Simple Words Seem To Be Hard To Say
As I stood in line for my daily shot of caffeine, a guy walked in the door with a coffee in his hand. He sorta
stepped to the front of the line and said, “I just went through the drive-through and this is not what I ordered.” Being a customer service kind of guy, my expectation was that the lady behind the counter would apologize - nothing big or dramatic but a simple “Oh, I’m sorry - how can I make it right?” But the answer did not include one of the most simple tenants of customer interaction; instead she asked him what he ordered? He told her (I cannot remember the details because it was one of those silly multi-word coffee orders that included “extra hot.”) She then said, “what is wrong with it?” He said he was not sure but that he ordered it almost every day and that in addition to not being extra hot, it did not taste right.
Again - she had the opportunity to apologize but failed again - saying, “OK - I will remake it for you. They must have not included the caramel.”
Now, the funny part was that there were only two people working - she, as the coffee barister and the person working the window - which means she was the “they.” With that, the conversation took another turn. Instead of taking responsibility for the mistake, she was blaming others for the problem.
In a workshop recently I had an employee tell me that she did not think she should ever say she was sorry because that was admitting that the company had done something wrong.
Here’s the question of the day - do your employees feel the same way? Is it OK for them to take responsibility for mistakes? Do they have permission to say they are sorry? If I were your customer - and I walked in and said that my coffee (or product/service) was not the right one, would your employee instinctively say, “I’m sorry” and then attempt to solve my problem? I hope so! You should know so!
Leading While Distracted
I know that driving distracted is a serious issue. Nationwide Insurance recently released a study that that includes data from the University of Utah that says “distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.” But, as I was driving through the state of Kentucky this past week, I saw something that hit me as funny. The signs that span interstate 65 had a flashing message that read “Driving Distracted is Dangerous Driving!” Is it just me or is it ironic that the big flashing sign that distracted me was put there to remind me that I should not be distracted? Sorta crazy, huh?
So what does this have to do with frontline management and customer experience? Glad you asked!
Do you have metrics and statistics posted throughout your office or call center that are actually distracting your employees from what is really important? Do you have information posted on service levels or statistics but nothing that focuses on the level of satisfaction or quality?
I have been in many call centers across America that post “talk time stats” and “average answer-time” but not one metric anywhere that show quality scores or customer satisfaction. Yet the leadership told me that quality was a top priority.
So, do this soon - walk through your office for the express purpose of reading posters, banners, reader-boards and bulletin boards. What is the message that you see? Is your culture on display? Is the customer represented? Are metrics internal or externally focused?
Another set of questions to ask: Is the metric actionable? If we are missing the goal, does the management team have a plan to correct the situation? What are the specific plans that accompany the failure to meet the metric goal?
I believe that the messages we post are just as important as the messages we speak! Please don’t attempt to lead with distractions. Distractions are dangerous!
ACCE 2009 – Good Conference / Great People!
Filed under: Engagement, Leadership, Management, Relational Leadership
So the ACCE 2009 conference is now in the history books. I enjoyed the conference and reached a new level in Twitter communications this week. You can follow me @bobfurniss – I will say that it has been a learning experience (lesson learned: check names, spelling and hash-tags BEFORE you hit send!)
I had the opportunity to speak about culture. My session “Culture Shift – Moving People Forward™” was a lot of fun - full room, great engagement! I really do love the rush of being on stage! Thanks to the folks that attended who asked good questions, took notes and laughed at the right times. We talked about the seven steps to transforming the culture of a company, a call center or a team. I am working on a white-paper on the subject and will make it available here soon.
Here are a couple of additional highlights:
- Patrick Morrissey, Vice President Service and Support Marketing from Salesforce.com gave a great lunch keynote about the impact of social media on the future of call centers. It was perhaps the best product presentation I have seen in the past 10 years! He shared their solution, Service Cloud, as the answer to tracking social media information inside their hosted CRM solution. I have been saying for a while now that social media is the “next” call center channel. He explained why and educated the industry leaders in the room on the subject. The amazing part for me was that only about 15% to 20% of the people in the room said they are on Twitter. Now, I understand that someone may not want to participate personally but I believe call center leadership should be leading the charge in understanding and educating companies about the need to engage. If a customer can tweet about a bad experience and reach more than a million people (followers) in one 140 character post, the customer service group has to care about it. Contact Solutions was on hand to teach people how to participate at the official “Tweet-up area” and to give out gift cards for participating (no – I did not win)
- ICMI is a leader in the call center space and did a great job with the conference. Mandalay Bay employees were the essence of good service. It seems the number of attendees continues to decline each year and it is always a topic of conversation as to why – access to information on the internet, webinars, travel budgets, locations? I don’t know the answer. But the people that that I met were great. I had a great conversation with the leader of global support for Apple and the I-phone. It was enlightening to hear him talk with passion about the call center being a big part of the brand. I am glad to have the new connection. I also met Tom Vander Well with E Wenger Group, a fellow consultant who specializes in quality programs for call centers.
- Las Vegas is an interesting place so there were prime opportunities for people-watching. If you have been to a conference in one of the resorts there you know that the hotels are HUGE. I actually counted my steps to from my room to the conference center (yeah I know, weird huh?) but it was so far I had to know. 2456 steps (+ an elevator and two escalators). I think that is almost a quarter-mile. Amazing!
- Congratulations to American Express UK for winning the Global Call Center of the Year Award. Congrats also to Blue Cross Blues Shield of Massachusetts for being named the runner-up. They were my sentimental pick since they are a client of mine. I had the opportunity to work with the leadership team and conduct a one-day seminar several years ago. I often tell people that they have a call center by which others should be measured. So, I think 2nd place is a validation – against the hundreds of entries. The leadership team is amazing!
- It was great to meet Dustin Hou and Stella Young from ICMI China and learn about the amazing growth of call centers there. They invited me to speak at their conference in 2010 so that is very exciting!
- Hot Topic won the Customer Experience Video contest and they did a great job of showcasing their call center. I met Joy Hussey, their Customer Service Manager and had a great conversation about their culture. Hope to do a showcase of their success in a future interview and post. The video is online at ICMI but without a direct link. Click here for the video page and choose the second one on the list on the right. The others are good also. I told Joy it must be cool to work in an environment where the product is a “lifestyle” so defining the culture is perhaps easier to “show” - but, of course, the success is in the details and the “attitude” of the center. I love the sock-throw - very great example of the “fun” side of the center. I am not sure how to create a similar visual culture say in an insurance center?
So that about does it for the update. Again - great show… Hope it was worth your time – the 140 characters of Twitter is a much quicker read!
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Bob Furniss
As founder and President of Touchpoint Associates, Inc., Bob Furniss has more than 25 years of experience in the customer service field - assisting organizations to increase productivity and profits by bringing out the best in their people. He has shared his experience in the areas of leadership and service with some of the top companies in America - companies like FedEx, Corporate Express, DePaul University, Delta Airlines, Hanley Wood and more.
Click here to email Bob direct -
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