To Revolutionize Your Customer Service, Consult This 6-Step Checklist

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This week’s blog comes from:

Dale Carnegie Training Newsletter

By Anita Zinsmeister, President — anita.zinsmeister@dalecarnegie.com
Dale Carnegie® Training of Central & Southern New Jersey 

BY MICAH SOLOMON

 
 
Customer consultant, speaker, author
 
If you want to transform the customer service at your company, consulting this checklist will get you started.
 

From time to time, in my work as a customer service consultant, I run into company leaders who wake up on a random weekday morning, suddenly and unstoppably gung ho on improving customer service companywide. This can be in response to an inspiring article about Zappos customer service or the Nordstrom customer service experience, or to slipping NPS scores or a skewering on social media (or possibly-let’s be honest here!-an incomplete skimming of one of my customer service books). That pumped-up leader then goes out that very morning, in fine snake-killing style, determined to raise customer service performance right then and there.

After all, how hard could it be?

The problem with customer service is that it only looks easy, and good intentions are only going to take you so far. You can’t transform your customer experience by just smiling harder, or asking people smile harder for you. It’s going to take more.

Here’s how to start.

1. Ask yourself if you really want to go through with this. Everyone can say they’re in favor of improved customer service-and most everyone does in fact say this. But to transform customer service performance requires a commitment deep enough to sustain the required day in, day out effort.

2. Put into words what your goal is with this effort. I don’t mean something vague and generic like “to be the best” or “to provide white-glove customer service.” Instead, put into words how, as a transformed company, you will now strive to treat every customer in every upcoming encounter. Here again, I want to warn you against relying on a vague clich like “We will exceed their expectations.” (There’s a bit of illogic in this goal anyway, as the exceeded expectations in encounter #1 will be the new expectations to now be exceeded in encounter #2, and so forth. Ultimately, well, I’m sure you see the problem.)

So what does work as a goal here? I would suggest something along the lines of “In every encounter, we strive to create a pleasant, safe, and memorable experience for our customers.” Or consider this poetic example from The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: “to fulfill even the unexpressed needs and wishes” of our customers.

3. Look at how you select the employees who work for you in customer-facing positions. If you’re not hiring them based on customer-friendly criteria, you’re putting yourself at an almost-insurmountable disadvantage. This is a place to consider using a scientifically-based selection methodology, such as can be achieved by collaborating with one of the major vendors who are available to partner with companies in this area. If this is not currently feasible with your budget, you can use one of the available off-the-shelf profiling tools instead.

4. Look at which behaviors and mindsets you’re encouraging and reinforcing.From new-employee onboarding onward, what do you give employees the impression that you value? Many businesses hold meetings to encourage sales, to promote technical skills and mastery of new technology. But only standout businesses devote time and breath to supporting the concepts and the mindset involved in superior customer service. This is a good thing to stress immediately in orientation, and then to follow up with daily ten minute huddles. Or if such a schedule doesn’t work in your organization, at the very minimum, schedule such meetings once a week.

5. Map out customer touchpoints and figure out which ones to overhaul first. Even the best-selected and most-inspired employees can’t stop an organization from delivering crummy service, if clunky or glitchy processes are the order of the day at key moments. The problem with mapping out customer touchpoints (which is an important exercise) is that you will very quickly realize that nearly every touchpoint could benefit from improvement. Prioritization, therefore, is needed to keep you from getting overwhelmed.

How to prioritize? The ranking of customer misery can be learned directly from your customers, if you have time to thoroughly survey them. Or, if you need a shortcut, your frontline staff probably know where the pain points are that need the most immediate attention.

6. Make a plan to sustain your progress. You need to avoid backsliding: to avoid erasing the progress that you’ve made initially, and you need to continue propelling yourself forward: to continue achieving more and more customer service improvement.

What should the plan be to accomplish these two essential elements of progress? I suggest you write (and post) an official framework for how to go about serving customers from here forward, as well as develop a continuous improvement system that all employees not only can but must contribute to. I also encourage that you develop measurements, visible on an organizational dashboard, to make it clear whether you are in fact maintaining the progress that you have made. Finally, you’ll need a focused team tasked with continuing to work on these issues, a team that reports directly to a high-level leader in your organization.

Micah Solomon, recently named the “new guru of customer service excellence” by the Financial Post, is a customer service consultant, customer service thought leader, keynote speaker, customer service trainer, and bestselling author. Click here for two free chapters from Micah’s latest book .

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
PUBLISHED ON: JUL 6, 2016
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7 Tips To Make Your Office More Green:

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This week’s blog comes from:

Dale Carnegie Training Newsletter

By Anita Zinsmeister, President — anita.zinsmeister@dalecarnegie.com
Dale Carnegie® Training of Central & Southern New Jersey 

Make Your Office A Mean Green Machine.
 
Making your office greener does not have to be a daunting prospect; there are countless small measures you can take to make your workplace run a lot more efficiently.  Below you will find 7 great tips on how you can make your office a lot greener.
 
Here are seven Tips To Make Your Office More Green:
 
1.  Recycle, Recycle, Recycle – Ensure that your company has multiple trashcans for recycling various materials other than paper.  For example, make sure that there is a recycle bin for glass and plastic and that everyone knows where it is.  Also ensure that the different bins are clearly labeled so there is no cross contamination.
 
2.  Reduce Your Paper Trail – Only print what is absolutely necessary. And, if you can, consider printing things double sided to save paper.  Also consider switching to recycled printer paper.  And, of course, recycle all used paper when you are finished with it.
 
3.  Lights Out – When you do not need them, make sure that you turn off all electronics, such as printers, scanners, and lights.  Also make sure that everything is turned off at the end of the day.  This is, obviously, better for the environment as well as your wallet since you do not have to pay for unnecessary electricity.  Consider also having everyone plug their electronics into a power strip so that at the end of the day they just simply have to switch off the strip.
 
4.  Consider Telecommuting – Telecommuting is becoming more and more popular with companies; it can be a win-win since staff members enjoy saving money and gas on commuting (eliminating carbon emissions), while the company will save a little money as well since it will not have to pay the electricity to run its staff member’s computers, lights, etc.  Even if you can only offer 1 day a week, it could still be a great idea.
 
5.  Motion Sensors – Motion sensors can be a great way to save some green.  You can install them on the lights at your company.  This way you are not wasting unnecessary money and electricity lighting a room with no one in it.
 
6.  Bring In Some Green – Consider bringing more plants into the office. Not only will they brighten up the space, but they will also help filter the air you breathe.  Plants literally filter pollutants out of the air and release oxygen.
 
7.  See The Light – If you can, make the switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs or LEDs with an energy star rating.  Even though they can be more expensive up front, these bulbs use about 75 percent less energy and typically last about 10 times as long as traditional bulbs. 
 
Executive Summary:  The environment is definitely in need of some TLC.  Besides doing what you can at home, it is a natural extension to go green at the office as well.  You do not need to take drastic measures. Going green could help build office pride among your staff, and also improve your company’s bottom line.  So what are you waiting for?
 
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Start. Run. Grow.

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10 Tips for new professionals

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From PRSA’s May 2016 issue of Tactics. Credit Sara Cullin, APR — a writer, editor and social media manager in Cincinatti. Follow her @ saracullin on Twitter.

Says Sara Cullin: “Have a plan or road map for accomplishing your goals. Here are 10 ways you can embrace the challenges and opportunities your’re bound to encounter on your career path.”

  1. Be a sponge.
  2. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
  3. Keep track of your accomplishments.
  4. Don’t wait for an evaluation to ask how you are doing.
  5. Don’t let your boss define you.
  6. Get a mentor.
  7. Find things that make you happy outside of work.
  8. Don’t be judgmental.
  9. Mind your manners.
  10. Keep learning.

To read the entire article, it’s Tactics — May 2016 from the Public Relations Society of America.

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