The best feature or the most wonderful amenity is worthless if you don’t tell the customer about it.

I was reminded of this recently during a trip to New York City. My travel power supply broke on the train from Boston, leaving me with no way to charge my phone and laptop. You can read all the gory details of my search for power on my blog — it was not pretty — but it is not necessary to understand this post.

The important bit for today is that my hotel had a program to provide travelers with power supplies in just this sort of circumstance. What a great benefit.

Unfortunately, neither the registration clerk nor the concierge, both of whom I mentioned my specific problem to, told me about it. I didn’t learn of the program until after I had returned home and blogged the entire saga. A missed opportunity to please a customer.

Why didn’t they tell me about the program? Either the company didn’t give them the information, or it did and the employees did not retain it. Either way, a training mistake. What can companies do to avoid this sort of mistake?

A similar effect often happens during customer service calls. The customer calls with a problem, the rep solves it, the call ends and everyone is happy. Except: the company may have missed an opportunity to make the customer even happier. It is quite common during routine service transactions for customers to drop large clues about additional products or services they need. How can companies train their service employees to hear those clues and act upon them appropriately?

Ronna recently joined us on Business Forward, a podcast I produce for SAP reseller GuideMark, with some great answers to these very questions. In the March 26th podcast, she and host Gene Mehr discussed how small to mid size businesses can avoid training mistakes and in this week’s episode, she provides some insight on how we can teach customer service employees to recognize selling opportunities.

Each podcast is about 20 minutes long, and you can listen online or download them to your MP3 player.

Technorati Tags: Ronna Caras, customer service, sales training, Business Forward

14 years ago, I was a Customer Service Manager in a small, privately owned company.  Of course it was not small to us. My team of 10 supported $12 million each year in sales, but in 1993 we still had no voicemail.

You may remember those days (or perhaps you are too young). Receptionists answered the phone. You gave a clear, detailed message so the person you needed to reach had the facts and could call you back with a solution. The receptionist filed her nails while you spoke writing only your name and number when you finally gave it. Not exactly the “world class customer service” I had hoped to offer our clients.

Because the receptionist did not work for me I had no authority over her abrupt manner. She was a local hire. Probably someone’s friend’s niece like many of the folks we employed.  I wasn’t allowed to teach her how important her contact with our customers could be to the company’s bottom line.

So instead, my creative approach was to ask her to transfer all client calls directly to Customer Service. She was thrilled to have fewer names and numbers to write on those little pink message pads.

And the training of my staff began. Please understand that they were locals too.  If asked, half my team would tell you they chose their job because the bus stopped right out front.  Now they would be handling every inbound client call.

We drilled on empathy, caring tones, thorough note-taking, and commitment to making sure the clients felt heard and helped. My team rose to the challenge. The sales staff started to get complete messages detailing the client’s issues.  They got fewer messages in general because my staff was able to handle many of the client’s immediate needs without involving the sales rep at all. And they got more sales. A quick increase in repeat business.

All because customer service took over reception duties.

I was brought back to old times today. I called a business and reached “customer service” according to the woman who answered the phone. I asked for the President who was at lunch.  But in this company no one asked if they could help me.

“Do you want his voice mail?” was all she offered. And I was stunned. Although I wasn’t an angry customer calling with demands, isn’t it customary to at least ask about the nature of calls to the President?  Shouldn’t someone that answers the phone with the words, “Customer Service” care even a little about the customer or the service?

So I ask you today, to share your thoughts about voice mail. Is voice mail making it harder for companies to provide real service to callers?

Technorati Tags: customer service, voicemail, reception, training, quality

 I keep finding myself disagreeing with Margery Weinstein, associate editor over at Neilsen  (formerly VNU Learning) as she posts blogs on Training Day. Sorry Marge but you keep missing the point of Training when you write on Training Day. And it’s really bugging me.

In her March 25, 2008 post “Those Weird Customers”, she asserts “as companies consider how to encourage employees’ engagement in the desires of buyers or clients, the strategy should focus on how you assembled that collection of workers in the first place. What if you hire individuals who not only are able to do their assigned tasks, whether IT or marketing, but who have something in common with those you serve?” She goes on, “Is this obvious solution to the problem of workers not caring about the needs of customers too hard to implement or have you just not thought of it yet?”

I can see it now:  Pitney Bowes hiring 26,000 people who had already developed  a passion for postage meters.  Staples, Inc.  hiring 3000 customer service people drooling over office supplies… and packing supplies… and computers… and gps systems… and window cleaner… and all the other 250,000 products in their catalogs.

Reality is that training plays the role that hiring cannot. When I was a new hire at Pitney Bowes I had only seen a postage meter once and I had never been in a shipping room. But through brilliant training I learned to love the features and the solutions they offered customers.  I learned to see the manual tasks of weighing parcels and rate shopping for the best shipper as a workload my customers should not have to endure. My team and I sold the products easily because in training, we learned to love them. More than 20 years later I have to admit I am still a little turned on by a good mailroom… maybe it’s all that folding and inserting…

Trainers must develop programs that make the company’s products or services come alive. Features and functions are important to know but not nearly as important as the value the features bring to their users. Because people all value some subset of the same 3 things - saving or earning money; saving time or improving convenience; and comfort which can include security, peace of mind or enhanced image. It will always be the basic human values that connect us to our customers.

In her post, Margery uses camping equipment as an example. She assumes companies should hire passionate campers as opposed to people with other skills who prefer fine hotels.  I don’t think it’s true.  

Great training can teach anyone how the products meet the 3 basic human values. That lets everyone connect. The tent with special features to keep users dry and warm just like our hotel-stayer prefers to be. The mattress made of unique materials that feels like a big soft bed so users get a comfortable night’s sleep after a day doing what they love to do… the stove that lights easily and boasts a warming tray for gourmet sauces for delicious meals… every product has value. And it’s the training department that creates the vocabulary for sales and customer service folks to use.

If you’re reading this post you probably know that I am a trainer and consultant. This means I walk into different businesses every year whose products are often unfamiliar to me. VOIP technology; high end running shoes; securities and investments; and air purification are just a few of the marketplaces that were brand new to me. I did not understand the products or the users. But that changed quickly. Now I “get” them and talk enthusiastically about them with current and prospective customers.  And so does everyone else who participates in highly effective training.

Technorati Tags: Training Day Blog, Neilsen, VNU Learning, Margery Weinstein, Training, The importance of Training, Selling Value, Customer Service Training, Product Training

Companies are obligated to make their front lines successful. Not the other way around.

A major wireless company has changed the sales goals and compensation for their retail kiosk staff. I know this because someone I love is a rookie salesrep. He’s been at it seven months and he loved it - the company, the products, the customers. Even the retail hours that had him coming home long after his baby was in bed. He was sold on his sales job. And he was sold on the corporate ladder he saw open for climbing.

And now the game’s changed - they’ve added a requirement to sell a certain mix of products and customers. The bar has been raised. But that’s not really the problem.

The problem is that his Manager told him the new goals are impossible.

“I need to get better at calling current customers and getting them to come in for new phones. What can you suggest?” the kid asked. “You’re already doing it just fine,” was the reply.

“How am I going to hit these new goals?” the kid asked. “I have no idea,” was the reply.

Too lazy, too greedy, too shortsighted?

It’s hard to say why this company introduced a new program without getting their front line Managers on board first. Maybe someone tried but was not given the training budget. Maybe the word leaked before the tools were designed to help the supervisors help the salespeople.

Either way it was a terrible way to treat people you have screened, hired, and trained. A certain amount of baby-whining is expected from salespeople when quotas are raised - even a first year Director can see that coming.

This company’s leadership should have prepared for it in advance. It was an expensive, lazy mistake that would be discussed in B schools and laughed about in the years to come if it weren’t so common. “X” is not the only company making this error.

Your front line staff deserves to be led by people who are worthy of being followed.

There’s a lesson here for every company. Every company makes changes in their sales targets, expectations and compensation. This means every company needs to know the steps for getting it done right. It’s simple. Teach managers how to present and coach to the new standards before the new standards get launched. If the job requires a new daily action plan, then the front line Managers had better be able to show their teams how to do the work.

When a salesrep goes to his manager and asks, “How are we going to do this?” he deserves to be reassured that the person he trusts can and will teach him to succeed.

What is your company doing to address changes in sales targets this year? Is the management team getting the tools they need to make the changes work? Or, are changes in sales programs being used to cause attrition in a slow economy?  Please share your thoughts and experiences with our community.

Technorati Tags: wireless, sales, sales training, causing attrition, slowing retail sales economy, sales managment, coaching tools, goal setting, impossible goals, retail management, retail kiosks, ronna caras, sales leadership mistakes