Author: myragolden

Myra is a favorite training partner to Fortune 500 companies with her customized, engaging, behavior-changing (and fun) customer service workshops, working with McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Michelin, Vera Bradley and other brands.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenJan 15, 20198:41 AM

Three Preparations You Should Make Before Talking to Your Employee About a Problem

KFD.001

One of the things I’m working on for 2019 is giving you tools to help you coach your employees and hold them accountable so that they are positioned to deliver the best possible customer experience.

The way YOU do that is, you go into discussions with your employees with a plan, and with confidence. I’m going to give you a 3-step method for how to talk to your employees about a problem, be that problem attitude, attendance, the way they interact with customers, anything.

Use what I call KFD

KFD stands for: Know, Feel, Do

Before going into a meeting with an employee, identify, and write down, what you want them to Know, Feel, and Do.

Let’s say you’re going to talk to an employee about her tone or attitude with customers. Your KFD could look something like this:

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenJan 14, 20192:54 PM

What I Wish Everyone Knew About Addressing Unacceptable Performance

Talking to employees about problem performance, and getting them to change is hard – unless you do four things very well. Here’s what I wish everyone knew about addressing unacceptable employee performance.

You have to have a plan; otherwise, you’ll get off track, and your employees won’t make changes.
Coach like a coach. Don’t try to be friends with employees. Your job is to bring out their best.
Get agreement. You can’t fix a problem that doesn’t exist in the mind of your employee. Help employees see the impact of their performance.
Don’t accept excuses. Whining, blaming, and justifying are common defense mechanisms. Don’t let excuses fly.

I’m walking you through these 4 points so you can nip unacceptable performance in the bud.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenJan 4, 201912:42 PM

4 Facts That Nobody Told You About Coaching Employees

Middle age blonde business woman over isolated background depressed and worry for distress, crying angry and afraid. Sad expression.

We coach employees to make them better, and to correct unacceptable performance. In both cases, there are four things you, as a “coach” must do to make coaching bring out behavioral change.

The Four Things Coaching Must Be

Immediate – You can’t put off coaching discussions.

Foreseeable – Your expectations must be clear, so no one is surprised. Ever.

Consistent – You can’t give corrective feedback sometimes, and then other times turn a blind eye.

Impersonal – You can’t talk to some employees about poor performance, but sit back and let some employees make the same mistakes. Doing this makes you seem unfair, and this spells big problems.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenJan 1, 20197:27 PM

You Get What You Tolerate (From Employees)

You get the behavior you tolerate. So, if your employees aren’t friendly, helpful, and showing empathy, you have to ask yourself, Have I been tolerating poor performance? Are you having conversations with your people about unacceptable performance? Are you coaching and holding employees accountable? If you want to see change, you have to set expectations, have coaching conversations, and be willing to deal out consequences.

Putting An End To Unacceptable Performance

Nipping unacceptable behavior or performance in the bud comes down to you doing four things. 1) You have to set clear expectations. 2) Then you must commit to addressing all issues that don’t meet your expectations. 3) You have to prepare in advance for coaching conversations, so you’re focused and confident. 4) And finally, you’re going to have to be willing to launch disciplinary actions for people who continue not to meet performance expectations.

1. Setting Clear Expectations

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenDec 28, 20187:54 PM

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Employees Make When Giving Bad News to Customers

Telling customers what they don’t want to hear is one of the hardest things customer service employees will ever have to do. To make it easier for you to give bad news, I’ve made my popular How to Deliver Bad News online class free. At the end of this post, you can click to go right into my course.

Giving bad news is hard because of the fear of backlash and because so many customers will just escalate to a supervisor in hopes of getting a different response.

Giving lousy news usually goes wrong because of the approach employees use. The three biggest mistakes people make when telling customers what they don’t want to hear are:

Call Center De-Escalation by myragoldenDec 17, 20182:29 PM

The Reason Your Employees Can’t De-escalate

Everybody thinks to train employees on the company’s applications and products and to give them basic phone skills. But very few people in customer service actually get the training they need to get an angry customer to back down, politely control conversations with ramblers and skillfully handle the customer who demands to speak with a supervisor. I want to talk to you about why your employees can’t seem to de-escalate intense interactions.

Three Reasons Your Employees Can’t De-escalate

1. If You Push a Customer, They’ll Push Back

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenDec 17, 201810:53 AM

Three Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Giving Bad News To Customers

No one likes to deliver bad news to customers, but for a lot of us, giving bad news is a regular part of business. You know the feeling – you probably get nervous, or you have to transfer a call to your supervisor because the customer won’t accept your word as final. It’s time to figure out how to fix that!

For more than 20 years, through my workshops, I’ve worked with customer service professionals just like you who struggle with how to say things to customers that they don’t want to hear.

Here are Three Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Giving Bad News To Customers.

1. Never cause a sense of helplessness.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenDec 13, 20181:13 PM

5 Things You Most Likely Didn’t Know About Listening Effectively In Retail Sales

Poor listening often leads to customer frustration. When a retail employee merely hears a customer—instead of actively listening to them—they’re less able to determine precisely what that person needs. I designed my Listening class for […]

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenDec 13, 20188:23 AM

Most People Don’t Get That They Have Internal Customers

I don’t think that most people get that there are only two functions in a company. You’re either serving customers, or you’re serving someone who serves customers. There aren’t any other roles in business, as far as I’m concerned. I want to talk to you about how to fulfill your responsibility of serving, particularly when it comes to your co-workers – your internal customers.

The Importance of Follow-up

I love me some basketball. (#Thunderup) Follow-up is like an alley-oop on the court. An alley-oop in basketball is an offensive play in which one player throws the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid-air, and puts it in the hoop before touching the ground.

If a co-worker reaches out to you for research or response (that is, throws you the ball near the customer’s point of need), you need to run with the task (with a sense of urgency) and put the ball in the bucket. You make that call, do the research, or whatever, and close the loop by letting your colleague know you’ve followed through.

It’s Bigger Than You

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenDec 10, 20181:25 PM

The 2 Most Important Things Small Businesses Need to Focus On with the Customer Experience

Two months ago, I switched my company’s wireless carrier from AT&T, a relationship we’d had for nineteen problem-free years, to a low-cost competitor. We made the switch for one reason: To cut costs.

Seventy-two hours into the new vendor’s relationship, I knew we had a problem. Clients were always saying, “You’re breaking up,” or “I didn’t catch that.” The LTE service was laughable.

The new carrier was cheaper, yes. And the salespeople we worked with were delightful. However, the service was unacceptable. I had to breach the contract, paying out the big bucks to switch back to AT&T.

My brief stint with a low-cost competitor reminded me of two profound lessons small businesses must never forget.

One of the things I’m working on for 2019 is giving you tools to help you coach your employees and hold them accountable so that they are positioned to deliver the best possible customer experience.

The way YOU do that is, you go into discussions with your employees with a plan, and with confidence. I’m going to give you a 3-step method for how to talk to your employees about a problem, be that problem attitude, attendance, the way they interact with customers, anything.

Use what I call KFD

KFD stands for: Know, Feel, Do

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Talking to employees about problem performance, and getting them to change is hard – unless you do four things very well. Here’s what I wish everyone knew about addressing unacceptable employee performance.

Share this:

We coach employees to make them better, and to correct unacceptable performance. In both cases, there are four things you, as a “coach” must do to make coaching bring out behavioral change.

The Four Things Coaching Must Be

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Putting An End To Unacceptable Performance

1. Setting Clear Expectations

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Three Reasons Your Employees Can’t De-escalate

1. If You Push a Customer, They’ll Push Back

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Here are Three Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Giving Bad News To Customers.

1. Never cause a sense of helplessness.

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The Importance of Follow-up

It’s Bigger Than You

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1. Friendly Employees Aren’t Enough

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