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

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.

Customer Perceptions Have An Impact On Customer Relations

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Perceptions Have An Impact On Customer Relations

Most customer service representatives go to work with the determination to deliver excellent customer service and achieve customer satisfaction. They typically have the customer service skills and knowledge needed to address their customer’s needs, wants and expectations. Even so, some things occasionally go wrong during the customer service transaction.

What the customer service representative does from that moment on will often impact customer retention and what their customer tells others about their experience. This is why it is so crucial for anyone dealing with current or potential customers to learn and use strong service recovery strategies and use them immediately when things start to go wrong with a customer.

For ideas and strategies on building strong customer service relationships and successfully recover when service breaks down, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Appropriate Service Recovery Strategies Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Retention

by Robert W. Lucas

Appropriate Service Recovery Strategies

Can Lead To Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Delivering excellent customer service should be the goal of every customer service representative and organization. Unfortunately, when things do not go as planned and customer service breakdowns occur, customer needs wants and expectations are often not met. Obviously, this is when customer satisfaction and customer retention become an issue to be addressed immediately and in a positive manner.

The following is a personal experience that my wife and I encountered yesterday when we went to a movie theatre that we visit frequently.

We went to see a movie yesterday and within 30 minutes of the start of the film it was dragging – the sound and picture were not synced. On the positive side, an employee (not the manager) came in three times to update the packed theatre. On the downside though, he explained that they had been having trouble like this all day with this movie. To that comment, someone yelled, “Then why do you keep selling tickets to other groups?” A valid question to which the employee responded that “We thought it would stop.”

They finally canceled the show and gave rainchecks. The employee even went on to tell us the next showing was at 7:15…as if we would stick around to try again.

Of course, as a customer service author, trainer, and consultant, all of this did not sit with me since my wife and I had already consumed $14.00 in snacks and drove 20 minutes to get there. So, I went to see the manager. Unfortunately, he was busy in the projection booth trying to fix the computer, so I gave his supervisor my card and told who I was and what I do. I then explained that this incident and the way it had been handled was contrary to service recovery strategies offered by excellent organizations. I further pointed out that by giving us a rain check, they only gave us an opportunity to return and spend even more time and money for snacks (an obvious win for them). I suggested that true service recovery is designed to “make the customer whole” and compensate them for their inconvenience.

Since the supervisor had just arrived at work and was not sure what exactly happened, I explained the situation. He then asked for our original ticket stubs and in exchange gave us our money back. He also and let us keep the rainchecks. Finally, service recovery had occurred. Too bad it took me asking for it to get satisfaction. That was good for us, but all the other people in a packed theatre did not get this and some probably left dissatisfied.

I suggested that he give the manager my business card and tell him what I’d shared about service recovery. Hopefully, I will not have to test their system again and the staff will receive training on effective service recovery should they ever need it in the future.

If you are looking for ideas on effective service and how to provide service recovery when things go wrong with your customers, get a copy of my book, 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.

Target Unauthorized Access to Credit Card Data Will Impact Customer Trust

by Robert W. Lucas

Target Unauthorized Access to Credit Card Data Will Impact Customer Trust

While no one died (as when someone tampered with Tylenol tablets in the 80s) and the environment was not destroyed (as with the Exxon Valez in the 80s or BP oil spill in 2010), millions of loyal customers and potential Target customers have been impacted by their latest corporate PR nightmare as millions of credit card customers had their personal data inappropriately accessed. During some of the busiest shopping times of the year (November 27-December 15, 2013) someone gained unauthorized access to over 40 million credit files for Target customers who used credit cards to shop in their stores.

Even though no fraud cases have yet to be determined, Target is struggling to get ahead of this potential massive loss. Customers have complained that they are not able to access their online Target accounts or get through on crowded chat and phone lines. Losses could add up significantly for Target as they make their final holiday shopping season push. Like the huge T.J. Maxx lawsuits that followed a similar breach in the past, Target will likely be the focus of a class-action suit that might cost them large payouts. Couple that with potential lost shopping revenue, canceled Target Red credit accounts and a massive hit on trust from customers and potential customers and the company is not likely to have a very merry holiday season…or a good end of the year financial report. In addition, brand and customer loyalty will likely take a big hit into the foreseeable future, depending on how the company manages this situation.

An article on The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch blog has more details about this incident.

Since trust is the key element of any customer-provider relationship, frontline customer service representatives have to be prepared to handle service breakdowns and customer complaints. To get ideas of how you might deal with such situations if your company encounters a crash and you need to initiate service recovery initiatives, 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.

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.

Customer Satisfaction Quote – Donald Porter

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Satisfaction Quote – Donald Porter

Loyal customers are the most valuable asset of an organization that an organization can have. By identifying and meeting their needs, wants and expectations, customer service representatives and other employees can help ensure that they not only demonstrate customer and brand loyalty but also tell others about their positive service experiences.

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” Donald Porter

As Donald Porter, a V.P. at British Airways once said:

For strategies and techniques on how to build effective customer and brand loyalty in your organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success by Robert W. Lucas.

Here are a few more cool quotes from Donald Porter…

“No matter how great the reputation, all organisations are only as good as today’s performance.” – Donald Porter
“legions of disappointed customers have taken the opportunity to vent their frustration online”

Learn about the Customer Service Blogger – Robert C. Lucas who is a big fan of Donald Porter

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

Dealing with Difficult Customers

by Robert W. Lucas

Dealing with Difficult Customers

You may think of difficult customer contacts as those in which you have to deal with negative, angry, demanding, or aggressive people. These are just a few of the types of potentially difficult interactions that you may encounter as a customer service representative.

From time to time, you will also be called upon to help customers who can be described in one or more of the following ways:

Are dissatisfied with your service or products.
Are indecisive or lack knowledge about your product, service, or policies.
Are you rude or inconsiderate of others?
Are talkative.
Are internal customers with special requests.
Speak a primary language other than yours.
Are you elderly and need extra assistance.
Are young and inexperienced who might need to be guided in making a good choice.
Have some type of disability.

Each of the above categories can be difficult to handle, depending on your knowledge, experience, abilities and organizational policies. A key to successfully serving all types of customers is to treat each person as an individual. If you stereotype people, you will likely damage the customer-provider relationship and might even generate complaints to your supervisor or legal action against you and your organization based on perceived discrimination. Avoid labeling people according to their behavior. Do not mentally categorize people (put them into groups) according to the way they speak, act, or look—and then treat everyone in a “group” the same way.

Ultimately, you will deliver successful service through your effective communication skills, positive attitude, patience, knowledge, service experience, and willingness to help the customer. Your ability to focus on the situation or problem and not on the person will be a very important factor in your success. Making the distinction between the person and the problem is especially important when you are faced with difficult situations in the service environment. Although you may not understand or approve of a person’s behavior, he or she is still your customer. Try to make the interaction a positive one, and if necessary ask for assistance from a co-worker or refer the problem to an appropriate level in your operational chain of command.

For ideas and strategies on how to deal with a variety of different customers and customer situations, 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

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

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Inspirational Quote – Sam Walton

“High Expectations are the key to everything.” – Sam Walton

A key to being a successful customer service representative is gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with a changing global business environment. In today’s world, it is not enough for service providers to simply be knowledgeable about their organization’s products and services. They must also have effective interpersonal skills (e.g. verbal, nonverbal and listening), knowledge of the needs, wants and expectations of different demographic groups (e.g. gender, cultural, ethnic, age and abilities), and solid customer service skills. These crucial skills can provide the tools to effectively communicate and handle the types of interactions that can occur daily in any customer-provider interaction (e.g. negotiation, conflict resolution, sales, and service recovery).

For additional information and ideas on how to deliver effective customer service in a diverse world, get copies of Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘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.

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

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.”

Service Recovery Quote – Donald Porter

by Robert W. Lucas

Service Recovery Quote – Donald Porter

The question of “What is good customer service” has been brought up occasionally in customer service workshops that I have done. And, while there is no one answer to the query, there are certainly a number of elements that do fall into the category of “good.” For example, in the changing competitive global marketplace, good involves recognizing the diversity of the customer base and for employees to be trained on some of the common needs and wants of each group or subgroup. Additionally, they should be prepared with knowledge and skills to meet what their customer expects in a given service situation.

Ultimately, while no one is perfect, service providers should strive to go out of their way to provide a level of service that separates them from their competitors. When something goes wrong, the service provider should acknowledge it, accept the responsibility on their part or that of the organization and immediately set out to “make the customer whole” again through a planned service recovery process. This means not only providing a remedy and giving the customer what he or she paid for but also compensating them for their inconvenience or loss.

Donald Porter, a former V.P. at British Airways, captured the essence of this concept in a statement he made some years back:

“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. they do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” – Donald Porter

For ideas and strategies on how to recover when service levels break down, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now

and Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

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

Customer Service Quote – The Value of Dissatisfied Customers

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – The Value of Dissatisfied Customers

Customers who are unhappy or dissatisfied can be a real challenge for many customer service representatives. They require additional time and effort to appease, they can create a public display, and they can also affect organizational and service provider satisfaction ratings by sharing their story with others.

On the other hand, you might want to view your dissatisfied customers as an opportunity to learn what is not working in the organization or with your approach to customer service. Often, we get so tied up in the day-to-day process and procedural “stuff” which we have to do, that we forget that our primary purpose for being there in the first place is to provide the best possible customer service to those with whom we come into contact.

By stepping back to examine why our customer was dissatisfied in the first place, we can potentially identify policies, product defects, service breakdowns and other potential problem areas that could cause more problems in the future. We can then brainstorm with our supervisor and peers to find potential solutions to these issues. This provides the opportunity to go from poor customer service to excellent customer service.

Bill Gates of Microsoft summed up this concept:

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

For strategies and techniques on how to deliver positive, effective service to your customers, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.