First, he wrote the song.  Dave Carroll’s now iconic United Breaks Guitars viral video became the outside projection of the voice inside every consumers head about how tired we are of lousy customer service.  12 million hits and growing.

Well, Dave appears to have at least one more hit on it’s way – his release of the book by the same name.  It is being released tomorrow, and I, for one, can’t wait to read it.  Check out his video at http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/book/.  If the book is half as good as the promo, we’re in for a treat.  And, come May 15, get to your local bookstore and buy early and buy often!

Here’s a great article on the power of social media on customer service.  Columnist Jennifer Waters does a great job of capturing the huge impact social media is having on business.

It really is amazing the degree to which the power has shifted to the customer.  The customer may not always be right, but they have become very, very loud.    Companies who ignore the voices of their customers do so at their own peril.  It’s a good thing, actually.  The transparency that has been created by social media is creating a huge degree of accountability that wasn’t there a decade ago.  One has to wonder where things will be in another ten years!

A Texas Representative has recently proposed a really interesting Bill to help enhance customer service in the government.  Rep. Henry Cuellar’s Federal Customer Service Enhancement Act will require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to establish customer service standards for employees all federal agencies.

Great idea, although a little sad that this has to be a ‘Act’ that needs to be ‘passed.’

Our company has been consulting, training and measuring customer service for 20 years now, and I’ve seen some amazing success stories, and, sadly, far too many initiatives that accomplished very little.  There is a definitive, guaranteed recipe for success for companies trying to achieve World-Class Customer Service performance. It works every time – but few organizations actually do it.  Without exception, here are the six things successful organizations have done:

1.  Identified all their customer touchpoints

2.  Done a customer service gap analysis on their Policies, Processes, People and Practices

3.  Set non-negotiable customer service standards that encompass all touchpoints

4.  Trained all their employees so they understand the standards and have the tools to meet them

5.  Measured customer service performance on an ongoing basis

6.  Put in place clear positive and negative consequences to reinforce the standards

It’s not rocket science, but it is a lot of work, and requires expertise, and unwaivering championship within the highest levels of an organization.  Unfortunately, too few organizations take a strategic approach to achieving their customer service goals.

The part where companies most often fall down is in setting non-negotiable standards.  For a variety of reasons, we are far too comfortable making exceptions and accepting excuses – both of which negate the concept of ‘non-negotiable’.   I think companies should take the cue from Mr. Cuellar, and pass an ‘Act’ of their own.

One of the things that always surprises me is how organizations have no qualms about setting and enforcing standards when it comes to financial issues, but don’t have the same resolve when it comes to other core business practices. Countless studies done over the last five years point to the tremendous strategic impact customer service has on every aspect of a business. So why is this so difficult?

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Are you looking for customer service training for your team or company? Look to the world leader in customer service training: Belding Skills Training & Development

Looking to measure your customer experience? RetailTrack is a world leader in Mystery Shopping and Voice of the Customer research.

Back in the ’90′s, hard-sell “customer retention” schemes started to pop up.  They were the brainchild of the telecom industry, and were designed to reduce customer “churn.”  The concept, basically, is this:

When a customer wants to discontinue a service, they’re forced to jump through a series of hoops, and then finally funnelled into a ‘customer retention’ department who force the customer to endure one last hard sell before they finally give up.  The success rate of these schemes can vary anywhere between 5% and 15% – more than enough to justify the efforts.

The practice spread to other industries, like banking, insurance, fitness clubs, lawn care – and as the new Millennium rolled around – a myriad of internet-based businesses.  Fortunately for customers, most companies eventually did the math, and realized that the long-term negative consequences of further annoying the 85%-90% of departing customers was far greater than the short-term benefits.

Unfortunately, however, there are still many companies clinging to this archaic business model – including most telecoms, and, as I discovered yesterday, the AntiVirus software developer, BitDefender.

We had purchased a couple of licenses for BitDefender for our office, to test out and see how it compared to the other anti-virus programs we were using.  After a year, and a few annoying incidents, we elected to uninstall it and replace it with a different product.  Over the weekend, we received an email advising us of an upcoming ’autorenewal’ of our BitDefender license.  I went on the site to disable the auto-renewal, and found myself being put through a maze of ill-conceived “customer retention” roadblocks and stalls.

The result is that we are now parting company on far worse terms than we would have if they had just kept it simple.  The odds of us ever going back to BitDefender now?  Pretty close to zero.  How is this a good thing?

If you were ever looking for proof that customer service makes a difference regardless of industry, all you have to do is pay a visit to Ottawa’s Dymon Self-Storage. Basically, Dymon sells empty space for people to store their stuff.  They sell boxes for us to put our stuff in before we put it in the empty space, and tape to tape the boxes up after we put our stuff in them.  That’s pretty much it.  There’s not a lot more to it.  It’s one of those low-tech businesses that would seem destined for a low-touch experience.

But apparently Dymon doesn’t see it that way.

Two or three times, I have gone into their place to pick up boxes and tape.  Every time I’ve gone in, I’ve been blown away with their customer service.  Incredibly friendly, and incredibly helpful.  The last time I was in there, one of the guys offered to carry my purchase out to the car.  It was a single empty box that weighed as much as the coffee I was carrying in the other hand.  It wasn’t that he didn’t think I could handle it, he explained, he just thought I might not want to risk spilling my coffee.  Too funny.

These guys are outstanding.  And because of how good they are, we’ll be moving all of our earthly possessions there while our house is being built.  And I’ll buy my boxes there… And my tape.  They really do understand what it means to earn someone’s business, and ever small business in the city needs to stop by for a visit so they can start to understand it too.

The following is a transcript from today’s edition of Winning at Work!  To find out more, or to sign up for your own free subscription to this internationally acclaimed weekly e-newsletter, visit www.beldingskills.com.

There’s a common belief that delivery of outstanding customer service is as simple as  “treating customers as I would like to be treated.”  The flaw with this, of course, is when a customer comes along who prefers to be treated differently than you.   A more effective strategy is to treat customers the way in which they would like to be treated.

Customer service isn’t a static thing.  The expectations customers have vary from industry to industry and situation to situation.  Sometimes they want guidance, sometimes they just want an unobstructed path, and sometimes they want their hands held through the entire interaction.  That’s why generic service standards are rarely useful, and why off-the-shelf customer service training doesn’t stick. Too often we think of customer service as just ‘common sense;’ but if it really was, it would be a much more common practice.

So, how can you define World-Class Customer Service for your business?  Start by asking yourself these four questions:

1.  What are your customers’ current expectations in your industry?

2.  What are the complaints/issues that are common in your industry? What needs to happen to make those go away?

3.  When people talk about positive experiences in your industry, what do they talk about?

4.  What role does customer service play in your business? Is it customer retention, increased sales, decreased escalations, higher productivity, lower staff turnover? Why is it important?

Once you have an answer to these, you can begin the process of defining your ideal customer experience, and the things that need to be addressed to deliver it.

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Are you looking for customer service training for your team or company? Look to the world leader in customer service training: Belding Skills Training & Development

Looking to measure your customer experience? RetailTrack is a world leader in Mystery Shopping and Voice of the customer research.

When you think of World-Class Customer Service, names like Four Seasons, Zappos, Southwest Air come top of mind – probably not the municipal employees of the city you live in.  My home town, Kanata, however, may be an exception.

After having been in the Kanata branch of the City of Ottawa municipal offices a half dozen times in the last few months, I would easily rank them in the top 1-2% of customer service providers I have seen in the world. Seriously.  No exaggeration.

Great customer service best defined as An experience that conveys to a customer that you genuinely care.  It really isn’t any more complicated than that.  World-Class Customer Service is when we do this with every customer, every time, no exceptions and no excuses.  The office I have been dealing with falls into that category.

As we are moving through the process of building our new house, we are trying to navigate the City of Ottawa, and all of the permits required to get things done.  It’s a little more complicated than most.  Because we are building in a rural area, we will need approvals for a septic system, and because we’ll be building by the Ottawa River, we need the blessing of the local conservation authorities.  We really don’t have a clue what we’re doing, and have spent a great deal of time in the municipal offices asking a ton of stupid questions (sometimes asking the same question three or four times). I’m actually beginning to annoy myself…

The employees I have encountered have without exception been cheerful, kind, amazingly helpful, and most importantly – patient.  It’s been a tremendous experience, and they are truly a role model for municipal offices everywhere.

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Are you looking for customer service training for your team or company? Look to the world leader in customer service training: Belding Skills Training & Development

Looking to measure your customer experience? RetailTrack is a world leader in Mystery Shopping and Voice of the customer research.

The Big banks don’t get a lot of praise these days, but I had an experience today that was really exceptional.  (I really wish I could recall the individual’s name that I dealt with, because she deserves to be recognized)

I had gone into the RBC Kanata branch to send a wire transfer to one of our US trainers.  The transfer fees, including a random $18 surcharge from a US clearing company, was going to be somewhere in the vicinity of $60.  The CSR had gone partway through the process, then excused herself to speak with a colleague.  She returned with an idea.

“Mr. Belding, if it’s not urgent, would you consider us doing a US bank draft instead?  It would be a fraction of the cost.”

It turned out to be a savings of over $40.  All because someone at the branch thought to look after our interests, instead of simply processing the order.  Bravo RBC! THAT’s great customer service!

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Are you looking for customer service training for your team or company? Look to the world leader in customer service training: Belding Skills Training & Development

Looking to measure your customer experience? RetailTrack is a world leader in Mystery Shopping and Voice of the customer research.

Are you looking for interesting and stimulating discussions on Customer Service? Visit the LinkedIn group, Customer Service Champions, or join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #CustServChamps.

If you have a Twitter account and tweet about customer service issues, share your Twitter @name on this thread!  (Mine is @ShaunBelding)

My wife and I are building a new house this year, and visited the Ottawa Home and Garden show to meet potential contractors and see what was out there.  Like all consumer shows, this one had a little bit of everything – from people selling miracle arthritis cures to super-duper knives for the kitchen.

The first thing that struck me – that always strikes me – are the number of companies who have spent the money to go into one of these things without having a plan in place to maximize their potential. All too many are staffed with people who simply don’t have the skills to deal with customers - much less the thousands of customers that go through the home show.  Here are just a few things we witnessed:

1.  A fireplace company, Top Hat Home Comfort:  They have lots of reps at their booth – a good thing; but unfortunately many of them border on just plain rude.  They aren’t very helpful – and this is the second show in a row we’ve been to where we actually simply didn’t go in because of the number of F-bombs flying around from the staff.

2.  Info dumps.  I would guess that 80% of the people working in these shows confuse incessant talking (and no listening) for good selling skills.  Eeek.

3.  i-Phonitis.  “Oh, here’s a booth that looks interesting, let’s find out more…” but the person sitting in the chair in the booth is too engrossed in his/her iPhone to even look up and say hi.

4.  The Hard Sellers. These throwbacks to the 1970′s philosophy of “ABC” (Always Be Closing) who have absolutely no CLUE what effective selling is all about

5.  Competition Trashers: Even though we hadn’t actually been to the competition or mentioned the competition, they felt compelled to blather on about bad their competition was.

6.  The lame sales lines:  Are sales trainers actually still teaching this stuff?  I felt a little like a pretty girl sitting in a bar filled with lounge lizards using their worst pick-up lines.  Some included, “What, are you saying you aren’t interested in saving money?”, “What exactly are you going home to think about?” or my favourite, “Hey, you look like someone who could use a few extra dollars in your pocket..” (seriously – someone said this…)

Having said that, we did encounter some great experiences as well.  The people at Jazz Solar were exceptionally friendly and helpful, and asked a TON of questions to learn more about my wife and I and our new home.  There was a geothermal guy who was amazing (clearly the one that the three other companies who kept talking about ‘the competition’ were concerned about).  There was a great young guy named Kamal at City Locksmiths who almost convinced us to buy the locks at the show, then build the house around them…

All in all, an interesting experience.  But, boy, there sure is a need out there for better customer service!

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Are you looking for customer service training for your team or company? Look to the world leader in customer service training: Belding Skills Training & Development

Looking to measure your customer experience? RetailTrack is a world leader in Mystery Shopping and Voice of the customer research.