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 myragolden

Having Trouble Controlling Conversations with Customers? This Will Help.

Shot of a young businesswoman using a laptop at work. Portrait of young black woman in creative office. Young African American female architect working in an office.

Studies show the average business call lasts 2 minutes longer than it needs to. Customer service employees struggle with call control for a variety of reasons, including they don’t want to be rude to the customer, they aren’t sure how to move to closure or because the customer is rambling or angry.

Using the principles of harmony, assertiveness and leading from the martial art Aikido, Myra walks your employees through the steps to politely and confidently control conversations.

The outcome of this training is employees who possess the soft skills to make customers feel heard and understood, politely lead conversations and assertively bring calls to closure.

Here’s a 60-second introduction to the training. If you like what you see, use the link at the bottom of this page to go directly to the full course.

Continue reading Having Trouble Controlling Conversations with Customers? This Will Help.

Customer Experience Design by myragolden

Three Proactive Things You Can Do to Pre-empt an Escalation with a Customer

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Tomorrow morning I’m headed to Phoenix to deliver a workshop at the Salesforce Trailblazers for the Future Conference. I booked an extra night at the Arizona Biltmore because I wanted some “me time” for relaxation and reading. I do this often, adding a day or two to a business trip to chill, explore, and enjoy local restaurants. Do you take time just for yourself?

Before I wrap things up in my office today and prepare for tomorrow’s early flight, I’m sharing with you three things you can do to pre-empt an escalation with a customer. These tips will help you handle interactions to significantly minimize the chance of a customer becoming so incensed that they feel they have to talk to a supervisor.

1. Reflect Your Brand Promise

One of my clients is a furniture protection plan company. A point of upset for many of their customers is when they discover that the damage to their furniture is not covered under warranty. Customers get intensely agitated because they feel what they purchased is not the same as the service they receive. I encouraged agents in this company to reflect the brand promise in every interaction. I had them focus on explaining first what the protection plan covered and then quickly going over a few of its many benefits.

Instead of merely telling the customer that their damage was not covered, I instructed agents to say something like,

“You have an excellent plan here. It covers such things as scratches and broken pieces. In this case, we do not cover discoloration of the leather, as fading is a natural occurrence that comes from body oils and usage. If anything else should come up, though, please give us a call, and we’ll be happy to look into things for you.”

Reflecting the brand promise, in this situation, is reminding the customer of the many benefits the protection plan does offer and by serving customers with a friendly demeanor.

2. Don’t Push

Continue reading Three Proactive Things You Can Do to Pre-empt an Escalation with a Customer
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

Trying to Hire Millennial Employees for Customer Service Roles? Make Sure You’ve Mastered These 3 Things First.

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One of the most significant challenges facing companies today is attracting and retaining right-fit front-line customer service professionals. This is challenging, but you can find and keep good-fit employees if you know what’s important to Millennials as it relates to the job search and company culture.

Millennials now make up about 50% of the workforce. And Millennials approach jobs and careers differently from Generation X (my generation) and Baby Boomers.

When I work with companies on finding, hiring, and retaining the best customer service employees, I focus on three things.

1. Developing an attractive social presence (This is tremendously important merely to get Millennials to consider a company.)

2. Hiring for motivational fit. You want people who are motivated to deliver exceptional customer interactions, people who are the best cultural fit for your brand and your customers.

3. A solid coaching and motivation strategy. You’re going to have to coach to develop your people because this is extremely important to Millennials.

Let’s look at each of the three elements of attracting, hiring, and retaining Millennials.

Continue reading Trying to Hire Millennial Employees for Customer Service Roles? Make Sure You’ve Mastered These 3 Things First.
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

4 Keys to Delivering Lousy News to Customers

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I’m sipping black tea and listening to classical music while I custom design a customer service workshop for a utility on the east coast. One of my deliverables for this training is to equip employees with the skill of giving lousy news to customers in such a way that the customer accepts the employees’ answer as the final word.

You’re in for a professional development treat today, because I’m sharing with you what I’ll facilitate in Philadelphia next month. You’re about to learn how to deliver bad news with confidence and in such a way that you minimize backlash from customers.

You can give a customer bad news easily and without fear of how your customer might respond when you use 4 Keys. When you have to deliver bad news to your customer, you need to:

Say what you have to say Assertively

Acknowledge how hard this is for the customer

Manage Expectations

Offer Options, when it makes sense

 

Let’s look at each key.

Key 1: Say What You Have to Say Assertively

Continue reading 4 Keys to Delivering Lousy News to Customers
De-escalation by myragolden

De-escalate Your Most Demanding and Challenging Customers In 3 Steps

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In a few weeks, I’ll be delivering my popular 3-Step De-escalation Workshop at Customer Contact Week in Las Vegas. Attendees in my session will learn precisely how to de-escalate with extremely challenging customers. If you’re in the Las Vegas area on June 21, check out my course and please say hello to me before or after the workshop.

Today I’m giving you a preview of the three steps I’ll be sharing in-depth at the Customer Contact Week Conference. My de-escalation steps are Respond, Reframe, and Resolve.

Step 1: Respond

Continue reading De-escalate Your Most Demanding and Challenging Customers In 3 Steps
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

The Number One Grammar Mistake In Email, Chat and Text Is….

Grammar Gaffes Make You Look Dumb

I was behind a truck recently that had a cool LED lighted border around the license plate. Little red lights danced around and framed the driver’s message. Here’s what this driver had displayed on his flashy license plate border:

“If your reading this, than your to close.”

Do you see what I saw? Not one, not two, but four typos! The message should read:

Continue reading The Number One Grammar Mistake In Email, Chat and Text Is….
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

These 7 Questions Will Help You Hone In On and Solve Your Biggest Problems In Customer Interactions

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I just got off of a productive and inspiring video conference with a new client. I’ll spend this afternoon, and much of this week developing a fully customized training class for this company. In two months, I’ll fly out to Montreal to facilitate the workshop.

When I sit down to create a custom course for my clients, the first question I ask is, “What’s your biggest problem with customer interactions?” And then I get to work on how to fix that problem.

Asking my clients what their single most significant challenge is, forces them to hone in on what keeps them up at night, and it tells me exactly where to focus in my workshop. I follow this question up with ten or twelve other questions that help me to deliver precisely on my customer’s objectives for my training.

As I sit here preparing to start the design process for my client, I got to thinking, what if some of the questions I ask my clients for workshop prep might help you make improvements in your customer interactions. I imagine my questions will at least get you to fiercely focus on the most urgent issues and get you going in the right direction. They’ve never failed me.

So, here are some of the diagnostic questions I ask my clients to help me understand and fix their most pressing issues in customer interactions.

Continue reading These 7 Questions Will Help You Hone In On and Solve Your Biggest Problems In Customer Interactions
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

I Showed Up At My Workshop with Nothing But a 12-Foot Pole. And Here’s What Happened.

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Last week I facilitated a team building workshop for one of my favorite clients. Typically, I only deliver training on customer service, but my client had a special request.

My client explained that “We need to work together, make decisions together, and communicate according to the styles of each person. In essence, we need to build a strong cohesive team.”

So I designed a unique Team-building Customer Service event built around a 12-foot pole. Here’s what I did. I showed up with no workbooks, and after 19 years of delivering workshops, training sans workbooks is a first for me.

I stood in front of the audience and pulled out my pole. And I told my group of 13 people that their task was to merely lower the stick to the floor. It sounds simple. Incredulous, the group stared at me, like, seriously?

I divided the class up into two groups and explained the rules. You’ll start with the pole waist high, you cannot lose contact with the pole at any time, and only gravity can move the pole (that is, the pole couldn’t be pushed or pulled down).

After my instruction, I stepped back and watched. Within seconds, the group learned that this exercise was anything but simple.

Continue reading I Showed Up At My Workshop with Nothing But a 12-Foot Pole. And Here’s What Happened.
Customer Experience Design by myragolden

4 Things You Can Do To Help Your Customers Cut to the Point

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I just finished recording a fully customized 14-module video course for a new client. My client’s biggest challenge was how to navigate through complex calls, like situations with ramblers and challenging customers.

One of the strategies I prepared for my client’s customized training is 4 Things You Can Do To Help Your Customers Cut to the Point. While this video is tailored to my customer’s specific challenges, I think you’ll get some great value out of the tips.

To learn some fantastic ways to bring customers to the point of the call politely, watch the three-minute video that I call merely 4 Things You Can Do To Help Your Customers Cut to the Point.

Continue reading 4 Things You Can Do To Help Your Customers Cut to the Point