Here is a simple test for you.  Count the number of “F”s in the sentence below.

Don’t read any further until you have decided your number.

If you said six “F”s, then congratulations!  If you said anything else, don’t feel bad.  Most people see three.  Look at the sentence again.  Did you miss the “F”s in “OF”?  Now that you see the “F”s, it’s pretty obvious right?  It makes us wonder why we missed it in the first place.

Now, think of your service business.  Opportunities to help your customers should be obvious too.  Or are they as obvious as we might think?  Is your service team missing opportunities to help your customers?

Even with a Process in Place, Is Your Customer Seeing All the “F’s”?

Perhaps you have encouraged your field team to look for ways that you could help your customers achieve their business goals.  You’ve set up processes and systems to capture any opportunities identified.  You may have even told your customers your intentions and why your field team’s actions are not only unique but of great value for the them.  Even with all of this in place, how confident are you that they are seeing all of the “F”s – that is, how confident are you that they are not missing any opportunities to help the customer to be better off.

Four Actions to Ensure Your Field Service Team Does Not Miss Important Opportunities

Here are four actions that you can take to help ensure that your field service team does not miss opportunities that are important.

1. Establish a customer visit routine

Whenever your field service professional calls on a customer, ensure that each one of them follows a specific process which may include steps like:

• • Stopping by the customer’s office to explain the nature of the visit upon arrival and asking if anything has changed since their last visit.
  • Stopping by the customer’s office after the work is completed to go over what was done and asking if there is anything else they would like them to address while they are there.

2. Have your field team follow up on previous recommendations

Your customers are busy and, even with the best of intentions, some of your recommendations will get forgotten.  It’s a valuable service that you provide when your follow up reminds the customer to address something that had completely slipped their minds.  This is particularly important if the recommendation would prevent something that could seriously and negatively impact the customer if it is not addressed.

3. If appropriate, have your field team ask the customer to take them on a tour of their facilities

While on the tour, the field professional can point out ideas where you may be able to help and even some issues that may not be related to your business at all but will help the customer see that there are improvements that can be made.

4. Share best practices between team members

Whenever a field service member makes a recommendation that benefits a customer in a significant way, share it with the rest of the team.  What was the issue at hand?  How did the recommendation help the customer?  How many other customers might benefit from a similar recommendation?  What do these customers look like?  What questions might the field professional ask to uncover whether they could benefit from a similar recommendation?

Every time we make a proactive recommendation to a customer, we have an opportunity to help them toward achieving their business goals.  But, recognizing opportunities is not always as easy as we may first assume.  Andmissed opportunities might result in a problem for the customer.  Help your field team establish a process that will minimize lost opportunities and further enhance the value that you offer to your customers.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”

– Mark Twain

The post Is Your Field Service Team Missing Opportunities to Help Your Customers? appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Whether we like it or not, what is written on the work order to describe the service that has been performed, is an important indicator to the customer of the quality of the work completed. This is because, under most circumstances, the customer cannot actually know the quality of the work itself. For example, how do they know if the hour it took the technician to troubleshoot the problem displayed brilliant detective work that would have taken any other person several hours to figure out, or if the hour demonstrated a poor grasp of the technology that another technician could have completed in only 5 minutes? The fact is the customer doesn’t know. They therefore look for evidence of the quality of the service and one of the most important factors that they rely on is how the work performed is described in the work order description.

Therefore, providing a clear and accurate account of the work completed is very important. There is also another and very practical reason for having a clear and accurate work order resolution description – productivity. Imagine the technician completes a complicated repair and describes the work completed simply as “Fixed unit” in the work order description. The invoice for the work is $1,000. The customer on site is delighted to have the problem fixed and gladly signs the work order.

Roughly 60 days later the customer on site gets a call from her Accounts Payable department. They are reviewing the invoices for payment and they want to know what the service company did to justify the $1,000 invoice. Confronted with the need to provide this information, what does the customer do? She goes to her copy of the work order to collect the needed clarification. Of course, the “fixed unit” description is not at all useful so she is forced to call the technician directly. The call unnecessarily interrupts the technician in his work and he struggles to remember exactly what he actually did on that day over two months ago. All this costs time and, of course, money and all because the work order resolution description was poorly written.

So, how does a busy service manager encourage and ensure that his/her team communicates the value of the actual work through the work order resolution description? They could coach their team to use CARE on every work order.

CARE is an easy to remember acronym that can be used as a reminder for the technician to include the critical information that best describes the repair or service in a professional manager and that reassures the customer of the value of the action taken.

C is for Condition: Record the condition on site prior to taking action.
A is for Action: Summarize the actions taken to resolve the issue.
R is for Results: Record the resulting condition on site after the action has been taken.
E is for Expected Next Steps: Identify expected next steps, if any, that need to be taken, including any recommended repairs.

In addition to describing the work performed using the CARE approach you may also wish to include other information such as identifying the equipment and its location, recording all the materials and consumables used in the repair and, of course, identifying other observations or recommendations that will help the customer. All of this can be reviewed with the customer at the completion of the call.

All of this information and much more can be found in our Pocketbook of Proactive Service®. I would be happy to provide you with a free copy of the Pocketbook. If you would like your complimentary copy, simply send me an email with “Pocketbook” in the subject line along with your company name and address and I will get one out to you right away.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”

Isaac Asimov

The post 4 Components of a Better Technician Work Order Resolution Description appeared first on jimbaston.com.

It happened to me recently on a flight from San Diego to Toronto.  I was running late for my 11:30 am flight – the only one of the day by that airline.  I ran up to the ticket counter.  I had checked in on-line and all I needed to do was drop my bag.  As I jogged up to the counter, I was relieved to see that there was only one person in front of me – a family checking in bags presumably for the same flight.

As I stood at the front of the line puffing, but otherwise quietly waiting my turn, the ticket agent looked up from her work and asked over the shoulders of the family she was serving, “Going to Toronto?”  “Yes, thanks,” I replied.  “If you’re checking that bag, you will have to go without it.  You’re six minutes past the cut-off time.”

My facial expression must have communicated the question that was formulating in my head because before I could say another word, she explained that the people she was currently checking through had arrived at the desk on time so she was able to process their bags even though it was past the arbitrary cut-off.

So, here I was in an airport, hoping to go home on the only flight that airline had that day, but unable to check my bag because of an arbitrary cut-off time.  And, to add insult to injury, the ticket agent was processing bags for the same flight, right before my eyes.  Apparently, the only reason she would not process me was not because she couldn’t, but that I was six minutes past the cut-off time.

By now the agent had finished processing the family and was able to dedicate full time to “helping” me.  “Is there nothing you can do for me?”  She shook her head.  “So what do I do?”  “Well, you can get rid of the bag and get on this flight or take the next one,” she replied.  “When is the next one?”  “Tomorrow, same time,” she replied.  I am sure she exhibited a small grin.  I was stuck and she knew it.

The next 20 minutes was a wild frenzy as I arranged to have my bag taken care of.  Fortunately, I had a business acquaintance who was staying an extra day at the conference and he willingly agreed to bring my bag back to Toronto.  I put my bag on a taxi bound for the hotel and headed back to the ticket counter.  As I reached the counter, the ticket agent greeted me with a smile and the same question she had for me 20 minutes earlier – “Going to Toronto?”

Argggh!  I understand that there are guidelines and that I was outside of them.  The agent was simply doing her job.  What annoyed me was her lack of the three critical components of dealing with a sticky situation.

Empathy – I had no feeling that the ticket agent had any concern for my welfare at all.  In fact, I think she enjoyed being in the position to be able to say “no”.

Creativity – She made no effort whatsoever to see if she could help me.  I am still convinced that she could have assisted me if she wanted to.  She could have made a quick phone call to see if they could make an exception in this case.  Even if the answer was still “no”, at least I would have felt she tried.

Common Sense – It is common sense not to inflame an already charged situation.  Pointing out that I was six minutes late, making off-hand comments about having to leave my bag behind and later asking me the second time if I was going to Toronto were not helpful and certainly did not endear me to the agent or the company she represented.

But I have to thank her.  There is a valuable lesson here.  This agent probably does a pretty good job of processing people through the airport when things are as they should be.  However, when things go out of the norm, she obviously does not have the skills or the knowledge to handle those exceptions effectively.

How about your customer facing staff?  Are they prepared to handle difficult situations?  Do they show empathy and use creativity and common sense to try to diffuse and ultimately correct the situation?  Or, do they act in a manner that sends your customers packing?

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

– Zig Ziglar

The post When the Customer Service person says “I Can’t Help” appeared first on jimbaston.com.

During our Proactive Service® workshops, we ask technicians if they have ever proposed an idea to a customer where the customer has never gotten back to them and where they do not know what the customer has decided to do.  Almost everyone’s hand goes up.  We then ask, “Why do you think that is the case?”  Responses range from, “They decided not to do it” to “They got someone else to do it.”  Occasionally someone will say something like, “Maybe they forgot about it” and if they don’t, then we suggest it.  We then relate the story that I told in my last blog about the technician that passed on a lead from the field that was never followed up by the salesperson.  In that situation, the recommended action was to prevent a failure and a few months later, the failure indeed occurred.  Of course, the customer was angry and the technician was put in an uncomfortable position because of inaction on the part of the salesperson, but the problem would have been avoided altogether if the technician just took a moment to inquire with the customer whether they had given any more thought to the matter.

Usually there are one or two techs in the room who share with the rest of the class that they make it a point to follow up.  When they volunteer this, I ask them “What does the customer say when you remind them of something important that they may have forgotten about?”.  “They thank me” is the usual reply.

If we truly want to deliver a more valuable (and valued) level of service, we must do more than simply bring opportunities to the customer.  We must inquire about them when the customer has not taken action to ensure that the customer does not lose sight of those important recommendations and save them grief and aggravation down the road.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas A. Edison

The post Step 5 of a Proactive Service® Culture – Follow Up on Opportunities appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Nothing will stop a technician from making recommendations to a customer more quickly than poor or inconsistent follow-up by the rest of the company’s staff.  A technician that makes a recommendation that requires follow-up by others (salesperson or manager for example) and which is not followed up, is unlikely to continue to do so.  But worse than that, lack of follow-up can have serious consequences.

I worked with one service firm that did not have a formal process for handling opportunities from the field.  I interviewed one of their technicians and he related a story that highlights the problems that can occur.  The technician had found a problem with a key piece of equipment and recommended to the customer that it be replaced as soon as possible.  The customer asked the technician to have someone get in touch with him with pricing and installation information for the replacement.  The technician reported the opportunity on the work order along with the request for a follow-up call by the salesperson responsible for the account.  Unknown to the service tech, the information did not get to the salesperson and no one followed up.  About a month later, the customer called in a panic because the equipment failed, just as foretold.  Rather than praising the technician for his ability to predict the failure, the customer was furious that there was no follow-up on the part of the firm.  The service technician took the brunt of the customer’s anger and felt let down by his colleagues.  Needless to say, by the time we spoke to the technician, he was reluctant to identify opportunities in the future.

Even when a process for opportunity management is in place, it may not include an important step.  One of the most common complaints we hear from technicians is that, even when there is follow-up, the technician is not kept in the loop.  The lack of a communication loop to keep the technician informed causes more than hard feelings.  It also can cause a customer service failure.  Let’s assume that the technician has spoken to the customer and they are interested in pursuing an idea that she brought forward that may reduce energy consumption.  The salesperson or manager is duly informed and goes out to visit the customer.  If there is no communication back to the technician, the salesperson may develop a solution that is beyond what the technician had in mind and far exceeds the customer’s expectations.  A simple discussion with the technician would have prevented this from happening and the technician would have an opportunity to share her ideas with the salesperson that could be incorporated into the ultimate solution.  In addition, by keeping the technician in the loop, the technician will have an informed response if the customer asks about the progress on the opportunity development the next time she is in their facility.

A key step therefore, to ensure that you create a successful and lasting Proactive Service® culture is to ensure that you have a clear, concise and consistent process for identifying and following-up on recommendations from the field.  Not only will this improve your service delivery, but it will let your technicians (and customers) know that these recommendations are important and that they play a key role in your firm’s the overall service delivery.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

– Peter Drucker

The post Step 4 of a Proactive Service® Culture – A Clear Opportunity Process appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Without knowing the goals of the customer, how can our technicians make valuable recommendations?  A solution that works for one company might be contrary to the needs of another.  There is a wonderful story circulating around the Internet that illustrates the danger of solving problems without understanding the business goals.  Perhaps you have read it.  It goes something like this.

An employee of a large company was working late one evening.  She sees the CEO of the company standing in front of the shredding machine with a piece of paper in his hand.  He looks completely at a loss of what to do.  He asks the employee to help him make it work, explaining that his executive assistant has left for the day.  The employee is delighted to help and takes the paper, turns on the shredder and feeds the document into the machine.  As the paper disappears into the shredder, the CEO says “Thank you.  That is an extremely important document.  I only need one copy.”  Oops!!!

Understanding the customer’s business goals adds a critical piece of information to help the technician solve the puzzle of what they can do to help.  Knowing this will ensure the recommendations address the right problem, or as in the story above, prevent the creation of a new one.

How can a technician understand the business goals and challenges of the customer?  There are several ways, including doing Internet research, reading annual reports and catching up on the trade press for example.  But perhaps the best and easiest way is simply to ask.  This does not have to be a sophisticated discussion, but merely a conversation with the customer.  For example, the tech might ask about the most challenging aspects of building maintenance or what problems that, if eliminated, would make life much easier for the customer.  Or inquire about the most common complaints raised by tenants.  They may ask about their interest in LEED certification for existing buildings.  They may even ask about long-term plans for the building or process.  As managers, we can identify the best questions for our customer base and provide these for the technician.

An informed technician who can make recommendations that can directly contribute to their customer’s goals, is a valuable business partner.  They do more than fix things – they make things better.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Yogi Berra

The post Step 2 in Creating Proactive Service® – Knowing Customers’ Business Goals appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Technicians who seem naturally gifted at selling their company’s products or services do not see their efforts as selling at all – they recognize their recommendations as the valuable service that they are.  To them it is a service activity.

Many service managers, however, treat business development efforts as a selling activity and this subtly undermines their efforts in three ways.

1. It puts the focus on what more the service company can “get” out of their customers.  We may look at the opportunity in terms of “… let’s leverage our customer relationships to win more business.”  There is nothing inherently wrong with this and of course, it is the objective of every business development activity.  However, this is a short term, tactical approach, which can obscure the much larger opportunities to build a differentiated service offering.
2. It positions the technician as a salesperson.  I don’t know about you, but I have not met many service technicians who appreciate being called a salesperson.  In fact, most are insulted by the title.  To be successful we need our technicians engaged and enthusiastic and this is pretty hard to do when the technician doesn’t see it as his or her job and is insulted by the expectation.
3. It adversely impacts the relationship with the customer.  If the technicians do take the “selling” role to heart, we risk alienating our customers.  The harder the technician tries to sell to the customer, the less effective they will be in building new business.  The reason is that, the moment the service tech starts to “sell”, he/she transcends that bond of trust that has been forged with the customer.  Regardless of how genuine the service technician is, the very reason the customer trusted the tech in the first place – the fact that they aren’t out to sell them anything – is suddenly no longer the basis of the relationship.

The preferred approach is to treat business development as a service.  Like the technicians on our team who seem to create an endless stream of opportunities, we need to get all of our technicians to recognize that identifying ways for the customer to run their facilities more effectively is a critical and valued service and not a sale.  There is a subtle difference here, but an important one.  When the technician understands that using their heads as well as their hands to help the customer is a service, they will approach the role with more enthusiasm and focus.  And customers, when they see that the technician is providing valuable suggestions aimed at helping them operate more effectively, will recognize and welcome this as the valuable service it is.  Certainly some technicians will be uncomfortable in engaging the customer in conversation so may have some difficulty in executing the plan as effectively as we might like, but that can be overcome by skills development like our Proactive Service® workshops, mentoring and support systems.

Maintain focus on this approach to business development by using every opportunity to repeat the mantra to the techs that identifying opportunities and bringing them to the attention of the customer is a valuable service.  Let them know that if they don’t think it is “right” for the customer, then they should not have the conversation.  Make it clear that you are not interested in sales for sales sake but simply want to ensure that each customer receives the benefit of having someone of their caliber in their facility.  Take this approach and the sales will take care of themselves.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

– Muhammad Ali

The post 1st Step in Creating Proactive Service® – Focus on Service, Not Selling appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Almost every service company can point to one or more of their techs who are naturally gifted to promote their services. They are always making recommendations to customers and promoting new services – and their customers love them. In our experience, these technicians are successful because they don’t see their recommendations as selling, but rather as an enhancement of their service.  If you have one or two techs on your team that fit this description, then you know the potential of getting everyone on your team to act in the same way.

In this series of blogs we are going to examine six steps that you implement to create a Proactive Service® focus from all of your service team members.  This will greatly enhance your efforts of developing a distinctive and sustainable competitive advantage and result in higher revenues and delighted customers.  I also contend that it will make your business a more desirable place to work.

The six steps we will explore are:

1. Focus on the service, not the sale
2. Encourage your techs to get to know your customer’s business goals
3. Provide continuous educational opportunities on your products and services
4. Develop a clear opportunity response process with feedback loops to the technician
5. Create a follow up process for quoted work
6. Provide ongoing coaching and support

Next time we will consider how we position our efforts as a service to ensure we get engagement from our techs and our customers.

What kind of service culture does your organization have today? I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Do today what others won’t, so tomorrow, you can do what others can’t.”

 – Unknown

The post Creating a Proactive Service Culture Throughout Your Service Team appeared first on jimbaston.com.

As it turned out, my branch was closed by the time I arrived.  Fortunately, another bank on the other side of the plaza was open.  By coincidence, I used to have all of my accounts with the open bank until about three years ago and I still had a Visa card with their name on it.

I waited my turn for the lone teller.  When I got to the wicket, I explained that I would like to purchase some pounds sterling.

“Certainly sir, how much would you like?” came the very pleasant reply.

“£200 should do it, thanks.”

“No problem, just put your bank card in the slot.” she directed.

“I don’t have a bank card.” I explained.

“Don’t you have an account with us sir?”

“Not any more, no.”

“Then I am sorry, I cannot give you your sterling.”

“No problem, I can give you the cash equivalent.” I suggested.

“No, I am sorry, but I cannot accept cash.”

Now this was getting interesting.  I was dealing with a bank after all.  Wasn’t “cash” a day-to-day transaction in a bank? I asked “Why not?”

“Because you don’t have an account and we cannot be sure about the source of the cash.”

“Pardon?” I asked, hoping for some reasonable clarification.  Perhaps I heard wrong.  She repeated her explanation.  I was becoming quite incredulous.  “If you are concerned about the source of the cash, then why don’t you accompany me to your bank machine over there (there was a bank machine just inside the doors) and you can look over my shoulder as I remove the necessary amount to cover the transaction”.

By this time the teller’s manager joined in the conversation and moved me along the counter so that the line-up, which was steadily growing behind me, could be served.

“I am terribly sorry sir, but you must have a bank account with us if you want to buy foreign currency.  There is a place in the mall that sells currency.  Why don’t you go there?” (The “mall” that the manager referred to was at least a 20-minute drive away).

“I have a Visa from your bank.  Can I use this?” I asked, brandishing the card.

“I am sorry sir, you must have a bank account with our bank.”

My options were decidedly limited.  “Okay, sign me up for an account.”

The manager tried to be helpful.  “It would probably be easier to just go to the mall.”

“No, you convinced me.  I will open an account”.

I was shunted over to a chair to wait. In just a few minutes another courteous and friendly bank employee met me and guided me to a small office.  She started to ask the necessary questions to open an account – name, address, etc.  Suddenly she exclaimed, “But you do have an account with us!  You have a line of credit.”

Apparently when I cancelled my accounts with the bank, the line of credit remained in place and, although I had not used it for years, it was still available to me.

“Does that mean I can buy the sterling?”

“I think so.  Let me check.”  She went to speak to the manager and returned with a big grin.  “Yes sir. No problem”.

So I went back to the line and waited my turn.  By this time the teller was informed of the happy news and was able to make the transaction in just a few short moments.  She gave me the money and a receipt for the amount borrowed from my line of credit and I went directly to the bank machine in the lobby and took out the equivalent amount in Canadian dollars.  I returned to the teller and gave her the cash to clear my line of credit.

As I walked out of the bank it dawned on me that the transaction involved three people (four including me) and took about 30 minutes of time – some of that time holding up other customers and negatively impacting their experience.  The cost to the bank would far outweigh the commissions made on the transaction and they did, in a convoluted way, end up doing exactly what I asked for in the beginning – giving me the foreign currency in exchange for cash.  The only difference was it was cleared through my line of credit.

The bank employees were constrained by a bank policy that prevented them from delivering the quality of service they were capable of.  Despite the fact that the bank staff was polite and professional, the experience was frustrating and time wasting and completely unnecessary.  Now, there may be a good reason for this particular policy, but the branch employees were unable to explain it.

What about your policies?  Do they help your employees deliver an exceptional service experience or do they force them down a path that causes frustration for your customers and ultimately cost you money?  Have a close look.  You might be surprised with what you find.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me;
the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles me;? everything rattles me.”

– Stephen Leacock, “My Financial Career”.

The post Are Your Employees Empowered to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service? appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Recall that the name RATER[1] is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five key dimensions of service quality.  They are:

R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately

A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence

T angibles:  Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance

E mpathy:    The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers

Responsiveness:  Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

To demonstrate responsiveness, consider what your team can do to demonstrate responsiveness through every customer touch point.  For example, does everyone on your team know that responsiveness means being accessible?  Do they understand the importance of getting back to the customer in a reasonable amount of time?  Are they aware of what accounts for “reasonable” when getting back to customers, colleagues and suppliers?

Think about the other aspects of your business that signals your level of responsiveness.  For example, does your team keep their voice mail greetings current?  It’s pretty hard to be responsive if we are on vacation but our voice mail greeting says that we will get back to the caller “as soon as we can”.  Does your website clearly indicate the various ways that the customer can contact you and set the expectation of when they can expect a response if they don’t connect directly to a real person?  Does your voice mail system allow the caller to “zero out” to a live receptionist who can provide accurate information and transfer the call appropriately if needed?  Does the equipment you service provide clear information on how to contact you in an emergency?  When responding to requests, does your team use phrases like “I would be happy to do that” and thank the requestor for calling?  Does your after-hours service communicate interest and compassion?

As indicated throughout these recent blogs on the RATER model, the concept of transforming the service experience to one that is valued and creates a sustainable competitive advantage is surprisingly simple.  The difficulty, as in most things, is actually doing it.  This will prove challenging and will take time, effort and patience from everyone in the organization.  However, it will be worth the effort.  By helping our customers experience our Reliability, by acting in ways that creates Assurance, by supporting our professionalism through our Tangibles, by demonstrating our Empathy, and by establishing our Responsiveness to our customers, we create a service experience that is valued and that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and retention.  We will deliver a service experience that will differentiate us from our competitors.  We will ensure a service experience that is a win/win/win – higher level of service for our customers, a more interesting place for our employees to work and higher revenues and profitability for our company.

How responsive is your organization?  I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

– Charles Darwin

The post Transform the Service Experience through Responsiveness appeared first on jimbaston.com.