Are You Setting Your Quality Team Up For Conflict? Part II

In Part I of my post, I addressed conflict coming from Report Structure Issues.  Conflicts can also arise from the design of the quality program and poor training or the communication skills used.

QUALITY DESIGN FLAWS WILL BRING CONFLICT

When you are designing the tools used by quality analysts, you may be setting expectations based on a checklist rating skills using a “did it happen or didn’t it happen” method.  There are times when the customer interaction requires an agent skill to change or not be used at all.

A manager shared this story of checklist focused quality monitoring:

The agent had a flawless customer experience demonstrating great skills and the customer sounded very happy with the service provided by the agent.  She even complimented the agent during the call.

 At the end of the call, the customer said, “Thanks…you’ve answered all my questions. That’s all I needed.  I’m going to call my husband right now and let him know”.  The agent thanked the caller appropriately and ended the call nicely.

Despite this wonderful customer interaction, the quality analyst scored him negatively for one skill.  According to the quality rating form, the agent did not ask, “Is there anything else?” 

The customer clearly stated that she was satisfied and added that she had all the information needed.

Instead of hearing what the customer said to the agent about having “all I need”, the quality analyst was focused on the quality checklist box for “anything else?”  that needed to have a yes or no.

• Is your quality monitor format rigid without opportunities for the analyst to make exception for certain call types?
• Have you asked your analysts what think their job is?   It’s amazing how many managers expect their analysts to state what’s on their job description, when in reality, the analysts doesn’t see their role the same way.

• Do your analysts just see their role as a check-off of skills or are they listening to what the customer says to judge quality?

• Does your quality program rate technical skills separately from soft skills so you can see if agents excel in both or one of these?

• How often do you review your quality monitoring tools to insure that they are providing you with the information needed for coaching skills?

POOR TRAINING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS WILL BRING CONFLICT

An agent shared this story with me recently and showed me the emails related to an interaction with a quality analyst who had given him major quality error, which he said was incorrect.  These are the emails exchanged:

Insurance Quality Analyst email sent to Agent:  “You’ve made an error in the data entered for this call.  I listened to the call and you did not speak with the actual customer.  You spoke with his wife.  If you disagree with this error, please respond.

Agent email response: “Yes, I disagree.  I did not make an error.  Please check the customer profile to confirm.

Analyst reply:  “No. You did make error.”

 Agent reply:  “OK”

If you just looked at the dialog in the emails, it appears that the analyst and the agent disagree on the error, the analyst rechecked and confirmed the error, and that the agent finally accepted the error.

However, this wasn’t the end of the story.  After further investigation, the error was finally removed.  So, what actually occurred?

The quality analyst said that she had listened to the call, heard that the agent was speaking with a woman instead of speaking with a customer named Michael Smith directly. This would definitely be a violation of their insurance procedures and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

After the agent’s supervisor listened to the same call, he heard the agent correctly and thoroughly verified the customer’s identification and had shared information with the Michael Smith on file.  Michael was the woman caller’s name.

The analyst admitted that she had not listened to the call a second time or even looked at the customer’s account information.  She said she had missed hearing the woman identify herself as “Michael” at the start of the call.

Then, why did the agent just respond with “OK” to accepting the error when he knew he had not done so?

The agent told me that others on his team were experiencing similar situations with other quality analysts.  When they reported these issues to their supervisor, they were told it had been sent to the quality manager for review, and the agents would later receive a canned “Your error has been removed” email from the original analyst.

The agent added that these false errors still continue and that he and his teammates have decided to stop interacting with the quality analysts who email and just forward these issues to their contact center supervisor with their reason for not accepting the error.

If these issues with communication and poor quality observation skills are continuing, it is obvious that the quality manager is not coaching with his team.

• Is the Quality Manager monitoring and rating calls together with each analyst to coach them on their observation skills?

• Is the Quality Manager pulling some random emails to check on their written communication skills and direct interactions with agents?

• If the analysts are also doing coaching with agents, have you sat in and observed them coach and then coached while they observed you?

Do your supervisors and the quality analysts have similar coaching activities and goals, and discuss with each other so that they are working towards the same results?

……….

This article originally appeared in the Contact Center Pipeline January 2013 issue

Are You Setting Your Quality Team Up For Conflict? Part I

Unfortunately, conflict between Quality teams and Contact Center teams happens more often than it should.  Managers on both sides will say that it is probably due to personality conflicts or simple miscommunication.

While those factors do play a part at times, we need to dig deeper to find out what is really going on.  From my own observations and feedback from center employees, I’ve found that some companies actually set conflict in motion through their reporting structure, the design of the quality program and tools being used, or even poor QA training and coaching.

REPORTING STRUCTURE ISSUES WILL BRING CONFLICT

The Quality Manager and the analysts most often report to an operations executive who may not be actively involved in the day-to-day front line management of the center. The Contact Center Director or Manager and the Quality Manager are usually peers in this scenario.

Although companies design this structure of separation to have what they feel is an unbiased look at quality, they may also unwittingly be setting an “us versus them” conflict in motion.  The responsibility for fostering a cooperative relationship between quality and center operations lies with the executive level manager they both report to.

If the quality manager and center director have an adversarial relationship, their teams will pick up on this and the conflict will happen during their interactions as well.

One activity where conflict between individual analysts and supervisors or between both teams can be seen is during calibration meetings.  In these sessions, everyone listens to agent calls and observes system entries, rates skills together and discusses opportunities to improve.

Many calibration sessions become more about “I’m right and your wrong” finger-pointing with voices raised in argument over the tiniest details.  Of course the customer’s experience is often lost in this type of scenario.  Worse yet, I’ve seen quality and center managers sit back and allow this to happen and then privately talk with their team afterwards about how ridiculous the other team was acting.

Our quality and the contact center operations teams need to come together and agree on goals and missions for the best customer experience and business efficiencies and results.

Quality monitoring must be based on facts, not emotions.  Analysts, supervisors and their leadership must also be willing to admit when one of them erred in scoring or when an agent reporting to them failed the customer.  The ability to admit mistakes and learn from them is more important than grandstanding in front of the group.

Regardless of the reporting structure used, we need to insure that we are committed to the common goals and avoid the blame game or taking things personally.  We expect our agents to take feedback and coaching with an open attitude so the same expectation should be there for our quality and leadership teams in the center.

….PART 2 WILL FOLLOW SOON!

This article originally appeared in the Contact Center Pipeline January 2013 issue

You Loved Me When I Was A Prospect But Now…

A friend recently told me about their experience in refinancing their mortgage

When You’re A Prospect

with a large bank.

His story reminded me of a joke I once heard.

A man died and was at the gates of heaven.  St. Peter stood at the gate and asked him if he wanted to go to heaven or hell.  The man said, “Heaven, of course”. 

St. Peter told him that before he made a final decision, he could have a tour of both places.  The man agreed.

He got on an elevator and was soon greeted by Satan in Hell. The man was shocked! Satan was dressed in a tuxedo, drinking a martini and offered the man a drink.  He led him into a beautiful casino where everyone won every game.  Satan took him outside and showed him the gardens and the endless rounds of golf that could be played at the course there.

The man left and went back to St. Peter for his tour of Heaven.  It was very nice…beautiful music playing, quiet places to rest, peaceful and lovely.   He thought it was very pleasant, but nothing like the exciting fun times he had seen in Hell.

He told St. Peter, “I’ve made up my mind.  I’m going to go to Hell”.  He went into the elevator and descended to Hell.  When the doors opened and he stepped off, there was fire and brimstone and terrible things happening all around him.  He saw Satan and asked, “What happened to all the wonderful things you promised me when I was here earlier?”.

Satan replied, “Earlier you were a prospect…Now you’re customer!”

…..My friend’s experience had some similarities.

During his “Heavenly” prospect stage

The Loan Officer was so nice.  The lender called back, quickly responded to questions, promised that everything would be taken care of for him.  The bank was eager for his business.  The Loan Officer would even come to his work or home to discuss and help with documents. Given his financial situation, he was told the refinance should be a “piece of cake”.  My friend agreed to begin the process.

Then he entered Customer “Hell”

He never heard directly from the Loan Officer again.  He had filled out endless amounts of papers, signed documents and jumped through the financial hoops needed for the deal, despite being promised “easy” process.  The online process-tracking that customers could view on the bank website showed multiple errors: 15 documents still needed, although 12 of them had been mailed to the Loan Officer.  One document being requested was about child support or alimony received as income used in the qualifying even though he had told the Loan officer there was no such income.

He emailed the Loan Processor and was told that “everything was fine…don’t worry”.  A week later a threatening letter saying “you better send us these documents or else” arrived.

My friend had had enough.  He emailed the bank parties involved and wrote that he was ready to cancel everything.  Within minutes of sending the email, he received a call from the processor apologizing. Suddenly there was great service and smiles from all involved. The website information was correctly updated and initial approval for the loan was received.

The bank was lucky that my friend was willing to give them the chance to fix things. It’s too easy for our customers to move on and look for someone else who will treat them well both as a prospect and when they are a customer.

Ask your sales and service teams…Are we making our customers feel valued or just focused on bringing in the new business?

Guest Post: The Little Things Really Do Matter to Customers

I’m pleased to have Stefanie Amini Guest Post on my Blog today.  I hope you enjoy her post as much as I did.

Stefanie Amini is the Marketing Director and Specialist in Customer Success at WalkMe, the world’s first interactive online guidance system.  She is chief writer and editor of I Want It Now, a blog for Customer Service Experts. Follow her @StefWalkMe

The Little Things Really Do Matter to Customers

Empathy is a social drive in all of humanity. It is the ability to feel what our brethren feel, and to care deeply about making them feel better, or to make them feel good with no obvious reward to ourselves. This empathic drive in our species is what has allowed us to persevere over the obstacles of our history, which were many, and has given us a very important element that lets civilization work – ethics.

But, there’s more to it than that. When we think about making someone happy, do we think about making them smile, or do we think about some grand gesture to ensure extreme elation in people? Usually, whether we want to admit it or not, we think far too grandiose when we talk about “making people happy”. We greatly devalue the power of simply making someone smile or laugh, or the pure goodness of showing just a brief nod of courtesy or respect to others. We underestimate how far these little things really go.

Businesses make this mistake too, and that’s a very unfortunate thing. Obviously businesses have a less than selfless motivation for making their customers happy, but a good business cares about their customers and their happiness above and beyond profitability too. Either way, the same paradigm exists and the same problems arise from it. Companies try too hard to make their customers happy by trying to unabashedly impress them with grand gestures that often either don’t work, turn out to be impossible, or are too general and absurd.

It’s time to think about this with a smaller metric. Consider the last time someone went out of their way to make some grand gesture to make you happy. Did you feel a little guilty accepting such hospitality? Probably. Now, compare this to someone who was just, with no prerequisite, was respectful, or just made you smile or laugh. They stand out in your memory, do they not? And was there any guilt in enjoying the laugh, smile or edification they bestowed upon you by this little, selfless and cost-free gesture? That’s highly unlikely!

Now, draw a parallel in business, with making your customers happy in the long run. One can divide this into smaller things, in the way of just showing extra courtesy to your customers, and bringing a humble but lasting smile to their faces. What are some ways to do this? Well, from one industry, demographic and scenario to the next, there are a ton that can’t really apply across the board, but there are some generalities in business where it does.

For one, in CRM, individuals who deal with distressed customers, but are willing to laugh with them, to empathize with them and speak to them on their level are an excellent step. Making a customer smile through empathy isn’t hard. If they complement your great customer service, thank them deeply and sincerely, because they will get a smile out of having made you smile in turn. See, it goes both ways with that.

Small incentives and shows of gratitude also work well. You don’t have to offer some grand free prize to a millionth customer, or as a reward for years of loyalty. Simply offer small discounts, or tokens of appreciation that may not even be worth a lot, but show that you care. This will get a smile out of the customer, and they will remember that you care. This will stay with them.

Finally, you probably don’t have to spend a fortune on CRM software or high technology to wow your customers. You need only to keep it simple, and make it very direct and easy for a customer to contact you. The ease of procedures and the simplicity of handling things will bring a smile to their faces, when they’ve been through the wringer with other companies in the past on this.

It’s the little things like this that make people smile, and while a smile is a little thing itself, everyone remembers someone or something that just brings a pure and simple smile to their face. Something that wows them is subject to novelty wearing off given time.

Coaching Numbers or What They Really Mean?

As Contact Center managers, you have a lot of power.  OK…some days it sure doesn’t seem that way, but you really do.  Your supervisors and quality team are listening to you and are observing what you are focused on.

When you talk about metrics, what are you saying to them? If you talk purely “number” goals all the time, your quality coaches will be talking just “numbers” too.  They’ll often repeat what you are saying word for word during their coaching sessions with agents.

When  metrics are discussed during individual agent coaching sessions, you need to make sure that your “coach” knows how to explain them in terms of Customer Experience.

One of the metrics numbers that seems to get a bad rap these days is the length of the call. Some coaches aren’t bringing it up at all in coaching sessions.  There were some managers who actually tracked and rewarded based on the length of call “metric” set. Some don’t reward but are seemingly obsessed with setting a number for call length average based on studying this metric if reported by any other call center in the universe.

I’m a proponent of monitoring and coaching all types of calls.  Long, short and in between.  I don’t advocate setting an exact length of call goal for every call and then holding agents’ feet to the fire.  I do advocate learning if the call was handled appropriately in a likewise appropriate amount of time.

Long Calls:  When I hear lengthy agent calls, I think about my Dad’s famous driving “shortcuts” whenever he took our family somewhere. When he mentioned that he knew quicker route, my Mom would roll her eyes and we knew what was coming.  We could always plan on adding 20 plus minutes to the original length of the trip.  Hopefully the shortcut would involve a stop for ice cream. My father seemed to find ice cream regardless of the route. His passenger “customers” at least were given a treat for their troubles and perhaps that was his true goal.

Some of our agents don’t see the service or sales target straight ahead, but instead, go in circles on their way to closure.  they are not taking the simplest and shortest route to reach the customer goal.

Unfortunately we don’t have virtual ice cream to offer our customers who are stuck in lengthy calls that seem to be going nowhere.

Short Calls: When calls are too short, I worry too because the agent may have missed an opportunity to be proactive, add some additional tips, or listen better for clues for upselling and cross-selling clues.  Worse still are the agents who blend speed with talking over customers. Sally may have taken twice as many calls as the other agents, but what is happening during those calls?  Are they brusque and disinterested sounding, even though she took care of “business”?

Metrics should always be a part of coaching as long as they mean something to the customer and our business needs.

I love to see quality monitoring forms for calls that incorporate metrics as well as the soft skills and other skills needed for best quality.

We just need to make sure that our coaches aren’t just reading metrics numbers to agents, but are instead preparing for their coaching sessions by reviewing those numbers and how they relate to skills demonstrated and the overall customer experience.

Poor Communication = Poor Banking Customer Experience: Part II

In Part I of my article on communication breakdowns, I focused on

Use Familiar Language:  avoiding jargon that can be confusing or may seem misleading
Create a Conversation: ask questions and interact instead of lecturing the customer
Show You Care:  showing Empathy and interest to build trust and value

In addition to these verbal interaction points, there are more opportunities to successfully create a wonderful Customer/ Member Experiences.

More Than Words

While the words we choose are important, we can’t forget about nonverbal aspects of communication, especially in a branch setting. Face-to-face interactions bring the added challenge of body language, which can drastically alter the meaning of what we say. Are your representatives sending the right signals? These may include:

• Greeting customers as they enter

• Making eye contact during conversations

• Using positive facial expressions

• Avoiding negative gestures: sighs, yawns, shrugs

Lobbies and offices are communicating with customers too. Does your waiting area welcome customers, or does it order them to line up? Do tellers call out “next,” or offer a personal greeting? Can customers smell the burnt microwave popcorn in the break room?

Beware Mixed Messages

Lastly, consider how your organizational language compares with your interpersonal language. What will customers think if your brochures describe product features that aren’t on your website? Or if a representative answers a customer’s question with, “I don’t know anything about that. We’re the last to know.” (Yes, one actually said that to me). Inconsistent communication is as bad as no communication. All channels need to deliver the same messages. For example:

• Use clear, easy-to-understand content (no jargon) for website, email and customer communications

• Avoid “copy and paste” emails that do not address a customer’s specific question

• Maintain a knowledge base for employees that is updated regularly

Lead By Example

We must also ensure that our communication style and word choices are the same ones we want employees to emulate. It’s all part of getting everyone in your institution to communicate well. The challenge is a big one. But when customers get the right messages, their responses will be well worth it.

This post originally appeared in my article for Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly publication December 2012.

Poor Communication = Poor Banking Customer Experience: Part I

The words we choose — and how we deliver them — speak volumes to valued customers.

According to the 2012 American Express® Global Customer Service Barometer, nine out of ten Americans (93%) say that companies fail to exceed their service expectations. What’s more, more than half (55%) recently walked away from a purchase because of poor service. When asked to name what irritates them most, consumers blamed an insensitive or unresponsive representative.

Communication is the biggest part of the customer experiences we create. Can you blame consumers for walking away if the message they receive is that the retailer doesn’t care about them or their needs?

When I monitor service centers and bank branches, I often see missed opportunities to tell customers they are valued, and that the bank or credit union wants to help them. Communication is the key. It’s language and much more. Everything the customer sees, hears, feels and yes, even smells, is sending a message. Here are some strategies institutions can use to ensure clear, consistent, customer-focused communication.

Use Familiar Language

Many tellers, service representatives and lenders use industry jargon. Some may assume the customer already understands these terms and their implications. Others may lack experience, and are simply repeating official definitions they may not know very well themselves. Either way, customers will likely nod their heads even if they don’t understand jargon, because they don’t want to appear ignorant.

In contact centers, I often hear a customer finish with an agent who used jargon — and then call back immediately to ask a different agent the same question. The reason? “I didn’t understand what she was talking about.”

To make sure this doesn’t happen, employees can follow up any financial term with a simple “which means…” and then explain the product, service or issue in layman’s language, emphasizing the benefit to the customer or a key point of difference. Common terms that may confuse customers include:

• Account balance vs. Available balance

• APR vs. APY

• Billing cycle vs. Billing date

 

Create a Conversation

Explaining products to customers is a necessary part of the sales process. Too often, however, it becomes a one-way experience composed strictly of “telling.” Without real interaction, financial institutions send a message that the customer’s opinions don’t matter. To build the back-and-forth, it is important to:

• Ask more questions

• Avoid pushing the promotion of the month, regardless of the customer’s situation

• Offer choices and see what the customer thinks

• Avoid cold, canned phrases such as, “Our policy states…”

 

Show You Care

How we communicate is just as important as what we say. To feel valued, customers expect your empathy and interest. It sounds simple enough, but many struggle to make it work. The failure often occurs when representatives are more concerned with process than the customer’s needs or attitudes. Are you watching for signs that your front-line representatives are communicating disinterest? Some of these include:

• Flat, tired or bored tone of voice

• Not listening to the customer’s question

• Cutting off the customer in mid-sentence

• Scripted apologies: “I understand how you feel…”

In Part II of this article, I’ll discuss Body Language, Mixed Messages and Leadership

This post originally appeared in my article for Deluxe Knowledge Quarterly publication December 2012.

Creating A Great Experience With “Non-Customers”

Contact (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Based on some of the recent call experiences that friends have shared with me, it’s apparent that many companies aren’t spending training time on teaching ways for their agents to gracefully bow out of a call to a wrong contact or when the contact they reach says they aren’t right for the product due to (insert here an objection that can’t be overcome).

These fall into the category of “Prospect Experience” or “Possible Future Customer Experience”.

Here’s a recent example:

Agent using nice Smile and Tone: “Hi is this _____? This is ___ from ____ Insurance providers. We provide Health Insurance benefits for small businesses and individuals.”

Person called responds in friendly tone: “Hi (Agent’s name)…I’m only a one person business and I’m already covered by my spouse’s insurance policy through work so I’m not a good prospect for your company.”

Agent sounding irritated: “well OK… (click)”

This call was reminiscent of the bad telemarketing calls made from “boiler room” type operations years ago (and unfortunately still some in operation today) that trained agents to have a “hit and run” philosophy: 

Call as many people as you can as fast as you can and if they are the wrong party or an insurmountable objection is given,  just hang up on them and dial again.

(NOTE: Do not try this in your center! )

Given the way that the Agent opened the conversation and identified herself, it was evident that she understood how to create a nice first impression.  Perhaps she received training and coaching on this or maybe it is her natural style of communication when greeting someone.

Once the Agent experienced rejection, her tone changed completely.  If there was to be no lead or sale made, the Agent was finished with you and saw no need to end the call positively.  Her focus was clearly on the here and now immediate results regardless of the impression she left with that prospect.  And as we know, today our prospects and customers won’t tell only ten people about the bad experience they had with our agent, they will broadcast it on Social Media to hundreds, even thousands of people.

Another example of poor “non-customer” experience is when an Agent calls and the person they are trying to contact isn’t available. It usually goes something like this:

Agent: “Hi..Is Mr. (name) available.  This is (Agent name) from (company)?”

Person answering phone: “No he isn’t. Can I take a message?”

Agent using flat tone: “I’ll call back” (hang up click)

It adds little time to the calls to use  polite phrases such as “Thank you but I’ll just call him/her back later. Is there a good time to reach him/her?”

If your training program doesn’t include discussion and role-play related to creating a great “Prospect Experience” with those who don’t buy or aren’t the right contact, I hope you’ll start covering this during training and coaching these skills too.  We should be creating a positive experience, showing appreciation to and interest in every person we are in contact with.

A wonderful mentor who coached with me many years ago always said and rightly so …”Today’s no may be tomorrow’s yes”!

Consistency and Simplicity Help Drive Customer Experience

YOUR CUSTOMERS?                               (Photo: Wikipedia)

I recently facilitated an Employee Feedback meeting for a client.  Our discussion focused on employee observations related to Customer Experience.  The feedback group included contact center agents, retail store employees and technicians.  When I asked them if customers were receiving the best quality service during customer interactions, they unanimously said “no”.

I was a bit surprised at the emphatic response from everyone and asked why each felt that way.  The top responses given were lack of consistency, hit or miss training and poorly designed web self-service.

The employees said that customers received conflicting, wrong and often confusing information both in personal interactions and when using the company website.  Customers called or complained to store employees and installers that they couldn’t find answers or navigate the website pages without getting lost.  I asked for examples of these poor customer experiences.

One employee spoke about a customer who had been given wrong billing information by someone at a Retail store which then caused the same customer to call the contact center to complain.   She said it was clear from the customer notes that the retail employee had not been effectively trained on the new billing changes.    The agent then had to apologize and calm down an irate customer.

Wasted time for the customer.

 Unnecessary call into the center driving up wait times.

Another employee shared examples of calls from customers who told him that the website was hard to navigate through. Clicks led to dead ends or forced them to have to call instead of allowing them do it themselves online.  Simple changes like Password updates were impossible to do.  Customers said they spent more time trying to find the answer than if they had just picked up the phone.

More unhappy customers,

 More calls in queue.

When I asked the employees what had occurred when they shared these stories with their leadership, they told me that in most cases, the supervisors had simply sent out an email reminding everyone to make sure they give “accurate” information.  The leadership also referred employees to the company internal Knowledge Base, which itself had some old or conflicting information from what the group said. In other words, nothing had changed to improve these Customer Experience issues.

In all of these cases, the employees, who may have had every intention of providing a wonderful Customer Experience, have instead been set up to fail because the company had not done everything possible to eliminate inconsistencies and poor self-service procedures.

Employees spent most of their time apologizing and listening to complaints about poor systems, antiquated knowledge bases and web navigations going in circles.

We can’t hold Employees accountable if we do not take the steps necessary to set them up for success instead of failure.  We cannot create a great Customer Experience if we aren’t focused on eliminating the communication inconsistencies, the knowledge base roadblocks and the added work we are creating for our customers in person, with our contact center and during online interactions.

Keep things simple to do and consistent. Customers will love you for it!

♦ NOTE:  My post originally appeared on the WalkMe.com blog.  A big thank you to Stefanie Amini there!

Being Thankful For Our Customers

As we plan for our Thanksgiving Day celebrations here in the United States,  it is a time for all of us to remember and be appreciative for what we have…family, friends, and other blessings we have received.  It should also be a time for us to be thankful for our customers.

Sometimes when I’m working with service agents and their leaders, I hear them complain about their customers.

“Why do they call for something so stupid?”

“That last guy had the TV blaring and I could barely hear him!”

“She was really upset.  It’s not my fault she didn’t get the package in time”.

We all have moments when we are thinking or saying negatives about a difficult customer. Anyone who says they haven’t isn’t telling the truth.  What is important is whether you allow these negatives to become a part of your daily approach to customers or remind yourself of your role, i.e. why we work in service.

How many of these calls are coming in daily?…”I don’t have a problem or complaint.  I just called to tell you how much I love your products and your service.”  If you have more of these than customers needing assistance or having complaints, we need to talk about how you are doing it

Let’s face it…our job is dealing with customers who are not always nice, polite, reasonable or happy.  But that is the nature of our job and without our customers, even the ones who make us take that deep breath and count to ten, we don’t have a job.

Our goal is to provide the best customer experience.  Our work only happens if we have customers.  If we work in customer service, we need to have appreciation for not only for the customers we love to work with, but also for the customers who are challenging and give us the chance to shine and do our best.

Let’s be thankful and count our blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!