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"How to" empower your people to make decisions and keep your customers satisfied!

In a recent column I shared with you a true customer service story regarding my yellow page advertisements that were put in the phone book incorrectly. Yellow page ads are locked in for one year. This means no changes or corrections. Melissa at the Phone Company made my situation bearable because she was taught how to handle customer disputes and she was empowered to make decisions immediately on the customer's behalf. Below are a list of areas that were covered in my last column combined with "how to" Nuggets that you can begin to empower your team with in an effort to make the customer service experience more pleasant.

1. Emotional - teach your team to deal with the emotional first. Once a dispute with a customer occurs, stop and just listen to them. They're not speaking rationally; they're speaking emotionally. Let them vent. Try not to fix everything they say right away. Sometimes while listening to a customer vent, we're not really listening to what they're saying or feeling. We're thinking of what we can say back to them or how we can counter them. Relax, be calm and listen to the words they say, put yourself in their shoes. The venting the customer is doing is not a personal attack on you.

2. Don't put customers on hold! Create a system where it's not necessary to put customers on hold. One way to do this is to be sure your team has all the answers to every possible customer question or objection. Hold FAQ (frequently asked questions) meetings with your team on a regular basis. Go over a list of popular FAQ's that customers have, be sure all team members are 100% comfortable with each scenario. Role-play with your team. Handling conflict can be difficult, but it can be conquered with the appropriate training.

3. Automated Voice Mail Systems. If you must have a voicemail system here are some suggestions on how to improve the customers wait time. I do not advocate putting customers on hold. However, for those times that you do, make it an informative experience. Stop playing the same old boring music and recordings over and over again. Tell some jokes, customize your messages and commercials to the type of customers that call you, keep them interested and calm, motivational quotes, testimonials from employees and customers, create a system where they can pick and choose what they listen to while waiting. Give away "thank you for your patience" gifts. Many businesses offer their products or services for free if the customer doesn't receive complete satisfaction within a specified period of time. Remember Domino's Pizza? They promised to give you a FREE pizza if it wasn't delivered in 30 minutes or less! Be different.

4. Tell the customer how important they are. Recently I was calling on one of my customers and the receptionist answered the phone in a very pleasant voice and said… "I'll put you right through Ms. Mullins, your call is very important to her!" Wow! I was impressed. You can use this for any type of call. Transferring, hold, welcome greeting.

5. Teach your team to listen and only listen. Do not interrupt. Be calm, breath, remain compassionate and understanding, show empathy by saying things like… "I can't believe it", "I'm so sorry", "I couldn't imagine being in your shoes", "Oh no".

6. Never, ever point fingers. Often we feel compelled to say it wasn't me; it was the new person or another department. Many times it wasn't you. But telling the customer this is the worst thing you can do. They know you're just making excuses and passing the buck. This just infuriates them more. To the customer YOU are the company. Just listen, follow the procedures put into place to help troubleshoot the situation and deal with the details later, behind the scenes.

7. NO EXCUSES! Take full responsibility and remember to empathize with the customer. Don't forget to troubleshoot and problem solve later, so it won't happen again. You must be able to show each customer that you're there for them. They must trust you. You can do this by not making excuses, by showing empathy and taking full responsibility.

8. Leaders stop putting out fires! Teach your team to put out the fires. Let go of some control. Teaching your team to be leaders and make decisions will cut customer down time. Transferring calls, putting customers on hold and calling them back will be virtually eliminated. Allow front line team members to authorize credits, returns, refunds, etc. Take a look at all the issues that arise when dealing with your customers, discuss each one and teach your team how to take care of all customers on the spot. Statistics show that dealing with customer problems quickly is the key to retaining external customers (paying customers) and aids in customers paying bills timely.

9. Supervisors that have no authority. The time customers spend on hold, being transferred, disconnected, called back and then having to speak to the supervisor who ultimately has no authority to make decisions is what makes the customer angry. Not so much the problem itself. Most of the larger organizations could eliminate 2 to 3 layers of supervisory/management positions and helpdesks just by training and empowering front line people to act quickly and swiftly with all customer issues.

10. Teach your people how to make these decisions. In my customer service story, Melissa had the authority to run my yellow page ads free for the next 2 years. Your people should be in the business of saying YES to every customer and prospect you deal with. They must be trained to be the customer's advocate. In fact, why not call them… "customer advocates"? Each team member at your company regardless of the size or type of your business should be taught how to save and win customers. Many times companies spend time teaching team members how to get the customer off the phone quickly and move on to the next one because of abandoned call rates, the number of people in line or on hold. They teach team members how not to give a customer a credit. Ask yourself how valuable is that one new customer? Think about it. Once you get the new customer, then what? The goal for each team member at your company should be to give 100% satisfaction, no matter what. They should be able to say after every customer call, transaction and interaction… "the customer was satisfied". This doesn't mean the customer is always right or gets exactly what they want. It means they were satisfied. Sometimes this simply means "agreeing to disagree" with respect. Taking the time to teach your team to be leaders, to take control, to empower them to make decisions and learn from each one, will aid you in retaining both your internal customers (team members) and external customers (paying customers). As the leader you can spend more time on product, service, quality and continuous training for your team.