Some people think they should be even, such as a survey that asks customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1–4.

Others think survey scales should be odd, making the customer satisfaction scale go from 1–5.

Let’s take a look at both arguments where you’ll see there’s one clear answer.

The Case for Even Rating Scales

Proponents of an even survey scale argue this design forces customers to choose a positive or negative response.

There’s no room for wishy-washy, neutral ratings. A customer is either satisfied or unsatisfied. Here’s how that breaks down on a 1–4 scale:

1=highly dissatisfied

2=dissatisfied

3=satisfied

4=highly satisfied

Some people might even point to the simplicity of the thumbs up, thumbs down rating scales that many surveys now use. Even Netflix recently ditched its five star rating system in favor of this one.

There’s a glaring hole in this argument: bias.

A good survey shouldn’t lead customers to one answer or another. It should allow customers to give their actual response, even if its neutral. The whole argument for even scales is making customers adjust their rating.

This is why even scales made my list of nine underhanded ways to boost your survey scores.

The Case for Odd Rating Scales

This argument is based on math.

An odd-numbered scale contains a statistical mid-point. Here’s how that breaks down on a 1–5 scale:

1=highly dissatisfied

2=dissatisfied

3=neutral (mid-point)

4=satisfied

5=highly satisfied

The neutral mid-point is the reason the creators of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) advocate a scale of 0–10 rather than 1–10. It’s also the reason the inventors of the Customer Effort Score (CES) advocate a scale of 1–7 instead of 1–6 or 1–8.

Conclusion

A good customer service survey starts with a clear purpose.

Are you doing a survey to get actionable feedback or are you just trying to make your scores look good? My advice is to stick with an odd-numbered rating scale if you want unbiased customer feedback that will help you improve your company’s customer service.

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on January 2, 2018. You can subscribe via email to get all the latest posts.

Bryce (not his real name) dreaded coming to work.

A regular customer frequently complimented Bryce on his appearance and made sexually suggestive comments. It made Bryce feel so uncomfortable he went to his manager for help.

Bryce’s manager was unsympathetic.

Putting up with the customer’s offensive behavior was part of the job, he told Bryce. The customer did over a million dollars in business every year and the manager didn’t want to jeopardize the revenue.

Stories like Bryce’s are common. Employees in many industries are routinely subjected to sexual harassment from customers. Make no mistake — this is illegal.

Companies that fail to protect employees face a number of consequences:

• Financial liability
• Negative publicity
• Employee turnover

Here’s what you need to know to protect your employees and your company.

What is Sexual Harassment?

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides this overview:

It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person’s sex.

This includes any unwelcome behavior such as sexual advances, jokes, requests for sexual favors, or inappropriate touching. The behavior can become illegal when one of two things happen:

1. An employee (or job applicant) must submit to the unwelcome behavior as a condition of employment or continued employment.
2. The behavior is so pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with a person’s ability to do their job.

Alisa Shorago, an attorney who provides harassment prevention training through Shorago Training Services, provides some clarity on how this definition applies to customer service:

“Under federal law, companies may be held legally liable for harassing acts by third parties, which includes customers and clients. The legal standard for third parties like customers is that a company is liable for harassment if the employee suing can prove that 1) any supervisor in the company knew or should have known about the harassment and 2) the company failed to take prompt and effective action.”

Look back to Bryce’s situation and you can see that his manager failing to act on Bryce’s complaint exposed the company to potential liability.

Common Workplace Issues

Jenny Dempsey has seen it all.

“Marriage proposals. Coffee dates. Dinner dates. Phone numbers to call. Skype names to chat. Phrases like, ‘You’re so hot in your email signature picture’, ‘Wow, I didn’t know customer service people were so attractive’ and ‘Your phone voice is really sexy’ are not uncommon. I’ve received questions like, ‘What are you wearing?’, ‘What are you doing tonight?, Can I come over?’, ‘Can I add you to Facebook?’, and ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ while helping someone troubleshoot problems in their account.”

She is a longtime customer support leader and was recently named one of ICMI’s Top 50 thought leaders to follow on Twitter. (Follow her here.) Like Bryce, Jenny enjoys serving customers but finds harassment to be very frustrating.

“In customer service, it is not uncommon to have your photograph listed in an email signature in tickets or in the bubble on live chat. I believe it brings a more personal connection to the interaction. Some days, however, I want to remove my photograph simply because of the comments I receive.”

Harassment is rampant in other industries, such as restaurants. A recent article from Eater reported that 78 percent of restaurant workers have been harassed by a customer.

According to Patrick Maguire, a hospitality consultant and author of the Server Not Servant blog, harassment often prevents a dilemma for servers.

“Persistent, unwanted, flirtatious advances are one of the most common concerns from servers in restaurants and bars.”

Maguire explains that in customer service, we’re trained to be polite and accommodating and to avoid taking it personally when we encounter an obnoxious customer. Unfortunately, a harassing customer might misconstrue a polite response to their inappropriate behavior as an invitation to continue.

“The most frequent offenders are aggressive men harassing women, and many [female servers] tolerate too much, and aren’t direct and clear enough about drawing boundaries. Obviously, every situation is unique, and not all guys can take a ‘hint,’ but a firm, confident response to an unwanted interruption is often more effective than a tepid, ‘polite’ brush off. When in doubt, escalate (to management) early rather than suffering through an insufferable creep’s annoying advances.”

Dempsey agrees that the normal expectations for a customer service professional can make it difficult to deal with a boorish customer.

“I feel if I say the wrong thing or put up boundaries, the customer may become irate or cancel service. I typically add a note of, ‘thank you for your kind words’ or I’ll make a joke out of it by giving them 867–5309 when they ask for my phone number. For better or for worse, I let the comments slide. If it is incredibly inappropriate, I will ask them to either change their language or the chat or call will be disconnected. It rarely gets to that level, but I’m sure there is more I could be doing even with the initial questions or phrases that I receive, however, I don’t feel I really can do much.”

Some jobs can put employees in particularly compromising positions.

Several of my clients manage apartment communities or have maintenance technicians who do repair work in customers’ homes. These employees often find themselves face-to-face with scantily clad customers who make sexual advances when they arrive to perform repair work. Some even worry about being accused of wrongdoing themselves.

Take Action to Protect Employees

Customer service leaders have an obligation to protect employees from harassing customers.

Make sure employees know about the company’s anti-harassment policy. Provide regular training and open forums to discuss challenging issues.

With my housing clients, we discussed specific tactics for handling uncomfortable situations. The goal was to empower employees with good options so they could provide outstanding service while avoiding harassment.

Maguire gives similar advice for restaurant managers. “Hospitality professionals should frequently discuss effective strategies to deal with boorish behavior so they’re ready with specific language and actions when they need to employ them.”

Leaders should also encourage employees to come to them with potential issues, so they can be handled quickly before they escalate into something bigger.

Shorago recommends customer service leaders be prepared to handle complaints effectively.

“As with all other company leaders, customer service leaders should always take an employee’s report of harassment seriously and immediately follow the company’s procedures for reporting harassment complaints. They should also make sure the employee is not being punished in any way for making that complaint to ensure no illegal retaliation is occurring.”

Originally published at the Inside Customer Service blog on December 28, 2017. You can subscribe via email to get all the latest posts.

It is supposed to be a joyous, festive time. The reality for many of us is our already busy days are filled with holiday activities such as baking, writing holiday cards, getting our Christmas shopping done, and attending a multitude of holiday parties.

Some customer service employees experience all that coupled with their absolute busiest time of year. They log countless hours of overtime. Each workday is a never-ending line of customers.

It’s exhausting.

There are three types of fatigue in particular that are dangerous this time of year. Here is an overview of each one and how it may harm your customer service.

Health care professionals generally recommend adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night. A 2013 Gallup poll found that 40 percent of us get less than that.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists concentration and memory as the two highest-reported effects of insufficient sleep. We see this in customer service when employees have difficulty concentrating on your needs or remembering to call you back as promised.

Many of us overdose on coffee to compensate for a lack of sleep. Studies show too much caffeine can lead to difficulty sleeping, which makes the problem even worse.

How much employees sleep is largely outside of our control, though there are a few things we can do.

1. Share this blog post with employees and discuss it.
2. Try to keep employee schedules as predictable as possible.
3. Schedule holiday parties in January. (I’ve done this several times and they are often so much more fun!)

Directed Attention Fatigue

Customer service employees are besieged by distractions.

We’re asked to multitask. The average contact center agent juggles five to seven computer programs using two monitors. Our daily world is filled with buzzes, beeps, screen flashes, and other signals that constantly capture and redirect our attention.

Over time, those distractions cause fatigue in the parts of of our brain that focus attention and block out external stimuli. This is known as Directed Attention Fatigue, or DAF. Some psychiatrists refer to it as Attention Deficit Trait (ADT) and suggest the symptoms are very similar to ADD.

Here are a few signs from DAF from Bernadine Cimprich:

• Distractibility
• Irritability
• Impatience
• Indecisiveness
• Difficult starting and finishing tasks

All of these can be detrimental to outstanding customer service. This makes it essential for customer service leaders to help employees avoid or recover from DAF.

There are only a few things that are known to work:

• Promote a workplace free of unnecessary distractions.
• Reconsider whether using two computer monitors is a good solution.
• Encourage employees to take breaks outside, since nature is known for its restorative qualities.
• Set up a quiet room at work to give employees a place to unwind.

Empathy Fatigue

Customer service employees are supposed to care about customers.

We’re expected to listen intently, try to understand customers’ feelings and emotions, and take action to show we really understand.

Demonstrating too much empathy can be exhausting. The resulting fatigue is referred to as empathy fatigue, compassion fatigue, or even burnout. Here are just a few symptoms from Psychology Today:

• Feeling burdened by the suffering of others
• Blaming others for their suffering
• Isolating yourself
• Loss of pleasure in life
• Difficulty concentrating

This is another list that clearly isn’t conducive to outstanding service.

My study on contact center agent burnout revealed a few factors that can lesson the risk. It is likely these same factors are applicable in other customer service environments, too:

• Customer Focus. Burnout risk goes down when employees believe their company is customer-focused.
• Empowerment. Employees are less likely to face burnout when they feel empowered to help their customers.
• Quality. Better products and services mean fewer upset customers, which means less empathy is needed. Elite companies are relentless about avoiding angry customers in the first place.

Conclusions

In his article, The Dopamine Economy, Umair Haque explains how many of our habits are unhealthy for our mental well-being. A lack of sleep, constant distractions, and an inability to truly focus result.

These habits become ingrained because they trigger dopamine releases in our brain. This makes these unhealthy habits incredibly addictive.

One way to break the cycle and recover is to schedule an unplug event. You can try this on your next two-day weekend.

Here’s how it works:

1. Avoid all digital media. That means your smart phone, your computer, and even the television.
2. Spend time outdoors. Try going for a walk or a hike where you can get some fresh air and observe natural beauty.
3. Engage with friends. Have a game night, invite some friends over for dinner, or do something else that allows you to spend quality time with other people.

The first day won’t be easy, but it gets better. By the end of the weekend, you’ll likely feel more refreshed and focused than you have in a long time.

Originally published at the Inside Customer Service blog on December 19, 2017. You can subscribe via email to get all the latest posts.

A survey of 1,345 consumers conducted by the Temkin Group discovered that relief was the most common emotion experienced after a technical support interaction.

Let’s break it down a bit.

Most technical support interactions start with some form of distress. Customers experience a problem that causes anxiety, frustration, or even anger and are counting on the technical support rep to help them fix it.

Now consider the definition of relief. My favorite comes from the Oxford Dictionary:

A feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress.

It’s a big emotional swing to move from distress to reassurance. The peak-end rule in psychology tells us the emotional peak is often the most memorable part of an interaction. Ending on a big positive further cements good feelings in the customer’s memory.

So how can support teams bring more relief? Here are a few steps.

Improve the Pre-Call Experience

Many technical support teams, particularly start-ups, are guilty of intentionally making it difficult to reach a live agent.

The phone number is buried behind a wall of self-service options. Sometimes there’s no phone support at all. Even then, customers must wade through a series of questions and menus just to initiate a live chat or send an email.

This is all based on a calculation that self-support is cheaper than live support. It’s also a tactic that can backfire.

Customers are already experiencing negative emotions due to their technical issue. A struggle to get live support at a time of need only serves to amplify those feelings.

This puts relief even farther out of reach.

Now here’s the secret. Most customers don’t want to connect with live support! They too want to solve the problem on their own.

Customers look for live support when they try self-service and it fails or they believe their issue is too complicated for self-service. Smart companies get this and make it easy for customers to choose between self-service or contacting a live agent.

Quickly connecting with the help you need is a form of relief in itself.

You can still deflect unnecessary service contacts if you do it right. For example, customer service software provider Zendesk takes the live agent or self-service option to a whole new level of awesome.

Allow Agents to Build Rapport

Friendliness and empathy aren’t just nice-to-have elements of a support call.

Remember, customers contact support when they’re experiencing negative emotions. Research shows that people in that state of mind are more judgmental and less open to ideas.

That’s a toxic situation for effective support. So a support analyst who can build rapport can quickly set the stage for faster problem resolution. Which, in turn, makes it easier to bring relief.

Here are a few tactics to try:

• Start the conversation with enthusiasm.
• Learn the customer’s name and introduce yourself before asking for account info.
• Listen to yourself and note times when your tone isn’t friendly.

Give Agents Space to Listen

Customers are notoriously bad at telling their story.

This causes two problems when it comes to listening. First, large support queues can make employees over-anxious to hop to a solution. That shuts down listening, which in turn can create friction.

The other problem is instinctive. Our brains naturally shut down listening when we start hearing a story we think we’ve heard before.

Veteran agents have heard it all before, so your more experienced employees can have an even tougher time listening than your rookies.

Agents need coaching and feedback to develop effective listening skills. Try monitoring interactions to see obvious missed opportunities. Here’s an example from a written interaction.

Help get agents get listening right and you’ll speed up support resolutions and make customers feel better in the process.

Conclusion

The webinar software functioned normally during my client webinar.

I continued to experience other issues afterwards, issues that caused me to think about finding another provider. The only thing that kept me loyal was the memory of that outstanding support interaction.

All told, experiencing relief that day bought my webinar provider two more years worth of renewals it wouldn’t have gotten if my webinar wasn’t a success.

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on November 30, 2017.

It doesn’t matter which one. Subscription television service and internet service providers are the two lowest-rated private-sector industries on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

It shouldn’t be this way.

Cable companies offer some amazing products. Blazing-fast internet speeds. High-definition television with hundreds of channels, on-demand movies, and the ability to record shows.

The product is a marvel, but we loathe the cable company anyway.

Why? Because the cable companies have designed a customer service system that’s ultra-efficient when everything works well, but utterly fails when there’s an exception to the norm.

Here’s a recent example.

My wife and I purchased a vacation rental property and wanted to keep the same cable, internet, and phone service the previous owners were using from Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum).

Simple, right?

Wrong. Here’s a contact-by-contact account of the 23 tries it took me to get the service up and running.

Contact 1: Candy (call). I called to set-up my account. The previous owners had left behind their modem and cable box, but Candy insisted I had to return them and Time Warner Cable (TWC) would send me new equipment. This seemed strange since TWC would be sending me the same type of equipment I was shipping back to them. Candy was very nice, so despite this minor equipment hassle I was optimistic that this would be easy.

TWC sent a cable box, but not the modem.

Contact 2: Sean (call). He told me the modem had been cancelled by the system because something called Third Party Verification (TPV) had not been completed. This is a process that verifies the customer’s identity and records the customer’s authorization for the requested services. Sean transferred me to an automated system to complete TPV and promised the modem would soon be shipped.

No modem came.

Contact 3: Jessica (call). She thought she needed to cancel my order and re-do it from the start. My account was becoming a mess since the pricing that Candy had promised (contact #1) was no longer available.

Contact 4: Ray (transfer from Jessica). Ray was some sort of specialist. He couldn’t help much.

Contact 5: Nikia (transfer from Ray). Nikia has good news and bad news. Mostly bad. The good is I could go to a TWC store and pick up the modem. The bad news is Nikia insisted I had to schedule a technician to do the installation. This is a massive problem because my vacation rental is a two hour drive from my home. After a bit of wrangling, Nikia relented and agreed I can do it on my own.

Contact 6: Ray (Twitter). Something tells me this isn’t over, so I send a tweet to @TWC_Help. The unhelpful response is I should try calling.

Contact 7: AJ (TWC store). I pick up the modem at the TWC store. AJ tells me the modems they stock in San Diego are different than the modems used in Idyllwild, where my vacation home is located. Luckily, they happened to have a couple of the right ones in stock or otherwise I would have wasted a trip.

I took the new equipment up to the vacation rental a few days later to do the installation.

Contact 8: Vinay (chat). The internet is working, but not phone or cable. I can’t call for help because my vacation rental is in the mountains and cell coverage is spotty. So I chat with Vinay who helps me get the cable working, but not the phone. He suggests a full system reboot which ends the chat because my internet will temporarily go down with the reboot.

Contact 9: Mustafa (chat). Still no phone, so chatting again. Mustafa says its a billing issue and transfers my chat.

Contact 10: Sameer (chat transfer from Musatafa). Sameer tells me I need to call the Customer Solutions Team. That’s tough to do when my phone doesn’t work. Sameer is unsympathetic.

Contact 11: Sanjay, Ben, Charmi (chat). I tried playing a round of agent roulette where I initiate a few chats in hopes that I get a chat agent who could actually help. Spoiler alert: Nope!

Contact 12: Carlos (phone). A miracle! I found one spot in the house with cell coverage and my call goes through. Carlos tells me the problem is the phone is “still provisioning” (which basically means its in limbo). He transfers me to Paul in Tier 3 phone support.

Contact 13: Paul (transfer from Carlos). Paul explained there was some system problem where an “open work order” was preventing my phone service from activating. He told me he’d have to cancel my phone service and then reinstate it. Paul seemed confident that this would be done in a few hours. I was leaving the house then and returning several days later, so this would be fine.

Contact 14: Ruchita (chat). Back at the house. It’s a few days later and the phone still isn’t working. Which means its really hard to call. I try chatting with Ruchita. She stuck to a now-familiar script. I imagined she must know Vinay, Mustafa, Sameer, Sanjay, Ben, or Charmi since they all seemed like the same person.

Contact 15: Chris (phone). Miracle! I found that spot in the home with good cell coverage. Chris saw there was work open in my account and transferred me to the Tier 3 support team.

Contact 16: Rich (transfer from Chris). To paraphrase Rich, this was a mess. He told me he’d have to cancel my service and start from scratch. There was still some strange work order stuck in their system. Rich felt it would take several hours.

Rich called me back several times with updates. I think I’ve finally found someone who will see this problem through.

Contact 17: Chris (phone). Here’s the thing that sucks about TWC’s system: you can’t contact someone directly. Nobody has a direct line or email address, or at least they aren’t allowed to give it out. Rich called and left me a voice message on my cell phone with an update. I didn’t get the call right away because I was up in the mountains with spotty cell coverage. I wanted to call Rich back, but I had to call the main customer service line and talk to Chris, who transferred me to the Tier 3 team.

Contact 18: Danny (transfer from Chris). Danny’s never heard of Rich. It took some back and forth to learn that Chris (Contact 17) transferred me to the wrong Tier 3 team. Apparently, the San Diego billing address on my account tricks TWC’s system into thinking this is a San Diego issue and not an Idyllwild issue (where the service is located).

I finally get Rich (Contact #16) on the phone. He think’s he’s figured out the problem, but he needs to get some people with “higher visibility” involved. Translation: some senior people who don’t work weekends need to sign-off on a few things. (Rich is very tactful.)

I really appreciate Rich at this point. Perhaps it’s Stockholm Syndrome, but I realize he’s gamely trying to coordinate with multiple departments to resolve a big mess.

At one point, Rich lets his guard down and admits he’s dealing with a lot of these types of issues. Then he tells me it’s the end of his work day and he’s going to go home and have a drink. I like Rich.

Contact 19: O’Neil (phone). Rich left me another voice message telling me I need to complete the Third Party Verification (TPV) process again, so I call in. O’Neil is the first real jerk I spoke with. He refused to transfer me and insisted on sticking to the scripted problem-solving protocol as if this was my first contact and not #19. I feel us wrestling for control of the call. Finally, he barks at me, “I have to escalate this to my manager first.” So I wait on hold while O’Neil presumably discusses the case with his manager. I stew in silence for a few moments. He eventually comes back on the line connects me to someone in Tier 3.

Contact 20: Kyle (transfer from O’Neil). Kyle’s never heard of Rich, which I quickly realize is because he is on a different Tier 3 team. Like O’Neil, he starts trying to solve the issue like this is my first call-in. My patience is really getting tested.

We end the call with a silence-off where neither of us say anything for 60 seconds. It was therapeutic.

In a moment of paranoia, I wonder if O’Neil and Kyle are playing some sort of bingo game where they mark their card when customers yell various curse words. It takes a lot of self-restraint not to add to their cards.

Contact 21: Unknown (call). I try calling again to complete TPV. This is the one person’s name I didn’t catch. I was calling from a parking lot and didn’t write down her name. I feel bad, because this person didn’t hassle me like O’Neil or Kyle.

Rich calls me back with another update shortly after I finish the TPV. The phone is working. He still needs to spend some time trying to get the pricing that Candy promised me (Contact #1).

Contact 22: Jamie (call). It’s a few days later and the phone is working now. My billing still isn’t right so I call and speak to Jamie. She must work with O’Neil and Kyle, because she was one of the few absolute jerks I encountered. Like those two, she kept trying to control the conversation and solve the issue like it was my first contact and I was an idiot.

I finally tell Jamie she’s just making it worse and decide to end the call. Fortunately, I manage to restrain myself and not add to Jamie’s customer curse word bingo card.

Contact 23: Scott (call). This guy is friendly and competent, like most of the people I encountered at TWC. I honestly don’t know how the vast majority of these folks remain so friendly.

The good news is Scott fixed my billing. The bad news is is that after all I went through, Scott maxed out his authority by giving me a $25 goodwill credit. After 23 contacts, that feels a bit light.

Epilogue

I emailed Kathleen Mayo, Executive Vice President of Customer Operations at Charter. (Charter owns Spectrum, which bought Time Warner Cable. It’s complicated.)

I asked her for two things:

1. A commitment to fix the problem that caused this mess.
2. Account credit for two months of service as a goodwill gesture.

Mayo never responded, but I do know she read my email and passed it along because of what happened next.

That same day, I began receiving phone calls Spectrum employees on my home phone line. They all went to my voice mail because the calls came in during the middle of the day. Each time, the person said they saw I had been given a $25 account credit and they believed the issue was resolved, but they still wanted to speak with me about it. No one ever left a way to get in touch with them.

These calls occurred every day for a week.

In my email to Kathleen Mayo, I asked her to consider the incredible waste that’s happening on her watch. Perhaps it’s ironic that she then dispatched a team to make a week’s worth of follow-up phone calls to my house that made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

I wish my experience was just a sad, funny, anomaly. It’s not. The cable company pulls this routine on a daily basis, whether it’s Spectrum, Comcast, or some other brand.

It’s all because employees aren’t empowered to actually fix anything. Their systems are too locked down. One small hiccup and all hell breaks loose.

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on December 8, 2016.

You want to hire a professional. Someone who can share cutting-edge concepts and really fire up the team.

The standard approach is to look for someone like me. The trainer flies in, conducts the training, gets great reviews, and then leaves.

Has that ever really worked out well? Motivation usually jumps for a few days and then employees gradually settle back into their old habits.

There’s another approach. One that’s 900% better and costs less.

The 70–20–10 Rule

Research conducted by the Center For Creative Leadership is credited with developing the 70–20–10 Rule. It suggests that leaders learn their skills from three sources:

• 70% from challenging assignments
• 20% from developmental relationships
• 10% from formal training

In truth, it’s not really a rule. The 70–20–10 ratio is more of a guide. And, it can be applied to all sorts of training.

Let’s look at what happens when we apply the 70–20–10 rule to a typical customer service training program:

The typical program focuses on formal training, which accounts for roughly 10 percent of learning. But, what about the other 90 percent?

That’s usually not part of the plan.

Developmental relationships account for 20 percent of learning — twice as much as formal training. These usually come from a boss or mentor. Unfortunately, typical training programs often fail because the boss doesn’t do much coaching to help employees develop their new skills.

The typical training also lacks a clearly defined initiative where employees’ new skills can make a measurable difference. That’s another 70 percent of learning they miss out on.

A New Approach

The good news is we can make a few tweaks to capture the missing 90 percent. And, we can reduce our costs at the same time, but more about that in a moment.

First, we need to identify a challenge for everyone to work on. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras coined the term Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal in their classic book, Built to Last.

The idea is you can rally the team (or an organization) behind an important goal that focuses everyone’s efforts.

My clients often identify a specific challenge through a customer service assessment. I offer a comprehensive version, but you can download this mini-version and try it on your own.

That challenge represents 70 percent of learning. We can capture the other 20 percent if the employees’ supervisors are prepared to coach their teams.

There are often two big issues for supervisors:

• They don’t think they have time to coach
• They don’t know how to coach

You can solve both issues by enrolling supervisors in a one-on-one coaching program. They’ll learn how to carve out the necessary time and how they develop their employees.

Add in the challenge and coaching and your training model now looks like this:

Reduce Your Costs

Remember that bit about adding in a challenge plus coaching while reducing your costs? Here’s how you do that:

You do the training via video.

Will a training video be as good as live training? The short answer is no. But, video can be extremely effective. And, remember that formal training is only 10 percent of the pie. Better to focus your resources on the other 90 percent.

Let’s look at an example of the costs associated with training 30 employees using the typical approach versus the new approach.

I’ve made a few assumptions here, so your math might work out a little differently:

• The average hourly wage is $15 per hour.
• There are three supervisors who oversee the 30 employees.
• The one-on-one coaching program for the supervisors costs $4,500.

The $900 cost of training for the new approach is based on a one month premium Lynda.com subscription for 30 employees at $29.99 per person. The actual cost can be lower than that with a volume discount.

Bonus Benefit

Many of my clients have reminded me of a bonus benefit gained by the new approach.

Think about what happens when you bring in a professional trainer. That person does their training and then goes home. But, what do you do when you hire a new employee? Or, what happens when it’s been six months and your team needs a refresher?

With the new approach, you have an easy source of ongoing development if you keep your access to the training videos!

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on July 14, 2016.

Pound the pavement. Work the phones. Cultivate some leads and then work like hell to close the deal.

It’s not easy and it’s not for everyone. But, some people take it too far. They let their weak game get in the way of common sense.

Here are two examples.

Exhibit A: Tidy

Someone from this company advertised it’s home cleaning service by literally leaving trash on my doorstep.

I’m not a fan of adverlitter. That’s when someone leaves trash on a doorstep, driveway, car windshield, or other piece of your property to advertise their business.

These people think of it as advertising, but it’s really litter.

This piece of adverlitter is particularly ironic. It smacks of some goon breaking a window and then offering to sell you insurance.

It’s a weak game, Tidy.

Tidy won’t get my business. I hope they don’t get yours either.

Exhibit B: GamEffective

I get a lot of spam email. Most of it gets deleted, but I have a soft spot for anyone who is (a) entertaining or (b) selling something that’s related to something I’m working on.

Here’s one I got this week:

Goffstein didn’t do his research. If he did, perhaps he’d know that I’m a one person shop. I’m definitely not in the market for gamification.

But, I did write a blog post about it last week.

So, I replied to Goffstein’s email and sent him a link to my post:

Hi Jeff,

I don’t normally respond to unsolicited email sales pitches like yours. However, I’ve just written a blog post on gamification that includes perspectives from two well-respected contact center leaders who are big proponents. Perhaps you’ll find the link helpful as you reach out to other potential customers.

http://www.toistersolutions.com/blog/2016/6/21/unexpected-gamification-advice-from-the-mario-brothers

~Jeff

Goffstein didn’t respond. Perhaps this spam email campaign is completely automated and he isn’t even in the loop. Maybe Goffstein is a bot.

(Side note: why does Goffstein have to be a Jeff? He’s ruining a good name.)

Today, I get another spam email from Goffstein.

Still not interested in gamification, Goffstein. But, I do believe he has now earned the Sir Spam-a-lot Badge that’s part of the GamEffective internal sales platform.

So, GamEffective won’t be getting any recommendations or referrals from me. Their sales game is too weak.

The perception is you put a lot of work into writing one. Maybe you hire some expensive consultants to run a bunch of focus groups or spend a day on it at an executive retreat. And then…

Nothing.

Employees forget it. Service quality remains unchanged. The vision gathers dust somewhere in an abandoned file. All that time, money, and effort wasted.

The promise of a customer service vision is still real. It’s a shared definition of outstanding service. In theory, this is essential to getting everyone on the same page.

The challenge is you need a way to promote the vision to your team. Get them engaged and excited. And, keep it alive for years to come after that initial roll-out.

Here are nine ways you can do it.

#1 Set SMART Goals

Many customer service teams use metrics to manage their performance. You can incorporate your vision into your daily work by setting a SMART goal for at least one of your metrics.

SMART is an acronym:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant ← — — Here’s where you connect your goal to your vision.
• Time Bound

You can use this SMART goal worksheet as a guide.

#2 Hire With Your Vision in Mind

It will be much easier to get your team on-board if you hire people who can naturally identify with your customer service vision.

Here’s how:

1. Create an ideal candidate profile that incorporates your vision
2. Develop tests to see if job candidates fit the profile

This short video from Shopify is a terrific example of an ideal candidate profile.

#3 Train the Vision

Training is the perfect time to introduce or reinforce the customer service vision. It’s not just customer service training. Any training is a good opportunity.

Here are some examples:

• New hire training
• Customer service training (of course)
• New system training
• Policy or procedure training
• Product training

I once had a client who insisted on incorporating their customer service vision into anti-harassment compliance training. Their thinking was that the way co-workers treated each other was a form of customer service, and that treatment would naturally extend to the way they treated customers.

This short video explains how you can incorporate culture into your new hire training.

#4 Empower Employees Through The Vision

Your customer service vision is meaningless if employees aren’t empowered to fulfill it.

Last year, I made a list of five reasons why managers don’t empower their employees. One reason was employees don’t realize what they’re empowered to do to help their customers.

One way to overcome this barrier is to ask employees to contribute ideas on how they can fulfill the customer service vision with their customers.

You can use this guide to learn how to empower your employees.

#5 Leadership Messages

Employees tend to understand something’s importance by how often leaders talk about it.

That means if you want your employees to remember the customer service vision, you need to talk about it a lot. As in, every chance you get.

Fortunately, there are many opportunities:

• Team meetings
• Daily huddles (stand-ups, pre-shifts, tailgates, etc.)
• One-on-one meetings
• Casual conversations
• After action discussions
• Annual performance reviews

#6 Executive Messages

Customer service leaders aren’t the only people who should promote the customer service vision. Executive leadership should promote the vision too.

At one company I know, the CEO kicks off quarterly all-employee meetings with a review of their customer service vision. He shares specific examples of results and behaviors that match the vision.

This helps employees understand that support for the vision goes all the way to the top.

#7 Create a Culture Page

Many companies create a culture page on their website to describe what it’s like to work for them. It’s a recruiting tool, but it’s also a prime opportunity to promote your customer service vision.

JetBlue has led the airline industry on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for five straight years. Their customer service vision (also their mission) is to inspire humanity.

This is a screen shot from their culture page:

They’ve also created this short video that describes how they are different. Notice how their mission (a.k.a. customer service vision) plays a starring role.

#8 Involve Your Employees

A fun way to promote your customer service vision is to get your employees involved.

Here’s an example from the Center for Sustainable Energy’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project. Their customer service vision is this:

Make it easy to join the clean vehicle movement.

One thing this team did to promote the vision was to ask employees to think of words that described how their co-workers supported the vision. The words were then arranged in a word cloud shaped like a car to showcase their many positive attributes:

#9 Use it to Guide Decisions

There’s nothing that can promote your customer service vision faster than using it to guide your decisions.

REI’s amazing Opt Outside campaign is an outstanding example. In 2015, the outdoor gear retailer decided to close their stores on Black Friday. This included their online store!

The decision was a clear reflection of their customer service vision:

We inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.

REI’s President and CEO, Jerry Stritzke said, “Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of the essential truth that life is richer, more connected and complete when you choose to spend it outside. We’re closing our doors, paying our employees to get out there, and inviting America to OptOutside with us because we love great gear, but we are even more passionate about the experiences it unlocks.”

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on June 9, 2016.

She had a nice little system, but passengers weren’t paying attention. They’d clumsily get in the way, as if they somehow knew better. Didn’t they understand that she’d been doing this for 10 years?!

These passengers slowed everything down. Slowing things down was exasperating.

The driver’s system was carefully planned. When she picked passengers up, she’d hop out and load their luggage into the bus for them. This allowed people to quickly take a seat without jockeying for position around the luggage rack. It also made sure that she could load the luggage rack just the right way to maximize it’s capacity.

It worked the opposite way when she dropped people off. Passengers would exit the bus while the driver quickly off-loaded all the bags. This was much more efficient than everyone climbing all over each other to get to their own suitcase.

If only they’d listen.

The driver muttered angrily under her breath. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I know what I’m doing. Don’t they understand they’re just slowing things down?!”

Perhaps you’ve been in a similar situation where customers don’t follow your rules. Here’s what to do.

Step 1: Question Your Rules

Some rules have no obvious benefit to your customers.

Stop thinking about yourself and your company for a moment. Shove aside what’s convenient for you. See your rules through your customers’ eyes.

Rules that don’t directly and obviously benefit your customer are less likely to be followed.

The shuttle bus driver didn’t realize this. What seemed convenient to her seemed inconvenient to her passengers. That’s because passengers don’t care about the fastest way to load and unload the entire bus.

They care about the fastest way to get themselves on and off the bus.

You have two choices when rules don’t obviously and directly benefit your customers. One option is to change or abolish the rule. That usually works just fine, except for situations when you can’t because of a compelling reasons like regulations, safety, or fairness.

If you can’t change the rule, then go to step 2.

Step 2: Clearly Explain Your Rules

Some rules aren’t clearly explained.

Customers get confused easily. They don’t listen when you want them to listen. They don’t pay attention to what you think is important.

That’s because they have other priorities.

Passengers on the airport shuttle bus were worried about getting to and from the airport. They were anxious about their flight or getting to their rental car. Following the bus driver’s unique system wasn’t on their mind.

A lack of explanation caused problems for the bus driver. Instead, she literally snatched suitcases out of people’s hands and said, “My way works much better.” She sighed and muttered to herself at the slightest hint of resistance.

This felt confrontational.

The shuttle bus driver would have been much better off if she had spent more time communicating her rules to passengers. She could have engaged people one-on-one by saying, “I can take care of your bag for you! Just come on board and make yourself comfortable!”

She could have made a warm and welcoming announcement on the bus’s public address system to inform everyone that she’d be happy to unload everyone’s bag for them, while explaining people would save a little time and trouble in the process.

Sometimes, a clear explanation is enough. Other times, you need to do more.

Step 3: Make Your Rules Easy to Follow

Rules can be difficult to follow.

Some aren’t intuitive. Others are inconvenient. In some cases, it’s tough to follow the rules when everyone else isn’t.

Having rules that weren’t easy to follow caused problems for the shuttle driver. Just think about what people normally do when riding an airport shuttle bus. The driver’s rules went against the grain of what people were used to doing.

When a typical airport shuttle bus pulls up and opens its doors, people naturally file onto the bus and look for a place to stow their bags. Most people enter via the side door that’s halfway down the bus because it’s nearest the luggage rack.

That meant that by the time the driver got out of the driver’s seat and started enforcing her rules, people were already herding themselves onto the bus and doing exactly what she didn’t want them to do.

Of course, that brings us back to #1, where she might realize her rules weren’t absolutely essential.

Putting It All Together

The airport shuttle bus driver is just one example, but her situation was instructive. Above all else, she got stuck seeing things through her own point of view and refused to look at her rules from her customers’ perspective.

Think about situations in your own business where customers don’t follow the rules.

• Can rules be abolished or changed?
• Can you explain rules more clearly?
• Can you make it easier to follow the rules?

These fixes can go a long way towards getting your customers onboard.

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on May 19, 2016.

It’s an Italian tapas restaurant in Boston’s South End. That’s a neighborhood I avoided when I had lived there in the 90s.

They didn’t have any reservations available. My wife and I didn’t like that uncertainty. We had other things we wanted to do that night and didn’t want to get stuck waiting for an hour.

It was tiny. I’ve been in a lot of tiny places in Boston. Tiny usually equals cramped, crowded, and unpleasant.

Coppa turned out to be perfect.

They had amazing food, a wonderfully cozy atmosphere, and great service. The restaurant was crowded, but they found a comfortable spot for us at a small bar looking out the window.

We never would have gone there if we had relied on Yelp. Good thing we asked an expert instead. When it comes to getting great service experiences, a knowledgeable person is still the go-to option.

The Limits of Yelp and AI

Yelp makes recommendations based on two things: algorithmically-culled recommendations of an anonymous crowd and the searcher’s ability to enter appropriate search criteria.

It generally does a good job.

Just last week, I was traveling and needed to find a place to get a haircut. Yelp was able to narrow down my search to a few highly rated places that were all within walking distance of my hotel. A quick scan of the reviews helped me pick a winner. It worked out well.

But, there are a few problems with how Yelp delivers its recommendations.

First, how do I know that the anonymous crowd shares my interests and tastes? Coppa has over 500 Yelp reviews and a strong four star rating, but I really don’t know who is rating them.

There’s been plenty of times when the crowd has absolutely loved something that I just couldn’t get into. For example, I’ve tried many times to love The Godfather movies and still don’t like them.

The second problem with Yelp is the user. It’s limited by whatever search criteria you use. So, if you decide to exclude the South End, then Yelp won’t recommend anything in that neighborhood. That’s why Coppa didn’t appear in my Yelp search.

The problem, of course, is customers often don’t know exactly what they want. Or, they think they do, only to be delighted later on by an option that didn’t fit their criteria at all.

I experienced a similar challenge when I tried to use IBM Watson to pick out a jacket. Watson was limited by the search criteria I thought matched my needs. I received better service from an in-store sales associate who could interpret my criteria and think laterally to suggest options I hadn’t considered.

The Power of Experts

My friend, Patrick Maguire, had suggested Coppa.

Patrick knows a lot about restaurants in Boston. He writes the popular I’m Your Server, Not Your Servant blog about hospitality service. He also consults with Boston-area restaurants on PR, promotions, and hospitality. I definitely consider him an expert.

I had told him my wife, Sally, and I were looking for a place for dinner. He asked a few thoughtful questions that led to his recommendation.

Patrick used his extensive knowledge of area restaurants to make his suggestion. He used his perceptiveness to interpret my criteria and understand what was truly important to us. And, he used his relationship with me to effectively persuade me that things I saw as obstacles (South End, no reservations, etc.) weren’t really obstacles at all.

Yelp couldn’t do that.

The other thing that Yelp couldn’t do is validate my choice. Getting some insider information makes me feel good. Heck, look at the title of my blog and you can tell this is something I obviously value.

Accessing Experts

I wrote a little about connecting with experts in this blog post about Do-It-Yourself Learning.

Chances are, you know a lot of people who are an expert in one thing or another. The thing I’ve learned is you have to approach them directly.

So, if I had made a general post on Facebook asking for restaurant recommendations, I might have gotten several suggestions from well-meaning friends who may or may not have been on-target. If I was lucky, Patrick would have seen my post, but there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have.

The direct approach worked much better. I went to him because he’s an expert in that area.

This means you have to think about who’s in your circle that knows something about what you know. Check up on your friends’ profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks if you can’t remember who knows what.

Employees are often experts too.

They’ve received specialized training. They spend a lot of time answering questions and familiarizing themselves with their company’s products and services. And, I can tell you that most customer service employees love getting the chance to share their knowledge.

This means your restaurant server knows the inside scoop on how menu items really taste. A retail employees knows the ins and outs of their products.

As I noted in a recent blog post, self-help tools like Yelp are gaining in popularity, but employees (and your friends) still hold the edge when it comes to nuanced or complex requests.

Originally published at www.toistersolutions.com on April 21, 2016.