Can anyone tell me why a customer at the end of the phone is more important than the customer actually there in person?
What is it about the phone that makes people cast aside common courtesy, and abandon any semblance of commercial wisdom the moment they hear it ring? Is it Pavlovian conditioning? Does free will desert them?
Let me explain what I mean.
After traveling halfway across the States, I finally reached my hotel tired, hungry, and longing to get to my room. I handed over the booking confirmation, slapped my credit card down for extras, filled in a form – vehicle reg, blah, blah – and just as I was about to be given my key, the phone rang.
Wham. I disappeared – in a flash – under Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, while the customer on the phone zoomed down the line in true Matrix fashion to push right to the front of the queue.
In those first few minutes at Reception, I should have felt the full force of sublime customer service, distilled into an exquisitely crafted procedure, by an emotionally astute Receptionist, leaving me staggered by its quality and originality.
Moments of face-to-face interaction are fleeting and precious these days. It only takes a second to leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. Reputation, credibility are on the line, time after time.
Think I’m teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs? Not so.
Why on earth was the customer on the phone given preference, while the paying customer (who was on the spot) was left hanging – abandoned, ignored, feeling second rate?
Front line staff always go for the phone. Always.
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Dr Valerie Bram is a Director at T2 – valeriebram@t2linguistics.com
Is Customer Service Cultural?
Would you rather be on the receiving end of a fake smile, or a genuine scowl?
Sitting in a Chicago restaurant waiting for my flight back to the UK, an endlessly cheerful, bubbly, smiling, bouncing teenage waitress was fussing over me like a mother hen. That’s the Americans for you.
I found myself wondering whether a more sober, less obtrusive, less-happy British waitress would improve my customer service experience.
It’s a fine line to tread – do you want life to be sugar-coated, or would you prefer a touch of realism. It’s the red pill or the blue pill.
These days, small transactional moments are barely noticed. Texting, e-mailing, conference calling, work-home, clients-family, consume us. We don’t pay much attention to anything. Life is busy, busy, busy.
But considering we interact with service staff all the time, at the check out, at coffee shops, in hotels, restaurants, cinemas, call centres – pretty much throughout the day – how these people treat us can be the deciding factor as to whether our day is good or bad.
Do we want customer service staff to deliver a one-size fits all approach to customer service like the Americans, or to graduate the intensity, and the type of customer service to the individual? That takes perception, judgement and sophistication.
Maybe the super-duper, happy, in-your-face customer service is the only way to be noticed in modern society.
Is there’s a lesson here?
Yes, there is. Aesop told us centuries ago, it’s easier for the sun to get a man to take his coat off, than for the wind to do it.
Give me sunshine every time.
T2 Takes Dubai Customer Communication to New Heights
One week after our first series of programmes in Dubai, our client has already doubled the number of complaints recovered and boosted customer appreciation by 100%.
Over the past few years, T2’s been on a mission to take Psycho-Linguistics to the U.A.E.
We soon discovered that this is a relatively new concept in this part of the world, and everybody’s really interested in the impact it’s had over the past 25 years with our global clients.
In particular, many Dubai-based companies told us they were keen on improving how their brand comes across amongst their customers – who come from over 70 countries.
It’s not always easy for organisations to live up to their brand. As a result, they often project a different personality and tone of voice from the one that’s been designed by the executive team.
Identifying this gap is exactly what our prominent Dubai client has asked us to do.
After we completed this research, we developed specialist communication programmes that closed the brand gap and took customer communication to new heights.
We started working in a specific division of the company that dealt with high-level complaints.
The series of four-day programmes revolved around Psycho-Linguistics, and included customer communication (spoken and written), psychology, strategies for resolving complaints, and a range of practical exercises including role plays and professional writing exercises.
100% of the participants said that they’ve learnt strategies that will help them be more successful in their jobs.
This initiative has already delivered results: in only one week since the first series of programmes, the company doubled the number of complaints that have been resolved and saw a huge increase in customer appreciations compared to the previous month.
In such a multicultural region, where pleasing all customers may seem like a bit of a mission impossible – that’s not bad.
Tell Me What You Want… What You Really, Really Want!
Customers of Scottish Power and Npower would not have been surprised by the Which? survey which identified these utility giants as providing the worst customer service around. Customers, it seems, are using the media, and other innovative methods, to let companies know that they need to make drastic changes, or face the consequences.
So what, I hear you say. They don’t really care! It may seem that this is the case, but poor performance very often equals commercial turmoil and strife. After all, customers vote with their feet, and this has a MASSIVE impact on the company profits. This sentiment was support by Richard Lloyd, from Which? who said, ’Nearly nine in 10 people told us poor customer service puts them off using a brand again’.
Customers were particularly peeved by substandard complaints procedures, poor knowledge of call centre staff and their inability to make the costumer feel respected and valued.
It can’t all be bad news. Certainly not! Lush, First Direct and John Lewis were ranked amongst the top performing businesses with customer satisfaction reaching a staggering 89%.
While striving for improvement, it is useful to look at what others are doing well.
First Direct has recently partnered with the University of Huddersfield to create a Foundation Degree for Call Centre staff. Educated staff = happy customers. The market for low level call centre training is plentiful, but options are slim when you look for qualifications for higher level call centre management. This is disappointing as these are the individuals who drive change and have the ability to impact frontline communications.
Whilst complaints handling featured heavily as an area of concern, accurate written and verbal communication and the use of empathy can play a huge role in diffusing tense situations. Call centre agents need to be fully versed in Psycho-Linguistic tips and techniques so they can minimise the number of cases being escalated. Corporate communication should also be overhauled, so that the ‘Corporate Voice’ of the organisation is defined and creates a positive feeling for existing and potential customers.
We asked Dr Valerie Bram, Director of T2 and industry expert on Psycho-Linguistics what her ‘secret recipe’ is for customer service excellence.
“Just like Dolmio, we don’t give away all our ingredients, but our happy clients assure us that by following our simple recipe, they can guarantee a whole load of happy customers, asking for more of the same.”
She was happy to share her five ‘Top Tips’:
- Move from process to personal. It goes a long way in easing a tense situation
- Use a tone, when you write or speak, which communicates sincerity
- Make sure your customer feels loved and valued
- Communicate in a way which shows the customer you mean business
- Use language which creates trust!
Want to try out our recipe for success? Check out our website www.t2linguistics.com and get in touch.
Our happy customers swear by it and us!