Delivering great customer service is about actions and words. While it is important to coach your employees on how to resolve customer complaints and what to say,  it is also important to focus on how to say it. The same is true as you try to communicate your vision as a business owner. Effective leaders know what to say and how to say it.

Join us for today’s episode of More than a Few Words as we talk about how to use  good communication skills as a sales person, leader or customer service rep. Our guest is my good friend Ellen Dunnigan, the owner of Accent on Business

Do you have any comments or questions? Post them here or send it to us on Twitter, or call in during the show at (805) 285 -9865. Remember to use the hashtag #MTFW on Twitter, so we can find your comments during the broadcast.

The call will be live from 10:30 – 11:00 today, Wednesday,  January 18. You will be able to listen to the program from our station on BlogTalkRadio.com

About our Guest:

Accent On Business founder and CEO Ellen Dunnigan is a nationally-recognized voice and speech coach for business professionals. She is specially trained in voice, speech, and English improvement.

Today’s guest post is from Thomas Aaron.  (He is the two legged creature in the picture at left).  He shares his perspectives on social media and customer service.

There seems to be a tipping point in the growth of most companies at which policies must be strictly adhered to in order to stop profit leakage. When this happens, customers are more likely to become numbers, and they are dealt with in a more adversarial, by-the-rules manner. There is nothing a consumer hates more than to have policies quoted when they are dissatisfied with a product or service.

Consumers often grudgingly tolerate poor customer service because of limited choices or lower prices. However, companies that fail their customers typically suffer for it. In the Yellow Pages age, dissatisfied customers had limited voice and influence. While they could bemoan their dissatisfaction to friends, coworkers and family members, bad reviews usually faded away fairly quickly.

In the Internet Age, it only takes a few dissatisfied customers to severely damage a company’s reputation. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging not only have revolutionized the way people communicate, they have made it possible for consumers to communicate with hundreds or thousands of people with minimal effort. Consumers now have power, and they are not afraid to use it – and their voices hang around on the Web for a very long time.

Businesses around the world are scrambling to to figure out how to either use social media to their benefit or protect themselves against it. But those who want to protect themselves are missing the point. Satisfying customers should be their highest priority. By doing so, most of the negative reviews could be avoided in the first place, and the ones that could not be avoided would be buried under positive reviews.

Large corporations often rely on well-funded PR departments and reputation management firms to heal their wounds. However, small businesses typically do not have such options. Instead, they have to rely on preventing poor reviews in the first place by communicating with customers and fixing their problems. Frankly, that is the way it should be.

For most small businesses, finding customers, keeping them and generating referrals is life. Failure to do any of these is sudden and painful death. The trick to doing all three is exemplary customer service.
The truth is, when you peel away all the layers of goals, tactics and objectives, the essence of good customer service is distilled into a single element: caring. It is that simple.

If you sincerely care about your customers, it transforms the way you conduct yourself and your business, and it impacts the development and implementation of your policies. Customers can sense it when you truly want the best for them, and they will choose you over your competitors. If your customer feels you care about them, they will come back to you  the next time they need your offerings, and they will enthusiastically refer you to their friends.

But beware, you cannot fake caring. Sooner or later insincerity becomes evident, and your customers will not hesitate to leave you for a competitor who walks the talk. While the customer is not always right, you should always treat them them like solid gold. If the tables were turned, how would you want to be treated?

Thomas Aaron is a certified dog trainer and a Full Member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT). He is the owner of FetchMasters, LLC, a Denver-based in-your-home dog training service. Tom specializes in canine obedience training and behavior modification, and blogs regularly on issues pertaining to dog training. http://www.fetchmasters.com

To every parent, their baby is a beautiful and special angel. Many businesses feel the same way about their logos, websites and other graphic designs. How do you tactfully tell a client their design is ugly, and help guide them to a better aesthetic? Join Roundpeg designers Jenna Giles and Peter Wolfgram as they discuss the challenges and rewards of working with graphic design clients.

Almost forty years ago, long before the internet gave consumers a voice, the White House Office of Consumer Affairs began conducting  TARP ( Technical Assistance Research Program) studies of consumer behavior.   They proved for the first time, what many business owners suspected:  There is a direct link between customer service / complaint resolution and customer loyalty.

With followup studies conducted over the next twenty years,  in both consumer and business to business environments, the following data was confirmed over and over again:

• On average, consumers are twice as likely to share bad experiences   than they are to share when they have a good experience with a product or service.
• Less then half the consumers experiencing issues ever bothered to report it at all.   Only 5% were likely to continue to escalate the issue all the way to the executive suite, thus isolating senior management from real issues in their business
•  It is significantly more expensive to win a new customer then it is to keep a current one.  (The ratio ranged anywhere from 2:1 to 20:1)

WARNING:  Today’s blog post is a bit of rant.  If you are not in the mood for a tale of  poor customer service, please come back tomorrow.

A few days ago, I wrote a blog post about companies suffering memory loss, forgetting why they started the business as they grew.  They start to focus on investors and bottom line results and lose the passion for what they set out to do.  But I have noticed another type of memory loss which starts to occur. Companies (and business owners) forgetting their roots, forgetting the customers and strategic partners who supported them in the early days of their business.

I understand.  Companies grow and change.  And as they grow, they can’t continue to deliver service exactly as they did when they were small.  If this happens to your company, face it head on.  Have the tough conversations with clients you love and help them find new resources.

We had to do that with several long-time clients  last year.  They had been with us for years, but the services we provided them, primarily administrative, were no longer part of our service offering.  We had continue to do it for them, because we had done if for so long.  But it was holding us back, sucking resources which needed to be directed to other, bigger projects.  We had to let go.

It was tough.  We felt like we were abandoning someone who had been a part of our family.  But we knew we needed to do it, before we ended up hating at each other. We talked about alternatives and parted on good terms. What we didn’t do was send emails like this:

Lorraine:,   My father is working full-time handling all billing issues.  Together he and our support desk  will be able to service your accounts.   I have completely removed myself from support and billing allowing me to fully focus on prospecting National accounts.

Regardless of how it was intended, I read it as I am not as important as his national accounts.  Should I be offended? After all, I had involved him in more than 50 projects and sent countless other referrals his way.  I was offended.  I thought we were strategic partners, working together to grow each others’ business.  Clearly, I was wrong.

When we had a  service issue, I called and talked to the new admin ( probably hired to protect him). I told her I wanted to speak to him as the owner of the company.  He didn’t return my call.  When we had another service issue, I insisted he talk to me. During the conversation he informed me he had stepped out of “an important meeting” to take my call Translation: I am not important.

So what to do?  I won’t embarrass him and call him out by name.  I will simply take my business elsewhere, and look harder at how we handle customer transitions when they occur, to be sure I never let anyone feel this way about us.

There, I feel better.  We can now return to our regularly scheduled marketing posts. Or while you are here, enjoy a short video on customer service recorded at BlogIndiana last month.

Client loss is an inevitable part of agency life. It can happen unexpectedly, or at the end of a long, lingering illness of the business relationship. Sometimes it’s for the best for everyone involved, and sometimes it just hurts.

We lost a client recently. Not because of anything we did or anything they did, but because of circumstances out of everyone’s control. They were pleased with our work, and hope to come back and work with us again in the future. I hold out a lot of hope that I’ll get to work with these great clients again, but that didn’t stop me from spending most of the day going through the five stages of grief:

1. Denial and Isolation: “What? Why would they be leaving us? We’ve just had some of our biggest success on their campaign! You’re joking, right?” It’s hard to believe that a client with whom you have a great relationship is leaving, but it happens. Once I accepted that Lorraine was not playing a very unfunny joke on me, it was time to move on to…

2. Anger: “How could they do this to us? Don’t they know how hard we worked?” It’s hard to accept sometimes that it’s not all about you, that clients have their own concerns that only partially involve their marketing. Even if you’ve provided fantastic ROI and great growth, sometimes it just isn’t enough, no matter how hard you try. But I kept trying to find a way as I headed into…

3. Bargaining: “Have we tried talking them down to a lower priced package? What are they unhappy with–what can we fix?” Sometimes, there’s nothing to fix, nothing to offer, nothing to say. Sometimes, clients need to go because of their own reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of work you provide. In some ways, this is even harder than losing a client due to some problem with their service: this way, there’s no one to blame when you head out of bargaining and into…

4. Depression: I spent most of my day in this phase, sliding into a deep and unshakable funk. Despite what they said, obviously they were leaving because they didn’t like me, because of something that I did. It was all my fault and the company was going to fail and it was all because of me. Yeah, right.

5. Acceptance: Finally, I stopped thinking emotionally and started thinking logically. Was there anything I could have done differently or better? Not really. Was this situation really out of my control and unrelated to me? Yes. Would the company really fail because of losing one client? Hardly. They were even one of my smaller clients, for goodness sake!

So then I realized what I had to do: stop being sad and start being awesome. I would be so awesome that no one would ever again consider cutting Roundpeg. And that’s what I’m doing today, starting my new campaign of awesomeness.

How do you deal with client loss? Especially when it isn’t the result of a customer service issue?

We talk a lot on this blog about using social media to attract new customers. Many businesses are beginning to understand this idea, but are still missing out on one other crucial function of social media: customer service.

Increasingly,  customers are turning to Twitter and Facebook to get their complaints answered. It’s often a court of last resort: they’ve tried traditional routes like the phone, and received no satisfaction. Many big companies get it. Delta Airlines, ATT, Comcast, and dozens of other big players have social media channels devoted to customer service.

But small companies are lagging behind. Recently, both Lorraine and Taylor have run into local businesses (who shall remain nameless) who just didn’t get it. Taylor tweeted about a recent unpleasant experience at a car dealership, tagging them in the post. It took the dealership more than two weeks to respond.

Lorraine had problems getting a company to answer the phone after repeated calls, so she posted to their Facebook fan page. Less than 30 minutes later, they called her, apologizing for the delay, but also asking her to not post questions on their fan page, because “we don’t respond that way.”

Both of these companies would be better off with no social media presence. A radical thought–everyone should be on social media, right? Not if you aren’t going to use it. These companies both wound up looking foolish. Why bother having a social media page if you resent questions on it, or if you just aren’t going to check it?

If you’re just using Twitter and Facebook for marketing and ignoring the customer service component, do yourself and your customers a big favor: delete your pages now.

____________________________________________________________

Want to learn more about the right way to use Social Media?

Join us for a session of  Social Media Stew -

Tuesday, March 29th from 3:30 – 5:00.

Trustpointe Offices: 6666 East 75th Street, Indianapolis, IN

Admission is fee, but reservations are requested

 
 

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We have been lucky the last few years.  As our business has grown we have the opportunity to be a little selective as we decide with whom to work.  Our clients become part of the family, dropping in for coffee, or a quick chat to keep us in the loop on changes in their business.

As a design firm the ongoing interaction allows us to stay on top of projects, and ahead of potential problems, so we haven’t had to deal with too many “nightmare clients”.   However, I thought there were some great tips in this article from Web Design Depot on how to deal with them if you do.

• Offer alternatives, new solutions, and even a discount
• Have your own public outlet prepared
• Respond to blog posts, “rip-off” reports, and forum bashing carefully
• Fire your problem clients
• Don’t AstroTurf: make it clear who you are and why you’re defending yourself

How do you handle problem clients?

As a marketing professional, my focus is typically on generating attention and driving traffic to websites and retail locations.  While traffic is great, nobody eats till you close the sale.   I was reminded of this when I read a great post by Liz Strauss in which she says:  Getting my attention doesn’t mean I’ll buy.

To win their thinking, emotional investment and participation in the process and ultimately earn the sale she argues you must tell customers how:

• your product makes their life smarter, faster, more efficient  - (intellectual)
• your product makes their life more fun, more entertaining, more meaningful – (emotional )
• it seamlessly and easily integrates into my life – and you’ll win my (participation).

As I read her suggestions I realized the more things change, the more they remain the same.  Her comments could have been written thirty years ago…or one hundred and thirty. While how you do these things is new, the basic idea of taking care of your customers so they will take care of you is as old as the very first marketing activities.

So how do you accomplish these goals?  How do you tell your story in a way that is meaningful, and engaging to your prospects and clients?

Many mega companies are turning to Twitter to assist with customer service. In the past, we’ve written about companies who do it poorly. But it’s time to give credit where credit is due. I had a great customer service experience via Twitter with Delta airlines.

My mother was sitting in Atlanta, waiting to catch her flight home to Indy. She was exhausted after a cross-Atlantic flight, and just wanted to get home. But her flight was delayed. And delayed. Then they switched gates. Three times. The flight was delayed more than five hours, and the flight attendants had not said a word to the frustrated, weary passengers. After talking to her on the phone, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

@deltaAssist , can you tell me what is going on with Delta 378 to IND? Flight delayed 5+ hours, 3 gate changes, no info from gate agents.

@AllisonLCarter We’re listening. There were heavy rains affecting air travel in the Northeast today. This caused many changes in flights.^JH

@AllisonLCarter I’m sorry, the heavy rain fall was in the Northeast & Southeast, Atlanta included. Pls call 1-800-221-1212 for details. ^JH

Don’t blame u for weather, but do for lack of info to pssngrs RT @DeltaAssist: I’m sorry, the heavy rain fall… Atlanta included.

@AllisonLCarter Thx I understand. I’ll send a message to the station manager to ask his agents to make more announcements. ^JH