Ever show up to pick a rental car only to find out the company had the reservation, but not the CAR!

Well, this happened to Jerry Seinfeld. See his hilarious reaction to the “over-sold” situation.

2 min 28 sec

 

Many of you know that prior to starting my consulting practice I was the global head of consumer affairs for Thrifty Rent-A-Car System. The scene in this Jerry Seinfeld episode is one that plays out in real life every single day in car rental locations throughout the world. Jerry says what many of think, but don’t dare to say in the wake of the dreaded “over-sell” situation. Watch, laugh, and learn.

Enjoy,

Myra

If Customer Satisfaction Is Your Goal, Don’t Ask Me to Help You!

Last month I got a call from a client wanting me to deliver a keynote address on customer satisfaction. I politely explained, “I don’t speak on customer satisfaction.” My client was shocked, as for the past 12 months I’ve been rolling out a strategic plan in her company designed to increase the bottom line by increasing customer retention and by building a customer recovery strategy. I went on to explain 4 reasons why I, as a fierce customer loyalty advocate, don’t speak on customer satisfaction.

1. Customer satisfaction means NOTHING these days. The truth is, today’s customers expect mediocre service. Apathy is expected. Late is expected. Problems are expected. No follow-through is expected. As long as companies don’t go below these very low expectations, customers are satisfied.

2. Customer satisfaction = “Sufficient or Adequate Service.” When a company achieves “customer satisfaction” what it’s really achieved is getting customers to feel that the service is adequate or sufficient—that it wasn’t horrible. The customer’s expectations, typically very low expectations, were met. That’s all customer satisfaction means.

3. Customers report being “satisfied” only because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing any better.

4. Satisfied customers are not your customers. They’re just with you until they find something better.

I concluded that I do speak on and help my clients build customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is a feeling…a feeling that low expectations have been met. Customer loyalty, on the other hand, is a set of behaviors that produce revenue.

• Loyal customers by definition don’t defect.
• Loyal customers reward the company by buying from you again and again.
• Loyal customers buy other products or services in your line.
• Loyal customers tell people in their network about your company (referrals). – That is, they actually market for you and word-of-mouth advertising is the most persuasive form of advertising.

Does loyalty v. a feeling of satisfaction really impact profits? You bet it does! Take a look at these two examples.

A. One of my colleagues, Ed Peters of the 4Profit Institute, conducted a large customer satisfaction survey that provides irrefutable proof that the difference between satisfaction and loyalty can be a “million dollar difference.” Ed’s survey for a men’s clothing store in the Midwest found that customers who had an “excellent” shopping experience (48%) visited the stores an average of 3.9 times a year and spent an average of $465 per visit. Customers who merely had a “good” experience (49%) visited 3.5 times a year and spent only $397 per visit. Excellent service is what builds customer loyalty. Good customer service results in customer satisfaction. Now look at this…the difference between an “excellent” experience and a “good” experience was half a visit per year and $68 in sales – or about $3.2 million a year in lost sales!

B. Suppose two companies add 10 percent new customers a year; company A has a 95% customer retention rate, while company B retains only 90 percent. In fourteen years company A will double in size while company B will not grow at all.
 
And because of its loyal base, company A’s customers are more profitable. It costs less to keep customers than to get them; money is saved as companies and customers learn to work together; satisfied customers generate more referrals; and it’s much easier to get better prices from loyal customers than from those who are not. The net result is that company A outperforms company B on most measures. Generally, retaining 5% more customers increases the bottom-line by 25 to 95%.

I urge you to stop striving for high customer satisfaction and focus on delivering truly outstanding service and building a profitable base of loyal customers. Satisfied customers will give you a “good” ranking on a survey today and leave you for the competition tomorrow. Loyal customers return again and again, recommend your company often and significantly add to your bottom line!

The Secret of Socrates

 

How to get irrational customers to think rationally

 

The diplomatic communicator builds a psychological path toward an affirmative response by strategically getting their “opponent” to say “yes” a number of times.

Get the customer to say yes and keep them, if possible, from saying “no.”

When a person says “no,” all of their pride demands that they remain consistent with themselves. And it is very difficult, once they’ve said ‘no’, for them to change their mind and become “agreeable” with you, because their sense of pride is now involved. And we invest so much in our pride.

Let me give you an example of how this works:

Years ago when I was heading up consumer affairs for a car rental company, I had an escalated call from a very upset customer. The customer was demanding that the company pay him three thousand dollars and some change because our mishap caused him to be three hours late to a meeting. He explained that he was a consultant and his billable rate was $1,000 per hour.

The problem was our fault; there was no way around that. But the demand was unreasonable, and I knew we weren’t going to be able to give in. So, I used the Yes, Yes strategy on him…and here’s how it worked.

“Mr. Jones, you are an astute businessman, are you not?”

 I knew he’d say yes, as he boasted proudly that his clients paid him $1,000 per hour, for his services.

Next, I said…”And, as an astute businessman, I’m sure you only make decisions that make good business sense.”  “Absolutely!”, he said.”

I knew I had him, because I had built an affirmative path. Each of the questions I asked him yielded a positive ‘yes’ response.

So, finally, I said. “I am quite sure that if you were in my shoes, talking to a customer in this situation, that you would not simply give a customer three thousand dollars, because they experienced an unfortunate delay.”

After about three or four seconds, he said, “Ms. Golden, you’re right. If I were you, there’s no way I’d give a customer three thousand dollars for waiting three hours.”

It was that easy…and it will be that easy for you!

Build an affirmative path by asking your customer two simple and obvious questions that you know will result in a YES response. It’s very much psychological…your customer won’t feel comfortable disagreeing with himself…and will feel compelled to say yes so that he agrees with himself!

On Wrecked Rental Cars and Customer Loyalty

 

7 Secrets for Moving Customers Out of a Hardball Mentality

 

 

Here are 7 proven tips for moving customers out of a hardball mentality into a constructive dialogue.

1. Confidently acknowledge and address anger.

   A big mistake among customer service professionals is to ignore a customer’s expression of anger or tip-toe around it. There is something known as the communication chain. When people communicate, they expect the person they are communicating with to respond or react…this response is a link in the communication chain. A failure to respond to communication leaves the communication chain unlinked…broken.

   For example, If I walk into my office and say… “Hello Sherry, how are you?” ….and she says absolutely nothing, she’s broken the communication chain. And that leaves me feeling awkward, perhaps embarrassed.

   If a customer expresses anger and we fail to respond to it, the communication chain is broken and the customer feels like they are not getting through. The customer might become even angrier and more difficult, as they are resorting to whatever it takes to feel heard and understood.

   You can keep your angry customers from getting angrier by confidently acknowledging their anger and responding to it. You can respond to anger with a statement like, “Clearly you’re upset and I want you to know that getting to the bottom of this is just as important to me as it is to you.” This statement directly and professionally addresses anger – without- making the customer even angrier. Now that the anger has been acknowledged, you have completed the communication chain.

2. Allow the customer to vent, but don’t lose control.

   An Angry customer can be compared to an erupting volcano. When a volcano is erupting, there is nothing you can do about it. You can’t speed up the eruption, you can’t put a lid on it, and you cannot direct or redirect it…it must erupt.

   When a customer is angry, they must experience and express their anger – and often this is done through venting. We should not interrupt an angry venting customer or tell them to “calm down.” This would be as futile as trying to tame a volcano. A volcano erupts and eventually subsides. Your angry customer will vent and eventually calm down.

   Always let angry customers vent. In most cases, your customer will only need to vent for fifteen to thirty-five seconds. Venting beyond 35 seconds can become ranting and cause you to lose control. After a few seconds of venting, you’ll want to jump back in and move the conversation forward constructively.

3. Don’t react emotionally.

   It can be easy to lose our cool when a customer gets hot, but be warned: In most cases, showing frustration, impatience, or acting even mildly upset doesn’t help you move the customer out of a hardball mentality. Usually, losing our own cool does nothing but make the customer even more upset or our attitude will make the customer even firmer in his original position.

   If you feel you’re beginning to lose your cool, don’t be afraid to hit the “pause” button. You hit the pause button by putting a customer on hold or telling the customer you will call them back.

4. Heed Steven Covey’s Words…Understand, then be understood.

   In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Steven Covey tells a story of a patient going in for an eye exam. After briefly listening to the patient’s complaint, the doctor takes off his glasses and hands them to the patient and tells the patient to simply “take his glasses where them.”

   What are the chances you’d go back to a doctor that prescribes a solution without even diagnosing a problem? You don’t have much confidence in someone who doesn’t diagnose before they prescribe… But how often do we prescribe a solution before completely diagnosing the situation, in dealing with customers?

   Seek first to understand. Before you try PRESCRIBE a solution for a customer’s problem, before you quote policy or tell a customer what you cannot do, seek to truly understand the customer’s viewpoint. How has the problem impacted your customer? Has your customer lost money, time, respect, or confidence because of this problem? Does the customer feel embarrassed, wronged, discriminated against, or powerless? Try to really understand what your customer is experiencing and feeling. when you respond, communicate your full understanding of the problem from the customer’s perspective. Only then can you truly diagnose, BEFORE you prescribe a solution.

   Listening with the intent to understand gives you empathy for the customer and puts you in the position to solve the real issues. Once you really understand your customer, you naturally begin to communicate with empathy and to communicate more effectively. Your customer, who feels understood, can now begin to understand you.
   Featured Seminar

   Myra Golden’s Complaint Handling Webinar Recording

   How to completely restore customer confidence and regain goodwill after any service problem so that you don’t lose your customers and your company doesn’t end up on YouTube.

   Available on demand, 24/7

   View outline/order

5. Don’t belabor your point…no matter how right you are.

   be•la•bor – [bi-ley-ber] – verb: (1) to assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule (2) work at (something) repeatedly or more than is necessary: He kept belaboring the point long after we had agreed.

   If you really want to tick a customer off or incite an already upset customer, belabor your point. Repeat your point (your policy; your position) over and over again. I mean really badger the customer with your elementary explanation so that the customer feels they aren’t too bright.
   Customer service professionals all around the world make the mistake of belaboring a point when speaking with customers. Don’t let this happen to you. Simply make your point once diplomatically and then enter into a constructive dialogue with your customer.

6. Get the customer saying ‘yes’, and if possible, keep them from saying ‘no’.

   When a person says “no,” all of their pride demands that they remain consistent with themselves. And it is very difficult, once they’ve said ‘no’, for them to change their mind and become “agreeable” with you, because their sense of pride is now involved. And we invest so much in our pride.

   Here’s how it works. Build an affirmative path by asking your customer two simple and obvious closed-ended questions that you know will result in a YES response. Once you do that, the customer will be on an affirmative path (with you) and it is far easier for them to agree with your next question. It’s very much psychological…your customer won’t feel comfortable disagreeing with himself…and will feel compelled to say yes to your third question so that he agrees with himself!

7. Have a graceful exit.

   When all else fails, you need a way to gracefully get out of a conversation with a difficult or unreasonable customer. Here’s a simple way to gracefully exit: “We see this differently and I’m going to have to put thought into the perspective you have shared with me. I will visit with my supervisor about your concerns and call you back with a response.”

 

Get Myra Golden’s Complaint Resolution Training Kit and Save $200* 

*Electronic version only. The “physical” kit is not discounted.

Click here to learn more.

 

Myra Golden

The one to call when you’re tired of losing customers because of rude or poor service.

Myra Golden teaches a customer service transformation system that helps service professionals create warm experiences, surprise and delight customers, and completely restore customer confidence after any service failure. Over 90% of the organizations using the system realize measurable improvements in customer retention rates, customer satisfaction levels, and document drastic reductions in the amount of money it takes to resolve customer problems.  

To bring one of Myra’s dynamic, transformational workshops to your company, call Michael at 866-873-8419 today.

Recognition Made Easy – 10 Low Cost Ways to Recognize and Reward Employees

 

 

There are two things people want more than sex and money…recognition and praise.

Mary Kay Ash

Mary Kay is right, as studies indicate that employees find personal recognition more motivational than money. A work climate filled with praise and recognition is a workplace where employees are positive, productive and motivated.

Recognizing and rewarding employees doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. Perhaps the primary reason more managers don’t take the time to intentionally motivate employees is that they lack the time and creativity to come up with ideas.

After reading this week’s article you will have no excuses for not motivating your team, because I am giving you 10 low cost ways to recognize and reward your employees.

1. Call an employee into your office just to thank him or her; don’t discuss any other issue.
2. Give the employee a 2-hour lunch.
3. Send a thank you note to a spouse thanking them for their support during the employee’s overtime.
4. Hold a potluck lunch for your group. This always so much fun for everyone!
5. Write a letter of praise to employees recognizing their specific contributions and accomplishments.
6. Send an email acknowledgement and copy your boss or higher manager.
7. When paychecks go out, write a note on the envelope recognizing an employee’s accomplishment. (They’re sure not to miss this one!)
8. Give gift cards. Right now, gasoline gift cards are excellent!
9. Provide an extra break. We can all do this, can’t we?

     10.  Invite employees to your home for a special celebration in front of their colleagues and spouses.

If you want your employees to take care of your customers, you must take care of them. This list of 10 low-cost ways to motivate your team is a great start. Let this list springboard your creative thinking so you that you constantly look for ways to recognize and motivate your team. When you do, you will watch customer satisfaction improve in no time!

How to Resolve Problems Without Giving the Store Away

 

Does Your Company Monitor Twitter, FaceBook and Blogs for Customer Complaints? If not, why not?

 

Last year I told you about a Comcast contract technician who fell asleep in a customer’s home while waiting on hold with the local Comcast office. Using a cell phone camera, the customer’s teenage son shot a video of the repairman sacked out on his couch and posted it on the Internet. The video received more than 1.3 million views on YouTube. The story was discussed on hundreds of blogs and Comcast’s reputation was irretrievably damaged.

Well, I’m back with an update on how Comcast is now impressively responding to complaints posted about their company on the Internet.

Comcast created the position of Digital Detective. I just love the sound of that! Comcast Digital Detectives scan social networking websites looking for ways to help customers who take issues to the web and by doing so, they are aggressively protecting brand credibility.

Here’s how Comcast Digital Detectives are saving the day for customers. Last year a Comcast customer experienced an outage with both her high-speed Internet and phone service. She says it took at least an hour and a half to get through to someone at Comcast and they told her it would be Thursday before a technician could come out. Frustrated, the customer logged on to Twitter from her Blackberry and typed “Damn Internet down in my house. Arrrrrgh. Can’t fix until Thursday. Shoot me.”

A Comcast Digital Detective saw the posting, tracked the customer down, and had the customer’s Internet and phone back up by 5pm that day. How’s that for a comeback? Comcast is surprising and delighting customers like this all day everyday simply by scanning social media for postings about their company.

 

What is Social Media?

Social media is any media generated by consumers. Its blogs, message boards, product review sites, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter…the list is ever evolving. Consumers often, but not always, use social media to post complaints about brands.

Companies today cannot sit on the bench when it comes to social media. If you’re serious about keeping your customers, you’re going to have to get involved. Here are 4 steps to get you started.

1.  “Google” your company name. You need to know what’s being said about your company in the online media world. You’ll be amazed at what you can pull up. From Google you will find the blogs, message boards, product review sites, chat rooms. Google your company name with the word “sucks” behind it – and brace yourself because it may not be pretty.
2. Perform a Tweetscan to find out what conversations are going on right now on Twitter about your brand. While you’re there, do a quick search on Comcast and Dell to see how proactive these companies are when it comes to getting involved in online conversations with consumers.
3. Setup a  account TODAY. Don’t dismiss Twitter as social site just for young people. Smart companies are leveraging this free social networking community in a profound way. Comcast, under the username ‘ComcastCares”,  is reaching out to dozens of customers every week on Twitter. Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Kodak, and Dell are also proactively involved in conversations on Twitter. Not only are these companies fixing problems for customers, but they’re building relationships and keeping customers updated. Go to http://www.Twitter.Com to setup your account.
4. Assign someone from your company the crucial responsibility of daily monitoring social media. This person will daily monitor Twitter, FaceBook, product review sites, message boards and blogs in general. This is often a good fit for Representatives who handle email or chat discussions for your company.  On the cutting edge, Southwest Airlines has a social media team that includes a Chief Twitter Officer. Additionally, Southwest has a person dedicated to fact-checking online and interacting with bloggers and another who takes charge of the company’s presence on sites such as YouTube, Flickr, and LinkedIn.

We are in an era of the powerful consumer. Consumers are taking matters into their own hands, taking a vengeance against companies for being unresponsive. These powerful consumers refuse to be ignored and in the process they are attracting enormous media attention, influencing consumer buying decisions, and causing significant market damage to companies.

You need to be right there when and where consumers vent their problems online so you can respond in an immediate and personal way. Adopt the 4 steps I presented here and you’ll be on the cutting edge of serving customers through the powerful social media.

Customer Disservice

 

by my friend Mike Figliuolo

“Thank you for calling XXXXXXX customer service. How may I provide you with excellent customer service today?”

I cringe when I hear those words. Especially before I’ve had my second cup of coffee (that’s the rule – no one is allowed to talk to me until I’ve finished that second cup. It’s ugly if that rule gets broken).

Finish article.

“Johnny the Bagger”

Here’s an  unforgettable true story that I’ve been sharing in some of my customer service workshops lately. 

It’s about a young man with Down Syndrome who changes the culture of a grocery store by being creative and giving the customers more than they expect. This story will grab your heart and get your creative juices flowing on ways to create “customer enthusiasm” in your organization. 

Enjoy the “Johnny the Bagger” video!