Customer Service Strategies from the World’s Best Brands

We just had to share the article below from Mark Sanborn about Customer Service Strategies from the World’s Best Brands and customer service.  Enjoy!

In a previous series we took a close-up look at the leadership of the world’s best brands. (For the first of the three part series, click here). One common thread shared by the leadership of companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Disney, and Southwest Airlines is an appreciation for the customer experience. Great brands are built and sustained on great customer service. Especially in a time when consumers have more buying choices than ever, great customer service adds value and differentiates brands from their competition.

Customer service is no longer simply the “complaint department,” replacing or refunding merchandise. Customer service is now a 24/7 focus on the needs and experience of the customer. It’s an understanding that success is based on providing a customer experience so satisfying that it creates “brand evangelists,” consumers who sing the praises of your business to their peers.

Looking closely at the top brands, I’ve distilled 10 strategies for creating world class customer service.

1. Hire greatness – Delivering great customer service starts with hiring for customer service greatness. Enterprise Rent-a-Car has built itself into the largest rental car company in the United States based on their customer service. Enterprise uses a “Critical Customer Service Skills” checklist when hiring associates. The key skills they hire for are: passion for customer care, flexibility, work ethic, eagerness, self-motivation, persuasive ability, communication skills, and leadership.

2. Give fun – The customer experience should be fun. Southwest Airlines encourages its employees to use their creativity and humor when working with customers. Flight attendants might sing or joke their way through pre-flight instructions or status reports. The result? Both the customers and the crew have fun.

3. Educate and entertain – A key part of serving customers is educating and entertaining them. Apple Stores offer free software workshops. Home Depot offers home improvement classes. Jet Blue was one of the first airlines to let each passenger channel-surf on planes. Educated customers are more likely to buy and be satisfied. Entertained customers are more likely to report a positive experience.

4. Train incessantly – Training is essential for effective customer service. Representatives must have a thorough knowledge of your offerings and of all the tools available to them to serve customers. Zappos, a brand built on customer service, trains representatives for seven weeks! Beyond initial training, leaders and staff should continually review the customer experience and how to improve it.

5. Team source ideas – Great ideas can come from anywhere. Disney customers were dissatisfied with long lines. Disney introduced Fast Pass, which saves your place in line. The idea originally came from a fire safety officer. Front-line employees and others see the customer experience close-up all day long. Take advantage of their eyes, ears, and ideas to sharpen your service.

6. Ask for input and feedback from customers  – The best source of information on the customer experience is, of course, the customer. Get their feedback and input and use it. Hotels.com used customer feedback software and streamlined the online booking process. Their conversions (site visitors who purchase) went up and their complaints went down.

7. Aim higher than your competition – Go for the gold standard in trying to deliver for your customers. If you offer them the best, they will take it. Larry Page of Google once said “Our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible,” not just to draw page views to a website. By delivering on that lofty goal, Google made itself the industry leader.

8. Be proudly humble – Humility is a great customer service strategy. Not groveling, mind you, but transparency and saying “sorry” when appropriate. Domino’s Pizza recently ran a series of ads that admitted that their service sometimes failed to meet expectations and that they were working to get better. By Fall 2011, same-store sales were up 12%, a pizza industry record.

9. Take good risks – When considering risks, we often calculate the potential costs. That’s good, but we should also calculate the cost of complacency, of not taking any risks. Consumer satisfaction is a moving target – you may need to step out of your comfort zone to meet it. Nordstrom is famous for its service. Nordstrom gives its employees one rule for customer service: “use your best judgment at all times” to satisfy the customer. Do they run the risk that an employee might occasionally give away too much? Of course. But that risk is outweighed by thousands of satisfied customers and a reputation for legendary service.

10. Do different – Service is the number one way to differentiate your business. So offer service that’s different. When Safeway employees are asked the whereabouts of a grocery item, they are instructed to stop what they are doing and escort the customer directly to that item. That’s how they differentiate themselves from low-cost big-box stores where service is minimal.

In the digital economy, consumers can find and compare the products and services they want with the click of a mouse or the tap of an app. They have a wide range of vendors and buying channels to choose from – they hold all of the cards. Increasingly, they decide to buy based on service. In a world where you people can  buy say, shoes, from any number of sellers for the same price and terms, they will choose the one that offers the best service. And if the service is great, and continues after sale, not only will those customers continue to buy from you, but they’ll become brand evangelists, advertising for you by word of mouth.

Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE is president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea studio for leadership development. He is an award-winning speaker and the author of the bestselling books, The Fred Factor: How Passion In Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary, You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone Anywhere Can Make a Positive Difference and The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do. His book Up, Down or Sideways: How to Succeed When Times are Good, Bad or In Between was released October 2011. To obtain additional information for growing yourself, your people and your business (including free articles), visit www.marksanborn.com.

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A Lesson in Creating Thriving Customer Care Communities

Greetings from Shoppers, Inc.!  Hope you enjoy the article below from John Tschohl about A Lesson in Creating Thriving Customer Care Communities and customer service as much as we did.

Customer self-service communities are among the most effective means for cutting down help desk operational costs. But you can’t just flip on the switch. Public knowledge bases, customer groups and discussion forums are useless if no one wants to use them.

Analyst firm Software Advice hosted Zendesk Vice President JD Peterson recently to gather his thoughts on designing a thriving self-service customer community. In this video guide, he describes key components for this customer service model, including: gamification, usability, employee engagement, measurement and smooth integration with other customer service channels.

Peterson says start with usability. Design experts can help properly place navigation signals, while marketing professionals devise titles and buttons that are appealing and immediately meaningful.

“Think of it as a science, rather than an art,” he said.

Along the same vein, the design should clearly point to an “escape valve,” or a place visitors can get the answer they need if they don’t find it on the forum or discussion board. This should integrate seamlessly with other customer service contact channels, such as phone, email or live chat.

At the same time, Peterson emphasizes the need for employees to engage in the community–not just through the escape valve. Customers will interact more if they know the organization is actually listening. Staff should keep a close eye on discussions and chime in if the answer isn’t available. Staff can also pick up on valuable customer feedback that can then be shared with product and feature development teams.

Gamification is an important means for driving continued engagement. Tools such as leader boards, score boards and badges reward users for their contribution. These achievements can also be linked with social sharing buttons so customers are encouraged to post on Facebook, Twitter and other channels.

Finally, Peterson said measurement and continual improvement are crucial to success. Look for trends, such as which topics are getting the most comments and views, reoccurring negative feedback or hot topics people search.

Ashley Furness
CRM Analyst
Software Advice

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How NFL coaches get their teams to Buy In...and how you can too!

At Shoppers, Inc. we are very passionate about great customer service, measurement and teamwork.  The article below from Jon Gordon about How NFL coaches get their teams to Buy In...and how you can too! and teamwork relates to our goals and passions.  Hope you enjoy it!

Having worked with a number of NFL, NBA and college coaches and teams and many businesses I can attest that the principles for leading and managing great teams really do apply to both. And what I love about sports is that in the course of just a few months it’s clear to the coach, the players and the millions of fans watching the game on television whether or not the coach’s leadership and teambuilding principles and strategies have worked.

So how do great coaches get buy in from their teams? How do they create a real team that is truly committed to each other? How do they prevent individual and organization negativity from sabotaging the team? And most important of all, what can we learn from these coaches when building our own business teams and organizations. Let’s start with culture.

1. Culture First - In 2008 Mike Smith was hired to be the head coach of The Atlanta Falcons after Bobby Petrino left the team and their culture in shambles. I consulted with Coach Smith during that time and his biggest priority as a new coach was to focus on the culture of the team. Coach Smith knew that he had to first identify, create and share the values, expectations, beliefs and habits that would define the Atlanta Falcons in order to get his players to buy in. Those who shared these values and beliefs would be enthusiastic and engaged while those who didn’t fit this culture were given other opportunities to play somewhere else. Coach Smith created his culture every day by sharing his beliefs with the team, making his expectations very clear, having the team read The Energy Bus, communicating positive messages on a daily basis, and living and breathing the values he wanted to ingrain in his team.

2. Get your team on the bus - When it comes to buy in the first set of people you need to get on your bus is your leadership team. If you don’t have buy in from your leadership team you won’t be able to generate passionate engagement from the rest of your team. This seems like common sense but many teams aren’t connected at the top and that’s why they crumble at the bottom. When I worked with the University of Texas football team in 2009, the year they played for a national championship, the first thing we did was to create buy in from the leaders of the team. Once the leaders were on board we then devised a plan to invite the rest of the team on the bus. With every team I’ve worked with I’ve had the leaders hand out bus tickets to the team inviting them on the bus. I tell leaders don’t assume someone is on your bus just because they are a member of the team. By inviting them on the bus you are symbolically asking them to buy in. When they accept this invitation and hand in their ticket they are committing to the team. The desire to be part of a tribe and engage in tribal rituals is ingrained in our DNA so when someone ritually invites us on the bus our desire to be part of a team turns into commitment and buy in.

3. No Energy Vampires Allowed - Coach Mike Smith created a No Complaining training camp. Coach Jack Del Rio put a No Energy Vampires Allowed sign on his door. Mark Richt, head coach of the University of Georgia, had a picture of an Energy Vampire placed in the team meeting room last year reminding players they were going to stay positive as a team. After reading The Energy Bus, Doc Rivers head coach of the Boston Celtics made it clear that no energy vampires were allowed on the team. In essence these coaches were saying that we as a team must stay positive and not allow energy vampires to suck the life and energy out of our team. Under no circumstance will we allow an individual’s negativity to sabotage our team, our mission and the goals we want to accomplish. Great coaches like Notre Dame Women’s lacrosse coach Christine Halfpenny combat negativity at the cultural level and deal with it upfront by making it clear that Energy Vampires will not be allowed on the bus. They help a team stay positive through adversity knowing that a team who stays positive together, wins together.

4. Believe in them more than they believe in themselves - Leadership is often a transfer of belief and your belief transfers more powerfully when you are someone your team wants to follow because you believe in them. Steve Jobs was legendary for his ability to distort people’s reality and convince them that they could do things they never thought possible. Steve would have been an incredible NFL coach if had ever decided to take a pay cut and coach the San Francisco 49ers. Great coaches, like the current 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh believe in their team members more than they believe in themselves. I can still see the image of Coach Harbaugh on the sidelines thumping his Quarterback Alex Smith’s chest (I don’t recommend this at work) before a huge play-off game last year as if he was physically instilling his confidence and belief in him. At the beginning of the season most people said Alex Smith would no longer be a starter in the NFL but Coach Harbaugh believed in him and as a result of his coaching, encouragement and belief Alex Smith made the two biggest plays of his life to win that playoff game.

5. Love Tough - Tough love is often necessary to accomplish team goals. But for tough love to work love must come first. Buy in happens when a team member knows you care about them. If you show them you care they will be more receptive to you pushing them to be their best. I’ve worked with Mike Smith and the Atlanta Falcons for the last five years and my favorite habit of Coach Smith is that he often visits the treatment room to see the injured players. While most NFL coaches have no interest in speaking to injured players since they are of no use to them, Coach Smith takes time to show his players he cares. When the players recover they are more loyal and play harder for their coach. Relationships are the foundation upon which winning teams are built and great coaches build great relationships with their players. When you love tough you not only get powerful buy in, you get greater results.

How do you get your team to buy in? Share your thoughts on our blog or Facebook page.

-Jon Gordon

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Create a Happy Workplace

We just had to share the article below from from Posted in September 2012 issue of the Royal Printer's Press about Create a Happy Workplace and customer service.  Enjoy!

The phrase "fun workplace" doesn't have to be an oxymoron.  When people enjoy their time at work, they are more productive, loyal, and committed to doing their job well.  Here are a few ways to create an uplifting workplace by paving your team's road to success with fun:

• Offer amusement in your breakroom, such as a TV, dart board, Wii, ping-pong table, or popcorn machine.
• Create games out of production goals with employee-requested incentives or rewards.
• Organize a "Great Place to Work" committee to plan celebrations such as a Mardi Gras party, an ugly sweater contest during the holidays, or a chili cook-off contest during football season.
• Encourage employees to volunteer in the community by offering a paid day to do things like help build a house for Habitat for Humanity.
• Draw names for "secret pals".  Encourage employees to surprise their secret pal with simple acts of kindness or random small surprises (such as leaving a favorite snack on their desk).
• Partner with local businesses to create a discount card that features exclusive savings for your team.
• Create a monthly photo-caption contest.
• Designate an Employee Appreciation Day. Provide food or small gifts, or organize an office outing.
• Introduce a casual-dress policy (at least on Fridays), since less-formal environments energize productivity.
• Consider implementing a shorter work week during slower times of the year.  Or restructure working hours to allow Fridays (or even just Friday afternoons) off.
• Encourage employees to "leave work at work" by creating a daily to-do list before leaving work and not thinking about those things at home.

To maintain a healthy balance between work and fun, it's essential to clarify expectations, stress accountability for actions, and discuss consequences for lack of follow-through.  The ultimate goal is to make it possible to have fun and also ensure the jobs get done.

Posted in September 2012 issue of the Royal Printer's Press

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5 Ways to Be Happier at Work

Greetings from Shoppers, Inc.!  Hope you enjoy the article below from Jon Gordon about 5 Ways to Be Happier at Work and good customer service as much as we did.

As most of us head back to work this week I wanted to share some strategies to be happier at work. Summer may be in the rearview mirror but we can choose to fill our days and the rest of our year with positive energy. Here’s a tip for each day of the week.

Monday

Focus on "Get to" instead of "Have to" - While driving to work focus on what you "get to" do instead of what you "have to" do. With gratitude realize that you don't have to do anything. You get to go to a job while so many are unemployed. Gratitude floods your body and brain with emotions that uplift you and energize you rather than stress hormones that drain you.

Tuesday

Don’t Expect your Boss, Co-workers and Customers to Make you Happy - Realize that happiness is an inside job. Our happiness has less to do with forces outside of us and more to do with what's inside of us. The way we think about work, feel about work and approach our work influences our happiness at work. For instance, just by making yourself smile you produce more serotonin in the brain-which makes you feel happier. You'll also be happier when you focus on what you are giving instead of what you are getting.

Wednesday

Don’t Seek Happiness - Ironically if you want to be happier don't seek happiness. Instead share your strengths and decide to work with passion and purpose and happiness will find you. The research shows that people are most energized when they are using their strengths for a bigger purpose beyond themselves. Whatever your job, decide to bring passion to it and find purpose in it. I've met bus drivers, mortgage brokers, janitors and fast-food employees who are more passionate about their jobs and happier than some professional athletes making millions of dollars. Every job will get mundane and "old" if you let it but purpose and passion keep it fresh and make you happier.

Thursday

Focus on Excellence instead of Success - When you focus on success you can easily fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others, looking over your shoulder, feeling envious, playing office politics, and competing against coworkers instead of collaborating. However, when you focus on excellence you measure yourself against your own growth and potential. You strive to be the best you can be. You simply focus on getting better every day and this makes work more meaningful and rewarding.

Friday

Celebrate Together - While we shouldn't depend on others to make us happy, by building a positive team or support group at work we will be happier. So instead of expecting others to make you happy, you proactively create the positive relationships that enhance your engagement, productivity and happiness. One great way to do this to huddle with your team/group at the end of the week and have each person share their accomplishments, victories, and great moments of the week. This will produce great feelings on Friday that inspire you and your team to come back to work and make a difference on Monday.

-Jon Gordon

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Simplicity Is Key in Customer Service

At Shoppers, Inc. we are very passionate about great customer service, measurement and teamwork.  The article below from Shep Hyken about Simplicity Is Key in Customer Service and employee training relates to our goals and passions.  Hope you enjoy it!

Let’s assume that whatever you sell, be it a product or service, does what it is supposed to do. In the process of delivering that product or service, just be nice.  Do what’s right for the customer. That’s all there is to it.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” according to Apple’s first marketing brochure.  Is customer service really that simple?

For years the legendary Nordstrom’s employee handbook was a simple piece of paper with just 75 words on it welcoming the new employee. There was only one rule: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

Stew Leonard’s Fresh Farm Stores reminds everyone, customers and employees, about the importance of customer service by having their customer service edict carved into a 6,000 pound piece of granite outside each of his stores. There are two, clearly- stated rules: Rule 1: The Customer is Always Right!  Rule Two: If the Customer Is Ever Wrong, Reread Rule 1.

The Ritz-Carlton Motto is just nine words long: We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Those nine words truly describe how the employees are expected to act and the guests are expected to be treated. 

My friends at Ace Hardware keep it simple. Their slogan is three words long: The helpful place. And really, it’s just one word that sums up what Ace is all about: Helpful.  Do you have one word that can sum up what your business is about? Is it nice, easy, enthusiastic, understanding, etc.? Ace found their word. What’s your word?

Simplicity is just in the concept. It’s the application that takes more sophistication to support the concept. We have to hire right, properly train, constantly reinforce, recognize greatness, create a customer focused system, and more. Ah, that is where it all starts to get complicated.

Even Stew Leonard’s simple customer service rules are backed up with monthly focus groups where each department manager invites a customer to attend. Customers are encouraged to use a suggestion box, and all suggestions, which average about 100 each day, are typed up by 10:00 a.m. the next day. Store managers either act on or call the customers about every complaint or suggestions.

If you start at the beginning, it eases the complication.  Get to the basic root of what your customer service is trying to achieve, and, it’s simple.  Just start with the end in mind. If you have the goal to deliver an experience so great that the customer will return and recommend you, then you’re on the path to success.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, professional  speaker and New York Times   bestselling business author.

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Get Recognized for a Job Well Done

by Connie Podesta

Regardless of the profession, employees and employers in every industry desire the same thing: recognition and appreciation for their daily efforts. Employees want to be assured on a consistent basis that they have made a positive difference in the organization. Likewise, employers want their workers to realize and recognize the effort it takes to lead a group efficiently and to provide a comfortable and nurturing environment. 

Think about your own performance for a moment. Could your employer enclose a note thanking you for your contributions, support, positive attitude, willingness to accept change, communication skills, commitment to working hard, leadership capabilities and respectful attitude and mean every word? If not, what changes do you need to make in your attitude and behavior?

Perhaps one of the most unfortunate commentaries on management today is its reluctance, fear, or lack of courage to let employees honestly know where they stand within the organization. It used to be that getting a paycheck meant you were doing a good job. That is no longer the case. Many employees mistakenly assume that since no one has reprimanded, counseled or criticized their work or behavior, they are doing a satisfactory job. However, this assumption could very well put their jobs in jeopardy, because many managers have a difficult time honestly expressing their concerns and doubts about an employee's performance, even at evaluation time. Therefore, you must make a concerted effort to identify for yourself where you stand within your organization. One good way to do that is to ask yourself, "Could my employer write a thank-you note to me commending me for my work performance?" By the same token, think about your current employer for a moment. Could you give your employer a note thanking him/her for creating a team environment, being a positive leader, providing adequate training, sharing the organization's mission statement, identifying and embracing change, listening to your opinions, treating you with dignity and respect, and communicating openly and assertively? If you honestly feel you are not being treated well or compensated fairly, then you must address the problem immediately. Many employees reveal that they dislike what they do and where they work. Yet they have done nothing for years but complain and gripe. Not once have they made the effort to move up, on, or out. Perhaps they think that all they have to do is stick it out a few more years before retirement. They tell themselves that they'll survive somehow. If you've ever told yourself this, ask yourself, "Is mere survival all I want out of my job?" Are you really willing to give up precious years of your life simply because you don't want to make the changes necessary to find a more rewarding job? Most people want a job that is meaningful and worthwhile. People instinctively have a need to make some sort of significant contribution and to take pride in their accomplishments. Are you proud of what you do? Do you believe your work, skills and talents are making a worthwhile contribution? Often employees will answer no to these questions because they believe that to do meaningful work you must discover a new vaccine, compose a symphony or save a life. However, the fact is that there is inherent value in any job done well and with a sense of pride. Meaningful employment does not refer to what your job is, but to how you do that job in terms of your commitment to quality service, honesty, dependability, integrity and treating others with dignity and respect. Because today's workplace is continually evolving and more competitive than ever, now is the time to evaluate your circumstances and your strengths and weaknesses and decide where you need to make improvements to get the recognition and appreciation you deserve. The more pride you show in your work, the better your chances for staying employed. While there are no guarantees in today's job market, employees who place a high value on their work and their environment fare much better. In the end, your future employability and job satisfaction are up to you. You and you alone are in charge of your career-and the rest of your life. Share your thoughts on our blog here or Facebook page. Follow Shoppers, Inc. on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube