Customer Service Buzz

By Hannah Hellebush

In speaking with members we hear that many service center professionals are interested in the merits of rep-level certification programs. There are a lot of programs available—most offer an online course for frontline reps who become “certified” after the completion of a test. The courses take a few weeks to complete and are priced per individual rep.

Certainly, rep-level certification programs could potentially help in skills training and upskilling.  But many companies we talk to say it’s hard to measure the gains from these programs in terms of direct rep performance gains.  And of course, CCC has long held that coaching (not training) is by far the best skill development lever you can pull. 

So, I’ve got to wonder – if the jury is out on rep-level certification programs to drive performance, what are some other benefits the programs could have? Read More »

I came back from vacation to discover I had racked up nearly 600 e-mails in my inbox.  I wasn’t sure where to start.  Should I look at my meeting invitations first, or clear out the spam?  Overwhelmed, I found myself reading e-mails haphazardly, picking up in the middle of conversations and getting confused.  Only later did I realize my fatal flaw – I tried to focus on everything at once, and ended up focusing on all the wrong things.

I see similarities between my situation and that of the frontline.  Measured and held accountable to 15, 30, or even upwards of 50+ metrics ranging from average hold time to FCR to adherence, frontline reps are inundated with long lists of their data points and trends. 

The result is that the staff feels micromanaged, and don’t know which metric to pay attention to.  They can’t focus on everything at once – there is simply too much.  So, they figure out which metric to focus on in an ad hoc way – maybe it was the topic of the weekly team meeting or it happened to be discussed during a coaching session.  And like me, sometimes they will focus on all the wrong things – metrics that are of lower importance to the customer or company, while ignoring critical metrics. Read More »

Note: This posting is the blog Matt & Nick wrote for the Harvard Business Review this week, which is the first in a series of three and can be viewed by clicking here.

Next time you’re on the phone with a call center, listen carefully to what the rep says. Chances are you’ll hear your name several times, hear a tone of empathy, maybe an “I’m sorry.” It would be nice to think the rep really cares — but of course she’s probably just following a script. That can be a bad idea, we’ve found. In our recent HBR article “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers“, we explored how customer service drives loyalty, including the role of managing the emotional side of customer interactions. Here’s some further insight about that delicate dance.

Most companies still suffer from the checklist mentality when it comes to managing how their reps engage with customers. Use the standard greeting…check…say the customer’s name three times…check…show empathy…check…ask if you’ve fully resolved the issue…check, check, and check.

Most companies will tell you it’s all about consistency. But, let’s face it, consistency breeds robotic interactions which fail to result in a tailored, low-effort customer experience.

We’ve seen companies move away from this “one-size-fits-all” approach and creatively teach their reps to use simple word choice — and in some cases, approaches founded on behavioral economics —to radically shape how a customer perceives an interaction. Read More »

Like every July, a new class of freshly minted higher education degree holders are preparing to enter the workforce.  But, many who have completed a post-secondary (or undergraduate as it’s called in the U.S.) education won’t start work in their chosen field of study.

Holding a degree in Political Science, I’m an example of this phenomenon. When I graduated, I didn’t consider a job in political science. Instead, I looked at job openings where I could exercise the analytical and research skills my degree had prepared me for.   

In fact, most of my peers did the same. Philosophy majors don’t typically become philosophers – nor do most history majors become historians.  Your degree may not train you to do anything, but it does prepare you to do many things.  Read More »

I just returned from a vacation at the beach, and even though I had grand plans for my days away from the office (reading a good book, catching a summer action movie with my wife) I found myself doing something that I wish I did more: observing my 5- & 3-year old children.

Too often I find myself involved in activities with my children where I’m just too close to the action, but this past week I was able to just sit back and watch.  And there were some terrific learnings.  For instance, my 5-year old is fearless and she’s a leader.  She has no problem walking up to children and opening the conversation with a zippy statement, like: “I’m 5 years old & I’ve lost 2 teeth.  How many have you lost?”

Also, I learned that my 3-year old is a bit more reserved, but she has an innate sense of humor with a penchant for one-liners & comedic timing that would make the cast of Second City envious.  Like when she told her 13-year old cousin to “Lock it up” because he wouldn’t stop talking.

And I learned these little insights from just sitting back and watching … not interjecting every 2 minutes like I normally do! 

Read More »

This week marks the official release of the Customer Effort concept into the “wild” with the publication of our article, entitled “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” in the July/August issue of Harvard Business Review.  If you haven’t seen the article, feel free to download a complimentary copy.  You will also find some cool podcasts and our Customer Effort Audit tool available to download.

As you’ll read in the article, our research shows that “delighting” the customer—in other words, going above and beyond—yields only marginal additional loyalty from the customer. 

We also found that customers are four times more likely to leave a service interaction disloyal as compared to loyal, and the primary thing companies can do to mitigate this disloyalty in the service channel is to focus on reducing the effort customers must put forth to get their issues resolved. 

Put succinctly, loyalty in the service environment is a matter of reducing effort, not delighting the customer. Read More »

When I talk to members about frontline rep coaching programs, they often want a set of proven rules and concrete, granular steps every supervisor should take to be a successful coach.  It’s akin to the instructions on the back of an instant cake mix box.  Just add an egg and some water – and voila! – you have a delicious cake every time.

While I’d love to tell you I can give you the five easy steps to coaching success, I’ve come to believe that coaching isn’t a science we can replicated identically among our supervisors. 

In fact, it’s more of an art form.  And in art, we can give folks the tools – brushes, colors, and canvas – to create a great piece of art, but we can’t tell them exactly what to do.  We can’t tell them how to hold their brush or precisely how to create the most eye-catching color.  Sure, we can give suggestions, but it’s up to the artist to figure out what works best.

So – just like in art we can give supervisors the tools they need to coach effectively, but we can’t mandate a set of discrete actions to success.  And, like Pablo Picasso’s innate artistic ability, some supervisors are naturals and coach effectively from almost day one. 

Many though, don’t have the innate skills required to coach effectively right out of the gate.  But, if there’s no five step recipe for success here, short of the time and resource consuming task of hiring a set of super-coaches, what can we do to help these supervisors approximate the behaviors of their highest performing peers?   Read More »

Moment of honesty: when was the last time you stopped and considered if you were a good or a bad boss? Not whether your organization was hitting its goals and your MBOs were in good order, but whether you’re truly a great boss.

In a recent HBR blog post, Robert Sutton argues that most bosses believe they are far more effective than their teams perceive. 12 Things Good Bosses Believe is a sobering read, and I’d strongly encourage you to take a look if you manage any staff, period.

Sutton explores many counterintuitive views he believes great bosses embody. Among them, good bosses believe their success – and their team’s success – depends on mastering mundane tasks over breakthrough ideas. Or, bad is stronger than good – eliminating the negative has more impact than emphasizing the positive.

One rule in particular stood out to me given its relevance in service operations where bosses are several layers removed from the action. Sutton claims that many bosses live in a “fool’s paradise” but great bosses accept that they have a flawed, often skewed, sense of what it is like to work for them. They accept staff members having a far more accurate view of reality.

Read More »

Sometimes we have to tell people the last thing they want to hear: “No.”

Just think about your reaction when someone tells you no.  You get defensive immediately, right?  No one likes to be told they can’t do something – and your likely response is to start an argument to prove you’re right (and the person who told you no is wrong).

In your world, there are lots of reasons your frontline reps have to say no to customers. Sometimes it’s unavoidable. Sometimes it seems outside your reps’ control.  But, what if you could actually eliminate the negative reaction your customers have when they are told no – just by making a few tweaks to your current approach? Read More »

It’s college graduation time, and that means the inspirational commencement speeches will start to circulate in the press—providing tips on everything from wearing sunscreen to pursuing your passions.  Most college grads will, I’m sure, feel confident their four years of studies have prepared them well for whatever life offers them.  

On the flip side, what about the folks who shunned the classroom for a  “real world” education?  Turns out that some of them have been pretty successful too.

Time Magazine recently published a list of the Top 10 College Dropouts, pointing out that several wildly successful individuals never got their diplomas.  Some names on the list are predictable: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, to name two.  A few others were news to me: Tom Hanks left school to become a theater intern, and Harrison Ford abandoned his philosophy studies to try acting.

Certainly the reputations of these people makes one at least momentarily pause to reconsider the time and expense of higher education as a necessary component of success.  What is it about experiential, non-classroom learning that drives similar outcomes? Read More »