Why pay an entire team of people to solve the same problems over and over again when customers seem no less frustrated after talking to them? And the customers you would actually like to talk to, simply don’t call. Or can’t get through. If you have to cut expenses, this would be the way to go, right?

Before you jump to that conclusion: let’s take a step back. Why did you want a customer service in the first place?

Continuously improve your service

Who better to detect those opportunities than the customer service representative? After all, he is first in line to hear what customers complain about. And when things go seriously wrong, he’s the one trying to deal with the ‘incident’.

Incidents call for incident management: alarming the rest of the organisation and then preparing ourselves for the angry calls to start pouring in. We make sure we know exactly what to say (and how to say it). Basically, we ‘swallow’ incidents.

Can you then be surprised your employees feel pressured? They spend most of their time on conversations they nor the customers want to be having. They are simply not equipped for all this extra workload. And the customers you really want to talk to, are kept on hold for longer and longer periods of time. With many of them just giving up. This is the moment when the customer service starts ringing the alarm bell. They ‘dislocate’ the whole organisation with its craving for extra man power.

Your customer service has so much more potential than that. Instead of reacting, they could be ‘proacting’. You want them to take control of the situation. How? By contacting the customer and informing them of what happened – before they call you.

Eliminate ‘worthless’ customer contacts

But it goes beyond ‘incidents’. Even when nothing goes wrong, you still have to deal with all these ‘worthless’ customer contacts. Just count the number of questions that could have been answered via other, cheaper and often more accessible channels (a.k.a. the internet). Or questions that are a result of unclear communication (just think of invoices that can be made head nor tail of). You’d be shocked.

Your customer service department has insight into all these problems. Sadly enough, that’s where it often comes to a standstill. Is your organisation ready to confront its problems and look for root causes? And fix them? Start by measuring the number of ‘worthless’ contacts. And take action to decrease this number.

Increase customer loyalty

You can’t solve everything. Mishaps happen, new problems pop up. Even without them you will always find unsatisfied customers. No matter how well your organisation handles problems: angry customers will always find their way to your customer service department first.

And that’s when it often goes wrong. Your customer service employee is only human. And humans don’t tend to react very well to angry people. We feel attacked and snap into defence mode. I don’t think I need to paint you a picture of when happens next. The customer gets even more upset, as does your employee until one of them explodes or worse, just hangs up. Nobody’s happy, everybody loses.

Why do these situations go so wrong, so quickly? It starts with the first question a customer service employee is thought to ask himself: “Is this complaint valid?” We basically start by questioning the customer. Highly frustrating of course. Would he have called if he didn’t think his complaint was valid?

So how to go about this properly? It might not sound like it, but an angry customer is actually a great thing. Were you waiting for an opportunity to turn your customers into ‘fans’? Well, this is it!

Richard Gallagher wrote a brilliant book about it: The Customer Service Survival Kit. Bottom line: never ever strip a client of his sense of self-worth. No matter how irrational (or crazy) you think the customer is behaving. Make him feel like a normal human being. Tell him that everybody would feel that way is his situation – heck even you would feel the same way. This doesn’t mean you side against your colleagues. It means you acknowledge his perception as (a) reality. By doing so you create an opportunity to offer solutions – and a customer who’s willing to hear them! Focus on what you can do, as opposed to what the customer demands.

Teach your employees these techniques and you will see a huge difference. Mind you, it will take more than a day to master. Give them the room and the authority to offer clients ‘second time right’ solutions. Support them with processes and systems that facilitate this.

Don’t let you client slip away. Make him your most loyal customer instead.

Be gone with customer service?

Maybe not just yet. Think about what your customer service could be for your customers – and for your organisation. A strong customer vision will bring you a long way. The more concrete and clear, the more people translate it into their day-to-day decisions.

Our ‘humanity’ prevents us from surprising agry customers.

A typical customer service representative? A sadistic misogynist who indulges in his every fantasy. That’s what you’d think if you’d analyse the attitude of some of the customers calling in. Do you want to increase your collection of abusive words? Just listen in for a day at a random customer service department. Angry customers tend to forget that there is a human being at the receiving end of the phone call.

In this respect, it takes sheer courage to proclaim to our service reps that they ought to ‘serve with a smile’. This kind of angry-customer situations bring out our feral instincts: the ‘fight or flight response’. We defend our position tooth hand nail: “it’s not our fault”. Or we hang up, tail between the legs.

This is the ideal moment to make a difference with other customer services. And the experience your customer had with them. Surprise him!

But how?

Overcome your instinct: tackle both the problem and the frustration.

The essence? A complaint always consists of two parts: facts and frustration. One part is the mere facts of the problem, while the other is how those facts are perceived.

Mostly, we do exceptionally well with solving the problem: calm, rational and quick. But why does the customer stay annoyed?  Because we casually ignore the second part. Surely a good solution will always be important, but the degree to which the customer feels acknowledged is so much more important! A customer who doesn’t feel understood? He probably won’t even listen to your solution.

Reversing a painful situation? A concrete example.

A customer calls the customer service and isn’t in the best mood…

Customer: “At last! I’ve been trying to reach you for the last 20 minutes. By now I’m pretty sick of hearing ‘Für Elise’! Internet has been out all morning, while I have some urgent and important emails to send! How am I supposed to work like this?”

Scenario 1:

Service rep: So there’s a problem with your connection. Could you unplug the router for a minute while I perform a line check?

Scenario 2:

Service rep: What?! 20 minutes?! If it’d been me, I’d be seriously ticked off as well! I’m truly sorry for keeping you waiting that long. I’m going to do everything I can to fix your problem as soon as I can. Could you please tell me what you’ve already tried to get it working again?

Can you feel the difference? We start with acknowledging that the customer is frustrated. Moreover we don’t try to ignore or minimize his or her anger. If anything, we confirm that it is perfectly normal for him to get mad. We encourage him to get it all out before we start thinking –and talking- about solutions.

Turning an angry customer into an extremely happy with by only offering a solution? Not an easy job. Do you really want to surprise him? Respond to his emotion! That is when your organization can truly make a difference!

Communication. It’s the instrument organisations rely on for change. But it doesn’t seem to be enough. Because employees are still struggling to understand and failing to adapt to the new way of working. And that’s where the problem lies.

Big efforts. Minor improvements.

There’s something you should know about services that are groaning under the weight of a huge workload: they are usually struggling with dissatisfied clients too. If it’s no longer possible to cope with the pressure; changes must be made. Now!

So, the organisation puts a project team together, calls on consultants and sets ambitious goals for improvement. The team dives into the analysis phase and surfaces at the end of the creative phase with conclusions and recommendations. Management greenlights the quick wins and budget-friendly initiatives.

The communication machine starts up: eye-catching posters, spectacular PowerPoint presentations and updated processes circulate via presentations and campaigns, company newsletters, intranet, team meetings, etc. So far, so good.

And when the communication round is over, it’s down to the employees. They need to go out and put it all into practice. Every employee goes through a carefully planned training programme. And they’re given the new work instructions.

What does a change programme like this actually deliver in the end? Well, usually, no more than a few incremental improvements. Ones the client will have difficulty recognising.

Less than a year later, the organisation will confirm that it’s once more struggling with excessive work pressure, demotivated employees and clients who have abandoned any thoughts of loyalty. Despite all that effort!

Visible result, together with motivated employees

Are you striving for ‘major improvement’? Well, that requires ‘major changes’.

Make the most of the expertise of your employees on the work floor. They know where the gaps in the current work methods are better than anyone else.

Work with them to form a team of motivated employees. Give them the chance to shape the new way they will be working. And to test it in the practical world. Do this and the change is already underway. Step by step, they’ll make the new way of working their own.

Let them experience how it feels to use this new way of working to score with clients. By doing so, you’ll create a desire for change. And slowly, you’ll notice an undeniable improvement in your efficiency. Your clients are sure to notice it too.

Written by Stéphanie ‘t Felt Customer Strategy Expert @ Onestone

Are your clients disappointed with your service? This means it’s time to examine your communication. Being extremely clear about what you offer makes a radical difference to the experience of your clients, your patients or your citizens.

A service concept describes exactly what you offer and what you need from your client so that he can enjoy or benefit from your services.

We frustrate clients when we aren’t clear about what they can expect

In the following example, there is no lack of friendliness or action. Yet the citizen is still dissatisfied with the service. And the process has wasted valuable taxpayers’ money.

Imagine a typical family outing to the water park. After a bit of fun in the water, you discover your iPhone is no longer with the rest of your belongings. You head to the police post; after all, it’s what they’re there for. ‘No,’ they say. ‘We haven’t found anything. Sorry.’ Bother.

You arrive home and fire up the ‘Find My iPhone’ app. What a great tool! You see the exact location of your iPhone marked on the map. It’s in an apartment building less than a kilometre from your home. You inform the police. The response: ‘Before we can do anything, you’ll have to come down to the station to make an official statement. Sorry.’ Bother. Again.

Once you’re there, your ‘case’ is closed: the police are not allowed to search an entire apartment building for your iPhone. This is understandable.

But what was the point of all that running around and standing in the queue? Why did you have to waste both your own time and a police officer’s? Just for the sake of an administrative declaration? And how did it benefit you or the police? Was contacting them even worthwhile?

The next day, you receive a message from the ‘Find My iPhone’ app: your iPhone is now in the park. Time for action. You call the police again. With your heart thumping and eyes glued to the computer screen, you give the exceptionally friendly police officer the exact location. ‘We will send a team and call you as soon as we are there.’ A little later, the police officer calls you back and tells you the team is on site. You provide the current location of your iPhone: ‘500 metres further along the road at the library.’ The police officer calls back just moments later: ‘My team is there.’ While you’re on the line, you see the iPhone moving on the screen: into a tram, out of the tram, across the street … You once more give the new address. And then, in the middle of all this action: ‘Sorry, but we simply can’t keep on doing things this way. There are other tasks we have to attend to. Unfortunately, we can’t keep chasing after thieves for an iPhone. I hope you can understand this.’

What?! Why did we just go to all that effort? What service does the police actually offer in the event of a theft?

A good service concept leads to satisfaction and efficiency

Being customer-friendly and taking action is important, but it’s not enough. For your services to be genuinely customer-friendly, you need a clear service concept: what can the client, patient or citizen expect from you? And what is not possible? What does a client need to do to make the most of your services?

Would you like to have satisfied clients? You’ll have to make a few choices: where do you want to excel? What practices do you want to leave behind? And why?

In this example, the service concept for the police would have answered the question: when do the police intervene in the event of theft (e.g. as from what value?) and when don’t they? What does the citizen need to do? Etc.

A structured service concept, communicated clearly, leads to satisfied clients, gives the employees direction and results in efficiency. This way, a half-intervention with no result makes room for a satisfied citizen and a worthwhile use of taxpayers’ money.

Written by Stéphanie ‘t Felt Customer Strategy Expert @ Onestone

Loyal clients? They’re a dream come true. They’re the clients who aren’t seduced by attractive offers from competitors. The ones who think of you first, every time they need to make a new purchase. Clients who recommend you to everyone who’s prepared to listen … And even some people who aren’t.

You probably have clients like this. But they shouldn’t be taken for granted. They will leave if they believe you aren’t returning their loyalty. Unfortunately, two-way loyalty is an issue that comes up far too regularly.

Clients get little loyalty back

Loyalty is an emotion. And you don’t hold emotions for ransom.

But what do you do if a loyal client has been paying on time, year after year, before one day leaving it a little too late to pay their most recent invoice? Right. You send them a reminder. With a ‘reminder cost’. And it’s usually paired with some threatening language about what will happen if they don’t make the payment straight away.

The issue isn’t just related to late payments. It’s also far too common when you offer extras, bonuses and rewards. Because your older clients, who took the risk of doing business with you, back before you had proven your value, are often forgotten.

What will they think when they see that you reward new clients for their wait-and-see attitude? What will they think if you’re offering new clients benefits you never offered them? Exactly. **** ***!

And why would you only solve a persistent problem at the moment that a loyal client lets you know they’ve decided to take their business to a different supplier?

Make sure your clients feel your loyalty

It might seem like loyalty is only a one-way street. You put so much energy into new clients. And in detecting clients who are likely to head to the competition. You forget those quiet, loyal clients. It’s crucial to pay attention to them if you want to work on genuine loyalty.

For every marketing promotion, process design and all your communications, think about the possible effects on those clients who have been with you for a long time, but who barely make a sound.

What do you offer them to show you appreciate their loyalty? A birthday card is probably not the answer.

Written by Horst Remes Customer Strategy Expert @ Onestone

No shortcuts in your company processes!

Did you know that an elephant will always march to its destination via the shortest possible route? There aren’t any obstacles in the savannah big enough to stop a seven-tonne animal. An elephant isn’t worried about keeping to the track you want it to travel along. Like elephants, people tend to take the quickest routes too. We create shortcuts and ‘desire paths’ to reach things more quickly. But do we know enough about the impact they have on our organisations?

The search for shortcuts and back doors is an inherent part of human nature. Let’s pay a quick visit to the local school. In front of the main entry is a roundabout surrounded by a hedge. Pretty. At least it’s pretty on paper …

But what happens in reality? The roundabout functions as a drop-off point. With the hedge being used as an unofficial entry to the school. Against all the rules. The result? The hedge is looking bald and battered.

“We are so lazy! Or is it better to say efficient?”

The owner of the hedge wasn’t having it. They put some poles in the ground and stretched some wire between them:

And just like that, the shortcut was closed off! And the hedge slowly grew back. But this wasn’t the end of the story. A lot of people now had to walk around the hedge every day. Against their will and natural inclination. We are so lazy! Or are we just grumpy because we’ve seen our efficient route taken away from us?

Company processes with detours?

We all want to reach our goals quickly and easily. This is why we don’t hesitate in creatingdesire paths. Much to the consternation of the designers of parks and gardens. Because why would we follow gracefully winding paths if we can quickly cut across the grass?

“Back doors in processes lead to bad consequences”

The same thought process appears when employees are confronted with lengthy or complex company processes. They quickly discover the back doors … that often open onto unexpected consequences for your organisation.

This is how you create company processes without shortcuts

What do you do as the architect of good processes?

• Consult everyone involved. Leave your ivory tower and sit around the design table with everyone. You’ll open the door to valuable insights and solidify your support for change.
• Understand and accept the natural human preference for shortcuts.Draw up the most efficient route from the outset. And keep in mind the person who will actually be carrying out the process: a person of flesh and blood, with challenges and expectations, goals and frustrations.
• Obliterate myths. Don’t expect to be able to spoon-feed difficult processes to your employees if you only organise bare-bones training. And don’t assume that you’ll be able to weld shut the back doors in your processes. Makeshift solutions won’t stop your staff members from taking shortcuts, just like nothing will stop an elephant from taking the path it wants to take.

The result? A professional flow that allows everyone to be comfortable and productive.Or: a peaceful roundabout. A beautiful hedge. And well-thought-out access routes that allow parents to save time in the morning rush. Everyone wins!

Do you want to research the needs and experiences of your clients? Ask them. You’ll rely on their willingness to answer your questions. And you’ll have to assume their answers are accurate and sincere. But are they?

Bad questions, dishonest answers

You don’t need to have a great deal of experience as a researcher to recognise that you’re best not asking just any questions. ‘How long are you prepared to wait?’: the answer to this question is easy to predict. No one wants to wait. Are your questions contrary to the interests of your clients? Because if they are, you shouldn’t expect to receive honest answers.

Nonetheless, we regularly see surveys that include questions such as: ‘Are you prepared to pay more for the same service?’ About 2% of respondents answer ‘Yes’ to the question, effectively demonstrating that a section of the respondents did not understand the question. Or that they didn’t even read it. And of course, this doesn’t mean that the other 98% wouldn’t accept it if we were to raise the price.

Questions based on fact … Answers based on anything but fact

Even for highly factual questions, where the respondent has no direct interest in giving one answer or another, the reliability of answers is disappointing. Orange, the third largest supplier of telecommunications in Europe, has experienced this first hand.

In a survey of the roaming habits of their French clients, they established that of all clients who claimed to use roaming services ‘very often’, more than 60% had not actually used them even once in the past year. The respondents were given the nickname ‘The French Liars’, a notion that serves in many research teams as a warning not to assume too quickly that respondents give honest answers. Not even to highly factual questions.

As such, only ask the questions that you are really interested in seeing answered. If you don’t gather answers and feedback, you may feel as though you’re making decisions blindly. And that may be the case. But you’re sometimes better being blind and using a cane to find your way than it is to think that you can see, only to run off a cliff.

Written by Horst Remes Customer Strategy Expert @ Onestone

Completely ignoring warning signals: how is that possible? On the 10^thof April 2010, the Polish presidential airplane crashed. The president and his delegation, all killed on impact. It happened less than a kilometre from the airport.

National Geographic devoted an entire episode of Air Crash Investigationto the event. The investigators came across a very intriguing fact. During the descent, a cockpit alarm indicating a loss of height was howling away. Oddly enough, no one really responded to it. Even more disturbing: the only way the crew did respond was in manually turning off the alarm.

Allow me to explain why they did that. Flying an airplane too low when there is no airport in the neighbourhood is enough to set the alarm blaring. The Polish presidential airplane was a passenger airplane, but it often landed at military airports. As these military airports are not included in the database of passenger airports, the system interpreted the situation as if there was no airport. And so, any time the airplane was landing at a military airport, the alarm would sound. Pilots often landed at these airports. It’s understandable that they weren’t completely shocked by the howling siren. Of course, it was still an incredibly bothersome sound. And this explains why they would reset the altimeter alarm. Which is exactly what happened on this flight.

Ignoring alarms. It happens a lot. Especially in the corporate world. An alarm signal on a dashboard is almost always linked to a response such as, ‘Yes, but that’s just temporary, because …’ or ‘This doesn’t take … into account, so …’ What are the consequences?

It’s not just the value of the alarm signal that is nullified; the details of the other measurements or assessments also lose a great deal of their credibility.

We expect our measurements and assessments to reflect reality. But is this really the case? Whenever we assess or measure something, we run the risk of a possible error in the process. And then we need to decide: are our measurements accurate or not? To make this decision, we often set an arbitrary cut-off score. This score determines whether the measurement or assessment is positive or negative. Whether the dashboard display is red or green.

This cut-off score, in combination with our error, leaves us with four possible outcomes. And to explain the situation, we are using cancer screenings as an example:

• Our measurement was correct and we have a positive score (true positive) e.g. we checked for cancer and the patient has cancer.
• Our measurement was correct and we have a negative result (true negative) e.g. we found no sign of cancer and the patient does not have cancer.
• Our measurement was incorrect and we have a positive score (false positive) e.g. we found no sign of cancer, but the patient does actually have cancer.
• Our measurement was wrong and we have a negative score (false negative) e.g. we found cancer, but the patient doesn’t actually have cancer.

Where do we set our cut-off scores? We decide this ourselves. The settings for our cut-off scores determine the ratio of false negative and false positive outcomes. In the example that we gave, we would clearly prefer a false negative result to a false positive one. It’s better to mistakenly believe that someone has cancer and to have them examined more carefully than to send them home when they are actually sick. In order to avoid this happening, we set a higher cut-off score. If we set this threshold incorrectly? We end up with constant false negative results, and our measurements are then worthless.

In the example of the Polish airplane, the number of false positives was too high. The alarm lost its effect.

In these examples, there are human lives at stake. This is fortunately not the case in the corporate world. But the dashboard shouldn’t be turned into a pointless colour picture under any circumstances.