Welcome to Mainstay’s Customer Service Tips

It is with great pleasure that I write the introduction to this the first edition of Mainstay’s Customer Service Tips. Working face to face with customers and leading large service organisations has been a big part of my life, so I am delighted to not only have the opportunity to introduce this newsletter but to assist with some of the content. I am passionate about customer service and I hope it shows.

Having worked in customer service environments I also understand how challenging it can be at times. Every month except January Mainstay’s Customer Service Tips will provide two or three articles intended to help you and the organisation you work for deliver excellent customer service. I hope that by taking onboard and practicing some of the tips we can not only help you and your organisation improve customer satisfaction but perhaps also make your life a little less stressful.

This month we talk about three customer unfriendly words, when you should avoid telling customers you’ve been too busy and the value of customer service skills training. In future additions we will be providing tips about dealing with difficult or emotional customers, building long term customer relationships, setting customer expectations and much more.

Each month we will also feature an organisation that we believe is delivering excellent customer service and has perhaps also developed a range of new service offerings to help grow their business.

If you think Customer Service Tips might be useful for any of your friends or colleagues I would very much appreciate if you would forward it onto them with your recommendation so that they can subscribe. A number of organisations have already asked if we can do bulk additions to our distribution list for their staff and we would be pleased to arrange that.

I hope you find Customer Service Tips of value as you strive to deliver excellent customer service.

Warmest regards, Bill Ellerton

Sintech - delivering service offerings (prodices) that could help save lives

Sintech Fire Systems have proved that developing customer focused service offerings is a great way to grow a business. Sintech is a medium sized fire protection company that has a solid reputation for installing sprinkler and fire alarm systems in buildings ranging from grain silos and converted warehouses through to classified building and some of Melbourne most well known landmarks. Evidence of the company’s reputation for customer focus is the volume of repeat business they obtain from their clients.

Sintech realized some years ago that their clients weren’t just looking for a company to install industry leading fire protection systems. Customers needed a fire protection company that could test and maintain the systems into the future. Ensuring that fire protection systems in buildings are always fully operational and are maintained in good condition is not only a legal requirement for building owners, it is critical to each and everyone of us that uses these buildings.

In developing a range of service offerings (Services or Prodices) to meet their customer requirements, Sintech has not only demonstrated to their clients that they are responsive to their needs, they have created a new revenue stream which is helping the business to grow. Sintech is a shining example of a small to medium sized company that understands how to deliver both Products and Services (Prodices) without taking their eye off providing first rate Customer Service with everything they do.

Three customer unfriendly words - “that’s our policy”

There are three words that you should avoid using when dealing with customers. “That’s our policy”. These three little words can be like waving a red flag to a bull because the underlying message that they convey is that, I don’t care, I can’t be bothered to address your concern properly and after all I just work here and am going to use a company policy to hide behind.

Some Customer Service Representatives, particularly those in Sales functions, seem to feel that pointing to company policies is a good way to endear themselves to customers. “After all I’m a great guy and if you think I’m good now, just think how much I could look after you if the company would only let me.” But this is a very short sighted view and over time career limiting, because sooner or later these people get caught out. And they are better of being caught out by the company they are meant to be representing than by the actual customer.

Even some of the most customer focused organisations have policies which may be difficult to explain to customers at times and this is clearly one of the most challenging tasks of being a Customer Service Representative. As a Customer Service Representative you can make the task much easier by understanding why a particular policy is in place and by being able to provide a credible explanation to the customer. Equally important is being able to suggest alternative approaches that might help the customer achieve what they are looking for.

As a Customer Service or Sales Manager you can make the task much easier by ensuring company policies are as customer friendly as possible and by helping your staff to understand the justification for any possibly difficult policies.

Simply hiding behind policies turn customers off and provide a very negative impression of both the organisation and the individual Customer Service Representative.

Avoid telling customers you’re too busy for them

Avoid telling customer that you’ve have “been really busy” when reminded that you had promised to do something for them by a certain time, but you didn’t. Failing to deliver on time is never a good look and at Mainstay we talk a lot about meeting customer commitments in some of our other customer service tips and on training programs. Telling a customer that you’ve been too busy communicates that you’ve placed a low priority on their request compared to the other things you had to do. Not only that, but it was such a low priority task that in reality you either forgot about it or just couldn’t be bothered to explain there was going to be a delay.

There are times when juggling competing priorities can become a challenge, but first rate customer service demands that we keep the commitments we make to customers. When we give a commitment to a customer what we are also doing is not just setting an expectation but giving our word and that of the organisation we work for. This doesn’t mean that we can’t, after talking to the customer, adjust the commitment and reset the expectation. If you find yourself so busy that you are unlikely to meet a commitment you gave to a customer the best thing to do is to contact them in advance and agree on a new timeframe. Even though the customer may not always be delighted they will certainly be much more understanding than if you simply fail to deliver or turn up on time.

As always put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Have you ever taken some time off work and waited in for a delivery or a trades person only to have them not turn up?

Customer service skills training helps to develop a Service Profit Chain

Employees who deal directly with customers are one of the most important assets that any organisation has. The way that they represent their organisation has an enormous impact on customer satisfaction.

Whether customer facing staff are dealing with customers on the phone, at a reception desk, in a retail store or at the customers premises, in the customers mind they are the organisation that they represent. They touch the customer at what is often referred to as the moment of truth. No matter how much money is spent on flash campaigns to build a market image it is at that moment of truth when a company employee engages with a customer that the real impression is made. Was the person on time, did they look the part or like something the cat dragged in? Were they polite? Did they listen or were they too busy trying to sell the customer something they didn’t want? Good customer facing staff will pick up many of these and other important skills over the years but how long can a business wait for this to happen and what damage will be done to customer satisfaction and the company brand in the meantime.

Training for customer facing employees can be one of the most effective ways of raising customer satisfaction and loyalty leading to business growth. Providing employees with the right skills to do their job also helps improve staff retention thus reducing costs and helping to improve profitability. Yet many business owners and managers simply look at the cost of such training without considering the flow on benefits. Call Mainstay or drop us a line if you would like to know a little more about how effective customer service skills training can help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty and help build a Service Profit Chain.