All articles written by John Howard, Ph.D., except
where noted.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Crisp and Vivid High Def Customer Service
From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk
That's a great picture on your new HD television, isn't
it? The images are sharp and crisp and the colors so
vivid. It's grand to kick back and watch a sporting
event when you feel as if you are in the middle of the
game or on the golf course. But wait. Why is the
screen breaking up and going dark? Somebody DO
something – before we see only a test pattern and a
"technical difficulties" message!
Most of us give no thought to the parts responsible
for that beautiful TV image until something goes
wrong. Then disbelief and disappointment set in and
sometimes we get an education we never dreamed
we would need, with a vocabulary revolving around
such things as resolution and pixels, those tiny dots
that make up an image.
Customer service in our companies can fail in just the
same way: Business seems to be humming along.
You've told workers that customer service is your
number one goal, and you hung the plaque on the
wall in your office. Complaints are non-existent, and
the financial reports are good. No news is good news,
right?
Companies gladly accept traditional marks that they
are doing well – such measures as few complaints
and customer retention. But sustaining the big
picture requires more than happy numbers. There's
competition out there for whatever you do, and it's
trolling for your customers. If you want to keep
customers happy and your company healthy, you
must nurture and maintain the individual attitudes
that form employee behaviors, starting with top
management.
Think of your customer service as a picture made up
of thousands of tiny dots, or pixels. These combine
and align to form a complete, brilliant image that
pleases the eye. But if part of them malfunction, the
picture might blur or break up in areas. It might even
disappear completely, collapsing into a muddy
smudge.
The first step in creating crisp, vivid customer service
is developing a framework that describes the
behavior surrounding customer service excellence.
This includes getting down to the nitty-gritty of
actions we expect from employees, such as urging
customers to ask numerous questions, training
workers how to develop rapport with their clients, or
instructing employees to take the time to understand
what a customer needs.
This framework must show how a company's desired
behaviors align to its business goals, thus illustrating
the bigger picture of what you are trying to achieve,
and showing how these practices compare to those
of other companies. Do your practices depart from
industry standards? This could be problematic – or it
could be just fine if your service behavior encourages
excellence and supports corporate goals. Either way,
it's good see how you are doing in the broad scheme
of things and note "why we do it this way" if you
differ from national norms.
The next step in your customer service plan is an
internal behavior audit. You need to measure attitudes toward the specific behaviors in your
framework so you will know if workers are with you
or not. Do they believe in the importance of following
up with customers to see if they are satisfied with the
service they received? Do they think good customer
service includes telling a customer why he or she is
wrong?
Once you have the numbers in front of you, it's time
to mend the gaps in places where behaviors have
broken down. Think of it as fine-tuning of individual
employees or perhaps a whole department, if you
discover a large percentage of staff with behaviors/
attitudes outside the zone of acceptable customer
service.
If you think of your framework in broad terms, it will
help you hire the right people by exploring the
attitudes of job candidates to ensure their beliefs
about customer service mirror the company's.
Finally, remember that almost nothing thrives on
neglect. The companies that perform the best
measure often. They regularly "fine-tune" their image
through training in areas where the picture is blurry.
Through regular maintenance, they
can kick back and watch the show
without fear of technical difficulties or a distorted picture.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BOOK REVIEW: Do You Own or Rent Your Customers?
Kindness is not a new value, but in the arena of
customer service, it might be one whose time has
come/gone/is returning.
Author Ed Horrell, in his book THE KINDNESS
REVOLUTION: THE COMPANY-WIDE CULTURE SHIFT
THAT INSPIRES PHENOMENAL CUSTOMER SERVICE,
recalls an era when businesses were smaller and
managers or owners knew their customers, called
them by name when serving them and urged them
to button their coats against the cold.
Compare that with today's indifference. Is personal
service possible in 2008?
Yes, says Horrell, who gives numerous examples.
One is a department store with legendary customer
service. The store's company "handbook" is one
paragraph long, thus ensuring that employees will
read it. The gist of the handbook message is that
the company stands for service excellence, and
Horrell relates several tales that back up the store's
reputation.
One widely circulated story says a clerk at the store
returned a customer's money for tires that he was
dissatisfied with – even though the store does not
sell tires. The organization's customer service is so
highly thought of that when Horrell was writing the
book, people asked him repeatedly if he was
including this particular store. The continuing refrain
intrigued him, so he studied the store and found
many gems of wisdom. It proves one of the points of
his book – that people are loyal to service
excellence, and they will talk about it.
The author makes several points that seem simple.
He discusses four values that make customer service
come alive when they replace indifference: dignity,
respect, courtesy and kindness. Put into practice,
this means going beyond giving customers what you
THINK they want and actually ASKING them what
they want.
He also asserts that good customer service is a
practice that everyone inside a company must
adopt. "The way you treat your employees will be
the way they treat your customers. I have found this
to be a universal truth; it never fails."
Good customer service separates the companies that
merely rent their customers from those that actually
own them, he writes. And a primary rule of
ownership is that you take better care of something
you own.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
THE KINDNESS REVOLUTION: THE COMPANY-WIDE
CULTURE SHIFT THAT INSPIRES PHENOMENAL CUSTOMER
SERVICE
208 pages
ISBN 978-0814473078
Publisher: AMACOM
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CASE STUDY: Gaining Confidence with ProfileXT™ Job Match
In the highly competitive advertising sales arena, a productive sales staff is crucial to growth. Although
success in sales is measurable, productivity is difficult to spot during the hiring process. How do you gauge
the energy and effectiveness of people you do not know?
An advertising sales organization discovered that ProfileXT's™ Job Match Pattern provides clear answers and
infuses hiring leaders with more confidence.
Participants
The company chose 26 advertising sales
representatives to participate. Managers
administered the ProfileXT™ to each employee, and
also recorded the number of each worker's new
customers, the ads each one sold, and each one's
overall dollar volume.
Job Match Pattern
Four salespeople ranked highest in each of the three
areas (new customers/ads sold/dollar volume).
Fifteen employees ranked in the middle, and seven
ranked lowest.
From this scale, the company developed a Job Match
percentage and matched all 26 employees against it.
An 86 percent or better match most strongly
identified top performers. Leaders chose this
percentage as the company's breakpoint for hiring.
Results
Of the 26 employees in the study, eight met or
exceeded the benchmark. All four of the top
performers ranked in this group. Only one of the
seven low performers displayed the same match.
Thus the pattern differentiated between the top and
bottom performances made by the company's own
evaluations, with these results:
• Top Performers correctly identified by the
pattern: 4 of 4 (100 percent).
• Bottom performers incorrectly identified by the
pattern: 1 of 7 (14 percent)
This pattern now serves as the company's
benchmark for matching employees.
Summary
Using the ProfileXT's™ Job Match, the organization
has developed the ability to screen sales
representative candidates with success. Leaders
believe their hiring practices show more consistency
with ProfileXT™. Their knowledge that the PXT is
based on employee attributes gives them more
confidence in hiring decisions. This process
demonstrates how employee selection practices can
improve using Job Match Patterns.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
STRATEGIES FOR WINNING: Of Course I Remember You!
Nothing is More Important to
People than Their Names
"Hey Bud, let me introduce you to
someone I've just met. That is…um…
I'm sorry, what did you say your
name was again?"
Embarrassing? No, that's too small a
word!
Take heart! Unless you're one of a
small number of people worldwide
suffering from prosopagnosia, a neurological condition
rendering a person incapable of recognizing faces in
spite of having good eyesight, then the following steps
will save you the embarrassment of ever forgetting
anyone's name again.
A Personal Story from Bud Haney
Almost everyone struggles with remembering the
names of people. I was helped when I learned that if
you have empathy for people, you will have an easier
time remembering their names. I think I learned this
principle by observing Jim Sirbasku in action. Jim used
to have a problem remembering names because his "E"
was bigger than his "EM." Here's what I mean: When
he met people, his focus was on himself, or his ego,
which I call the "E." Jim was more focused on "telling"
people than he was on "learning" from people. I
decided the way to help Jim start remembering names
was to remind him to "Use your EM (empathy), not
your big E." It was my way of reminding him to pay
attention to people's names and what they did, and put
his ego aside.
The biggest payoff for learning to remember people's
names is the embarrassment you avoid. This chapter is
full of ideas to help you improve your memory when it
comes to recalling the names of the people you meet.
1. Switch Off the Internal Dialogue
As you're reading this strategy, take a moment to
examine what else is flying around in your mind. It's
no different in social or business situations where
you're meeting people for the first time. Instead of
focusing solely on the person you're meeting, your
mind is filled with snatches of other concerns flying
through it: "…mmm, the food looks good…when she's
finished speaking, I'm going to say…" With all of that
internal dialogue, it should come as no surprise that
you find yourself embarrassed to have "forgotten"
someone's name. In reality, you just didn't bother to
try to remember it in the first place. Become conscious
of your internal dialogue and make a conscious effort
to focus your attention exclusively on the external
dialogue. Every time you find yourself drifting inward,
step out. Stay external – prepare to remember.
2. Listen
Hey, come back! Just because I'm repeating Rule #1 of
good communication, a rule you've had hurled at you
time after time, don't ignore this key element. Good
listeners rarely forget names. Learn to listen actively
by applying the next few steps which focus your active
listening engine. Then when a person's name is
introduced into the conversation, be sure to hear it!
3. Bury the New Name in Your Memory
First, repeat it in a sentence. Plain and simple everyday
courtesy phrases like, "It's a pleasure to meet you,
Marie" will do it. This has two effects: it puts the name
immediately into your short-term memory and it
makes the new person feel good – most people love
the sound of their own name. If it's an unusual name,
ask her to spell it: "Is that N-I-L-G-U-N?" This implants
it even deeper in your memory and builds further
rapport. Finally, think about the name itself. Does it
sound like anything else? Is there any way you can
make a memorable association? Names like Wood,
Holly, Marsh, Guinness, or Green are made for
memorable association. If there's no obvious
association, then consider what their names sound like:
McCann (My Can), Harrison (Hairy Son), Kendall
(Candle). The process of trying to make these
connections helps to bury names further in your
memory.
4. Make Eye Contact
When meeting someone, look at him.
Make eye contact and smile. Imagine
the name of your new acquaintance
is written in big luminous letters
across her forehead. Then observe:
What makes her face interesting and
different? Has she a parting in her
hair or a gap in her teeth? Eyebrows
that meet? A long nose? You don't have to stare them
out to do this effectively. All of this can be picked up in
a few quick glances, if you're prepared to make the
effort.
5. Bring it All Together
Finish the job of remembering them forever. You've got
the name, you've got some memorable association,
and you've got some distinguishing physical features.
Now, construct a mental picture for this person.
Connect his or her unique physical features with the
name's association to create a picture that will pop into
your mind next time you meet. The sillier the picture,
the better.
This is an absolutely infallible system. Apply it and
you'll never forget someone again. With a little
practice, this process becomes so automatic and
instantaneous that you will find a mental picture pops
into your head right away for every new person you
meet, ensuring that every new face and name is filed
away in your mental Rolodex. Forever.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SUCCESS STORY: Full Speed Ahead at Planet Tan
EDITOR’S NOTE: St. Louis, Mo., native Tony Hartl, CEO
and founder of Texas-based Planet Tan, describes his 120
employees as "talent." Strategic thinking keeps this
forward-moving executive at the top of his game. Planet
Tan's awards include Profiles International's 2007 Client of
the Year, The Dallas Business Journal's Best Places to
Work in Dallas-Fort Worth for 2006 and 2007, and INC
Magazine's designation of an INC 500 Company for 2007.
Q. How did you create the name "Planet Tan"?
A. When I was starting Planet Tan, there were
similar names out there -- Planet Hollywood was
popular. And there were other tanning firms with
"global" and "international" in the name. I wanted to
take something to infinity so we would not fall victim
to the "one-up" concept. I chose "planet," which
matches the logo design.
Q. How many Planet Tan locations do you have,
and where are they?
A. We have 12 with the 13th being built right now.
All are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Within the next
30 months, we will add 20 additional stores.
Q. Were you living in Dallas at the time you
founded the company?
A. I was living in Denver. I'd gotten a classic
education in marketing and at age 23, I was the vice
president of a corporation. My position gave me an
understanding of trends, as well as an access to
research and data in tanning and an understanding
of clients' lifestyles. So I studied where this type of
client might live. I also looked at where I wanted to
live. Dallas was the answer. It's a great market, a
great city from a cosmopolitan standpoint, and it has
the traditional values that I grew up with in the
Midwest.
Q. What are those values?
A.When you say you are going to do something, you
do it. You don't need a contract. I seal many of my
deals with a handshake. Also, I appreciate people.
That doesn't mean taking them for granted, but
appreciating what they do. The overarching thing is
the work ethic. I have been in many markets where
there is a cultural difference when it comes down to
accountability and how people work. The Midwestern
ethic, shaped by farm life, is that you work all day
and all night. I was exposed to that at an early age.
Q. Besides that hard work, what makes Planet
Tan successful?
A. There are two points of difference between Planet
Tan and our competitors. We established our brand
as fun, energetic and relevant. We sponsor three
sports teams. We are the official tanning center of
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, The Dallas
Mavericks Dancers and the NHL Dallas Stars Ice
Girls. We are one of the few businesses to sponsor
all three major sports franchises in Dallas and this
makes people think we are larger than we are. The
second thing is our size. Our average stores have 50
tanning beds, where others might have 10 or 12. We
have the largest tanning facilities in the world and
we are open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a
week. We have so many beds that we gain market
share very rapidly.
Q. Did you know the business would be
successful from the outset?
A. Yes. I never thought I would do something that
would not be successful. There is a certain level of
optimism, enthusiasm and energy that
entrepreneurs bring to the table. There is a real bias
for action. It's like a 16-foot speedboat. You think at
lightning speed. It's in the DNA – you've got it or
you don't. It's not learnable or teachable
Q. Why did you contact Profiles International?
A. We had a need. We had 88 percent attrition in
2006. We needed better assessment tools. A friend
referred me to Profiles.
Q. What assessments do you use and what
have you seen as a result?
A. We use ProfileXT™, ProfileXT Sales™ and Step One
Survey II™. In one year, I saw a drop in attrition
from 88 to 72 percent. I knew we were onto
something.
Q. Have you seen other changes in your
business as a result of your relationship with
Profiles?
A. We take more of a deliberate approach to our
hiring process now. We understand that there's not
any one piece we want to do without. We use
Profiles assessments, multiple interviews and
reference and background checks. We have 120
employees and that will grow to 170 by end of the
year. We call people "talent," and the difference
between talent and people can be a strategic
initiative for a business.
SUCCESS STORY: Full Speed Ahead at Planet Tan
You are serving a customer, not a life
sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work.
-- Laurie McIntosh, writer
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PRODUCT FOCUS:
New Customer Service Profile™ Report Shines Light on What Customer Service Means
Partner Contact Information
For years, Customer Service Profile™ has waged war
against poor treatment of the people your company
needs to survive. Managers use CSP's placement,
coaching and individual reports to see which job
candidates' attitudes best match the organization's
expectations for excellent customer service. For
employees already on the job, CSP reveals which
areas and/or individuals would benefit from more
training.
Now a new CSP report gives organizations one more
strategy to use in battling poor customer service.
Called the alignment report, this revealing survey
gives managers a dual-screen view of both
marketplace attitudes and those of their own
employees in one convenient document.
The alignment report works in two specific ways.
First it shows Company ABC how well its customer
service standards match those typical of other
companies. Second, it reveals to Company ABC how
closely its own employees agree with ABC's
customer service values.
After viewing the results, Company ABC may want
to make some changes – or may choose to do
nothing at all. As with other reports, this one's
power lies in the information it provides.
Here is a picture of the report at work: It takes
Company ABC's answers to 50 important statements
and matches them with industry norms. A sample
statement says: "All of a customer's concerns are
important; never dissuade them from asking
questions." In column format, Company ABC's yesor-
no response to that statement is compared with
that typical of other companies. Differences are
highlighted. A third column shows whether a
selected group from Company ABC agrees with the
company's perspective. This answer is given in
percentages when employees disagree. No
percentage means overall agreement.
If Company ABC's answer to the statement differs
from that typical of the marketplace, it may or may
not be a cause for concern. A company might want
to change its response to the statement. Based on
corporate goals, only that company can determine
what constitutes its best customer service practices.
Large percentage differences between a company's
agreement with a statement and that of its
employees might be of more concern. If Company
ABC believes that all of a customer's concerns are
important and 50 percent of employees surveyed
disagree, more exploration is necessary, and
perhaps more training.
The alignment report is one more nail in the coffin of
poor customer service and one more step to
establishing a customer-oriented culture in your
organization. Call us at (254) 751-1644.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
| 
