search expense (which also makes HR folks happy)
  • Be more productive on the job
  • Provide higher service levels, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction & loyalty (which should make everyone happy).

What does the Customer Loyalty Research Center use to measure employee satisfaction & loyalty? They look at variables that contribute to overall job satisfaction including:

  • Relationships with managers and co-workers
  • Customer-focus
  • Organizational improvement
  • Rewards & recognition
  • Communication.

How do you tell if your organization needs to get serious about employee satisfaction?  Here’s the magic question — just ask employees “Would you refer a friend to work here?”  It’s a loaded question, but one that will give you tremendous insight into your organization.