We are pleased to present our next installment in the Inside Customer Service video series: Ken Mueller, Inbound Marketing Certified Professional and Inbound Marketing Educator with 30 years of experience in the media industry.

Ken is the proprietor of Inkling Media, an inbound marketing shop based in Lancaster, PA with an emphasis on social media, blogging and SEO. Inkling Media provides consulting on utilizing social media as part of an overall marketing strategy, and also offers a variety of other media services including writing and content creation.

Ken has been listed among the top social media professionals, including Top 100 Small Business blogs on Technorati, Top 100 Marketing Professors on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine, and The AdAge Power 150. Ken is also an Adjunct Instructor of Marketing at Messiah College, and an adjunct at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.

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Few phrases sound as common yet betray such a fantastical goal. The concept itself, to some degree, is misleading. So many variables go into creating customer expectations that it seems almost quixotic to attempt to manage them.

Let’s just take a look at some of the inputs that go into creating customer expectations:

• Social Media
• Word of Mouth
• Marketing (more on marketing and customer expectations)
• Public Relations (more on PR and customer expectations)
• Similar Experiences
• Competitive Experiences
• Previous Experiences with Your Company
• Individual Psychology
• Cultural Norms and Expectations
• Interactions with Staff

The items highlighted in blue are the items customer service reps and service managers have fairly significant control over. Glance back at the list one more time. You will not see much blue.

That leaves a whole lot of managing customer expectations outside of our direct control.

Now, before we throw up our hands and give up, let me tell you why attempting to manage customer expectations is still a worthwhile endeavor.

The good news is that those items that are within our control have some of the most direct influence on what customers expect from us. If we can work to manage customer expectations through those key drivers, we can help preempt and even override some of the other influences impacting expectations.

Remember, as difficult as it is, managing expectations is hugely important.

In the end…

Performance does not matter, performance relative to customer expectations does!

9 Keys to Managing Customer Expectations

1. Decide What You Would Like Expectations to Be

As in most things, it is helpful to establish a goal. Be realistic about your industry and your product/service, then contemplate what types of expectations you would be able to meet or exceed on a consistent basis.

2. Be Honest

If you sell the sizzle, the steak better live up to the hype. Be honest about what your product does and what your service is. Customers have plenty of influences guiding them towards unrealistic expectations — you need to make sure your team is not one of them.

3. Minimize Fine Print

As we discussed in Fine Print Is Inevitable; Bait and Switch Is Not, fine print, while often necessary, should be minimized and should never be used to alter the basic promise of your offer or brand. Sure, the picture below is technically honest, but really?

Image: Consumer Reports Magazine July 2013 Edition.

4. Be Consistent Across Media

To the extent you have control or influence with your marketing department, try to make sure that the messages that are being delivered to your customers are consistent across media. Your television advertising, product brochure, and social media team should all be communicating the same messages and helping to reinforce an optimal set of expectations.

5. Monitor Your Channels

Part of managing customer expectations is trying to understand what they are, both collectively and individually. Monitoring your feedback channels — phone, email, social, etc. — You can begin to get an idea of what sort of expectations are crystallizing overall. Did the new ad using the term “luxury” give the impression that the dashboard was made of mahogany? Are people automatically disappointed when they see the interior of the car?

6. Listen Individually

Of course, expectations are as individual as the people who hold them. We must strive to understand what each client expects of our product and service so that we can successfully manage and meet/exceed their expectations.

7. Recalibrate

If the client’s expectations are not something we can successfully meet, then we need to do our best to reset and recalibrate those expectations. This process probably deserves its own post.

8. Exceed

You don’t just want to meet those expectations, do you? Always strive to exceed.

9. Follow Up

Customer expectations are not static.They evolve and adjust over time. Refer to the list of influences earlier in this post. Those influences never stop influencing customer expectations; they are constantly reshaping your customers views of your product/service. Do not be stagnant. Continue to monitor shifts in expectations on a collective and an individual level.

Managing Customer Expectations is NOT a One-Way Street

The idea of “managing” expectations might make the process seem one-sided — as if you are trying to control what your customer thinks. As you can see from this discussion, the process is at best collaborative — even if the collaboration goes unsaid.

We are blending the push, inserting our concept of what our product or service does, with the pull, finding out what the customer really needs and wants.

Managing expectations is not about controlling customers; it is about setting you, your team, and your customers up for a successful and profitable partnership.

What do you think? Can customer expectations be managed? Should they be?

We thought a Slideshare presentation would be a great way to capture the different qualities that make up Customer Service Heroes.

From Superman to Spiderman, here is what it takes to be Customer Service Hero:

Matt Powers is an Internet Marketer with Blue Soda Promo. He also does graphic design so he’s a pretty busy guy at work. Off the clock, he blogs here and most nights are spent watching Chicago sports or a good documentary. ________________________________________________________________

We all know what the five second rule is, right?  If a piece of food drops on the floor, you have five seconds to pick it up before you should throw it away.  However, as a UX (user experience) designer, my interpretation is a little different.

If a user cannot find what he/she is looking for on a specific site in 5 seconds, they will leave your site and not come back.

That is why user experience is an absolute must when it comes to customer service.  If you are able to make your website as dummy-proof as possible for the user, they will easily be able to reach their end-goal. More importantly, you will accomplish your end-goals, which are gaining customers and increasing revenue.

The following 4 tips can easily be applied to any small business or e-Commerce site. We included some actual examples of how these changes were implemented and the results they had on Blue Soda Promo, an e-Commerce site that offers promotional products and customized apparel.

Before They Buy, the User Must Trust

Tip: The Internet is an endless web of sites trying to take your money.  Most users trust Google to point them in the right direction and leave it up to you to convince them they have come to the right place.

When they first arrive, it is important to make them feel right at home. Remember, users won’t always land on the homepage. This is why the combination of web design, product selection and trust symbols should play a prominent role on each and every landing page.

Changes made: Our site always had a solid design with trust symbols. Yet Blue Soda Promo felt it necessary to make the site even more user-friendly. We took the time to compile a strong list of testimonials from past customers, create a “meet the team” section full of pictures and biographies, and launch a section for our awards and certifications.

Results: Both new and past customers loved it. The three short videos we put on the site generated 17k views in the last two months alone. Customers now even ask our account mangers about information directly from their bio.

Make Contact Information and Help Options Visible on Every Page

Tip: Not all users are created equal.  While some users may be able to navigate a site without any problems, others may struggle and all the UX changes in the world may not prevent them from getting lost.

To save them from abandoning your site all together and running to the competition, users need to be able to find help and contact functions on every page of your site. Also, all sites should have  help/FAQ sections, and if possible, a live chat function to answer customer questions.

Changes made: Blue Soda Promo updated the site header and put both the 800-number and live chat button prominently displayed big and bold, to ensure that customers didn’t leave before talking to someone.  Blue Soda Promo also has contact forms on every product page to create an easy point of contact for users that have questions and may not want to call or chat.

Results: The percentage of live chats and phone calls have increased 11%, which is great because these two channels bring in the most engaged consumers.

Go Beyond the Typical Category Format

Tip: Going beyond a loose categorization of your site will help you from both a user experience and an SEO point of view.  This goes for everything, from the products you sell to the blog posts you write.  By better categorizing your site, you will help users get to what they are looking for as quickly as possible.

This can be something broad to extremely niche.  For example, if you were trying to find a BIC ballpoint pen, the breadcrumbs may look like this – Writing Utensils >> Pens >> BIC >> Ballpoint. Simply adding a category and some targeted keyword tags to a blog post is an alternative option.

Changes made: Because Blue Soda Promo bolstered their product selection to offer a wider variety for their customers, it was a necessity to go much deeper with their product categorization in the redesign. This ensured that it was as easy as possible for the user to find the product they were looking for.  The new design implemented a filter system. Now users can filter by price, production time and quantity, and can break down categories into subcategories.

Results: We immediately saw a diversification of the type of products we were selling. Prior to the redesign, we saw the majority of our sales came from a handful of categories and products. Since the site is now easier to browse and filter, we not only have seen an increased conversion rate but also a greater mix of the type of products that we sell.

Can You Make It Even Easier?

Tip: Further optimizing your site is up to you, but the end goal should always be to make things easier on the user.  Ask yourself questions. Better yet, ask your customer base. For example, would a 360-degree product view be beneficial and help them in their decision to buy?  Would a wish list help organize their preferences? What else would make their shopping experience easier?

Changes made: The biggest challenge in the new design was to further help users customize their product without requiring any assistance from the sales team.  With a new step-by-step process, users could select exactly the quantity, color, size, logo and time frame they needed to get their products on time.

Blue Soda Promo also created two separate sections, solely to provide additional help to the user while shopping.  The Product Genie is a simple tool that suggests personalized product options based on the event, budget and time frame the user inputs. The Design Center was created to help give customers a library of clipart, fonts and images that they could personalize their products with.

Results: These changes had the most profound impact in increasing conversion rates. The key to remember here is that these changes worked because they made the shopping experience even easier for the customer. Sales increased nearly 20% because of this change alone, making it well worth the time to develop and implement!

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Guest Post Disclaimer: Guest Posts on the Customers That Stick blog are submitted by individual guest posters and in no way represent the opinions or endorsement of CTS Service Solutions, its owners or employees. CTS Service Solutions does not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of statements or facts posted by Guest Posters on this blog.

While this study has some inherent flaws in it (see note at bottom), it brought up an interesting question that I had not really considered before now:

Can complaining online about a company hurt someone’s job prospects?

Competitive Disadvantage

Obviously, many employers are googling potential applicants these days. While much has been made of having unprofessional and inappropriate social media profiles, little if any has been mentioned about the possible damage from people’s online histories with brands.

I think it is a potentially dangerous area for people.

Imagine two applicants competing for the same job. Both have been smart about making sure their public social media profiles do not present an unprofessional image. However, one of the applicants has a history of lighting up brands on social media. He’s banged on his car rental company for making him miss an interview and his cable company for keeping him on hold.

On hold with Witchita Falls Cable customer care — again! #NotSoSuperBowl

All other things being equal, which applicant gets the job?

Snapshots of Frustration

Even legitimate complaints on social media can present a skewed picture of the person’s personality. Many online brand complaints present snapshots of frustration.

Let’s face it: When someone is in a job interview they have their best face on (usually!). They are not showing interviewers how testy they are with family members or how uptight they are before their morning coffee.

Yet, that is the face online complaints show. People at their worst — frustrated, aggravated and just plain ticked off. It doesn’t matter if the person made three phone calls and sent five emails trying to resolve the issue. It doesn’t matter if the person gave the company every legitimate chance to solve the problem before complaining publicly. All employers see is the complaint.

Apparently, Acme Bank hates long term customers. #ScamFees #epicFail

Is this something a (smart) person would say in the first five minutes of a job interview? Of course not. Yet, with the way Google ranks things, it might be one of the first three things a hiring manager sees about a person.

And don’t even get me started on people who are applying for customer care jobs…

An Open Question

As I said, I had not really considered this aspect of online complaints before and a quick online search did not show any real discussions or data on the subject. (Please share any links if you know of any.)

Logic would suggest that if unprofessional social media posts can affect people’s job prospects then angry, frustrated online complaints might have the same effect.

It’s a tough market out there. Online complaining about companies might just give hiring managers one more reason to say no.

What do you think? Can complaining about a company online reflect unfavorably on job applicants?

NOTE: Speaking to the United States portion of the study, this is a tough subject to research. Asking people why they were not hired is inherently inaccurate because most of the time they do not know. On the one hand, the data is probably overstated by people creating “reasons” that are psychologically convenient why they were not hired. Blame it on Facebook. In contrast, the data is probably understated by the fact that, in the current U.S. HR climate, many employers who do not hire someone based on a social media profile will not tell the applicant that. They simply will not call at all.

Richard Shapiro is the Founder and President of The Center For Client Retention, which provides research, training and consulting services to Fortune 500 corporations on how to improve the customer experience.

As an influential force within the customer relationship market research industry, Shapiro has been interviewed by The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Newsday, The Today Show, ABC World News Tonight and CBS News as an industry expert.
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Volume 19: May 2013

Thoughts on the Customer: When Self Service is Great Service

No customer is the same, and each customer has different desires and expectations depending on the environment.

Do you choose the staffed checkout line or the self-checkout line at the store? Does it depend on which store you are at? On what you have in your cart?

When you need cash, do you go into the bank or to the ATM?

When you need gas, would you rather have an attendant or pump it yourself?

It is tempting to always look at customer service as an endeavor where the more staff resources you can dedicate to a customer the better the service will be. However, Hero-Class Customer Service™ is not about providing the most attention; it is about providing the correct amount of attention, and sometimes, that means no attention at all.

Many people today leave hurried lives. They want to pump their gas as quickly as possible, grab their weekend cash without waiting in a line, and check themselves out when they only have a few items.

Providing these low-service, no-service options is not only cost-effective and operationally prudent, but it can constitute great service. Of course, low-service, no service options that are created primarily as a cost-cutting measure are a different matter. However, if you are providing customers a low-touch choice that is there to support the desire for a low-touch experience, then you are providing your customers what they want.

As much as it might be difficult to accept, in certain circumstances our customers simply do not want us around. Knowing which experiences our customers want to have on their own is a crucial part of giving them what they want.

Sometimes the absence of service is the best service of all.

The Month in Customer Service Blogging

A collection of the best posts about customer service and the customer experience we read this past month.

• What a Small Town Mechanic Can Teach You About Customer Loyalty – This community did something amazing for a business that consistently provided great customer service.
• Four Reasons Why You Should be Thinking About Customer Journeys – A great case for why you should consider mapping your customers’ journey.
• How Stories Improve Sales and Customer Experience – Strong advice that can help you personalize and humanize interactions with your customers.
• 5 Types of Videos You Can Create for Your Customers – Great ways to enhance the customer experience through video.

• Creating Personal Connection in an Electronically Connected World – A great guide for companies or brands struggling to give their digital communication a personal touch.
• 5 Keys for Multi-Channel Customer Support – Best practices for quickly and successfully connecting with customers across channels.
• How You Make a Customer Smarter in 6 Seconds – Really smart (and fun) ways to provide free and useful content to your customers.
• Want to Experience Your Business As Others Do? Go Undercover. – Different ways to travel through your customers’ experiences.
• What a Great Homepage Does to Hook Customers – Tips on designing your company website when you only have a few seconds to impress a potential customer.

• Are You Born for Customer Service? – Maybe the best of the best are simply born with it, not trained for it.
• Support Hangout Episode #1 – Enjoyed having our post How Amazon Can Improve Its Rating System (and other interesting topics) discussed in this hangout of customer support professionals.
• Customer Signals for Adapting Experiences – In order to identify weaknesses in service delivery, listening to customers must be the first step to improvement.
• Do Your Customers Feel Ignored? – Important research on how customers feel when they are ignored by staff.
• People Don’t Mind If You Make a Mistake – They Mind If You Don’t Fix It – A strong case for making right with your customers in this recap of past (and public) service failures.

These two were posts highlighting tips from these authors’ books about Customer Service:

• How to Deal With Customer Service Successfully – Tips from Jeanne Bliss on how to get through the often messy web of customer service channels.
• 4 Sins That Turn Customers Off Instantly – Great tips from Lisa Ford for identifying and correcting these four customer service shortcomings.

Someone Was Listening

Sometimes the most popular post from the previous month; sometimes just the one I liked best.

Social media has undoubtedly changed the way many companies communicate; however, it is not a strategy by itself but merely an important component of a comprehensive marketing or customer service approach. In Social Media is a Channel Not a Strategy, we discuss how customer service and business fundamentals are still relevant despite the hype surrounding social media.

“You’re actually not teaching them a lesson, because the people who most need to learn a lesson haven’t, and won’t. What you’re actually doing is diverting yourself from your path as well as ruining your day in a quixotic quest for fairness, fairness you’re unlikely to find.”

Much the same can be said for customer service. For too many, the object is to win the argument, to prove that they were right above all else. Pride is allowed to overtake service; defensiveness rides roughshod over accommodation.

In the case of customer service, winning almost always equates to losing. Win the argument, lose the customer is a popular saying for a reason.

And even the fact that the issue is framed as an “argument” says a lot about how many people approach customer dissatisfaction.

“But what if I am right,” people say.

My answer: So what.

In how many cases does that really matter? As Godin points out, you are most likely not “teaching” anyone a lesson; you are only diverting precious energy to satisfy some internal desire to “win.”

The Exceptions

Before I go into any call with an upset customer, I want to know the facts. I want to know what the client says we did or did not do — and if that is true. However, I collect that information to understand the parameters of the situation — oftentimes, I will not use the information at all, because being right is not my objective.

When I do use the information to respond to a customer, it is under very specific circumstances.

1) If the client is in a state of mind where the misperception of our actions (or lack of actions) is such a point of fixation that progress seems impossible — when other less confrontational techniques have failed — sometimes it is necessary to address the facts head on to enable forward progress to be achieved.

2) If I think establishing our competence is important to long term service, I will sometimes “correct” the facts. However, I do so in a way that is nonconfrontational and by sandwiching it between other discussion points. (Warning: This move does take some practice.)

The important thing to note about the above is that these are exceptions.

Never go into a client issue looking to be right. Go into a client issue looking to make it right.

As we mentioned in our post 5 Small Business Lessons from the Kitchen Nightmares Meltdown, customers are not the enemy. And if customers are not the enemy then our objective should not be to defeat them.

In customer service, how can I make this right is one of the most important questions you can ever ask.

That being said, deal sites can work if done properly. Creating a successful offering for your business is a topic worthy of its own post; in this post, I would like to discuss one of the least focused on aspects of using daily deal sites — creating a remarkable customer experience for those who respond to deals.

Our very own Donna Gurnic had an experience with a daily deal site recently that demonstrates what can happen when a business does not focus on the customer experience. Here is the story in Donna’s own words:

I received a daily deal coupon as a gift that allowed four or more people to spend $80 at a local wine bar and bistro. The coupon was purchased for $40 and the fine print explained that at least one food item must be purchased, that the promotional value ($80) had an expiration date, and that the actual value ($40) never expired. Oh, and something about adhering to the terms and conditions.

Since my dining partner and I couldn’t wrangle two more people to join us before it expired, we figured we would just use the coupon ourselves, assuming we could still spend the $40 that was already paid as actual value. So, we enjoyed a delicious meal and good service. However, when I handed the coupon to our server, she told us that we were unable to use it because we were two folks shy.

At first we asked if we could just use the actual value of $40 (because it did not expire). The server said we could not. Trying to compromise, we asked if the restaurant could simply apply $20 of the $40 to our bill, since we had 2 out of 4 people there. She declined again, and I was shocked that she wouldn’t even consider another option to make the situation better.

We then spoke to the manager. We accepted responsibility for not following the exact terms of the deal but still thought the restaurant could make some accommodation for us. We were not asking for the world or even to honor the offer, just to use part of the money paid for the coupon towards our bill.

The manager was entirely focused on enforcing the terms and not on working with us. She told me that I could either come back with four people or that I could call the daily deal company.

If I do reluctantly return with the required 4 people, it will probably be the last time I visit.

Here are three ways you can make sure that your daily deal customers have a great customer experience.

1. Pick an Offer That You Can Deliver On

One of the challenges many businesses face is the huge rush of business a daily deal site can produce in a short window of time. If you do not have the capacity to service the increase in business, you can set yourself up for bad customer experiences.

Daily deal sites are usually beneficial if you can upsell customers and acquire new repeat customers. Your offer needs to be one that is carefully constructed to be as profitable and serviceable as possible.

2. Decide the Real Rules

You should decide in advance what you are willing to do for customers that do not read the fine print. Some will come in after the expiration or, as in Donna’s story, without the minimum number of people. Prepare for the most common issues ahead of time. Strictly adhering to the rules you set might not be the best policy.

Remember, daily deals are a loss leader and a marketing expense. Decide when you will honor the deal outside of the terms or decide on something you can give customers when you decline to honor the deal.

3. Train and Empower Your Staff

Once you have decided on some ways to approach the most likely challenges regarding capacity and customers who are outside of the terms of the offer, empower your staff to deliver those solutions on the spot.

Sure, you cannot think of everything ahead of time, and additionally, deal sites attract a higher percentage of customers who will “squeeze you” — but have your staff trained and ready to focus on the customer experience and not to focus on enforcing the rules.

Give your team the leeway to make someone happy on the spot.

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If you feel compelled to create an offer for a daily deal site, it is important to frame the offer for you and your staff in the correct light. A daily deal is a marketing expense. If it gets new customers in your door, the deal has performed its job.

After that, it’s up to you and your team to create a customer experience that helps turn deal seekers into full-price repeat customers. The above three guidelines can help make that happen.

If you ask yourself why does this keep happening to me then your brain is going to provide you an answer to that question — and the answer will most likely not be one that empowers you.

If you ask instead what can I do better next time or what can I learn from this experience, your brain will find an answer for that too, and it will be an answer that drives you forward.

The power of questions works in all areas of life — personal and business. So, in that spirit, here are 5 questions you can use to help you create or strengthen a customer service mindset:

1. How can I show my customers that I am thankful for the business they give me?
2. How can I support my team’s ability to deliver Hero-Class Customer Service^TM?
3. How can I show my team that I appreciate the work they do for me?
4. What can I do today to improve my customers’ experiences?
5. What can I do this month to create extraordinary long-term value for my customers?

I hope the above questions get your creative juices flowing.

What questions can you ask to create an extraordinary customer service mindset?