For years now, many organisations – and mobile phone companies, in particular – put you on hold sighting the reason that they are experiencing unusually high level of call traffic. Recently, and with contradictory aplomb, my mobile company has again been telling me this, and whilst I hold the line they now also inform me that I’m a valued customer.  Well, if I’m such a valued customer why have they been wasting my time all these years without sufficiently resourcing their call centre to match their promise of providing excellent customer service?

Again, on this particular occasion, it took a long time for me to get through to a customer service representative. This time, the launch of the new Samsung phone was being evidenced as to why they were busy. In their defence however, I must state that when you actually do get through to an operator the level of service is generally very good.

Of course, as per usual, the automated voice answering system gave me the option to check their website for further details and services.But “the rub” this time was that instead of listening to the standard voice mail that stating that “you may find it more convenient to call back later” or “request a ring back”; I was, in this instance, asked to call back at a time more convenient for the mobile phone company.

Specifically, this time, I was informed that “we would really appreciate it if you would call back at another time”.  So instead of the “please call back when it is convenient for you” it was a case of please call back when it is convenient for us!  I found this doubly perverse as they had not even taken the opportunity to specify the call-back times when it was actually more convenient!

I suppose that the High Street analogy would be if you were to walk into a shop to purchase something and the shop assistant was to tell you to “come back another time – can’t you see we are busy at the moment”.

In short, what the mobile phone company was saying was this – we are making lots of extra money from a new phone release but rather than reinvest some of the profits in members of staff to serve customers we would recommend that you didn’t compound our workload at this time.

I am quite sure that if an authority figure at the phone company was actually to listen to the message and took a brief second to consider how the message came across to their customers they would wish to reconsider their approach. But to achieve this sustainable position, it will require them to better manage their growth curve and to more effectively project manage their customer service delivery.

If a new product launch has been successful then that’s great news for the phone company; but this should not at the detriment of doing business with their ongoing loyal and presumably profitable customers who just want to rectify a problem and get on with their lives! It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

GA Training is a client-focused provider of customer service training

The interview was on the subject of OFGEM’s fine for British Gas of £2.5m for failing to re-open complaints. Readers of this blog will know that we at GA Training give credit where credit is due and also are never afraid to say where we think a major failure has occurred.  On this occasion however I felt that the story on British Gas needed a little more digging into.

British Gas has recently been given awards for their complaints handling process from people such as watchdog “Consumer Focus” and this fine by OFGEM was actually related to a very small part of their business.  I felt it was therefore appropriate to give a balanced view of things.  Jumping on the energy company bashing bandwagon is very easy to do particularly in light of rising prices however I think this particular fine said more about OFGEM trying to prove it has teeth in the face of mounting criticism about its clout within the industry especially with regard to rising prices.

To listen to the interview which is about 2 minutes in duration please click here – Radio 5 Live

One concern we have though is the de-humanising of customer service and the over-reliance on technology or hidden mechanisms to interact with customers.  Once we go too far in this direction it will not be long before it will be virtually impossible to talk to someone on the other end of the phone with organisations instead choosing to rely on technology to do all of their customer service.

We were therefore very interested in a recent art installation we saw by budding, rising star artist Ben Martin who has depicted the hidden face of technology.  So much of what we rely on in modern life could easily be powered in the way we see in this clever exhibit which shows a series of identical mice on exercise bikes powering a light bulb whilst a cat looks on to ensure they stay “at it”.

How many people working in call centres around the globe can identify with the message depicted in this piece of art and how many of us ever stop to think about what really goes into providing us with the services we receive?

Jo states that this “slash and burn approach” to reducing expenditure could result in long term damage to customer relationships. This comes at a time when marketplace competition is intense.

I certainly share this view, and Jo is clearly a person after my own heart as she highlights a very pertinent, yet often overlooked fact.  In the short term, the expediency of making staff reductions and reducing customer service training can often result in creating major long term issues.  I also concur with Jo’s message for UK organisations which is that they need to stay focused on their long term customer service vision and continue to develop a team-based culture in order to win and retain customers.

Recessionary pressures has resulted in consumers re-evaluating how they spend their disposable income and they are becoming far more considered and discerning with regard to where and how they conduct their business.

A particular example of changing customer buying patterns was evidenced by the recent high profile industrial dispute at Royal Mail. Considerable long term damage has been done to their overall credibility and which will inevitably result in businesses and consumers continuing to re-evaluate how they communicate and ship parcels.

A recent research study undertaken by ICS highlights the fact that companies with a reputation for service excellence can generate 24% higher profit margins than their competitors who lack that same level of customer endorsement.  In addition, organisations with a good reputation can achieve up to 71% more profit per employee.

There are many examples of the pitfalls of focusing on the training budget as one of the first places to cut costs.  This is particularly relevant to the High Street, because in the present business environment there is fierce competition in the battle to maintain and gain market share.

I recently experienced the harsh reality of the downside of an organization reducing staff numbers.  Whilst having dinner at a local Italian restaurant chain it soon became apparent to me that the restaurant appeared to have only one waiting staff member.  With at least six other tables occupied, the poor waiter was doing his very best to deliver a good service and keep everyone happy.

At the time we were with our young daughter and as she was ready to eat immediately we ordered a child’s pizza as soon as we were seated. However, the pizza took around half an hour to come, which, if you have a young child, you’ll realise that it’s not much fun when you have a hungry and impatient child with you.  With frustration building, I could see the pizza finally sitting on the counter, but going nowhere fast. So, with some trepidation, but only intending to help out, I went up and collected my daughter’s pizza. And to my astonishment, I was admonished sternly by the manager who incidentally, had just appeared the very first time!

We then had a pleasant meal and although the service continued to be slow I could see the waiter was giving his all to provide good customer service.  However, my “chilled” attitude was not quite shared by others.  Three of the six tables got up and walked out of the restaurant.  Some had ordered but could no longer continue to wait and others hadn’t even had the chance to get that far!

I enquired of the manager if there were any mitigating circumstances – such as someone calling in sick. But she said no they hadn’t; but they were never normally this busy on a Tuesday so they usually coped with one member of staff! No apologies, nothing.

It is fairly unlikely that any of the three tables who walked out would eat again in that particular restaurant and it may also have put them off the restaurant chain for some considerable time.

So, as Jo quite rightly points out, cutting staff numbers is potentially a recipe for disaster. No pun intended!

Increasingly now companies are launching apps that are intended to help their customers to “self-service” their accounts.  The list is truly endless and the pace of development shows no signs of slowing down – if anything in fact it is increasing as more and more organisations jump on the app bandwagon.

Examples of apps that are being used to help customers access services and manage their accounts include things like the nectar app, various gambling apps such as Paddy Power and William Hill as well as apps for submitting meter readings to your energy supplier.  Banks are slowly catching on and are very slowly releasing apps, which will help you to manage your bank account using a smartphone.

In principle this idea is a very good one with a dual benefit.  Firstly customers can feel more in control of their own accounts and can perform a number of self-service actions without having to sit on the phone for hours on end and secondly organisations have to spend less time answering routine questions about customer’s accounts.

As a self-confessed gadget freak and also a person who values my time as a very precious commodity I am in theory all for this technological development and advancement.  Anything that allows me to feel high-tech whilst saving me time is always likely to get a huge tick in the box from me.

In many ways the use of apps for self-service customer service is actually just an extension of the online facilities that almost all organisations currently offer.  How long therefore will it be until instead of the message “we are experiencing high call volumes and most answers can be found online” is replaced with “check your app before calling us?”

The above scenario is obviously a little tongue-in-cheek however the point is that at the moment an app is a toy – a fun thing to use and an innovative and slightly off-the-wall way to manage your account.  As long as it stays like that and companies don’t suddenly start to treat it as anything but a quirky additional service then we are okay.

The long term worry will be when apps become much more universal and 99% of people have a smart phone (it will happen) and Mrs Coggins, 89 years of age from number 42 will be expected to do all of her banking online or through an app as there will no longer be any humans left to speak to on the other end of the phone.

All of the above also assumes that the app you are using actually works and there are a lot of different factors that can influence this – quality of development, mobile signal and provider etc etc – but that is a whole different story.

As a major part of my business is all about delivering training, in how best to provide excellent customer service, I find it extremely exasperating and frustrating when organisations make it so difficult to “do business with them”. All they seem to want to do is put the onus back on the customer to do all of the work.

A recent experience that reminds me of organisational inertia, is when I visited a car dealership to buy a new car. After a few minutes attention, from a somewhat disinterested salesman, I was told that (as they didn’t have a suitable car on the forecourt); “the simplest thing for you to do is to go to our web site and resister your details and we will then keep you up-to-date with any new cars that come on to our forecourt.”

Now, believe this or not, I had actually driven for 30 minutes to visit this particular car dealership and had already made the decision to purchase a new car within the next two weeks. Therefore, I was not best pleased only to be told that the easiest way for me to take things further was to go back home, log onto the internet and register my details in the hope that I may be lucky!

At the time of my visit, to the car dealership, their forecourt was very quiet and the telephone was not exactly ringing off the hook.  Sales of cars have been relatively quiet, as times are tough at the moment, and so you would have thought that they would be keener to sell to me that I was to buy from them.  Sadly; not the case with this dealership.

So I had two options; 1. either complete an online form which would need further time invested by me. Additionally, I often find that online forms can crash and will then reset without retaining any of your painstakingly entered details. Also, the system, in some instances, will not auto populate information such as address or telephone details because it hasn’t been entered in the exact way the form requires it, or 2. take my business elsewhere.  It was not a difficult decision!

In short, the route recommended to me by the salesman was clearly not the easiest thing for me to do.  In fact, it was the easiest thing for a lazy car salesman to recommend as he would not have to take the time to enter me on the database himself.

A related experience often occurs when you telephone an organisation’s customer service department with an enquiry only to be told to log onto their website and check the FAQ section. More often than not you have already done so, and the reason for calling is that you still need questions answered or further reassurance before you purchase. This is absolute laziness on behalf of the organisation and treats the customer with total disrespect.  It’s a wonder that they survive when dealing with customers in this manner.

It’s not difficult to be customer focused, but you have to listen to, and be in tune with, your customers’ needs. Don’t pass the buck and then pretend that it’s the easiest thing for the customer to do.

This can provide businesses with an opportunity to think ‘out of the box’. Rather than accept that you can’t do something, find another way…”from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success” . The news this morning was decorated with voxpops of disgruntled commuters facing the prospect of a shutdown of the rail network and being unable to get into the office. A flexible business would be able to use their initiative and allow employees to work from home. Most households have access to the Internet and a phone line. Rather than wait for the strike to hit, build an ‘off the shelf’ contingency. Ensure there is a procedure for staff to easily claim a payment to cover the ‘expense’ of working from home. Set up a portal to allow staff access to certain information so that they can maintain the Customer Relationships remotely. If you were due to fly to a meeting, investigate offices that offer video dial-in, that will still be more cost-effective than flying! If the postal workers are on strike, there is always plenty of warning – seek information on alternative carriers and get those contracts in place – you may find this is more cost-effective anyway.

And when you have done all this…sing about it from the rooftops! “We do not stop working, we work around and work clever!” In a competitive market, turn these problems into Unique Selling Points…be cheerful with your customers and delight them in the fact that your strengths are always in being able to service their requirements! Think of yourselves as the modern day Pony Express.

There are obviously processes that would need to be gone through in order for this to be feasible, but rather than think about ‘why this can’t be done’, think about ‘why it should be done’. Don’t wait for the day of the strike hoping that eleventh hour negotiations save the day – plan in advance and tell your customers what you are doing and why – it could be an amazing opportunity for marketing. Stephen Covey’s first habit of a highly effective person is ‘to be proactive’. Apply this habit to your business, get the necessary people around the table and put your plan together – who knows you may even alter some of your day to day practises and maximise your return on investment at the same time.

In order to avoid confrontation, and to better manage relationships (business or personal), below are some insights into when or not to be assertive, aggressive or submissive.

Assertiveness derives from behaviour that is based on a point of view that your needs are as important as those of others. The converse belief is that your wants are either less (submissive) or more (aggressive) important than those of other people.  Believing that your needs are less important often leads to individuals being more passive, whereas believing needs are more important generally leads to individuals becoming more aggressive.

ASSERTIVE

This is all about trying not to invade an individual’s “personal space” and not abusing themat either a physical or emotional level.  However, assertiveness generally portrays both an open and honest point of view while at the same time such behavior can help to demonstrate that you empathise with the other person’s point of view. The other person should be given anopportunity to express their point of view and what outcomes they would like.  By being upfront and open, discussion will be more productive and agreements more readily reached.

PASSIVE

Failing to stand your corner or communicate clearly can result in people disregarding you. This behaviour physically manifests itself when thoughts, feelings and beliefs are expressed in an apologetic, cautious or submissivemanner. Silence often manifests itself.

AGGRESSIVE

Aggressive behaviour is founded on the self-belief that an individual’s perspective is more important than someone else.  A person exhibiting aggressive behaviour often attacks others with an accusatory or patronising tone of voice, often displaying contempt or hostility.

It also manifests itself when thoughts and beliefs are communicated in inappropriate ways, even though such views are correct.

ADAPTING

In the workplace, particularly in a customer-facing environment, a fine balance has to be achieved. While it’s important to be assertive, you must avoid coming across as either passive or aggressive.

Passive behaviour often ends with a customer service operative being bullied and potentially promising something which cannot be delivered just to get the customer off their back.

Aggressive behaviour will often lead to customers feeling as if they have been bullied and this will have an adverse effect on customer goodwill and loyalty.

Ensure that you’re focusedon your preferred outcome, but always keep empathising with the other person’s needs and desires.  This is most definitely a skill that needs to be acquiredand develops with experience.  Once mastered, your people interactions will become more fulfilling and outcomes more successful.

During our customer service training courses we encourage our delegates to put into action 6 essential rules of customer care.

These crucial rules are –

Be ‘customer driven’, not ‘process-led’ or ‘task focused’

• Be flexible where you can be
• Acknowledge the customer’s perspective
• Work hard to understand your customer’s need and situation
• See the bigger picture and not just the task in hand

Give a personalised service

• Treat people as individuals
• Be friendly not familiar
• Build rapport
• Address customer by name (appropriately formal / informal, e.g. ‘Mr / Mrs’ or ‘John / Margaret’

Be efficient now officious

• Give explanations in customer-friendly terms, not jargon or official-ese’
• Demonstrate your speed of response (e.g. returning calls on time)
• Maintain people’s self-esteem
• Don’t sound like a bureaucratic robot

Be proactive

• Offer suggestions
• Take ownership of situations
• Follow up as promised
• Look for ways to impress customers – exceeding their expectations where possible

Respect your internal customers as well as your external customers

• Think who else may need to be in the loop
• Don’t blame other departments

Compete for your customers not against them

• Aim for ‘win-win’ rather than getting on-up on the caller
• Always consider ways to improve the service to the customer

If you follow these six simple rules then you are on your way to ensuring that you provide excellent customer service at all times.

Have you ever been served by someone either over the phone or face-to-face and thought to yourself “how an earth did you get through an interview for this job?” and “why did you apply for this job in the first place when you are clearly not suited to it?”

You know the type of person – rude and unhelpful and almost bordering on being obstructive.  When you come across this type of customer service advisor it always leaves you wondering if anyone has ever actually listened to them interacting with their customers.

Interviewing for customer service staff can be a very tricky process and far too complex a subject for a simple blog post however at GA Training we have come up with the following three key questions that you may wish to ask to avoid getting in people who quite frankly do you organisation more harm than good.

1. Do you like people?
2. Do you enjoy helping people?
3. Do you get a buzz out of helping people to meet their needs?

If you asked nothing other than these three questions at an interview then this would possibly be better than a rigorous assessment centre if the outcome is that you get the right people in through the door.

You may also be surprised at some of the answers you receive and they may be very enlightening.  We encouraged one of our clients to ask these questions at interview and she chose to open each interview with them.  One candidate actually said that as a rule they preferred animals to people!!  Suffice to say that person did not end up with a job.

Once you have employed the right people with the right attitude then putting together a robust customer service training programme for them becomes that bit easier because everyone is committed to the same goals and outcomes.

If you are interviewing some new customer service staff in the coming weeks and months, surprise them and ask them these three simple, yet incredibly powerful questions.  You could end up saving yourself a lot of time and heartache and you should cut down on instances of the wrong person representing your organisation.

Those questions once again:

1. Do you like people?
2. Do you enjoy helping people?
3. Do you get a buzz out of helping people to meet their needs?