As much as I try to take a day off from work, even a trip to the paint store sparks a realization about why customer service folks need to do a little selling in order to give really good service. Here’s what happened:

Memorial Day Weekend is a big clean-up spruce-up time here in New England. This year we had perfect weather - 70 degrees with nary a cloud. Not too hot for heavy lifting and a pleasure to be outdoors. My contribution to the “make it pretty again” efforts was to repaint my black front door and all its shiny white trim. To make sure I got everything I needed, on Saturday, I went to the best paint store I know, Walls of Décor on Lowell Street not far from my house.

The gentleman got me the right paint for the black door and casement, not too shiny, not too flat. He knew just what I needed as soon as I asked. He found me the white trim paint and I got a gallon so there’d be plenty for the trim around the garage doors too. I asked about brushes and he helped me select a thin angled brush for tight corners and a wider brush for large surfaces. Here’s where my problem started.

“I can use the same brushes for the black and the white, can’t I?” I asked him. “As long as you clean them well,” he replied and carried my merchandise to the counter to ring it up. $90 later I was on my way.

If you are an experienced painter you already know what happened.

On Sunday I painted the door black and gave it three good coats. Then I tried to clean the brushes. I washed and washed and of course, their once-beige bristles still looked blackish.

“Why didn’t I spend another $10 on more brushes?” I wondered. And with my annoyance growing, “Why didn’t the nice gentleman at Walls of Décor warn me how difficult it would be to change from black to white?”

Obviously, trying to re-use the brushes would be more hassle than it was worth. But now it was Sunday and Walls of Décor was closed. Good bet they’d be closed on Memorial Day Monday, too.

Have you been to a home maintenance super store on Memorial Day weekend? 15 minutes just to park and another hour to find the brushes and get through the checkout line. Not exactly the delightful shopping experience that had made me choose Walls of Décor in the first place.

But what of that initial customer service? In this day and age, when businesses fight to increase their sales by just a few percent, wouldn’t an additional $10 sale have been a good thing?

It certainly would have improved this customer’s experience to have been warned by a pro that black paint and white paint deserved their own separate brushes.

So what can retailers do to make sure they are capturing the business they deserve and making their customers loyal at the same time?

1. Coach their staff to think big. When a customer describes a project or a need, they should be offering suggestions for all of the supplies that will save a customer time and make sure the outcome is right.
2. Coach their staff to identify customers who need extra help. “I came here because you folks always help me”, was my obvious cue. That’s a request for expert advice.  Staff should not be afraid to give it.

Forcing customers to go elsewhere for the rest of the stuff they need reduces profits and long term loyalty. Just a bit of coaching here can go a long way.

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

We can’t expect companies to do everything right all the time. Problems arise, mistakes occur. Service providers are human. Equipment breaks. Accidents happen.

The test of a company’s service takes place after the problem, mistake, breakage or accident. That’s when consumers and business clients notice what you did to make it right. Want to get noticed? Let something go wrong. And fix it.

If you want to see an example of great customer service, read “Another Fairmont Moment” an earlier post in this blog. Their management made sure at least one guest had a fantastic recovery story to tell.

If you want to learn about a totally different hotel experience, read my story:

Last month I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, Times Square. On the first morning I was 5 minutes into a 40-minute hair drying session using the hair dryer they provided. Suddenly, the lights in my room went out.

I called the front desk. I explained my problem. “Were you using the hair dryer?” she asked. “Yes, was I not supposed to?” “No, I didn’t say that. Do you want me to send someone up there?”

 “Do I want you to send someone up here?” I tried not to yell and was only partially successful. “I want the lights back on so I can finish getting ready and go to my meeting. Does that involve sending someone up here?”

“I’ll get someone up there,” she said talking fast. “And you have a nice day.” She hung up before I barked my thanks.

I sat for a moment thinking about her sarcastic “Have a nice day,” and the lack of apology or ownership of the problem - an obviously known problem that could have been prevented with a small note of warning. There are notes about re-using towels. Why not a note about hair dryers that blow out fuses?

I wondered what kind of management let this happen and forced front line staff to deal with the problems. Are they lazy or crazy?

I wondered what kind of customer service training this woman received (can’t help myself). Are they a prospect for my company’s services, or don’t they invest in their staff’s development at all?

Then her comment about the hair dryer registered. I have very thick hair that needed some serious drying. If it shut off every 5 minutes I was in big trouble.

I called back and asked if using the dryer was going to continue to cause a problem if I plugged it back in and used it. “I didn’t say that,” she responded. I’ll get someone up there.” “When should I expect someone?” I asked. “I’ll call him as soon as you let me off the phone.” Nice. Really nice.

2 minutes passed and the lights went back on. Then a knock at the door. “I reset your lights.” The man told me. So I asked him about the hair dryer. “Will it keep shutting off?” “Only if you plug it in the same outlet.” “But it’s the only one near a mirror.” “Oh,” he said. Then he scanned the room and decided he could move the dresser and plug in the hair dryer behind there. I thanked him and he left. I dried my hair standing in the small space between the bed and the cabinet with a tiny bit of light. It worked fine and I left for a great day in Manhattan.

Now, I realize I was only delayed by 10 minutes. It could have been a lot worse. But I had just read about how the Fairmont, Newport Beach had jumped through hoops to satisfy Gary Connor who was complaining about the noise of a party outside. Mine was a known problem - something they could have prevented and just didn’t. And no one had even apologized to me.

But I remained hopeful and I waited for my hoop-jumps. Would someone leave a note apologizing for not warning me that hair dryers could not be used in the bathroom? Would I get the promise of an upgrade at my next Marriott property visit? A free night’s stay? Would my $25 bagel and coffee be provided at no charge? Would anyone even acknowledge my problem or experience?

So far the answer is “no” “nothing” “nada”. It’s been a few weeks so my hope for their service recovery has been replaced by pity. They’ve lost my business and don’t even seem to know about it or care about it.

When I travel to Manhattan again next month I’ll be staying elsewhere. I advise you, kind readers, to do the same.

Technorati Tags: ronna caras, customer service, renaissance hotel

To say the public is frustrated by customer service is an understatement. But the idea that service is dead and that corporate execs are just paying lip service to the public and not trying to improve the customer experience - well that’s just not true. So I respectfully disagree with Fred Yeomans whose blog “fredspace” tells a compelling story about bad policies and bad treatment from a telescope manufacturer. Customer service is on its way up, not down.

I just returned from Socap (Society for Consumer Affairs Professionals) Annual Symposium. Not much of a “return” actually because it was held at the new Westin Boston Waterfront all of 15 miles from my house. By the way, excellent customer service at this property. And I owe someone there an apology - I forgot to leave a tip for the housekeeper who kept the crisp white room and poofy bed linens from looking like a dumpsite during my whirlwind stay. If anyone knows what I can do about my bad manners in this situation, please write and tell me how I can fix this.

But back to the point of this post. Here’s what I observed, learned and concluded about Customer Service in America today:

OBSERVATION
More than 100 of the largest consumer product companies in the US and abroad spent about $1.5 million to bring their service leaders together to collaborate on ways to make customers happier without raising the prices of their products. Learning from the trials, errors and solutions of the companies in our network is much less expensive for a manufacturer or retailer than putting programs in place that may or may not succeed. This was leadership development at its best. Without forward-thinking leaders who actively try to improve themselves and their businesses, things will only get worse. In that respect, I agree with Fred. If companies don’t invest in professional development at the top they will not improve their policies or the behavior and effectiveness of their customer-facing folks.

LEARNING
Companies are improving the customer experience by improving the employee experience first. BJ McDonald, who leads a team of 2000 customer care agents at Continental Airlines, spoke about what it took for his company to go from “Worst to First” in service. They addressed the fundamental needs of the company - people need to show up to work every day so bags have the right amount of handlers and maintenance takes no longer than planned - with the fundamental needs of the employees - it’s hard to go a year without calling out sick when sick days are part of a basic comp plan.

If you’re thinking Continental took sick days out of the comp plan then I really hope you are not a Customer Care or HR Manager.

What did Continental do? They started a lottery for 100% attendance employees that gives away 8 fully loaded Ford Explorers twice a year. We saw the pictures of the cars with their big bows waiting for their new owners. It was ingenious. I had never thought about employee attendance as being one of the major problems that caused customer dissatisfaction, but, as Fred points out in his blog post, we’ve all waited around in airports thinking the delay made no sense…

CONCLUSIONS
Above and beyond employee satisfaction, there was a lot of talk about customer satisfaction surveys. Most companies are actively asking customers what they experienced. A large percentage of them are even making changes based on the information they received.

In our session on Blogging, Susan Getgood shared the model Dell Computer uses for tracking customer satisfaction and how the 50 different companies in the audience can use the internet to make sure the quality of their customer care is improved by the efforts they are making. Based on the mob of executives waiting to talk with her further, I conclude many more Socap member companies will be participating in the conversations and taking action to make customers happier on the first try.

So, if you have begun to think that clipping coupons in the Sunday paper should be abandoned because those companies don’t care about you, think again. They are listening as long as we are talking. Don’t quit yet. The conversation is just getting interesting.

Technorati Tags: customer service, continental airlines, dell computer, susan getgood, bj mcdonald, ronnna caras, socap

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Coupons and rebate programs bring customers into stores and onto websites. Marketing knows the give-away is typically spent on a much larger purchase. Management signs off because they see how well their generosity yields customer loyalty and larger orders at the same time.

But sometimes, the message is not filtered down to the front line. A recent post at consumerist.com caught my attention because it applauded Staples (our wonderful client and friend whom we love) and criticized another large office supplies chain. The topic? The $3 rebates for turning in empty or unwanted printer ink cartridges.

The story is simple: A computer repair business owner was accused of stealing the ink cartridges he is turning in because his volume is so high. He was threatened by a front line employee and told his activity “has to stop”. The employee went so far as to threaten to circulate his picture around so he could no longer acquire hundreds of dollars in merchandise credit coupons through the cartridge recycling program.

This is not the first time I have heard front line staff acting as though the use of a coupon or discount should not be allowed. In environments where dimes are watched closely and raises are practically non-existent, employees can mistakenly associate customer incentive programs with their own inadequate paychecks.

Companies can fix this problem by doing 3 things:

1. Encourage generosity. Toward customers and toward each other. Teach staff to err on the side of kindness and to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Organizations create more customer loyalty and a better image when they empower the front line to accept an expired coupon or to give a customer a slightly larger credit than the customer expects.
2. Coach employees to mention coupon programs or special promotions to their customers. Marketing spent a lot of valuable time creating the offer so everyone should be promoting it. When your customers start looking in the newspaper or on line for the coupon your team member mentioned, you get a repeat visit and that is always a win. Why shouldn’t an office supply store with an ink recycling program tell customers about it whenever the sale includes a printer or ink?
3. Don’t make customer #2 live without a discount they saw customer #1 receive. Sometimes coupon offers get lost in the mail or lost in the pile. We consumers know the stores that keep this week’s 20% off coupon behind each cashier stand and we shop them more frequently. Their employees get to act like heroes and save us from overpaying. It feels good to everyone and that atmosphere improves every aspect of the customer experience.

It may be too late for the offending store in the ink cartridge story to fix what they have done. They’ve already closed in my neighborhood. But there’s plenty of time for consumer relations and marketing and sales to bond together to make special offers a winning experience for everyone. And it’s easy.

Ronna Caras 

Technorati Tags: 10 tips for better sales and service, sales, customer service, coupons, consumerist, marketing, ronna caras

I am trying to stay at the Manhattan Club in NY the night before I speak at a SOCAP meeting that is being held right on their property. The property is a timeshare resort in such great demand that RCI told me even my prestigious Aruba timeshare as trade would not help me bypass a 4-year waiting list. I don’t have 4 years. I need to be there May 21.

So, I used their website and booked 2 nights at a very low rate. I should have noticed the requirement to take the 90-minute tour but I guess I blocked it out somehow. That’s why the call from their salesrep came as a surprise. Well maybe it wasn’t the fact of the call that was a surprise. Actually it was the content of the call that shocked me.

According to my colleague who answered the phone, someone had called from the Manhattan Club to “qualify me” to stay there. “Do you know how much money Ronna earns?” she asked the first contact she made at my business. When the answer was “no”, she left a message on my voice mail. Did she really expect a different answer from someone who answered the phone at an office?

Her message let me know she was calling to qualify me for my stay. I was required to provide information about my income, marital status, and job description. I was also expected to take the tour on one specific day during my stay.  Not exactly friendly, warm or engaging.

Those of you who know me, are already shaking your heads. I do not like to be told what I must do to meet someone else’s requirements. I am aware companies have rules. I just don’t care to have those rules imposed upon me. Especially when I am the customer. If this woman thought her call about “qualifications” would bully me into compliance she was very wrong. I wanted to tell her in the most condescending tone I could muster, “If you want to sell something, dear, you should be reeling people in with features and value, not screening them out with rules and requirements.” But I didn’t. I just never called her back.

So she sent an email that was a subtle version of her obnoxious voice mail message.  And an exchange ensued that caused me to go back to their website, see my error and read the disclosures.

On the reservations page it clearly states I agree to attend a 90-minute presentation. And in a legal details box, it says as thanks, I will receive Broadway theatre tickets or a gift certificate for dinner dependent upon availability. Not a bad deal, I thought.

But here’s the question: Why on earth didn’t she lead with what she could do for the prospect (cool free stuff, features and value of property) instead of what the prospect could do for her? So, in my happy sales trainer mode, I am sharing with the salesrep we now refer to as “Morticia”, the way to turn her initial approach into one that brags about her great product and makes it easier to sell.

Here’s her email:

Dear Ms. Ronna Caras,

Thank you for booking a reservation with us through our online service. I just need to get some additional information from you to complete your reservation.

First I need to know if you are Single, Married, Divorced or have an Adult Partner. Please tell me their name if applicable. Second I need to know your occupation and your spouses’ occupation if applicable. And Third I need to know your annual taxable income for the year. If you do have a spouse it would be both of yours combined. If you have any questions please let me know. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Here’s what a professional salesperson should say instead:

Dear Ms. Caras,

My name is [name] and I am going to be your concierge for your stay at the beautiful Manhattan Club on [dates].

I am looking forward to showing you around our property during your 90-minute tour so you can see the great value our members enjoy. There are many reasons why RCI counts the Manhattan Club as a timeshare property nearly impossible to trade for. There is just nothing better than our prestigious and convenient address and amenities and I can’t wait for you to experience all of it.

There are a few things I need to do for you to make your stay perfect:

1.  In order to accommodate your needs, I would like to understand the time during your stay when you prefer to do the tour.

2.  We are also happy to provide a “thank you” gift of Broadway Theatre tickets or fine dining at a New York restaurant. So, I would like to learn about your top choices and try to secure those right away.

3.  I need to verify that your household income is $75,000 a year or more. And if you have a spouse, I need to be sure she or he will be joining you on the tour.

Please get back to me at your earliest convenience. You can reach me by telephone at [phone number]. Or, simply provide the information by email if that is easier for you.

I am looking forward to meeting you and helping you enjoy New York.

Cordially,

Morticia

Technorati Tags: timeshare sales, manhattan club, new york timeshare, aruba timeshare, effective selling, bad sales approaches, sales training, sales strategy, sales coaching, ronna caras, caras training, ronna