The Customer Service Experience

Latchkey loyalty through embedded customer learning.

Larry Lehman is a professor of customer service. From him, I've learned how to cut mailing costs and increase administrative efficiency. He has tutored me on ways to keep my clients better informed of the benefits I can provide. He sends me educational flyers and shares innovative marketing ideas. But Larry doesn't teach at any university, and he's not a consultant or an advisor. He's the manager of the Eagle Postal Center in Dallas, near my office. Larry handles my packaging, shipping, and bulk mailing, but he gives me much more. He latchkeys my loyalty through his perpetual efforts to make me smarter. He's my customer service mentor, and one of the best I've ever had.

Despite automation and other technological advances, few people would say that they work less than they did 10 years ago; we've just added more activities and chores to fill the hole created. That means "smartness" has become a prerequisite for success. Brains have replaced brawn in the world of enterprise, and the shorter shelf-life of knowledge or skill acquisition has made continuous learning critical to survival.

"Tutor me or lose me" might not yet be the byword of customers, but smartness is a service expectation. We want software that instructs in its application and provides insight into the possibilities. Sure, we want our products to come with assembly instructions, but we also want to know about maintenance, add-on features, and upgrades. What's more, customers expect call center representatives to know about the products, not just how to order them. In fact, most people would rather have a surly expert than a polite idiot.

Turned On! co-author Roger Dow, Marriott International's general sales manager, puts it this way: "It's not enough that we impress our customers, we must instruct them as well. And since we usually can't teach them directly, we must embed learning in how we serve them."

Just embed it.

Here are several ways to embed customer service learning and latchkey customer loyalty.

Insight-producing protocols. Vivian Carroll at Merrill Lynch has been my financial consultant for several years. She began her career as a teacher--a legacy she turned into a marketing advantage. She ends each financial review discussion with me by saying, "Between now and the next time we talk, here's a question I want you to think about." In other words, she gives me homework. Her questions always make me think, often leading to new insight and a deeper understanding of financial management. Such protocols as Vivian's questions help ensure consistency of practice.

In another example, at MidAmerican Energy's Customer Care Center in Davenport, Iowa, telephone reps are trained to listen for opportunities to teach customers more about energy conservation. "What else can I help you with?" can lead to more service. "What else can I help you learn?" can lead to deeper loyalty.

Come up with questions that will make customers think. Ask about your customers customers--such as, "What keeps your customer up at night?" Initially, that might evoke a blank stare, but it can start the mental wheels turning and lead to other learning opportunities.

When you conduct a focus group or interview a customer, ask such blue-sky questions as, "What service is no one currently providing that might be of value to you now or in the future?" and "What are ways we can make your life better in a way no one like us is doing?"

Hard-wired wisdom. We're on the edge of the "smart everything" era. Our automobiles tell us when to change the oil; our online grocery stores suggest we check our stock of condiments (You should be almost out of salt) ; and our desktop computers cue us that our mother-in-law's birthday is approaching. Hotels remember our preference of pillows, pizza deliverers remember our preferred toppings, and express mail deliverers know where we leave packages for pickup. Before too long, our refrigerators will ask our microwaves, "What's for dinner?" and our heat pumps will tell our tubs to start a hot bath when our cars pull in the driveway.

As customers come to anticipate that products will have learning components built in, that expectation will extend to include all facets of the customer experience. Wise organizations will make sure that smartness is subtly woven into the fabric of their offerings. That means thinking about the typical customer encounter from the inside-out, not just the outside-in. Here's an example of inside-out thinking and embedded learning in the customer service experience : A magazine ad for the firm myCIO.com depicts a baseball on a living room floor with a cracked window in the background, obviously the aftermath of some neighborhood little leaguer's home run. The caption reads: What if the baseball could repair the window?

Examine every aspect of your customers' service encounters with your training staff. Ask the Roger Dow question: How can we embed a learning outcome into this service experience? For instance, what if a tuition refund approval form offered tips on test preparation? What if a course evaluation form served as a review for key learning points in the course? What if handouts offered a sidebar on how to get the most out of a small-group discussion? I attended a meeting of trainers at a Denver company that put fun facts on the Styrofoam coffee cups in the break area.

Informational follow-up. Service research tells us that few actions gain the devotion of customers better than follow-up. When customers make a major purchase, most like the salesperson to dispel buyer's remorse with a cheery, "How's it working for you?" followed by an affirming statement about their brilliance in recognizing value.

Follow-up can also be a major tool to enhance learning for your customers. Within 24 hours after a visit to my physician, I receive a fax. If my visit related to a malady, the fax educates me about my condition. If it was a routine checkup, the fax suggests ways to help me maintain good health. I feel healthier by feeling more informed. In fact, at my last visit, my doctor and I discussed the merits of her using email with downloadable attachments. "You're on the road so much," she said, "I thought it might get you the information quicker."

Instead of loading up participants with giant course notebooks, consider parceling out some of the information afterwards. Put them on an email list to receive periodic learning material to help bolster retention of the training. Many periodicals now come in Adobe downloadable form, which saves mailroom glut and gives recipients a choice of whether and when to use the resource.

Inclusive delight. "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down" suggests the popular lyric. When we make learning a delightful addition to the service experience, we create a memory that makes customers want to return.

When the cost of a first-class stamp went from 33 cents to 34, I was prepared--not because I read about the change in the news, but because Larry Lehman informed me in a delightful manner. He sent me a reminder a few days before the new rate went into effect and enclosed a sheet of one-cent stamps. I changed my postage machine and ordered new stamps, and my loyalty to the Eagle Postal Center rose along with the postal increase.

When I elected to track my investments online, Vivian Carroll sent me the Merrill-Lynch Online CD-ROM, with my secret access code to the Website. Then she called and left me this message: "When you get ready to use it, call me at home. We'll each fix an adult beverage, and I'll talk you through the process." She turned a painful (to me) task into something pleasurable.

The secret to making learning fun is to engage people in a partnership. Think of it as a reciprocal learning experience : you and your customer learning together. Vivian and Larry both give me the impression they learn from my reactions as much as I learn from them. The day after the stamp increase, Larry asked, "Did you get the stamps? Was that helpful? Should I do something like that again?" Delight works best when it surprises but doesn't stun. As customers, we like to be charmed, not startled:

* Make it too silly and customers will discount it.

* Make it too wild and customers will see it as serendipitous and not likely to happen again.

* Make it too personal and customers will flee in apprehension to your competitor.

Surrogate roles. Walk a mile in my shoes has for years been the axiom to signal the power of empathy. Empathy not only bolsters understanding, but it also can be a powerful tool for customer learning and loyalty. During the height of the 1960s' and 1970s' racial strife, the theme of several movies was a white person masquerading and living for a time as a black person. Diversity seminars still use role reversal to teach people awareness of differences. Customers don't have to be given assignments as emotionally laden as role reversal, but some variations can be a boon.

For example, when Myers Park Hardware in Charlotte, North Carolina, was overwhelmed with customers in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, the store spontaneously enlisted some of its regular customers, including a bank executive, to serve as checkout clerks. The banker says, "I not only gained a new respect for the store, but 1 also learned about customer service under the gun. In fact, I went back to our bank and thanked all of our frontline employees."

BT Services, a major office supply chain headquartered in Arlington, Texas, invites selected customers to its annual Customer Appreciation Day. Part of the festivities includes letting customers work with their supply-chain contact people to fill their actual orders. "They learn from each other," says BTS founder Jim Miller. "Customers see the world from an order clerk's perspective, and clerks get to better understand customer concerns. Everyone wins because everyone learns."

Starter kits. Larry Lehman noticed I'd mailed several items over a two-month period to my publicist, Tammy Richards. So, he said, "I can make you a rubber stamp with her name and address on it. It will save you time, and I can even craft it in your same type style." His special attention to detail didn't stop there. He went back through all of my mailings from the previous year, identified the high-frequency items, calculated the time it took me to type labels, and suggested I get four additional rubber stamps. It was smart service and taught me a valuable lesson. I think of it as a starter kit on my path to greater awareness of inefficiency in my consulting practice. The more I thought about Larry's approach, the more I unearthed hidden drains on productivity in my office. Larry's lessons translated to major payoffs for my business.

Think of your customer service as an orientation to a grand learning opportunity. What can you do to help srarr your customers' education?

Chip R. Bell manages the Dallas office of Performance Research Associates. He's also a popular keynote speaker and the author of 14 books, including Customer Love: Attracting and Keeping Customers for Life (Executive Excellence, 2000).

Chip Bell says that every day has been a great day since he had to call in artillery rounds on his own ambush position in Vietnam and no one in his troop was injured. Regarding his philosophy bumper sticker, he says, "Only dead fish swim with the current."

Customer Service

* Smartness has become a prerequisite for success, and the shorter shelf-life of knowledge or skill acquisition has made continuous earning critical to organizational survival.

* As customers come to anticipate that products will have learning components built in, that expectation will extend to include all facets of the customer experience

* The secret to making learning fun is to engage people in a partnership. Think of t as a reciprocal learning experience you and your customer learning together

Source: Questia.com