Every customer who either walks into or telephones your business has a need. If your employees satisfy your customer’s need, the end result could very well be a sale. But these situations should be viewed as much more than that. They are an opportunity to develop a long-term relationship with a customer and that ultimately results in repeat business, multiple sales and increased profits.

In order to make certain your customers’ needs are identified and met, your staff must possess the necessary skills to communicate with them. In the simplest of terms, your staff doesn’t need to be trained as aggressive sales people. They only need to know how to communicate with your customers and sales will naturally unfold.

Here are some areas in which your staff should be trained:

Skills to Develop Rapport – research shows that of our communication:

o 7% comes from the words we use
o 38% comes from our voice tonality, pitch and pace of the words
o 55% comes from our physiology (body) and posture

Simple techniques such as matching voice tonality with the pace of your customer’s voice can speed the development of rapport and increase the customer comfort level.

Ask Questions – the most important thing an employee can do is ask questions in order to understand your customers’ needs. If an employee understands what a customer needs or wants, it’s much easier to provide solutions. It may help to compose a list of the most important questions an employee should be asking each customer during varying situations.

Most customers want help. They want information that helps with their buying decision. With so many choices of products, features and services, decision-making can be a frustrating experience for customers. Train your staff to not only ask questions but to listen intently. Questions will encourage your customers to reveal their concerns and problems. These two skills alone will put you in a class above others.

Product knowledge – today’s consumer tends to be more knowledgeable than in the past. This makes it even more important to educate your employees on product, features and services. Customers rely on your staff to give them factual information to help them with their buying decision. If your staff has the ability to accurately answer their questions and to further explain and provide information, your customers’ confidence will skyrocket – as will the likelihood of a sale.

It’s equally important to teach your staff that if they don’t know the answer to a question, the appropriate response is to say so and then find someone who has the information. It is absolutely unacceptable for an employee to guess or make up an answer. Providing misinformation to a customer is a deadly practice that places both you and your customers in a position neither of you want. Your employees need to understand that it’s perfectly acceptable to explain that they don’t have the answer and that they will try to get one. Customers appreciate honesty.

Educating your staff on product knowledge is not a one-time effort. It’s an ongoing process. Ask your employees to compile a list of the most commonly asked questions from customers. Use this as a basis for training.

Here are some other ideas for product knowledge training:

1. Do weekly quizzes on products to determine your employees’ knowledge.
2. Reward them for increasing their product knowledge.
3. Allow them to experience your products. It’s easier for an employee to tell customers about a product when they have used it and can speak from experience.
4. Teach employees how to use reference materials to find information that is important to the customer in the buying process.

Practice, practice, practice! Role-play various customer-buying situations with your staff. Role-play the new customer, the demanding customer and the unfriendly customer. Practice each of the steps from rapport building through helping the customer make the buying decision. Your employees will demonstrate more confidence in selling when they feel they have the experience to handle any type of customer they may encounter.

The interaction your staff has with your customers is critical to the success of your business. They can make the difference between no sale, a one-time sale or developing long-term relationships with customers. The time and money you invest in your staff to educate them with knowledge and skills will come back many times over.

The Webster dictionary defines teamwork as “work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.” Whew!! That’s a mouthful. More simply put – several associates each doing part of the work understanding that the efficiency of the whole team is more important than any individual’s.

We all love to belong, to be a part of something. There are endless ways we belong – our families, clubs, organizations, sport teams, and gyms. There are probably an equal number of reasons why we need to belong. We are looking for ways to meet and interact with people, have some fun, share similar interests, work on self-improvement, or merely accomplish a common goal.

But how about the people at your company? Do they feel as if they belong? If your staff had the ability to complete the following survey anonymously, would you be surprised by their answers? What are your answers?

Always, Most Times, Sometimes, Hardly Ever, Never

* Do you trust the people on your team?
* Can you communicate openly and honestly with team members?
* Do you feel like the rest of your team supports you?
* Do you feel like you are all working toward a common goal?

If you are looking to enhance corporate results, boost morale, increase employee retention or strengthen your customer service, take a look at the structure you have in place to foster teamwork. A whole will always be much stronger than it’s parts.

Here are some suggestions to increase the effectiveness of the team at your company:

Define the mission or goal – If you were asked to close your eyes and, without thinking about it, immediately point in the direction of north, how well would you have done? Most people would immediately look for a reference to give them a sense of direction. Your mission statement is that reference.

Do you have a clearly defined mission for the company? Does every one of your staff know the mission, understand the direction of the company and most importantly, comprehend their role in helping to accomplish this mission? If you don’t have one, get your staff involved in the creation of one. With a team developed mission statement, they are more apt to create one they really believe in and support. With clear direction and a means to measure the results, people are motivated towards fulfillment of the mission.

Train, Train, Train – Use professional trainers and facilitators to help your staff develop the skills and the understanding to become an effective team. You can’t put people together, give them a project and expect that everything will come out just fine! You must first understand what skills are necessary for them to accomplish the task. With that defined, assess whether or not your staff possesses these skills. If not, then provide the training!! If they do, then reinforce the training!!! All skills will dull without use!

One of the most important skills people need is the ability to communicate. Blending personalities and needs in a work environment while trying to accomplish the end goal is not an easy task. It can be made much easier if everyone is on the same team though. Teaching someone to be part of a team, to communicate openly and honestly is a learned skill.

Understand Their Values – Each one of us developed our beliefs and values from our parents, family, and the world around us. It is with these beliefs and values that we evaluate those we interact with. Educate your team on the importance of understanding and respecting different values and beliefs play. They play a key role in developing a strong team.

Use Team Evaluation Tools – There are a variety of companies that provide team personality profile tools to evaluate each person and how they function in a team environment. These tools help each team member understand not only themselves but also the rest of the tram. It’s a small investment towards building an effective team.

Reward Failure – Name a sports team or any other team activity that when they first started didn’t experience failure many times before they became a cohesive team. Acknowledge failures as the learning experiences that will get you to the eventual outcome. If they aren’t making mistakes, they aren’t trying hard enough.

Create Teams Within the Team – Assemble teams to handle projects, develop new products or programs. Create the assignment and let them develop the plan to achieve the outcome. Give them the opportunity to pool their talents and skills and solve the problems. Most people will rise to the challenge when given the opportunity to play a part on the team.

One of the top two reasons people stay with a company is because they feel like they are a part of the company. Pick that one idea above that you can put into action at your company to increase employee retention and morale.

Have you ever been out to eat and had a terrible customer-service experience and as you are leaving, the host or hostess asks if everything was fine? And you reply with an affirmative answer or head nod? I think most of us have done that at least once, or more.

Oftentimes the follow-up to that interaction though is to tell others about your awful restaurant experience!

The bottom line is this: Fine Just Isn’t Good Enough in the World Today!

Here are five tips on why it’s important to understand the meaning of “fine!”

Tip. No. 1. Don’t assume that customers are implying they are satisfied when they say everything is fine. Sixty-five to 85 percent of customers who say they are satisfied with service actually switch or would switch to the competition.

Tip. No. 2. When people give “fine” as their response, they’re sometimes avoiding the truth. What they often mean is things were not well or unsatisfactory.

Tip No. 3. Don’t settle for your customers checking the “satisfied” box on your satisfaction surveys. You could have a real problem and not even know it.

Tip No. 4. Customers’ expectation levels are changing. Meeting their needs is simply not enough in today’s business environment. Your service needs to exceed their expectations! You must continually look for ways to surprise and delight them if you want to stay even with or beat the competition.

Tip No. 5. The next time a customer tells you that their experience with your utility was “fine,” send him or her a meaningful message and ask what could have been done differently for them to have responded with “great.” This kind of feedback will help you identify opportunities for improvement, which can only help strengthen your relationship with them..

Is your day filled with interruptions? Are you tired of employees or coworkers complaining about some issue – personality conflicts with other staff members, technical problems, communication problems or computer failures. You name it…we’ve all heard about it.

Many times management takes on more of the role of parent or psychotherapist. Sometimes it is just easier for people to blame everything and everyone else for their problems at work.

A lot of us have acquired the habit of dumping a problem on our manager’s shoulder to let the boss figure out the solution. This approach is oftentimes not productive and at the very least leads to an atmosphere of disempowered employees.

Try creating a “solution only” atmosphere. Every employee should be encouraged to have at least three possible solutions to any complaint or problem before voicing it.

At first, people may be a little frustrated or even angry at this new approach. After awhile, most will start to get the hang of it. They will soon realize that they not only came up with a solution but they also realized that they were able to implement it themselves.

Capitalize on this new approach and incorporate it into your staff meetings. Convert reporting sessions into sessions that involve team members to discuss key issues and possible solutions. Then involve all of those at the meeting to brainstorm all the possible solutions to that issue.

An additional suggestion to develop empowered employees is to ask each employee to take a turn facilitating the meetings. Creative ideas will flow, productivity will increase and morale will improve.

When you have a team of empowered individuals, there is a sense of ownership and responsibility. People transition from being part of the problem to part of the solution. You will find that your work environment if more pleasant and that stress is reduced. Be patient though as developing an empowered team is a process and not an event. This type of involvement may not come naturally to some.

Below are some points for consideration as you support your teams’ transition to becoming empowered and to take responsibility for creating a productive atmosphere at work while enhancing the service experience for your customers:

- Do you need all of the facts before you can start working on a new idea?
- Do you default to finding reasons why a new idea will not work rather than finding ways something can be done?
- Do you have a tendency to accept a solution to a problem, even when you can’t visualize it?
- Do you point out the advantages of an idea before you point out the disadvantages?
- Are you willing to do old tasks in new ways?
- Do you ever accept a new idea even if you have already made other plans?
- Are you willing to begin a new project without being absolutely guaranteed of its success?

Be careful not to limit the opportunity for personal and professional success. Regardless of your position in your company, empowering individuals and teams to resolve challenges will enhance self-esteem, foster better work relations and improve communication.

Different needs motivate different people. Some of us are motivated by achievement, others by the need for power. Some want money while others want autonomy. Some would relish with public kudos while others would crawl into a closet!

As a manager, it’s imperative that you know what motivates each of your employees, and then seek to provide that motivation!

There are seven basic needs and 99% of us are motivated by one of these:

1. Esteem. This group of employees seeks recognition and praise. Provide them with ample feedback and they will be quite happy. Realize though that not everyone likes public praise, so be cognizant of the manner in which each employee may like to receive recognition.

2. Power. This group obtains satisfaction from being able to influence and/or control others. They prefer to lead and persuade and are motivated by positions of power and leadership. This group does well being able to make decisions and direct projects.

3. Autonomy. These employees want freedom and independence. They flourish when able to make their own choices, determine their own schedules, and working independently from others.

4. Equity. This group likes to be treated fairly. Typically they will compare work hours, job duties, wages and privileges. This group is easily discouraged if they perceive inequities.

5. Achievement. These employees are driven by the satisfaction of accomplishing tasks/projects successfully. They are self-motivated if the job is challenging enough and typically will produce consistent results in the proper environment.

6. Safety and security. This group has an intense drive for job security, a steady income, health insurance, and a hazard-free environment. They like predictable work with little risk or uncertainty. Salary and fringe benefits are more important to this group than some others.

7. Affiliation. This group enjoys people and finds the social aspects of the workplace rewarding. Provide them with opportunities to work with others through teamwork projects, group meetings, etc.

Building a healthy team is easier when you recognize what keeps each of your team members motivated. Creating an environment that supports each person’s needs goes a long way to building a productive and effective team.

Satisfied and motivated employees breed success! Motivated employees have a tremendous impact on your customers’ experience as well as the bottom-line.

So take the time and ask each of your employees what motivates them . . . you might be surprised at the feedback!

What is a service sin?  Simply put its behavior that drives customers away.

I have considerable experience with cold calling utilities and posing as a customer to see how I’m treated and, believe me, service sins do occur.  These sins are a result of employees’ attitudes and habits.  They’re so ingrained; they’re the basis of the way employees treat customers.  Employees may not even be aware that they’re doing it.  

No utility can afford service sins – loss of revenue and customer dissatisfaction are two of the major consequences.  Let’s take a look at the eight most-common sins of customer service.  Are your employees guilty of committing one or more of them? 

Sin # 1 – Apathy:  This is the “I don’t give a rip about you or my job attitude” sin.  Many employees get this way when they’re bored with their job or if they’ve lost sight that the reason for their job is to serve the needs of the customer.  Sometimes, they just need a reminder of such.

Sin # 2 – Brush-off:  Some employees use this sin to get rid of customers by transferring their calls.  This causes the customer to tell their story over and over until they become so frustrated they want to scream.  The only thing that can save this situation is if the customer finds another person in the company who will take the time to help them. 

Sin # 3 – Coldness:  This sin is much like apathy, only worse.  Impatience, curtness, and hostility toward customers or co-workers – that’s coldness.  The body language of this person shouts out, ‘You’re a nuisance; go away!’” 

Sin # 4 – Condescension:  A patronizing attitude is the hallmark of this sin.  Common examples include not using a customer’s name during the dialogue; using industry jargon or acronyms rather than communicating in clear, understandable language; and communicating at a different level than that of the customer.

Sin # 5 – Robotism:  “Thank you, have a nice day, NEXT!” That’s robotism

and that kind of treatment makes customers feel like they’re nothing more than a number.  While it can be frustrating answering similar questions and providing similar information for hours on end, customers should feel as if they are the employee’s first caller of the day.  Employees need to stay away from a stock set of motions and make certain they connect with each customer.

Sin # 6 – Rule Book:  With this sin, employees feel they have free license to use company guidelines as excuses for not providing service even when they know the rules are flexible.  When employees thumb through their mental rule book, customers hear negative phrases such as, ‘That’s our company policy.’”

Sin # 7 – Runaround:  Don’t want to take ownership of the customer’s problem?  That’s easy.  Send the customer on a wild goose chase.  Give ‘em the runaround.

Sin # 8 – Tune Out:  This sin occurs when an employee fails to focus 100 percent on the person who is speaking.  This sin creates a number of problems, such as judging before you’ve heard the person out and not asking questions to verify that you understand what was said.  Other problems include not giving appropriate responses and interrupting with your answer before the customer has completed his or her question.

So what can utilities do to eliminate these sins?

Make everyone part of the customer service improvement team by involving them in finding ways to eliminate your company’s service sins.  Managers should ask each member of their team to make a list of the sins they observe during a one-week period, omitting names of the people who committed the sins.

Bring everyone’s list to a staff meeting and, as a team, rank the service sins, with

No. 1 being the most frequently observed.  Then brainstorm ways service can be improved to eliminate the sins.  The sins will begin to disappear by merely raising everyone’s level of awareness.

No utility wants to think that its employees are capable of unforgivable customer service infractions such as the ones I’ve described.  One way to find out if this problem exists is to do a telephone survey of customers who have recently interacted with your utility.  Ask them about employee attitude and how they feel they were treated.  Another approach would be to mystery shop your business.  Hire an outside party to call in and pose as a customer.

You may or may not be happy with these results but there’s one thing for sure – you need to know.

Customer frustrations are on the rise.  The number one complaint is that no one really seems to care anymore!  No small wonder with the variety and availability of our technological conveniences . . . voicemail, automated phone systems, email and assorted online services.  The personal touch when it comes to customer service is sorely lacking.

Customers are very savvy nowadays.  They can tell the difference between satisfactory service and caring service.  Unfortunately, satisfactory service is what most customers expect.  This type of service focuses on completing a task rather than building a relationship with the customer.

The market often talks of customer satisfaction and exceeding the customer’s expectations, both of which are deceptive phrases because they sound better than they are.  Oftentimes our expectations are not even met much less exceeded!  And who would have wanted a grade of satisfactory in school?

 Satisfactory implies adequate, good enough, acceptable. Customers who are merely satisfied with your business can be wooed away by others who offer something better.  Oftentimes, price is not the reason a customer may change loyalty.

Customers are discouraged by poor service and expectations are low.   The simple gesture of showing your customers that you care about them will be a welcome surprise compared to the apathy they probably experience elsewhere.

So what is the concept of C.A.R.I.N.G. Customer Service and what are some simple things that you can do to be C.A.R.I.N.G.?  Everyone needs to commit to delivering exceptional service with every customer interaction, every day!

C = Consistent

- Show your customers that you value their business by taking ownership of their concerns

- Be respectful, friendly and knowledgeable

- Provide consistent quality service, company-wide!

- Sign your work with excellence

 A = Attentive
- Take time to listen carefully to your customers

- Be cognizant of your attitude!  Your customer is the reason you are there and shouldn’t be treated as if they are an interruption.

- Take your time; don’t rush through interactions with your customers

- Give 100% of your attention to your customers.  Don’t be distracted by others.

R = Reliable

- Take responsibility for meeting your customers’ needs

- Keep any promises you give a customer

- Return phone calls and respond to email messages promptly

- Project a professional image through the way you dress

- Be completely honest with your customers

- Build your reputation of reliability through clear communications, accuracy and consistent follow-through

- Maintain order in your workspace

- The way you interact with customers and perform your work speaks volumes about the type of person you are

 I = Individualized
- No two customers are alike. Each customer has individual needs and concerns.  Be cognizant of them.

- Pay attention to your customer’s tone of voice and actions

- Learn how to respond to your customer based on their particular style. A dominant customer may seem impatient and will want to control the situation to get his or her desired results. A shy customer may need assurance and guarantees. An outgoing customer may require more “chat” time. You can build rapport quickly by learning to respond appropriately with each type of customer.
 
N = Notable
- Greet each customer as you would a friend–someone you are glad to speak with

- Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing campaign of all. Give your customers quality service that they can brag about

- A warm, friendly response to a complaint will exceed most customers’ expectations.
- Surprise and delight your customers with unexpected service such as a follow-up phone call or handwritten “thank you” note

 G = Generous
- Look for opportunities to go the extra mile for your customers

- Reward your loyal customers with a surprise “thank you” gift–a box of chocolates, gift card, calendar, etc.

- Congratulate your customers on their achievements–when they’ve been appointed to a board, won an award, received a promotion, etc.

- Be generous with your compliments about the way they’re dressed or their pleasant attitude

C.A.R.I.N.G customer service means going out of your way for customers, doing everything possible to meet their needs, and sometimes making decisions that benefit customers, even at what may appear to be at the expense of the company.  What’s a customer really worth to you?  What does it cost you to provide C.A.R.I.N.G. Customer Service?  Or better yet, what does it really cost you not to provide C.A.R.I.N.G. Customer Service?

Who doesn’t like change?  At the beginning of almost every training session I ask for a show of hands from those who like change . . . almost every hand goes up.

 Why don’t people like change?  Change means they have to take a new approach to what they are accustomed to doing.  They have to leave their comfort zone and step out into the unknown, the new and the different.  For many people, change also causes fear.

 What does this have to do with utility companies?  That’s simple.  Every utility is faced with change.  So what steps are you taking to help your employees deal with change?  Following are some ideas that I think you will find useful.

Ask staff members what they think.  Let’s assume you have reorganized, introduced new billing software, changed how it assigns work orders or made changes to any of the processes you have as part of your daily operations.  What do your employees really think about that?  Are things going well?  

I recently worked with a utility where management had made a number of changes to the operations in its departments.  Unfortunately, some of the changes weren’t working as intended.  In fact, they were actually costing the company more money and were having a negative impact on employee morale and customer service.  The problems continued because employees were afraid to speak up.  They felt they might be fired for saying anything about the changes that were less than positive.

I strongly recommend you do employee surveys to understand what is working well and where modifications are needed.  Allow employees to respond anonymously so you receive candid feedback.  Share the results of the survey with the entire company, even if comments were not positive.  Communicate with the whole company what actions will be taken as a result of the survey.  Employees will continue to provide feedback when they realize the company is listening and willing to implement fixes.

Keep the whole company in the loop.  Is information shared at your management sessions immediately and accurately communicated to all departments within the company?  Employees often tell me during training sessions that they are not kept in the loop.  They don’t feel that they know what is going on in the company. 

Do you make use of technology to ensure every employee is in the communication loop? For example, do you have a company intranet for dissemination of information?  If you do, are the right people responsible for posting the information?  How often is the intranet updated?  Can all employees access the intranet?  E-mail can be another communication tool, if used correctly.  The problem is that many employees feel like they are e-mailed to death.  E-mail should be used for internal communication only when necessary, so create a standard for what is important.  That way, employees will know they should read an e-mail from management immediately. 

If big changes are happening at your company, you need to start communicating now. Don’t wait until you’re sure of all the details before sharing what you know.  Don’t let the rumor mill create its own version of what’s happening.  Reach out to your employees and communicate!

Tell employees why change is happening.  When change is on the horizon, don’t just say what is going to happen.  Also explain why the change is necessary.  You will find that your employees are more flexible and accepting when they understand the reasoning behind the change.  No one likes having something forced on them.

Who does the change impact?  It is absolutely critical that management consult with departments that will be significantly affected by a pending change.  You would think this is a no-brainer, but it isn’t.  I heard of a utility company that made the decision to purchase the customers of another utility.  Management decided the transaction could be completed in 60 days.  It was unfortunate that they hadn’t even talked with billing, IT, customer service, accounting and outside plant personnel.  When these people learned what was happening and what was expected of them, they were angry that management had not asked for their input.  Management had to delay the acquisition, once it understood what needed to be done to make it a success.  There was no way the purchase could be completed in the original timeframe.

We are so busy!  The speed at which companies operate continually accelerates.  Workloads increase and the time people have to get things done shrinks.  While this is happening, many companies make the mistake of not taking the time to listen to their most important asset – their employees.  Utilities simply must go out of their way to hear what their employees have to say, especially when the faster pace is the result of change.  Quality work will fly out the window if employees can’t speak their mind.  Use open-ended questions such as “how will this impact your department?”  “what do you think of this change?” and “how can we improve the process?”  The tough part is not passing judgment when you don’t agree with the feedback.  Just listen and ask questions to clarify the response.

Creating change within any company can be a difficult task and utilities are no exception. Deep down inside, most people resist change because they don’t like it and fear it.  Every employee has a perception of what will happen as a result of any change the company is considering. When employees aren’t in agreement with the change, walls go up and company morale goes down.  That’s why effective communication is so critical.  Explain the change and why it is needed, ask people for their input and keep them in the loop.

 These are challenging times for customer service.  Not just because of the economy, but because communication remains an ongoing challenge – and communication is the heart of customer service.

 If we could all just walk in one another’s shoes, from customers to vendors to fellow co-workers, we could then gain a perspective from all sides, which would certainly ease the challenges of running a business.

 But guess what?  Your customer’s really don’t care about your challenging times.  What they do care about is that you demonstrate with your actions and words that you do care about them!

 Take a moment; take a walk on the wild side and step into your customer’s shoes  . . . the reality is that without customers, no company can survive.

 Listen: This skill should be as fine-tuned as your ability to speak.  Listening well shows a total commitment to understanding the needs of your customer.  It’s the perfect starting point to create a feeling of comfort that’s essential to customer care.

 Attitude:  Be positive!  Your attitude is an immediate reflection to the customer of what his or her experience is going to be like with your company.  If you believe in yourself and believe in your product, you have a winning combination.

 Communicate:    Details, details, details . . . there are a lot of them and it’s important that they be given to your customer accurately.  Make a list if you must.  Make it a habit to document conversations in your database so that regardless of who may be speaking with that customer, that customer’s history is readily available.  Communication is the key.  Respond quickly.  Place a telephone call over an email if possible.  A personal conversation builds trust and comfort.

 Anticipate their needs; Then Go Above and Beyond: Think about what the customer might want based on what he or she has already said or asked for – i.e., more detailed information, recommendations on other products or services, or a way to cut save them money.  Give the customer the benefit of your experience and knowledge.  Don’t be afraid to apologize if there is a problem.  Your ability to be a problem-solver speaks volumes for how much you care.

 Follow Up:  Customer care doesn’t stop after you’ve provided the needed information.  Ask if there is anything else you can do for them or if they have any other questions. 

 Appreciate the Business:  Always say “Thank you,” and let customers know how much you value their business.  There’s nothing like being appreciated or validated for placing your business with a company.  Let your customers know how much you appreciate their business.  Most likely, they have a choice with whom they do business. 

 I strongly believe that the customer-service experience someone has with your company can make or break the long-term relationship.  It mirrors how you run your business.

 Have you taken a walk on the wild side lately and stepped into your customers’ shoes?  If so, how was it?

Haven’t most of us heard one of our elders say, “Practice Makes Perfect!”  The wisdom of our elders most certainly still applies!

We have all walked into a restaurant, bank or convenience store and experienced great service.  When we return to that business, we expect the same level of service but sometimes are greeted by a rude individual who could care less that we are alive. Such an experience leaves a long-lasting impression.

So how can you create an excellent service experience for every customer that touches your company, every single time?   The answer is consistency.  How do you create consistency?  By establishing customer service standards, practicing those standards and making certain that they are upheld, throughout the company. 

Here are some thoughts on identifying and implementing customer service standards at your company:

Step 1.  Identify service standards that all your employees – those in the office and in the field – should demonstrate when they interact with customers.  For your customer service representatives, that means greeting every customer as they walk through the door in a warm and friendly manner and showing appreciation for customers’ payments and service orders.  It also means using an energetic voice to welcome customers who call the company, using customers’ names from their account records, thanking customers for their calls and confirming they have answered all customer concerns.  

There’s more:  respond quickly to e-mails, use words that demonstrate to customers your willingness to do whatever it takes to create solutions to their problems, follow up when promised and deliver solutions when promised.

Your outside plant staff also interacts with customers every day.  Do they greet your business and residential customers in a friendly manner?  Do they use the customers’ names?  Do they thank customers for their business at the end of the interaction?

Step 2.  Communicate the service standards to all employees.  Demonstrate the standards in training sessions with all employees to ensure everyone understands them.

Step 3.  Write down the most commonly asked questions posed by customers for all kinds of situations – both of sales and of a service nature.  These situations could involve delinquent customers, new service extensions, disconnecting customers, high bill inquiries and billing issues.  Write down various responses and approaches to these questions.  Identify solutions to challenges.  Write down the different ways employees approach these situations.  Discuss what gets the best results as well as what does not.

Step 4.  Practice and reinforcement are required to turn a new skill into an established behavior.  The problem is that most adults don’t like role playing or practice sessions.  But if employees don’t practice a new skill until they are confident with it, their tendency is to fall back on old habits and do what they are accustomed to doing.  

How do you improve your employees’ comfort level with learning and using new skills?  Form practice teams.  Have one team be the customer and the other team is the company.  Each team should brainstorm first on the questions they want to ask the other team.  One person from each team should actually role play the situation.  Teammates can help out at any time with suggestions, questions or comments that would help their team.  That way, it becomes a team effort to demonstrate the standards, rather than an individual effort.  Reverse the roles that each team plays.  Everyone gets to be the company and the customer.

Step 5.  Make a simple standards checklist that can be placed by each employee’s telephone or computer.  It will help remind them of the steps that lead to excellent service for every customer.

Step 6.  Measure the results.  You created service standards, communicated them to every employee in the company and provided training to help them learn new service skills.  But how do you know if your employees are consistently demonstrating these skills with customers?  Many companies have recording capabilities on their phone systems.  Developing a coaching program in tandem with recording software is one of the best ways to ensure that the customer interactions are yielding the desired results. 

Another approach would be to hire a mystery shopping company, a company that provides people who visit or call your business posing as existing or new customers.  The mystery shoppers will check to see if the skills are being used.  

Hire a company to survey your new customers after turn-on or installation of new service to see if your field staff is demonstrating the new service standards.

Step 7.  Everyone likes to receive recognition for doing a good job.  Turning a new skill into a behavior requires rewarding people when they get it right and coaching them when they don’t.  Managers need to become the coach for their employees. This involves listening to customer interactions and recorded calls, acknowledging employees with words of praise and providing small incentives when they perform their job correctly.  Individual coaching may be needed to help employees who find it difficult to embrace the new standards.     

Step 8.  To create customer service consistency, every employee from the top down must demonstrate the standards.  Everyone must be held accountable for providing excellent service.  They also must understand the consequences if they are unwilling to provide excellent service to every customer.      

Step 9.  Review the processes that you use to provide service to your customers. Many companies are task oriented rather than relationship oriented.  Employees are rewarded by the volume of calls they handle instead of the quality of those calls.  Many of us forget about building relationships with the very people who keep us in business – our customers.

Whether or not you function in a competitive market, creating and then breathing life into customer service standards impacts the company’s bottom line.  Developing and nurturing service standards that are consistently delivered creates both satisfied and loyal customers and employees.