POSITIVE Global Customer Service Model

POSITIVE Global Customer Service Model – Serving Diverse Customers

The following acronym (POSITIVE) provides some strategies for creating or contributing to a positive global service environment and building strong relationships with your customers. It provides a model to move you from good customer service to the best customer service possible.

Put your best foot forward. Maintain a positive approach to situations involving customers, smile frequently, and have a “can-do” attitude. When dealing with customers and potential customers, never forget that they are your reason for employment.

Offer whatever level of assistance possible. In addressing customer needs and wants, go out of your way to uncover and resolve problems and to build a strong customer-provider relationship.

Stay abreast of current industry trends and strategies for delivering quality customer service. By upgrading your knowledge and skills regularly, you will be prepared to address any type of customer situation.

Identify true customer needs by listening to proactively. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them accordingly.

Take the time to get to know more about your customers. The more you know, the better you can provide quality service.

Invite your customers to open up and share information. Ask open-ended questions (e.g. Who, What, When, How, Why, and To What Extent) that typically lead to more detailed responses from others.

Verify understanding. When a customer provides information, ensure that you heard and understood it correctly before responding. Use closed-ended (typically start with an action verb) to gather this information.

Engage in relationship-building strategies immediately. Use strong interpersonal communication skills. Start with a smile (on your face and in your voice and words) and a professional greeting when meeting customers face-to-face, over the telephone or in an email. If something goes wrong, immediately start on a course of service recovery with a sincere apology and taking steps to “make the customer whole” again with any appropriate compensation.

Source: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service across Cultures, Lucas. R.W., McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, NY (2011).
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Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author and learning and performance professional. He has written and contributed to thirty-one books and compilations. He regularly conducts creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication and management, and supervisory skills workshops. Learn more about Bob and his organization at www.robertwlucas.com and follow his blogs at www.robertwlucas.com/wordpress, www.customerserviceskillsbook.com, and www.thecreativetrainer.com. Like Bob at www.facebook.com/robertwlucasenterprises

Time Management Skills in A Diverse Customer Service World

by Robert W. Lucas

Time Management Skills in A Diverse Customer Service World

Reliable time management skills in a diverse customer service world are crucial in order to take advantage of opportunities to effectively interact with customers from various cultures. For years, anthropologists and others have studied the use of time in various cultures to try to better understand why some people view it differently. Their findings can be very useful in today’s world when many customer service representatives and other employees must be concerned with delivering excellent customer service across cultures. By better understanding cultural differences related to time and applying sound time management strategies or time management tips, service providers are more likely to meet their customer’s needs, wants and expectations.

In a diverse customer service world, the perspectives that many people have of time perception are often based on religious dogma or personal and cultural beliefs. For example, in the United States where the Puritans brought ideas of efficient use of time and a focus on the future, their culture developed to where today people focus on change, moving forward at a fast pace and getting more done with less. Entire industries (e.g. fast food) have developed to support this driving mentality. The challenge is that because the United States has become such a “melting pot” of diverse people who have brought with them their own religious and cultural values, conflict with time usage sometimes erupts between people from various subcultures. An example of this within the U.S. population is that many African and Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, Native Americans, Hawaiians, and Asians have brought religious and cultural values with them that focus on revering the past or focusing on the present as opposed to the future.

As an example of how time perception differences are common, ask people from various cultures or subcultures what they perceive an acceptable time for being late to an appointment might be. You will likely receive very different responses. For example, people from Germany or Finland often pride themselves on being some of the most punctual people in the world and are normally always early and on time for meetings and social events. Late arrival is considered rude and potentially insulting. In parts of Great Britain and North America being five minutes late for a meeting might be an acceptable time, but fifteen minutes or more would definitely be considered late and possibly rude, depending on the event and the person with whom you are scheduled to meet. In the Pacific Island, Middle Eastern and many African cultures, tardiness of thirty minutes or more is perfectly acceptable for a business meeting in many instances.

Just as in business situations, if you invite international customers to a dinner meeting or social event, you can anticipate that they will arrive at different times. This is sometimes based on their cultural backgrounds and values. For example, someone from Japan or Korea might arrive half an hour early, a guest from the United States or England — five minutes early, a Honduran and Latin American might show up thirty minutes late, an Italian could be up two hours late, an Ethiopian might be even later and someone from Vietnam might not come at all. They only accepted your invitation to be polite and to avoid causing you to lose face if they said no. If you ever host such an event, make sure that you specify your expectations in writing in order to avoid confusion or embarrassment to guests. For example, your invitations might specify that dinner will be served at 7 p.m. sharp.

If you interact with customers outside your own cultural group regularly, one tip for effectively delivering customer service in a positive manner is to do research on how your customer’s from a particular culture perceive time. By raising your cultural awareness, you will be better prepared to effectively handle situations where customers are either early or late for meetings and social events. This will also prevent you from inadvertently violating a cultural norm when attending a meeting or event with your customers. The result is that you can potentially meet customer expectations, increase customer satisfaction and form more solid relationships with customers from all parts of the world through your knowledge and actions.

Source of this article: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Typical Customer Contact Center Representative Competencies

by Robert W. Lucas

Typical Customer Contact Center Representative Competencies

To perform well in a call center/customer care center, employees must possess some very special competencies or capacities/abilities to perform required job tasks. Because of the specific requirements of the job, organizations must look for candidates possessing many of these typical customer contact representative competencies as possible. It is essential that call center/customer care center personnel have strong interpersonal communication skills, be organized, able to problem solve, and have a strong sense of the importance of their function as the “face” of the organization.

The following are some common competencies that employers look for in applicants desiring to work in a call center/customer care center. These are listed in alphabetical order and vary in importance depending on the organizational mission.

Business acumen. An understanding of the relationship between their jobs and how they impact the business and customers.

Contact management. Ability to control customer interaction once they contact the representative through a variety of assigned technology.

Change management. Ability to adapt to and handle changing situations and customer and business environments.

Conflict resolution. Ability to use effective interpersonal skills to resolve difficult customer-provider interactions.

Cross-selling. In environments where selling of products and services is a business focus, the ability to recognize potential customer needs and opportunities to sell or up-sell to customers.

Decision making. Ability to gather and analyze information, then apply appropriate interventions to resolve and issue or come to a decision.

Interpersonal communication. Ability to actively listen, question appropriately, provide feedback, and use customer communication skills to build and strengthen customer relationships.

Managing diversity. Cultural diversity knowledge and the ability to interact with a variety of people from various backgrounds in the workplace.

Managing stress. Ability to maintain a calm demeanor and mental state when situations and emotions escalate to higher levels when interacting with a customer.

For additional call center/customer care center competencies, ideas, techniques and strategies for enhancing customer relationships, and information on ways to build solid interpersonal communication skills, check out How to Be a Great Call Center Representative. In this self-study course book, you will find hundreds of powerful ideas for improving knowledge and skills that can aid in meeting customer needs, wants and expectations and lead to greater customer satisfaction and retention. You also receive a certificate from the renowned American Management Association.

Providing Effective Customer Service in a Diverse World

by Robert W. Lucas

Providing Effective Customer Service in a Diverse World

As the world grows smaller economically and otherwise (e.g. world trade, international travel, outsourcing and offshoring of jobs, worldwide Internet access, international partnerships between organizations and technologically transmitted information exchange), the likelihood that you will have contact on the job with people from other cultures, or who are different from you in other ways, increases significantly.

Providing effective customer service in a diverse world is something that virtually anyone in an organization must master in today’s business world. As the world grows smaller economically and otherwise (e.g. world trade, international travel, outsourcing and offshoring of jobs, worldwide Internet access, international partnerships between organizations and technologically transmitted information exchange), the likelihood that you will have contact on the job with people from other cultures, or who are different from you in other ways, increases significantly. This possibility also carries over into your personal life, since diversity is encountered everywhere (e.g. over the telephone and Internet and in supermarkets, religious organizations, on public transportation), and is an important aspect of everyone’s life. Although diversity presents challenges in making us think of differences and similarities, it also enriches our lives; each encounter we have with another person gives us an opportunity to expand our knowledge of others and build relationships while growing personally.

One significant impact that diversity has on customer service is that people from varied backgrounds and cultures bring with them expectations based on the “norm” of their country or group. Whether this diversity pertains to cultural or ethnic differences, beliefs, values, religion, age, gender, ability levels or other factors, a potential breakdown in customer satisfaction can occur if people get other than what they want or expect.

Part of creating a positive diverse business environment is to train each service provider on the nuances of dealing with people who have backgrounds that are different from their own. Additionally, this effort involves each employee taking ownership for enhancing his or her knowledge and skills related to working with a diverse customer base.

To learn more about dealing with diversity in a customer service environment, along with hundreds of ideas on effective customer service skills and tips for dealing with a variety of common customer service challenges and delivering excellent customer service, get copies of the books Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Customer Service Training Activity – Subconscious Gender Stereotypes

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Training Activity – Subconscious Gender Stereotypes

Since ongoing gender communication and interactions between employees and customers is a daily event in most workplaces; organizations must help employees at all levels identify and correct negative stereotypes that might exist between male and female employees.

The following activity is a simple means for getting adult learners active in identifying potentially damaging perceptions they might have about genders and to engage in a productive dialog to help overcome stereotypes that they might unconsciously harbor.

Trainers, supervisors or team leaders can use this activity during a formal customer service or communication training session or at a department staff meeting. Once all trainees have completed the self-assessment, either form small groups of lead a discussion to share individual results and discuss how to improve any issues that surface related to stereotypes.

Instructions to Learners:

Many people have been conditioned since they were young children about acceptable gender roles for males and females in their culture as either masculine or feminine. Often these beliefs create challenges when you are serving customers.

To identify potential predispositions that you may have related to gender roles that are assigned to men and women in your society, give your first impressions for each adjective below. Do not think about the word, just react by placing an “F” by words that you feel best to describe females, an “M” by those that describe males and a “B” by those that could describe both females and males. Don’t go back to change an answer later.

Self Assessment:

Truck driver ___ Soccer/Football player___ Sky diver____

Airline pilot___ Pastry baker____ Chef___

Baseball fan___ Dog groomer____ Bus driver___

Entrepreneur___ Service professional____ Nurse___

Romantic___ Courageous____ Emotional____

Spontaneous____ Impatient____ Goal-oriented___

Sensitive____ Funny___ Powerful___

Strong___ Competitive____ Loving___

Outspoken____ Assertive___ Talkative___

Nurturing___ Intelligent____ Driven___

Intuitive____ Sexy___ Critical___

Once you have finished, go back and look to see how many of each letter you recorded. Most people typically have a mix of all three. If you look closely and think of all the people you have known, heard or read about in your lifetime, you probably know some who fall into both categories. Therefore, if there is even one incident where an adjective could describe the opposite gender from the one that you’ve indicated, you may have some hidden stereotypes related to men or women and the gender roles they can/should fill. This does not mean that you are a prejudiced or a “bad” person. It simply means that you may want to work on expanding your knowledge about others and trying to develop a more open-minded perspective of them so that you do not inadvertently do or say anything that might endanger the customer-provider relationship.

Customer service training activities, customer service tips, customer service training ideas, and other useful information, related to interacting with diverse internal and external customers and that can lead to the delivery of excellent customer service, can be found in Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

Delivering Positive Customer Service in a Global Work Environment

by Robert W. Lucas

Delivering Positive Customer Service in a Global Work Environment

What is a Positive Global Customer Service? It is recognizing that you are dealing with unique individuals at each contact point with a customer or potential customer and taking the time to listen effectively, respond appropriately and address their needs. It is also taking ownership and responsibility for your environment and customer interactions by being prepared and doing whatever it takes to help guarantee a successful outcome when dealing with internal and external customers. Most customer service representatives understand this and go out of their way to deliver the best customer service possible.

It is crucial for customer service representatives and every other organizational employee to develop a customer-centric attitude (e.g. answering the phone professionally, returning calls and email within a timely manner, remembering little details shared by customers and referring back to them during a conversation, or going out of your way to help resolve an issue when service breaks down) if the organization hopes to be successful. This means continually demonstrating good customer service skills and upgrading your knowledge and skills on a regular basis.

In a diverse world, providing positive global customer service also means applying what Dr. Tony Alessandra calls the Platinum Rule (“Do until others as they want to be done unto them”) in one of his books. In other words, instead of or treating people like you want to be treated, get to know them. Find out what they like, dislike, expect, value, believe and want, then attempt to satisfy them to the best of your ability. If you cannot provide what they need, consider getting someone else to assist who can better understand and address actual needs.

From a service perspective, when customers believe that service providers are knowledgeable about various aspects of diversity and value others, they are likely to reward the organization with their business. Not only will they typically remain loyal to an organization that they like, but they will usually spread the word about their positive experiences. This equates to more revenue generated for the organization, which can then afford to increase salaries, expand and enhance their facilities and operations, provide training and benefits. It can also better market and fend off competition more effectively.

On the other hand, if customers believe that they are being treated indifferently and that service providers do not understand or care about their particular needs, they will potentially desert the organization and encourage their friends to do likewise. This means the potential loss of revenue and all its associated benefits.

For more information about delivering positive global service to a diverse customer base as well as hundreds of customer service tips for delivering excellent customer service, get a copy of my book Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

The Challenges of Building Positive Customer Relationships In a Global World

by Robert W. Lucas

The Challenges of Building Positive Customer Relationships In a Global World

In a global customer service world, there is a potential relationship “minefields” that can cause problems related to trust. This is because for customers from many countries (e.g. Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Japan, Philippines, Kuwait, Turkey, Mexico, South Korea, and Vietnam), building a strong interpersonal relationship is extremely important and in many instances must be accomplished before the business is conducted. For example, in such relationship-oriented countries, it is not unusual to have a number of meetings with people in an organization before coming to an agreement. Lunch, dinner, and office meetings often occur for weeks before an agreement or important decision is reached. In such cultures, someone’s word is like a verbal contract and violations are not taken lightly. For that reason, if you are a customer service representative doing business with a customer from a relationship-oriented country, you must recognize the need to engage in some degree of conversation prior to asking for a buying decision or getting straight to business. This can present difficulty for call center representatives who are constrained by talk times or other controls or in environments where the staff has been downsized to a minimal server level. In such instances, it is wise to discuss the degree of flexibility you have in terms of the time and ways you have to deliver service with your supervisor before coming into contact with a customer.

By better understanding, the operational guidelines for your job and continuing to improve your customer service skills, the chances of creating a problem with customer trust or violating the organizational policy will be reduced.

Another potential problem area is that you can negatively impact the customer-provider relationship if you bring up certain topics to individuals from some cultures. For example, it is potentially inappropriate for a male service provider to directly address or compliment the wife or daughter who accompanies a male customer from a Middle Eastern culture without the man’s permission. This might be perceived as rude or disrespectful. Similarly asking about a man’s wife or daughter could be viewed as an unwelcome intrusion.

These cultural nuances may seem unimportant if you are from a different culture, but you must remember that people leave a country; they do not leave their culture. It is part of their personal background and value/belief system and should be respected if you plan to deliver excellent customer service.

For myriad ideas and strategies on how to deliver the best customer service possible and to better understand and work with a diverse customer base, get a copy of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

The Impact of Gender Roles on Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

The Impact of Gender Roles on Customer Service

Culturally and individually, people view the role of men and women differently. Although gender roles are continually evolving throughout the world, decision-making and authority are often clearly established as male prerogatives within many cultures, subcultures, or families. For example, in some Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, and European cultures, women have often not gained the respect or credibility in the business environment that they have achieved in many other parts of the world.

In some countries, it is not unusual for women to be expected to take a “seen and not heard” role or to remain out of business transactions. In Korea and other Pacific Rim countries, it is not typical for women to participate in many business operations. Men often still have higher social status than females. You do not have to agree with these practices, but you will need to take them into consideration when facing them as a customer service representative.

When serving customers from different countries, you would do well to remember that people leave a country, but they take their cultural norms and values with them. Failure to consider alternative ways of dealing with people in certain instances might cause you to react negatively to a situation and nonverbally communicate your bias unconsciously.

One example of what could potentially occur if you are a female customer service representative dealing with a male whose cultural background, like one of those just described, is that he may reject your assistance and ask for a male customer service provider. Another example could occur if you are a male customer service representative working with a male and female from such a culture. Do not be surprised if your conversation involves only the male. Attempts to draw the woman into a service transaction or make direct eye contact and smile with her may embarrass, offend, or even anger some male customers and/or their family members who are present.

Generally, people who have lived or worked in westernized cultures for longer periods may have acculturated and may not take offense to more direct behaviors that are meant to convey friendliness and to engage customers (e.g., smiling, engaging in small talk about families, or compliments on the dress). Even so, remain conscious of potential reactions and stay focused on verbal and nonverbal communication cues to help ensure that you do not negatively cross-cultural boundaries when interacting with customers of the opposite sex.

For additional customer service tips for interacting successfully with people and cultures that are different, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success 6th edition and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service across Cultures.

Customer Service Skills for Success 6th by Robert W. Lucas Now Available

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Skills for Success 6th by Robert W. Lucas Now Available

The top-selling customer service textbook in the United States, Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas, is now in print from McGraw-Hill. This 6th edition includes a four-color layout with more images to enhance the content and a completely changed graphic appearance.

In the book, readers will find real-world customer service issues and provides a variety of updated resources, activities, and examples for customer service representatives at different levels in an organization. It also includes tips from the author and other active professionals in the industry designed to gain and hold readers’ interest while providing additional insights into the concepts and skills related to customer service that is found throughout the book.

The text begins with a macro view of what customer service involves today and provides projections for the future of the customer service profession, then focuses on specific customer service skills and related topics.

Here’s what readers will find inside the book:

Part One – The Profession

The Customer Service Profession
Contributing to the Service Culture

Part Two – Skills for Success

Verbal Communication Skills
Nonverbal Communication Skills
Listening Skills

Part Three – Building and Maintaining Relationships

Customer Service and Behavior
Service Breakdowns and Service Recovery
Customer Service in a Diverse World
Customer Service via Technology’
Encouraging Customer Loyalty

This book answers everything from “What is Customer Service?” to “How do I handle a variety of diverse customers in various customer service situations?”.

To gain thousands of ideas, strategies and customer service tips for interacting successfully with internal and external customers in any type of customer service environment and deliver excellent customer service, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success 6th edition.

Effective Verbal Communication Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

by Robert W. Lucas

Effective Verbal Communication Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

You may have heard that the expression is sometimes not what you, but how you say it that makes a difference. Nothing is truer when you are dealing with a multi-cultural, diverse customer base.

In many situations, when customer service breaks down it can often be attributed to what a customer service representative does or does not effectively say verbally or non verbally. In some cases, the lapse may be due to an unconscious message (e.g. non-verbal gesture, body movement, signal, or eye contact) that was interpreted differently than intended. In other instances, it might be an incorrect tone, word or inflection added to a message that was received incorrectly by the customer.

Whatever the reason(s) for such failures in communication, it is crucial that anyone dealing with internal and external customers is prepared for potential interactions that might go wrong. The easiest means of doing so is to enhance customer service and communication skills and to become educated related to approaches to verbal and communication practices in various cultures.

If this topic is of interest to you and you want to get ideas and strategies related to communicating effectively with diverse customers, get copies of my books Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.