People are always asking me where I get all my big ideas. Answer: They just come to me.

Drop by my local coffee shop sometime. That’s me right there, front and center, within easy earshot of all the rants from every table in the place. People do love to rant.

Learning to listen well – especially if you are in the customer service business – is, of course, one of the most important skill you can acquire. But these days, great customer service is not built on listening alone: you also have to give.

I remember the day I learned how to give – in the specific context I’m talking about – and it came when I was well outside of the office, and at a moment I had least expected it.

Years ago, bothered by the monotony of yet another business trip traveled by air, I decided to try the bygone alternative: I took the train. From a journal entry recorded during that trip:

This is the Southwest Chief, eastbound from Los Angeles to Chicago. It is the cusp of autumn.

As we finally speed past the last junk pile in a string that seemed to go on forever, the overweight gentleman from Melbourne in the car seat across from mine does not seem to notice the sudden metamorphosis of Tuesday morning landscape. He is held prisoner by his own formidable snore, which seals in a previous moment spent awake. The endless piles of junk sure color his slumber.

Train number four rumbles along, just east of Topeka at dawn. Acre upon acre of golden-green farmland frames every creek, and watching the poplar and maple and cottonwood and birch blur by, I discover a connection: I am in meditation with a larger landscape. It is a beautiful trance.

I should have nudged the Australian awake. He had been chatting me up endlessly before his impromptu catnap. His lonely heart would have gladdened at the gesture.

Instead, I let my last call summons to the dining car be a convenient excuse, and began the amble toward the source of the inviting aromas.

Concurrent with my arrival at that portal, a horrifying revelation: There are only big tables here – nothing for one. There is nowhere to hide.

Marshaled convincingly by the car’s hostess, I have no choice but to immediately slide into the fourth a final chair at my assigned table. The visual is absolutely ingrained; it is yesterday once more.

“Mornin’,” I say, in an instantly invented mid-Plains drawl.

Henry, a farmer type with strong gray eyes and two-inch wide pomegranate red suspenders, looks me square in the eye, and I know at once that there will be few words between us.

Jonette, our server, pours me some coffee. ‘Bacon and eggs or oatmeal and fruit?’ Her offering is less a question than a statement – and completely mechanical.

“The latter,” I decode quickly, silently panicking over the social crisis at hand.

My eyes land just to Henry’s left, where a joyous African American woman in her 60s, Miss Rosalinda from New Orleans, is receiving her bacon and eggs and biscuit.

“Mmm-mmm,” she almost sings, “and here’s hopin’ that the coffee keeps on comin’!”

Across from the enthusiastic Miss Rosalinda and next to me is Myrtle, a woman with an ornate walking cane. The lovely specimen has, in fact, just slipped off the edge of the table and tumbled – with an extended clatter – to the floor.

But the ruckus is impotent against Myrt’s ceaseless rambling. She’s from Sola, Kansas, destined for Harrisburg by way of Chicago, and oh yes, her grandson has just totaled his Jeep Cherokee –

“… and Lordy, the glass they took out of his face,” she chortles, “is probably enough to replace that big glass wall at that church in California.”

“Crystal Cathedral,” mumbles Henry.

“Mmm-mmm, I love that preacher,” offers Miss Rosalinda, ejecting bits of scrambled egg from her mouth as she speaks.

In the middle of this declaration, I see Miss Rosalinda’s wheels turn as her gaze finds me and her internal barometer starts to size me up. Her eyes are on auto-focus; they neither betray nor stray very far from the truth.

Myrt continues her rant – something about the sleepless night she’s spent aboard the Southwest Chief’s economy sleeping car, and then it’s suddenly just me and Rosalinda, one-on-one.

“First timer,” she volleys.

“Yes.” My eyes begin to dart.

“No,” she clarifies. “I mean at the big table.”

She sees the state brimming within me and then chuckles softly as she aces another blazing serve: “Thought so.”

Henry has the patience to watch beans grow, and Myrt is in complete rapture now, providing a pointed observation about the ramifications of her neighbor Helen’s lingerie left out on the clothesline overnight – but then Miss Rosalinda is back, this time for match point.

“It would probably be right Christian of you to offer us your name, gentle traveler. I think it might be good to get to know you.”

In our whimsical age of twerks and jerks, endless sound bites, even more endless streams of video clips – and of all of our individual fifteen minutes of fame (do we really get to expect that much of it anymore?), it’s funny how quickly we forget not so much about the importance of taking time to listen – but of the critical need to connect – and to share the journey of which we are all a part.

Do you take the time to really listen to your customers? If the answer is yes, congratulations. But you are really only halfway there.

Riddle me this: Do you also take the time to respond in a meaningful way – to give it back?

To do that – to respond in a way which truly resonates, forget about tables for one – invite yourself to a spot at the biggest one.

I am always ready for the big table now, feasting at it even when I’m not, thanks to Miss Rosalinda and her own big idea – the one which forced me to let everyone see who I was.

So, here’s a big idea for you: When it comes to serving your customers, find them and serve them by being with them. Converse. Listen to what they have to say, and then let them listen to who you are. Dig right in – and like Miss Rosalinda, remember to eat with gusto.

It won’t be a waste of your time. Far from it, because this I can guarantee: you will see needle-moving results like never before.

The post Big Ideas – A Parable appeared first on Customer Service.

“Your Call is Very Important To Us”… Is it really?

I have spent the most frustrating day sitting on-hold, listening to outgoing messages telling me how important my call is. Please don’t use this outgoing message if you do not have a reasonable hold time. Both of these consumer organizations should know better. The insult of listening to the message over and over again is much worse than enduring  typical hold music.

When is the last time you called your customer support line and experienced what your customers do?

“We appreciate your business”…Really.

From a positive standpoint, there are many organizations that are very good at reinforcing their appreciation of their customers. Here are a few simple, low cost approaches that can go along way to retaining your customers.

5 Ways to Say “We Appreciate Your Business”

1. Make it personal.

Send personalized cards My dentist office of 11yrs sends me a birthday card with signatures from  each person in the office. Send personal thank you cards for referrals. Do  you track when your  customers first starting doing business with you?  Send an anniversary card telling them how much you appreciate your business. If you can’t recall how to send a physical card, check out www.paperlesspost.com.

2. Discounts to recognize loyalty.

Frequent shopper programs are easy to manage. It sure would be nice if my local pizza place recognized that I used to be a weekly customer and sent a small discount card telling me they missed my business.

3. Frequent buyer incentives.

You should know who are your most loyal customers. Reward them!

4. Branded SWAG

Pens, coffee mugs, hats, key chains, mini-flashlights, and memory sticks, etc.  Reward loyalty in other ways. Match your give away to the type of service you provide. If you fix computers, give away low cost branded memory sticks. If you are a plumbing service, give away low cost mini-flashlights. Everyone likes to get SWAG (stuff we all get).

5. Free consultation, service, analysis, or reports.

Offer something of your expertise for free or at a discount. You can target customers who only use the X services by introducing them to the Y service you also offer.

Bottomline: Retaining customers is much easier to do than finding new customers. Reward loyalty. Remind your customers that you appreciate their business. Really you do.

As usual, your feedback and comments are welcome!

The post Showing Customer Love appeared first on Customer Service.

WHAT is important to your customers? Is it speed of service or response? Is it quality of service or response? Is it ease of access or use of your site?

Tools for listening to your customers

• Online Surveys (Zoomerang, Survey Monkey)
• Customer Call Outs (call x% of last month’s customers)
• Post Engagement Surveys By Mail and Email
  
• Post Transaction Questions
  

We have learned that delivering quality solutions and products don’t take the place of delivering quality service. Take a good look at your transaction processes. Is it a pleasure to do business with your organization?

Take some time to learn what is important to your customers. Talk to your regular customers to find out why they come back. Model your customer transactions after these successes. Replicate the good processes!

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Sometimes our customers can be a little impatient and conversations aren’t always the most pleasant as we deal with shipping issues, out of stock items, billing errors or the myriad of other reasons for their calls, and this can be a negative experience for our agents.  Recognizing that high call volumes and stressed customers can turn a good day bad is something we really need to be aware of.  So what can we do?

Spending time on the floor is even more important now – sitting in and listening to calls, asking how their day’s going, asking about holiday plans and recognizing their efforts goes a long way. 

Thanks to the readers who sent me in ideas of some fun things to do in call centres over the next few weeks.

1. Celebrate traditions – get your agents to share some of their holiday and family traditions.  Write them up on coloured paper and post them on a holiday themed bulletin board.  Your at home agents can easily participate by emailing their stories to you.
2. Theme days are always fun – dressing in red or green and giving out ballots to everyone who participates. 
3. Have an ugly sweater day and award a prize for the tackiest sweater
4. Holiday hat day – prizes for the best decorated holiday hat
5. Have agents decorate their workstations – and yes, you can give away prizes for that too.  At-home agents can decorate their home office and send in their photos.  Post these on the holiday board
6. Have the management team walk around the centre and deliver hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies
7. Play some reindeer games – Set up some fun holiday themed games in your lunch/break rooms – play some holiday tunes and relax

I’m sure there are lots more great ideas out there – feel free to comment or email them to me directly.  Just keep in mind – simple and fun.  No one needs extra stress trying to plan complicated activities at this time of year!

So this weeks rule (#7) – Celebrate the season by keeping things fun and stress-free in your call centre

And we’re still building our list of 100 quick and cheap ways to Reward and Recognize in the Call Centre so help me add to the list by submitting feedback – or emailing me at kimvey@rogers.com

Once we get to 100 – I’ll post the entire list right here and you can start using all the great ideas people have shared

Feedback or comments: Tell me about how you’re celebrating the season in your call centre.

The post It’s easy to forget rewarding and recognizing people at this time of the year….but it’s even more important when people are stressed and busy. What can you do to celebrate reward and recognition in your call centres during the holiday season? appeared first on Customer Service.

A friend emailed me the other day and suggested that we could make our words even more meaningful by effectively dealing with issues and concerns.  He said ‘Even if you deliver recognition perfectly, it will quickly lose its value if you let performance issues/concerns slide. Some managers make the mistake of ignoring issues if overall team performance is on target.”

I mused on that for awhile, over a cup of morning coffee, and thought about a time where I witnessed this happen.  One of my Team Managers had a team that was performing very well with respect to their key performance indicators – meeting their productivity and sales targets, and achieving good customer service scores.  This manager was very good at delivering rah, rah messages in their team meeting, providing pizza parties for team success, pumping up the team with cheers, etc.  It was apparent, however, that some team members were not pulling their weight and were riding on the success of a few strong team members.  The stronger team members were starting to get disillusioned and were not quite as motivated as they had been, and the manager was perplexed. Had he not treated them all to pizza and pop? Framed certificates for team performance for the kudos wall?  Celebrated team stats in huddles?  Yes, he had done all that – but not all the team members were doing their part, and the ones who were carrying the team were getting tired of performance issues being swept under the carpet.  Why should Susan, who achieved only 50% of her sales target, get the same rewards as Peter, who overachieved at 122%?  Why should the 11 people who met their productivity target be treated the same as those 7 people who did not achieve it?  One sure fire way to demotivate your call centre reps is to lump them all together when it comes to recognizing results – both in a positive or negative way.  It’s just as important to have the tough conversations!

 So this weeks rule (#6) – Don’t forget to have the tough conversations or the great conversations won’t mean anything!

Some quick and easy ideas for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres

And we’re adding to our list of 100….thanks for the suggestions!

Let’s build a list of 100 quick and cheap ways to Reward and Recognize in the Call Centre

Help me add to this list by submitting feedback – or emailing me at kimvey@rogers.com

5.   Take calls for an hour for your rep.  This can have a double benefit – the team sees the manager out on the floor and their peer gets an hour off the phone. This is also a great way to mentor your reps and teach best practices.

6.   Create a wall of fame where you post new reps photos and a short bio.  This is a great way to ‘recognize’ new employees joining the team

7.   Mini first aid kit – with a note “thanks for taking care of our clients today’

8.  An incentive for you readers this week – send in an idea and you could win a prize!

And remember, once we get to 100 – I’ll post the entire list right here and you can start using all the great ideas people have shared

Feedback or comments: Share your ideas for low/no cost rewards and recognition in your call centres

The post Recognize the bad stuff too! How to make the good words even more meaningful for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres appeared first on Customer Service.

Phrases like ‘great call there John’ or ‘way to make that sale Jenny’ don’t have much value to a call centre rep and provide very little satisfaction.

So what should I say?

First, telling them they had a great call is ok – but then go that extra step and tell them why it was a great call from your perspective.  This is a hard habit to form, and I admit it takes practice – but it’s so worthwhile, and you’ll see that people take notice when you do it properly –and look forward to your comments.

Here are some examples:

“That was a great call you just had John, and I especially liked the way you acknowledged that Joanne (the client) was frustrated with the error we made, and that you offered to credit her shipping on the next one.  It really shows that you were listening and cared about making the situation right’

“Hey Jenny – amazing job on that call, and what a great way to position that new product.  Highlighting those special features was very smart –and made the client take a keen interest in the product.  I’m going to share that with the whole team if you don’t mind”

See the difference – tell them why you are impressed, don’t just tell them you’re impressed.

Some quick and easy ideas for Reward and Recognition in your Call Centres

1. A roll of lifesavers with a tag “You’ve been a lifesaver for our clients today” (you can even personalize with an example of what they did to make it even more meaningful)
2. A package of mints – “Your customer service skills are worth a mint to us”
3. A Mars bar – “Your quality is out of this world”
4. A client commendation board where customer comments are posted with the call centre reps photo
5. ……what’s your idea?

Let’s build a list of 100 quick and cheap ways to Reward and Recognize in the Call Centre.  Once we get to 100 – I’ll post the entire list right here and you can start using all the great ideas people have shared

Help me add to this list by submitting feedback – or emailing me at kimvey@rogers.com

So this week – Rule #5  Make the comment you make meaningful – tell them why!

Feedback or comments: Share your ideas for low/no cost rewards and recognition in your call centres

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What’s not so easy is the ‘stuff’ you need to do that no one else can do for you – the one on one recognition, the personal touch, the verbal thank you.   Sometimes these types of recognition are the most important to people.  Let’s try this out:

Julie, a call centre agent in your company, is having a bad morning – kids got up late, no lunches were made, she had to stop and get gas on the way to work, nearly late, spilled her coffee – I’ve had one of those mornings and they can set you up pretty nicely for the day (and not in a good way).  Julie starts her shift with a couple really frustrating calls and thinks to herself – can this day get any worse?   You (her team leader) look at her stats report from the previous day, and she’s had great sales results.  You walk over right then and there and give her the high five – “Great job on your sales yesterday Julie – that’s why you’re so valuable to us here at XYZ.  You provide great service to our clients and we appreciate it”.  Imagine how those 28 words, which didn’t cost anything, didn’t require streamers, balloons or certificates, no gift cards or prizes – imagine how they impact Julie.  If I was Julie here – I’d probably be taking a deep breath and mentally starting my day over again with a fresh attitude.

Sounds easy right? Sad to say that this is one of the hardest things to teach new team leaders and managers – the importance of on-the-spot, unplanned, unrehearsed recognition.  I was terrible at it (I’ll admit it) and I realized that everything else seemed more important in a day – answering emails, attending meetings, whatever.  I decided that I needed a daily reminder and so I put it into my calendar.  Every morning – a reminder would pop up at 8:45 reminding me to recognize at least 1 person that day.  The bad news is that it took me awhile to make it a habit, I’d hit snooze on the reminder several times during the day when I got busy and by the time I had time, it was time to go home.  The good news is that I did eventually make it a habit and I really enjoyed the time I would spend on the floor, talking to reps and giving some verbal recognition.  It also helped me to get to know the reps better, and learn all their names!  The pluses in my plan were more than I had hoped for.

So this week – Rule #4 – Make the unplanned – planned.  Add a daily reminder to your calendar to walk the floor and make someone’s day just a little bit better by acknowledging the work they do.  It’s not an easy job and sometimes a little thank you goes a long way.

Feedback or comments: How do you teach your leaders (yourself) to do the daily thank you?

The post Tell me something good…..Reward and Recognition isn’t always easy appeared first on Customer Service.

Does your company have a formal reward and recognition program? 100% said yes they do.

Asking the agents – do rewards and recognition motivate you to achieve your targets?

I asked what kinds of rewards/recognition do not motivate you?

Results are also available by generation and show that the 1981-2000 group are most concerned with the taxable benefit issue, and prefer money and time off to trinkets, gadgets and prizes.

I asked the leaders who completed the survey if they felt the program motivated the reps and 100% said yes  (which is inconsistent with what the the reps responded).  They told me they reward the standard metrics, including productivity, quality, attendance and sales.  Some also rewarded teamwork by giving reps time off for participating in community events.  They also commented that there was no formal recognition for the leaders. This is one area where a lot of companies could use some focus, especially at the direct supervisor/team lead level.

If you’re interested in participating in the survey – it’s still open (until the end of November).  I need agents and leaders to participate.  I will be sharing back all the summarized results with anyone who completes it.  All results will be kept confidential and no contact names, contact information or company names will be shared.  Just hit the feedback button at the bottom of the article and include your email address, or you can email me directly at kimvey@rogers.com. 

This weeks’ rule?  Rule #3 When you are designing a reward and/or recognition program for your centre, make sure you include your leaders.  Recognize them in front of their peers and the teams they lead.  Reward them for the % of agents they have meeting their metrics.  Rewarding them in this way, as opposed to the team with the highest productivity, or the highest quality, ensures that you are rewarding teams where more people are achieving the goals, and the success of the team is not resting on the shoulders of a few superstars.

Thanks for reading, and remember to contact me about the survey.  It’s only a few questions and you’ll end up getting back some great information for your own centres.

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This can also be said for recognition in the Call Centre.  Team leaders, supervisors and managers should be spending time on the floor, walking about or sitting in listening to calls (on a regular basis) and providing instant recognition for the great client experiences their agents are providing.  This type of on-the-spot recognition is really appreciated and because it happens right away, and can reinforce a particular behavior, can also have a positive impact on future calls.  If I take a call and do something particularly well, and my supervisor hears it and comments on it – I am going to try and repeat it on the next call.  If you thank me for it 2 weeks later, the momentum is lost.  I know that many of you have call quality monitoring software, and that’s great for recording and scoring, but it’s so important to also do the sit-bys.  Not only do you get the chance to hear some great calls and do on the spot recognition, you also get to spend time with someone and connect on a personal basis.  Many reps feel this is an important form of recognition in itself.

When it comes to rewards, the most popular criticism I hear is that the programs become either a flavor of the week, and change too often, or that they start out strong with lots of hoopla, and after a few months, no one hears anything about them any more.

In order to make a program sustainable and remain current, it takes some planning.  Make sure you cover all the elements before launching.  Run your model by some reps to pressure test the communications, the guidelines for achieving the recognition and to make sure the rewards are suitable for the effort required.  Some companies have formed recognition teams, and these include members from all levels in the call centre.   They review metrics, determine contest requirements and prizes using a set budget, develop annual incentive programs based on stretch goals for Key Performance Indicators, and promote the launches with their peers.   Being included in one of these recognition teams is seen as a reward by the agents involved and they strive to achieve this status.  As an agent, when some of your peers are on the committee, you tend to give the program more credibility right from the start.  Having agents on the committee also helps you with the consistency factor.  They’ll be the first ones to remind you that it’s time to draw winners, send communications or plan the celebration events, and you can always involve them with these activities to help out. 

Rule #2: Be consistent in your recognition and rewards 

Feedback please – How do you make sure you/your management team are consistent in their approach to rewards and recognition?  Have you involved agents in your recognition and reward planning sessions?  Do agents assist with celebrations?

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So what can I tell you about it? I hope to be able to share some best practices that I’ve come across over the years, as well as some tools and tips to help you get the most out of your own programs.  I’m hoping to help you design new, fun, innovative and effective recognition programs for your call centers, and to get you to share some of your great ideas as well.  With all the different generations we now how in our centers, it’s more important than ever to understand what’s going to work to motivate our agents to succeed.

When my two daughters were very young, we used to frequent a restaurant that offered kids a prize at the end of their meal.  It was an actual ‘treasure chest’ full of small, inexpensive, fun items to choose from.  They would ooh and aah over the chest, sometimes taking more time to select their prizes than the waitress had patience for.  The best thing about this treasure chest was that they could choose what they wanted – whether it was a yo-yo, a princess tiara, baseball cards or a slinky.  They both had very different tastes and always chose something unique.  When I look at some companies plans, the one thing they seem to forget is that people want to be able to choose their own rewards.  Not everyone is motivated in the same way and we need to keep that in mind when we are looking at the rewards, and even the way in which we recognize people.  Tickets to a baseball game might be the perfect choice for one agent, but a terrible one for someone else.  Balloons and streamers and certificates might make someone’s day, but it might embarrass someone else who likes to keep a low profile.

Rule #1:

Make sure your program can meet the needs of all the recipients.

Tool #1:

Here is a link to a form you can use (or modify) to find out what you should put in your ‘treasure chest’ to make sure your agents ooh and aah too.  The form can help you better understand how your agents want to be recognized and what’s important to them as individuals. We used a red metal toolbox purchased from a hardware store, and the team decorated it to look like a pirates treasure chest.  This just added to the fun.

Feedback please

What have you done to personalize programs in your centers?  What tools have you used to ensure your rewards and recognition were appropriate for the people receiving them?

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Kim Vey has over 20 years of experience as manager of front-line staff and management professionals to achieve strong results in performance, including in call-center customer service.  She can be reached via email or LinkedIn.

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