Delivering Excellent Customer Service as Part of a Service Culture

Delivering excellent customer service as part of a service culture has become a pivotal determinant in the global competition between organizations. As the world has gotten smaller because of geopolitical changes, trade agreements, personal mobility, and connections via technology, the way that companies provide customer service and business has morphed. Customer retention and the establishment of customer service as a differentiating strategic policy is crucial in gaining and maintaining market share, especially for small businesses. Instead of just mouthing the words customer service to employees, they must ensure that the concept becomes part of the organization’s service culture. In order for any organization to deliver excellent customer service, it must adapt and embrace the new paradigm by investing in technology, attracting the best-qualified employees and then training them effectively.

In order to achieve customer satisfaction and reduce the customer churn rate, everyone in the organization must adopt a customer-centric approach in the way that service is provided. A paramount point for every employee to remember is that while vision starts at the top of an organization, it is the point-of-contact person who the customer reacts to and remembers. What that person says and does will often determine the outcome of interaction and what the customer says about his or her experience after it is over. Delivering anything less than excellent customer service during each customer-provider interaction can lead to the demise of customer service representatives and their organization.

All employees are involved in customer service today and must be open-minded and flexible when dealing with customers. They must embrace change, continually seek customer service training and upgrade their product and service knowledge while seeking to identify new, more effective and efficient ways to deliver service on a daily basis. This need is driven by the fact that the world is more diverse, automated and people move with a 24/7/365 (24 hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred-sixty-five days a year) mentality. Customer needs wants and expectations have changed dramatically. People expect things instantaneously and if they do not get it, they can become agitated or take their business elsewhere. Their desertion can often be accomplished with just the click of a computer mouse.

For additional articles and ideas on customer service, examine two of my books: Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, Customer Service Skills for Success. You can also take the American Management Association self-study course, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative. All are available through the website www.robertwlucas.com.

Create a Positive Customer Service Culture by Making Customers Feel Valued

by Robert W. Lucas

Create a Positive Customer Service Culture

by Making Customers Feel Valued

Organizations are often chasing the illusive loyal customer. Various research studies have shown that it costs less to keep a good customer than it does to attract new ones through expensive marketing and incentive programs. Related to this, it seems logical to focus on converting new and occasional customers into loyal customers who return regularly and tout the organization’s benefits and customer-centric approach.

Alas, many managers, organizational leaders, and frontline customer service representatives simply do not get the whole concept of keeping loyal customers who use the organization’s products and services. These managers try to hold costs down by hiring inexperienced and low-cost employees, do not want to invest a lot of money in training staff (other than rudimentary product and service knowledge), and offer no real support for the customers they already have.

If you work for an organization and want to create an environment that is known for stellar customer service and customer-friendly people and policies, consider the following strategies to help make customers feel valued.

Hire personalities, not bodies. It takes a special person to be successful in a customer service environment. Strive to find people who are focused on interacting with others, seem to enjoy the service environment and life in general and sincerely want to help others. Product and policy knowledge can be taught to most new employees, as can the requisite skills necessary to successfully interact with new and current internal and external customers (e.g. interpersonal communication skills, knowledge about various demographic groups, team building, and other similar skills).

Prove that the organization and employees value customers. Create policies and procedures that are customer centric (e.g. return policies, hours of operation, and allow employee empowerment so that they can make decisions without a supervisor’s approval).

Train employees to recognize regular customers. People like to be seen as a person and as someone who is appreciated and valued by the organization. Customer service training sessions should stress this important fact and encourage employees to use a customer’s name when greeting and throughout a conversation. Memory improvement might be added to the training schedule to aid people in developing better memory and aid recall of customer names and faces.

Develop customer recognition and incentive programs. If customers are not rewarded for their continued business, they are likely to go elsewhere, especially if service breaks down or they encounter a problem. Reward good customers with discounts, personal communications (e.g. a greeting and coupon on their birthday, anniversary or other special occasions) and a warm welcome when they contact the organization. Instruct employees to focus on the human part of a transaction first (e.g. a warm greeting or comments about previous contacts, purchases or visits) before moving to the business of why they contacted the organization and what can be done to assist them.

Doing these simple things and others can make a world of difference to many customers and can often make the difference between a transient and a loyal customer. For additional customer service tips and strategies for creating a positive customer service environment where visitors demonstrate brand and customer loyalty as a result of receiving excellent customer service, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

What Is Organizational Service Culture?

by Robert W. Lucas

What Is Organizational Service Culture?

Promoting a positive service culture is one way to help ensure organizational success. Without the mechanisms and atmosphere to support frontline service, the other components of the business environment cannot succeed. Put simply, organizational culture is what the customer experiences.

A positive organizational service culture is made up of a collection of subcomponents, each of which contributes to the overall service environment. Typically, culture includes the dynamic nature of the organization and encompasses the values and beliefs that are important to the organization and its employees and managers. The experiences, attitudes, and norms cherished and upheld by employees and teams within the organization set the tone for the manner in which service is delivered and how service providers interact with both internal and external customers.

For additional information on the various elements of an organization and how they impact the culture, developing good customer service skills that lead to customer service excellence, and hundreds of useful customer service tips, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

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.

The Impact of Customer Expectations on Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

The Impact of Customer Expectations

on Customer Service

Customers come to you and your organization expecting that certain things will occur in regard to the products and services they desire. If you and other customer service representatives or employees fail to deliver them, your customers can easily desert to a brick and mortar or online competitor.

If you pay attention to your customers and strive for excellent customer service, you increase the chance that customer and brand loyalty will more likely result.

Typical customer expectations include one or more of the following things when they patronize an organization:

Expectations Related to People

Friendly, knowledgeable service providers.
Respect (to be treated like they are intelligent).
Empathy (to have feelings and emotions be recognized).
Courtesy (to be recognized as “the customer” and as someone who is important to you and your organization).
Equity (not to feel that one individual or group gets preferential benefits or treatment over another).

Expectations Related to Products and Services

Ease of accessibility.
Availability of products and services (no lengthy delays).
Reasonable and competitive pricing.
Products and services that adequately address needs.
Quality (appropriate value for money and time invested).
Ease of use.
Safety (warranty available and product free of defects that might cause physical injury)
State-of-the-art products and service delivery.
Easy-to-understand instructions (and follow-up assistance availability).
Ease of return or exchange (flexible policies that provide alternatives depending on the situation).
Appropriate and expedient problem resolution.
Restitution for the inconvenience, damage or loss.

For proven strategies for meeting customer needs, wants and expectations and for creating a customer-centric organization, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

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.

Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is the principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author; learning and performance professionals. He has written and contributed to numerous books on the subject of customer service skill training.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

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

Customer Service Quote – Michael LeBoeuf

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Michael LeBoeuf

Organizations and customer service representatives that go out of their way to identify customer needs, wants and expectations, have a better chance of increasing brand and customer loyalty than competitors who do not.

By working hard to create a customer-centric organization, businesses increase the likelihood that customers will return and tell others about their positive service experiences.

For proven customer service ideas and strategies for building a strong service culture and delivering stellar customer service in your organization, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Here are a few more quotes from Michael LaBoeuf…

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.
The world is your mirror and your mind is a magnet. What you perceive in this world is largely a reflection of your own attitudes and beliefs. Life will give you what you attract with your thoughts think, act and talk negatively and your world will be negative. Think and act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results.
Every company’s greatest assets are its customers because without customers there is no company.
The greatest management principle in the world is: ‘the things that get rewarded and appreciated get done.’
All of us live at the feeling level, and our feelings are in large part a result of the way we perceive things. You observe or are told something, you interpret it, and only then do you have a reaction at the feeling level. The point is that feeling is preceded by perception, and all of us are capable of controlling our interpretation [the associations and assumptions] of what we see. If we can control our interpretation, then it logically follows that we can exercise some control over our feelings as well.
The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocations.
When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.
Too many start-up business fail simply because their owners continue to think and act like employees.
The ultimate goal of a more effective and efficient life is to provide you with enough time to enjoy some of it.
It’s important for you to understand that stock and bonds go up-and they go down. You need to be comfortable with that fact.
As for worrying about what other people might think – forget it. They aren’t concerned about yours. They’re too busy worrying about what you and other people think of theirs.
We talk about saving time and killing time when actually we can’t do either. We have no choice but to spend it at a constant and flowing rate.
The things that get rewarded, get done
Knowing nothing about investing might be a benefit. You won’t have to unlearn many popular beliefs propagated by Wall Street and the media that aren’t true.
Index investing is an investment strategy that Walter Mitty would love. It takes very little investment knowledge, no skill, practically no time or effort-and outperforms about 80 percent of all investors.
Adversity is an experience, not a final act.

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Four Tips for Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Each customer is unique, yet similar. The challenge is to identify their specific needs, wants and expectations and they work hard to meet and exceed those.

The following tips can help you provide better service to all your customers:

To aid you in your quest for providing the best possible customer service, read whatever positive information you can get your hands on related to customer service.
Take classes on how to interact and communicate with a variety of different categories of diverse people (e.g. older/younger, differing genders, culturally diverse, and differently-abled).
Sign up for courses in psychology, sociology, and interpersonal communication. These are invaluable for providing a basis of understanding why people act as they do and how to more effectively interact with them in various environments.
During your studies, focus on issues of differences and similarities between men and women, cultural diversity, behavioral styles, and any other topic that will expand and round out your knowledge of people.

By going out of your way to enhance your customer service knowledge and skills and improve customer service, you can effectively impact brand and customer loyalty for your organization.

For more ideas on how to create a customer-centric environment where customers enjoy coming to visit you and the organization, read Customer Service Skills for Success and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Florida Hospital Altamonte – A Positive Approach to Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Florida Hospital Altamonte – A Positive Approach to Customer Service

As I often do in my books, articles, and blog, I like to share positive customer service examples like the one I am currently experiencing this weekend as a patient at the Florida Hospital in Altamonte Springs, Florida. It is always nice to encounter a positive, customer-centric organization where people really seem to strive to deliver excellent customer service and go out of their way to show that they do care about what they are doing, especially in potentially life or death situations.

Customer service in the healthcare business

I am always inspired by positive examples of customer service wherever I travel locally and away from home. That is because, too often, my service experiences are negative and sometimes lead to emotional confrontations. As a service provider and customer service author, the frustrating part of such experiences for me is that it does not have to be that way. My philosophy is that if you are not happy and do not like your job…QUIT! Why make your life and that of those with whom you come into contact miserable.

Hospitals are places for healing, compassion and sometimes death. No one WANTS to go to a hospital as a patient nor, in many instances, as a visitor. The latter reminds people of their own frailty and the fact they too may someday be a patient. Unfortunately, because in times of pain and heightened emergencies people often fail to recognize or acknowledge the degree of dedication and concern offered by the people who make hospitals work. These servants of mercy and concern work tirelessly for as many as twelve hours or more a day in an attempt to help comfort and heal the sick and injured.

After witnessing what happens at Florida Hospital – Altamonte Springs, first-hand as a patient and second-hand with members of my family have been cared for here, I am impressed by the level of attention and devotion the entire staff seems to provide. From the frontline staff, such as Brittany (receptionist/check-in), Geneve, Mercia, and Maritza (nurses), and Ritchie and Nikki (Techs) there is an obvious attempt to meet the needs of each patient. Then there are the wonderful folks who work behind the scenes, such as, Linda (leadership team) Allie (housekeeping), Drake (food services), and Jonathan (housekeeping Intern) who help create an atmosphere of service that permeates the organization and makes the patient (customer) experience one that meets their wants and expectations.

Going above and beyond expectations

As you can see by the departmental titles, the organization has borrowed those names and practices from the hospitality industry that help a more professional and customer-friendly place to visit. Florida Hospital even has a Concierge Services group that can assist with things like sending flowers, arranging for car detailing, organizing spa services, getting hotel discounts for family and friends of patients, and much more. Not what one would typically expect at a house of healing.

The basis for quality customer service

In my forty years of experience in various types of service organizations, I have come to realize that the manner in which employees approach customers is typically driven from the decision-makers at the top of the echelon, It then filters down through directives, policies, procedures and customer service skills training. This is obviously true for Florida Hospital Altamonte. In speaking to numerous employees, they are enthusiastic about what they do and the organization and supportive of the management directives.

Florida Hospital – Altamonte is a great example for other organizations (especially healthcare) to model after in order to deliver the best customer service possible.

For ideas and strategies on how you and your organization can acquire the skills similar to those exhibited by the Florida Hospital staff and help create a more customer-centric organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Three Tips to Enhance Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

Three Tips to Enhance Customer Service

Many things interfere with a customer service representative’s ability to effectively deliver customer service and help build customer and brand loyalty by increasing their satisfaction levels.

Here are three tips for effectively dealing with potential problem areas that can interfere with your ability to provide the best customer service. These techniques can also assist in creating a more customer-centric environment that helps address your customers’ needs, wants and expectations.

Keep personal emotions under control. When your emotional state rises because of personal issues or an angry reaction to a person or situation at work, take a few minutes to get away, if possible. Ask a co-worker or your supervisor to cover for you while you go for a short break to clear your head. While away, do not dwell on the issues causing the reaction. Instead, read a book, take a walk and think of positive things, focus on other issues so that when you return, you will be ready to listen to your customers effectively and deliver quality service.

Address personal issues before coming into contact with customers. If you have personal issues that are distracting from your work performance and preventing you from effectively assisting your customers, seek help through your Human Resources department. Many organizations offer an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) that provides support for financial, legal, health and many other personal issues. In most cases, services are outsourced to a third-party vendor and are not provided by your organization’s employees. The services are anonymous and no reports listing your name are available to your supervisors or other employees in the organization.

Work to improve your listening skills. To verify the accuracy of your perception about your own listening effectiveness, ask several people in your workplace who know you’re listening abilities well to rate you. Have them use the scale of Outstanding, Above Average, Average, Poor, and Ineffective. Once they rate you, have them provide hints on how to improve your effectiveness. These submissions or ratings could be done anonymously on a piece of paper in order to get more candid feedback. Once you get the information, objectively analyze it and then incorporate it into your listening improvement action plan, as necessary. You might checkbooks, articles, Internet sites dealing with the topic of listening and interpersonal communication, or enroll in seminars or college classes that cover effective listening.

For additional ideas and strategies for enhancing your customer service skills, increasing customer satisfaction, promoting customer retention and building brand and customer loyalty, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Great Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Elements of a Service Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

Elements of a Service Culture

A positive service culture is crucial for organizations that want to remain competitive and build brand and customer loyalty.

Many elements define a successful service organization. Some of the more common are:

Service philosophy or mission: The direction or vision of an organization that supports day-to-day interactions with the customer.

Employee roles and expectations: The specific communications or measures that indicate what is expected of employees in customer interactions and that define how employee service performance will be evaluated.

Delivery systems: The way an organization delivers its products and services.

Policies and procedures: The guidelines that establish how various situations or transactions will be handled.

Products and services: The materials, products, and services that are state of the art, are competitively priced, and meet the needs of customers.

Management support: The availability of management to answer questions and assist frontline employees in customer interactions when necessary. Also, the level of management involvement and enthusiasm in coaching and mentoring professional development of employees is crucial in creating a positive service culture.

Motivators and rewards: Monetary rewards, material items, or feedback that prompts employees to continue to deliver service and perform at a high level of effectiveness and efficiency.

Training: Instruction or information provided through a variety of techniques that teach knowledge or skills, or attempt to influence employee attitude toward excellent service delivery.

Source: Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.