Now you can get even more ideas for motivating employees, specifically how to motivate employees working in customer service. View or download for my high energy video, How to Motivate Customer Service Employees. It’s loaded with practical […]
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Category: Customer Experience Design
3 Things Being an Overwhelmed Call Center Manager Taught Me About Motivating Employees
I was sitting at my desk looking at my Outlook calendar. Four meetings, two of them overlapping, and literally only a break of about 15 minutes for a bite to eat. On my desk, stacks of papers, notes, and folders reminded me of the two major projects I was running behind on. And I still needed to sit down with Jim to talk about issues with his recent tone with a customer. The thing is, this day wasn’t unusual. This was pretty much everyday life for me. I was overwhelmed.
Looking at the two meetings that overlapped, I thought, “What if I sent someone to the second meeting in my place?” The second meeting was a task force to look for ways to increase customer loyalty. I needed to be there, yes, but my budget meeting took priority.
I called George into my office. George was a bright, energetic, proactive frontline customer service representative. “George, I have an opportunity for you,” I said. “ At 2:30 I have a customer loyalty task force meeting. I can’t attend due to a budget meeting and I’d like you to stand in for me.” George jumped at the chance to get out of the call center and sit in on a meeting with managers and directors.
The next day George came to my office to brief me on the meeting. He was beaming with excitement. He had so many creative ideas for how to help our company build and strengthen customer relationships. I knew he added more value to that meeting than I would have, especially given that my priority was on the budget meeting. George offered to continue going to the task force meetings in my place going forward. I didn’t even have to think about it, “Yes, George, you will be great at this!”
Delegating a meeting to an employee lightened my load and empowered him to exercise untapped skills. Months later I could see George beginning to blossom in the areas of leadership, public speaking and championing ideas. I had truly motivated him in a very unique way. What if, I wondered, I could give all of my employees a similar experience? I began to seek out tasks for delegation, opportunities that would not only make life easier for me but would truly empower and motivate my employees. I found the opportunities and in the process, I relieved my stress and created a culture of empowered and motivated employees. Here are 3 things being an overwhelmed manager taught me about motivating my call center employees.
1. When All Else Fails, Go to Your Employees for Solutions
When I first took over the call center at this company, I inherited big problems – with everything from employee morale to delivering a quality customer experience. New to the position and still very much learning as a young manager, I really didn’t know how to tackle the myriad challenges. Fresh out of graduate school, I turned to one of my textbooks for help. In my Human Relations textbook, I found something known as the “Quality Circle.”
In a Quality Circle, managers go to employees for solutions to problems. Following the text to the letter, I assembled a group of call center employees who volunteered to be part of the quality circle. We met once weekly for about 10 weeks. The first week I put a problem on the table and said, “Here’s the deal. This is a problem that we must fix and I have no idea how to do that. You guys are the experts. What ideas do you have?”
Training for All Who Serve Customers: How to Talk to Customers: Friendliness, Tone & Connection
What if the biggest problem with your customer experience was the way your employees spoke with customers? Are your employees ever perceived as indifferent, cold or uncaring? If you called up your own company, mystery shopping as a customer, would you cringe just a little bit at what you heard? If your customer interactions are less than ideal, how would you change them?
How Your Employees Talk to Customers is Everything
How they say ‘no’ when no truly is the only option, the way they explain something the customer doesn’t want to hear, tone, empathy, knowing what to say to the customer who just wants to speak to a supervisor – These are delicate interactions that can make or break your customer experience. Do your employees know how to respond with diplomacy, tact and a caring attitude in situations like these?
Have Your Employees Sit With Me for 60 Minutes. I’ll Help Them.
What My Grandfather Taught Me About Unleashing Employee Creativity
My Dad sitting on his Italian convertible in front of his plane – the plane he bought in his early 20s.
One Sunday in July of 1949, my grandfather took my dad, 10 years old at the time, to a small regional airport. My grandfather knew the owner of the airport and he had arranged for his son, a boy who wanted to fly more than anything else, to have his very first flight.
That 10-year-old boy was euphoric! As if he’d had any doubts at all, after that flight, he knew for sure that he would one day fly a plane! When recalling the Big Day, my dad told me that it was that day that he also knew he would own his own plane.
When he was around 16 years old, my dad ordered a blueprint from Popular Mechanics magazine for building an airplane, not a model airplane, but a real passenger airplane. “How did he build the engine?” I asked my grandmother the first time she told me the story of my young dad building his own plane. “He never got around to the engine. He went off to college before finishing,” she said, “but his plan was to use an old lawnmower motor.”
My dad told me,
“I actually thought I’d get the plane to fly, but Daddy knew I never would. He let me spend money on the plane, dream about flying the plane and spend countless hours on the plane, because this dream of building and the actual work of building my own plane that would never fly, fueled my dreams of flying. He knew that this passion would indeed lead to me flying and ultimately, owning my own plane.”
When my dad turned 26, after earning his bachelor’s degree and then getting his private pilot license, he bought his own plane. His father’s support, belief and enthusiasm helped him achieve his dream. When leaders give employees support, belief and enthusiasm, they help employees unleash creativity, which can lead to a more productive and happy workplace.
Here are 3 ways – lessons from my grandfather – that you can unleash employee creativity for a happier and more productive workplace.
5 Phrases That Make Customers Think Your Employees Don’t Really Care
I was trying to check in for my American Airlines flight on my phone. I was able to get one boarding pass, but not the other. After several failed attempts, I called American and explained my problem. I was transferred quickly and the person I ended up with looked into my itinerary and then said,
“Ms. Golden, this is a system error. You are checked in all the way through to Tulsa. I don’t want you to worry at all. Your flight is confirmed and you are checked in. You have a few options for getting your boarding pass (she gave me 3 easy options), but I want you to know it’s all good. You’re confirmed and checked in.”
I don’t want you to worry at all.
“I don’t want you to worry at all.” was exactly the right thing to say to me. The employee at American zeroed in on my concern that my flight wasn’t confirmed and she perfectly used the right words to acknowledge my concern and put me at ease.
Every interaction your employees have with customers is an opportunity to make the customer experience easy, helpful and friendly. The words your employees use make all of the difference. The lady at American used the right words. The wrong words can cause dis-ease in customers, or leave customers thinking you don’t care. In this article, I’m sharing 5 phrases that cause dis-ease and make customers believe that you don’t care.
1. “The only thing I can do is…”
Customers, especially if they happen to be angry, need options. Never make a client feel pushed into a corner. Even if you know, for example, that you have no appointments available for a customer today, pretend to check before telling them no. Do it this way. “We work on an appointment system. Let me check to see if we have openings today.” Then, “I can get you in tomorrow at 1:00 pm.” That took a few more words than, “The only thing I can do is…” but it sounds so much more helpful.
2. “I can let you talk to my supervisor, but she’s just gonna say the same thing I’ve already told you.”
“Ms. Golden, I wasn’t able to get your credit card to go through.” (How to Handle a Customer’s Declined Credit Card)
Story Highlight
This article is about how to handle a customer’s credit card
After a long day of travel, I stepped out of my Uber and walked into the lobby of the Marriott on Bloor street in downtown Toronto. A friendly lady looked up, made eye contact and welcomed me with her smile.
“Myra Golden; checking in,” I said, somehow smiling back in spite of my travel fatigue. “I recognize that accent,” she said. I’m thinking, no way she recognizes my Oklahoma accent; not here in Toronto. “Where are you from?” “Oklahoma” I could tell by her wide eyes that she did, in fact, recognize my accent. “That’s it! My aunt is from Oklahoma, and you talk just like her!” Wow, she knows her dialects.
We chatted about her aunt, what brought me to Toronto, and vegan restaurants in the area. While we talked, my phone was buzzing. Probably my husband ensuring I arrived safely. I always text or call him once I get to my hotel. Because I was so engrossed in our conversation, I didn’t stop to check my phone.
Then, at a break in conversation, the lady discretely said, with an empathic smile, “I’m having trouble getting your credit card to go through.” I was shocked. Surprised. Feeling panic. It was a debit card, actually, and I knew I had more than enough money to cover a few nights in a hotel in Ontario. What the heck was going on? “I ran it a couple of times,” she said, with empathy in her eyes.
Are your customer service people adding value to interactions?
The night before a workshop I delivered last week in Charleston, SC I called the Mellow Mushroom for delivery. I removed cheese and meat from my appetizer, salad, and entree. (It sounds like I ate a lot! I did.) The man on the phone asked, “Are you vegan?” To that, I said, “Yes, I am.” “Me too,” he said. He then went on to explain that my Quinoa burger included a little egg as a binding and he wanted to know if that was okay. I was fine with that. From there we chatted about us both being “flexible vegans.”
The simple inquiry, “Are you vegan?” led to rapport-building conversation and such a friendly and unique experience for me. The man was friendly. He was genuine. He made me feel completely comfortable with my many customizations. And he gave me an engaging and genuine interaction.
Are your people adding value to your company through their interactions with customers?
Your employees can add value to the customer experience by doing 3 things: Making personal connection, Acknowledging concern, and Empathy
1. Making Personal Connection
This is what the man at Mellow Mushroom did, and it’s so easy to do. In my workshops, I tell people to look for something they can comment on, something perhaps that they have in common with the customer. For example, a customer service agent could say, “I ordered that exact same duffle for my daughter. She’s in cheer as well and she loves that she can throw all of her outfits and makeup in it and easily carry the bag over her shoulder.” This sharing helps create rapport because it’s genuine – and it just might lead to a sell or up-sell.
2. Acknowledge Concern
What Call Center Agents Can Learn from Jack Nicholson About De-escalation
In this week’s professional development event, my De-escalation webinar, I’m going to open with a video clip from Jack Nicholson’s Five Easy Pieces. I’m showing the famous “Chicken Sandwich Diner” scene from the movie.
The clip shows Jack Nicholson’s character trying to customize a sandwich from the menu. I chose this scene because, as a vegan, I am ALWAYS customizing menu items in restaurants – the clip really resonated with me. In the clip, the waitress’s facial expression is sour, her body language is standoffish and to Nicholson’s request, she barks, “No substitutions. Only what’s on the menu.” With remarkable calm, Jack explains that he doesn’t want what’s on the menu, he wants to change up the sandwich. Unwilling to help, the waitress recluses herself, “Do you want to talk to a manager?” Within seconds, the situation escalates to the point of Nicholson yelling and breaking dishes.
I’m sharing this clip to set the tone for the de-escalation webinar. I share several proven de-escalation strategies that will de-escalate volatile customers. But it would be remiss of me not to prepare my clients to pre-empt an escalation by avoiding things that are known triggers.
After we watch the video, I’ll share what went wrong in this scene. The employee made 4 big mistakes; mistakes that led to uncontrollable escalation. Here’s what she did wrong:
1. Started with a negative.
Nearly before the customer could ask his question, the waitress said, “No substitutions.” Her initial negative response put the customer on the defensive and showed that she was unwilling to help. This negative response started the cycle of escalation, which I talk about in the webinar. The cycle of escalation is:
Initial Contact —> Employee Response —> Customer Reaction —> Employee Reaction
The employee’s initial contact was negative in word, attitude and body language. The customer responded with intensity, and then the employee became defensive and difficult. This led to an all-out explosive situation.
2. Spoke only about what she could not do.
Make Sure Your Language Doesn’t Invite Escalation
I blocked off yesterday afternoon to listen to a random sample of recorded phone calls between customer service representatives and customers (patients and providers) for my client. I’m preparing to deliver a full-day De-escalation workshop to this group in a couple of weeks.
One of the things I noticed is that some of the employees have a tendency to use language that opens the door for escalations. It’s unintentional. I’m sure of that. The workers are overwhelmed, if not stressed. Their customers can be difficult. To try to control conversations, provoking language is sometimes used. I hear things like:
I Had to Pull the “Get Me a Manager” Card. Here’s Why.
I’ve told this story on my blog before, so bear with me if you’ve already heard it. I’m standing at the front desk of a nice hotel in Baltimore. The front desk clerk is having a problem with my reservation. I wondered if it was because I had literally just booked the reservation 45 minutes prior, just as I got into my rental car at the airport. I told the hotel employee that perhaps my very recent booking was the problem.
He called hotels.com, the company I used for booking, not once, but two times, about my reservation. When he didn’t get things sorted out after two lengthy calls to hotels.com, he told me, “I’m just going to cancel your hotels.com reservation and rebook you in our system.”
I was eager to get into my room and rest up for a week of full-day training sessions. His suggestion sounded good to me. That is, until, a couple of months later when checking my hotels.com account, I get a message stating that my 6-night hotel stay in Baltimore had been removed from my Rewards Account and that I would not get credit for that stay.
The primary reason I use hotels.com is for the rewards. I travel a lot. It takes ten hotel stays to earn a free hotel night. In June I earned two free hotel nights and used both of those nights for get-aways with my husband. I travel a lot.
Now, the hotels.com call center is telling me that because they couldn’t help my hotel in Baltimore sort out a problem, they are removing my earned rewards? Pretty quickly in the interaction, I asked to speak to a manager. Here’s why I felt I needed to do this.
1. The number one thing customers want is help. When you don’t/can’t help, customers instinctively want to climb the ladder.
Trying to get my deserved hotel rewards, I called hotels.com. I spoke with an employee who put me on hold three times and ultimately told me there was nothing he could do. Literally, he said, “Ma’am, there’s nothing I can do.” This declaration certainly didn’t help me out. So, I said, “May I please speak with your manager?”
De-escalation Training for Customer Service & Soft Skills Training 