What do you need to do first as a customer service leader

You've just landed your dream job as a customer service leader. Now what?

It's a question I've been getting a lot lately. That's great news—it means people are getting hired or getting promoted. That's a source of optimism.

(If you haven't gotten promoted yet, this guide can help you.)

Starting a new job in leadership can be tricky. You'll probably spot a lot of work that needs to be done. Getting employees to buy-in and change their old habits can be a daunting task.

My friend, Jeremy Watkin, started a new job a few months ago. He's the new Director of Customer Experience and Support at NumberBarn, a marketplace for local and toll free phone numbers.

I interviewed Watkin to learn what advice he has for new customer service managers. It turns out, he has a lot of great insights.

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

• What is the first thing you should do when you start a new job?

• How do you stay committed to your own onboarding?

• What should you do before asking for new technology?

• How do you get your new team to buy-in?

• What can you do to build trust with your employees?

You can watch the full 20 minute interview, or read the re-cap below.

What is the first thing you should do when you start a new job?

Watkin suggests creating a plan before you arrive on your first day.

Much of the initial plan should involve listening. Listening to employees, listening to colleagues, and listening to customers.

You might be tempted to make changes quickly. After all, you were hired to get results! But you can't know what's really going on until you spend a lot of time listening and observing.

"One of my priorities was to go through a decent chunk of onboarding," said Watkin. This included taking a hands-on approach to learning the support role.

One surprise for Watkin was how much he had missed supporting customers. He had spent the past five years working outside of daily support operations, and it was refreshing to get back to it. "As hard as customer support work is, I've actually really enjoyed interacting with customers again."

Hear more on this topic at 1:06 in the interview.

How do you stay committed to your own onboarding?

"That is a huge challenge," admitted Watkin.

It's easy to get sucked into putting out fires. You might spot a problem that needs to be fixed, or an executive might pull you into an "emergency" project.

Be patient. There are some big benefits to spending time on onboarding.

“I really went into those first 30 days or so, taking just a ton of notes and prioritizing the high-level things that I think needed to be improved," said Watkin.

This gave him an advantage when it came time to ask for more resources.

"A lot of this stuff costs money." Knowing both the use case and the financials involved helped Watkin prioritize his requests, and make a better pitch.

"When there's a cost associated with it, it really helped me to write it down and try to think about the business case or ROI associated with it."

Hear more at 3:11 in the interview.

What should you do before asking for new technology?

It’s natural for a new leader to immediately spot opportunities for new technology. Watkin made sure he accomplished some more fundamental tasks firsts.

I was happy to hear that Watkin started by learning about NumberBarn's customer service vision and making sure everyone understood it.

A customer service vision is a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page. It's the foundation of the process I outline in The Service Culture Handbook.

The vision can act as a filter that helps you prioritize what needs to be done now, and what can wait until later.

Once Watkin understood the vision, he spent time with the support team determining the key behaviors would be expected for each customer interaction. Frontline employees were asked for their input.

"We came up with eight," said Watkin. "And that became our quality process."

This exercise convinced Watkin to focus on helping the team do a consistent job with every contact before asking for new, expensive technology. "As much as I would love a really nice quality assurance tool, we are accomplishing it all through Google forms and sheets right now."

Listen to Watkin share more about this at 6:20.

How do you get your new team to buy-in?

"I think some of it is a really easy sell," said Watkin.

"It's not hard to prove that if you can provide a customer with an accurate response, if you can empower them so they don't have to respond more times than necessary, then customers will be nicer and volume will go down."

Helping employees see the benefits of a great service was a positive start. Watkin has also spent a lot of time building credibility with the team by leading by example.

"They read the emails that I send to customers, and they absolutely will take a cue from that."

Hear more at the 11:36 mark.

What can you do to build trust with your employees?

Employees are more likely to trust you when you listen and encourage them to open up and share.

Watkin was careful that the questions he asked made it clear he was there to help. "What are your pain points? What do you wish we could take off your plate, or make it easier to do?"

It turned out there was a lot that employees wanted. They asked for product features, new tools, and even better processes.

Those employee conversations helped Watkin learn a lot about what was working, and what was not. It also showed employees he was their advocate.

"They might not be able to back it up with data, but they're talking to customers all day, every day. They have their finger on the pulse of what's going on."

You can hear more on this topic at 15:53.

Additional Resources

Here are some resources to help you dive even deeper into this topic.

Watkin shares a lot of his experiences on the Customer Service Life blog that he co-authors with Jenny Dempsey. Dempsey is another customer service leader who has recently taken a new job, and the two of them share a lot of honest, authentic examples about overcoming challenges in customer service.

He was kind enough to mention The Service Culture Handbook as a helpful guide. You can find it on Amazon or go to BookPal for discounts on 25 or more copies.

Finally, new managers would also be wise to build these relationships.

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Chip Bell: How to get inside your customer's brain

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.

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Customers are notoriously bad at describing their needs.

They tell confusing stories, share irrelevant details, and often fail to reveal important data. Often, customers just don't know what they want.

This makes it incredibly difficult to make improvements, or create new products, services, and solutions.

Customer service author and keynote speaker, Chip Bell, has a new book that addresses this issue head-on. The book is called Inside Your Customer's Imagination, and it contains five secrets for working with your customers to create breakthrough solutions.

Bell and I had a chance to discuss his new book, and he shared some fun stories and fantastic insight!

Here are a few of the topics we covered:

• Why do customers struggle to describe what they want?

• What is customer co-creation?

• What makes something a breakthrough product, service, or solution?

• How can multiple perspectives lead to new insights?

• Why do we need to ask better questions?

Bell covered a lot more during our conversation. You can watch the full, 20 minute interview or read some of the highlights below.

Why do customers struggle to describe what they want?

Asking customers their needs sounds pretty straightforward. The challenge is customers notoriously struggle to describe what they really want.

Bell explains that breakthrough ideas are so new, customers don't know they exist. "Nobody wanted a bicycle, nobody wanted a fax machine," he explained. It's only afterwards, when something new and useful is available, customers are glad to have it.

This creates an opportunity for savvy marketers, customer service professionals, and other customer experience experts to work with customers to uncover hidden needs.

Go to the :47 mark to hear Bell explain more.

What is co-creation, and how does it help develop new ideas?

Bell described customer co-creation as a process of including customers in product development. The idea is to work with them, so that their perspective is included.

"Customer experience is already co-created," said Bell. "We make up the experience with the customer, but we don't always treat the customer as if they're an equal partner." Inviting customers to partner with you in the creation process opens up new opportunities.

For instance, my Customer Service Tip of the Week email was co-created with a client. We were brainstorming ways to reinforce a training program I had just delivered and stumbled upon an idea to send a weekly tip via email. It was easy to set up and worked so well that now anyone can subscribe for free.

"We're creating with the customer," said Bell. "Not just on behalf of or for the customer."

You can hear more at 2:27 in the conversation.

What makes something a breakthrough product, service, or solution?

It's something completely new, or a new feature that's added to something that already exists.

Bell told a story about working with a pizza company, where members of a customer focus group unexpectedly brought up the pizza box as an opportunity to do something different. Customers came up with a variety of examples such as turning the box into a puzzle or a Halloween mask.

Another story was the origin of the Frisbee. Go to the 6:12 mark of the interview to hear Bell describe the unusual way the Frisbee was invented.

How can getting multiple data sources paint a clearer picture?

Bell shared a story from the book about a hotel general manager who bought breakfast for local taxi cab drivers once per quarter. The breakfast was a focus group designed to uncover what hotel guests were saying about their experience.

The general manager realized that taxi drivers often heard unvarnished feedback about a guest's hotel stay on the ride from the hotel to the airport. This feedback might never be shared with an hotel employee or in a survey, but was readily offered in a casual conversation during the cab ride.

Bell calls this "eccentric listening," where you try to gather information from unusual perspectives. "You're talking about out of the ordinary questioning," said Bell.

He shares more about the concept at 9:05.

Why do we need to ask better questions?

Many of the questions we routinely ask customers have lost meaning.

"How are you today?" is almost always answered with "fine" or "good," without the other person revealing how they are really doing. Likewise, a cashier asking, "Did you find everything alright?" expects customers to say "Yes," and is flummoxed by anyone who answers "No."

Bell and I shared amusing examples about staying in hotels, where "How was your stay?" has become one of those rote questions.

"We treat questions like, 'How was your stay?' as a greeting," said Bell. It's not really an interrogatory. It's got a question mark, but it's not really a question. It's like another version of 'hello.'"

Go to 12:40 to see more from this great exchange.

Get the Book

Bell is an accomplished storyteller, and his skills are on full display in Inside Your Customer's Imagination.

The book is filled with amusing anecdotes, backed up by practical suggestions and advice you can put to use right away. The book is currently available on Amazon in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook.

If you're looking for more business books or interviews like this one, check out my Recommended Reading list. It contains my recommended customer service and customer experience books, along with exclusive interviews with authors such as Shep Hyken, Jeanne Bliss, and Matt Dixon.

Erica Mancuso: Why customers should get the benefit of the doubt

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.

We've all experienced an outrageous customer.

Perhaps they lied or exaggerated. They might have been unreasonably angry. Others make a mistake and then blame you for the problem. Some are too obstinate to cooperate as you try to help them.

It's natural to be dismissive. Why should you have to serve someone who lies, throws a tantrum, blames you, and then refuses to be part of the solution?

Erica Mancuso has a counterintuitive suggestion. When customers are outrageous, we should give them the benefit of the doubt.

Mancuso is one of ICMI's top 50 thought leaders to follow on Twitter, and the Director of Offer Management at nThrive. We recently had a conversation about the importance of giving customers the benefit of the doubt.

Here are a few of the questions that Mancuso answered:

• What does it mean to assume good intent?

• Are there things that make it more difficult?

• How do you get a customer to be more rational?

• How do you get out of the mindset that customers are just being jerks?

• Why is it important to assume a customer has good intentions?

You can watch the full interview or read the highlights below.

What does it mean to assume good intent?

"Most people when they go to work everyday, they're not trying to complain about everything," said Mancuso. "They're trying to get a job done."

She explained that customers contact customer service because they're frustrated about a problem. Their primary goal is to get the problem resolved and to feel better about it.

Mancuso shared that it's natural for customers to exaggerate when they're upset. "Sure, will they embellish things a little bit? Maybe. Haven't we all done that as customers at some point in time? We do."

Assuming good intent requires us to look beyond the customer's outrageous behavior and realize what's behind it.

"The client has good intentions," said Mancuso. "They're not trying to wreck my day. They just want the issue resolved."

See more at the :29 in the interview.

Are there things that make it more difficult to assume good intent?

Situations where a customer appears to be lying or obviously exaggerating can be especially difficult.

In my book, Getting Service Right, I shared a story about Paul, a night club manager who took a call from an unreasonable customer. The customer's credit card company had issued a fraud alert, and the customer angrily accused one of Paul's employees of stealing the card number. Paul knew this wasn't true, and he struggled with his instinctive reaction to dismiss the customer's concerns.

Mancuso described this as a common challenge. "We all tend to embellish things when we're frustrated."

It can be tempting to catch a customer in a lie, or point out how they're wrong. However, that tactic usually makes things worse, not better.

Go to 3:31 in the interview to hear more.

How do you bring a customer back to a more rational place?

Mancuso recommends asking specific questions to redirect the conversation.

For example, if a customer tells you something "never works" ask them specifically how many times the error occurred and what they were doing when they noticed it.

The key is to partner with the customer to gather facts and avoid accusing them of anything. "You do it in an empathetic way," said Mancuso. "You don't want the person on the other end to feel like an idiot."

Using specific questions echos similar advice contact center expert, Myra Golden, shared with me in our interview. Golden suggests starting with three closed-ended questions such as "Are you using a Mac or a PC?" to help the customer regain a more rational mindset.

Hear more on this topic at 5:02.

How do you get out of the mindset that customers are just being jerks?

Mancuso suggests that customer service professionals be willing to learn from their experiences. It's important to reflect on situations where a customer is exaggerating and think about better ways to handle them.

"Let's not shy away from these difficult conversations," said Mancuso. "They're going to help you grow as a professional."

One of the biggest obstacles is taking it personally when a customer directs their anger towards you. "You have to understand they're not angry at you, they're angry at the situation."

Not taking it personally can be easier said than done. Outrageous customers often trigger our fight or flight instinct, which is our natural urge to either argue with the customer or get away from them.

Go to the 8:12 mark to hear more.

Why is it important to assume a customer's intentions are good?

"You tend to be more empathetic when you assume good intent," said Mancuso. Empathy is a core customer service skill used to help customers feel better.

Mancuso explained that feelings are a powerful part of the customer experience. "We know that their overall experience with a company is one third what happens and two thirds how you make them feel."

Assuming good intentions often helps you wade through the customer's exaggerations and understand what's really bothering them. It's the mark of a true professional when you can regulate your own emotions and find a way to help the customer feel great at the end of the conversation.

Hear more at 11:23 in the interview.

Additional Resources

Mancuso shared some additional tips for serving upset customers in this article published by ICMI.

You can get even more ideas from my LinkedIn Learning course, Working with Upset Customers. You'll need a LinkedIn Learning subscription to view the entire program, but a 30-day trial is available.

Manage upset customers like a pro from Working with Upset Customers by Jeff Toister

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Alexander Salas: Why quizzes are a poor way to measure training

How do you evaluate customer service training?

Most trainers don't measure it beyond tracking attendance and giving people a smile survey at the end of every class. Employees attend training, then go back to work without any proof they learned something useful.

Some trainers use gut instinct.

For instance, a learner who asks fewer questions or displays greater confidence as the training goes along is considered trained. Never mind that some people who are completely incapable of doing the job ask no questions and display amazing amounts of confidence.

Still other trainers use quizzes. Participants are given tests to assess their knowledge of the content. The thought is a good quiz score indicates the person can do the job.

But can they?

I recently discussed the use of quizzes with Alexander Salas, Chief of Awesomeness at eLearning Launch, an online academy for instructional designers. We discussed the reasons why quizzes are often a poor way to measure training, and what trainers can do instead.

Here are a few questions Salas addressed in our conversation:

• Why are quizzes a poor way to measure training?

• What should we do instead of quizzing learners?

• Why should companies avoid corporate universities?

• What metrics should I use to evaluate training?

• How do I justify my training programs to executives?

You can watch the full interview or read some of the highlights below.

Why are quizzes a poor way to measure training?

"In terms of workplace learning, you have to ask yourself why you are asking people to take a quiz," said Salas. 

The goal of training is rarely for people to acquire and retain information. We usually give them information so they can use it to do a better job. That's where quizzes fall short—they don't show us whether an employee can do better work as a result of training.

Salas also discussed the challenge people have retaining information they learn in a training. A quiz might assess your knowledge level today, but two weeks later learners might have forgotten a lot of the knowledge they learned if it wasn't reinforced on the job in some way.

You can hear more on this topic at the 1:17 mark in the interview.

What should we be doing instead of quizzes to evaluate training?

Training should be evaluated by having participants demonstrate the performance you expect to see on the job. This can be done in a controlled training setting, or through on-the-job observations after training.

"Ideally, what you want to do is understand your purpose," said Salas. "What is your scope? Where are you ending?"

Salas argues that a quiz makes sense if your end goal is for people to have knowledge. Unless you're in academics, that's rarely the objective in the workplace.

In most cases, you really want people to be able to do something with that information. For example, if you want people to build better rapport with customers, then being able to identify rapport-building techniques on a multiple choice quiz is not enough. 

Your evaluation plan should include participants demonstrating that they are able to build rapport, either in an in-class simulation or with real customers.

This evaluation process starts when you first design a training program.

Decide what a fully trained person looks like, and then work backwards to create a program to get people to that goal. That picture of a fully trained person should describe what the person should be able to demonstrate after the training is complete. (Here's a guide to help you do that.)

Go to 2:27 in the interview to hear more.

Why should companies avoid corporate universities?

Salas argues that too many companies mirror academia when they set up a training function. "What is school called in the business world? Training."

Training departments are often called corporate universities. Content is organized in a series of classes. Classes are often grouped into "certificate" programs to reward participants for completing a certain amount of content. Quizzes are used to assess learning, just like in school.

I once ran a corporate university that was set up this way. Being a results person, I studied whether taking a certain number of classes correlated with better job performance. There turned out to be no correlation at all.

Some people who attended every class were indeed successful, while others who attended every class were mediocre performers. There were other employees that never went to a class, yet were objectively high performers.

This insight caused me to scrap the corporate university approach. 

What we did instead was focus on helping employees improve their job performance. We assessed employee skills gaps at an individual level, and created customized plans to help people grow.

Salas shares more at the 11:20 mark.

What metrics can we use to evaluate training?

"There's an evolution that you want professionals to go through," said Salas. "If they're beginners, and they're in customer service training programs, you want them to perform at a specific standard."

For example, if an employee is expected to respond to emails with a certain level of quality, there should be a clear standard that defines what a quality email looks like. Once that's defined, the employee's training should be evaluated by whether or not they can demonstrate the ability to write emails according to the quality standard.

More veteran employees might be evaluated a little differently. According to Salas, "You want them to progress to a level where they start creating their own improvements to the workflow, improvements to the way they do their work."

Using the same email example, you might evaluate an employee's learning by their contributions to updating or writing knowledge base articles that can help the entire team work faster and more accurately.

Go to 14:47 in the interview to hear more.

How do I justify my training programs to executives?

Salas suggests the process starts up front, when executives request training. "The question that you pose, when you get that request, is 'What do you want out of the training? Do you want performance, or do you want knowledge?'"

Trainers can then tailor the training program and evaluation strategy to meeting the executive sponsor's expectations.

We talk more about this at 17:39 in the interview.

Additional Resources

Salas provides elearning consulting at Style Learn and runs an online academy for instructional designers at eLearning Launch.

He's also a good person to follow on LinkedIn for content and though-provoking questions around training and instructional design.

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Myra Golden: How to Improve Your Call Control Skills

Call control is part art, part science.

It's the ability to politely, yet quickly move along a customer service call. These skills were originally a big part of call center agent training back when talk time, or handle time, was considered an essential metric.

Today, fewer contact centers are holding agents accountable for the length of each call, but call control still remains an important skill.

• Customers don't want to waste time.

• Quicker calls generally lead to higher satisfaction.

• Faster calls allow you to serve more customers.

I interviewed contact center expert, Myra Golden, to get tips on call control skills. Golden is a certified master de-escalation instructor and customer experience designer who has an impressive call control course on LinkedIn Learning.

Here are just a few topics we covered in our conversation:

• What is call control?

• Why do calls take longer than they should?

• How do you use call control skills with upset customers?

• How can contact centers make call control easier for agents?

• What can agents do to make customers feel great, but still keep the call on track?

You can watch the full, 22 minute interview or skim some of the highlights below.

What is call control?

Golden offered a succinct definition of call control.

"Call control is the art of politely moving a call forward to closure."

Many customer calls go on longer than they need to. Some customers are upset, while others are just extra talkative.

Years ago, when I had my first full-time job as a contact center agent, I had a regular customer who was quite the talker. He could talk to me for an hour about the smallest of issues. The customer wasn't angry—he just seemed to have a lot of time on his hands.

He was also an important customer who worked for one of my biggest accounts, so I felt I had to stay on the phone as long as he wanted.

One day, an experienced colleague pulled me aside and explained how the long phone calls were keeping me away from other customers. He had just taken a call from another customer of mine who didn't want to wait to speak to me.

It was then that I realized that I needed a better way to keep my important customer happy, while avoiding friction with other customers and my coworkers.

You can hear more of Golden's definition of call control at the :52 second mark of the interview.

Why do calls take longer than they should?

"A lot of the time, it's the customer," said Golden. "They don't know how to get to the point. They want to tell you the backstory and the journey of how they got there."

That was my important customer. He could talk for days about the smallest thing.

Of course, there are many times when the customer service professional causes a call to go on too long. One example is when we don't provide enough information.

"We lose control when we don't proactively answer the customer's questions," said Golden. For example, if you tell a customer someone will get back to them, that invites a number of follow-up questions.

• Who will reach out?

• How will they contact the customer?

• When will they reach out?

It's better to use clear and specific language up front to set expectations, so the customer doesn't need to ask a lot of follow-up questions. For example, you could tell a customer, “I will give you a call back by Monday at 4pm with an update.”

Hear more about why calls take too long at the 3:24 mark of the interview.

How do you use call control skills with upset customers?

Customer service professionals frequently try to speed up the call when they encounter an upset customer. They try to get straight to the point and solve the problem quickly.

Unfortunately, this often backfires.

Customers are more judgmental and less open to ideas when they're angry. An upset customer might resist your suggestions for a quick solution, which ends up prolonging the call.

"When a person is upset, they are very often in the emotional side of their brain," said Golden. The solution is finding a way to help soothe the customer's emotions and get them back to their rational brain. It’s counterintuitive to spend extra time soothing the customer, but this often helps the call go shorter.

Golden has some very good suggestions for doing this. Check out her full explanation at 6:09 in the interview.

How can contact centers make call control easier for agents?

Contact center agents are often hampered by cumbersome procedures or inflexible systems. Golden relayed a story about her own experience as a contact center manager.

When Golden listened to agent calls, she quickly noticed a problem.

"My agents had to ask seven questions before they could get to the problem," said Golden. This made the calls sound more like an interview or even an interrogation, rather than a conversation.

The key to fixing this problem is using a call flow and computer system that is flexible enough to allow you to solve the issue in a non-linear fashion.

"If the customer started out with their story, you could jump right to notes and record while they talk," said Golden. You could then go back and ask for the required information once the customer had shared their story. This led to a more conversational tone, and also limited the amount of times a rep had to interrupt the customer to get required information.

Hear more at the 9:57 mark in the interview.

What can agents do to keep calls on track?

Golden provided several suggestions that can be used, depending on the situation.

When a customer is friendly and talkative, she recommends giving a polite, but minimal response. "I live in Oklahoma. During tornado season, you'd be surprised at how many people ask about the weather. I could talk for 20 minutes about that."

A minimal response to a question about tornadoes might be, "Yes, we did have tornados last night, but fortunately the damage was minimal."

You can then redirect the call back to the issue at hand. I really could have used that technique with my talkative customer back in the day!

Golden gives some additional tips for getting a call back on track when the customer is really angry. Check them out at 13:37 in the interview.

Additional Resources

You can get more resources, check out Golden's blog, and learn more about Golden's customer service training programs on her website.

Golden's LinkedIn Learning course on call control is outstanding, and I highly recommend it for anyone who serves customers over the phone.

How to be a hero to your customers

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Heroism is a misunderstood concept.

Countless customer service employees have told me they can't be a hero. According to them, their job doesn't allow it.

"I'm a cashier/receptionist/call center rep/etc.," they say. "There's hardly ever an opportunity to be a hero to customers. Most of my interactions are routine."

Customer experience expert and keynote speaker, Adam Toporek, believes all customer service employees can be heroes. He's the author of Be Your Customer's Hero, a book that shows anyone how they can be a hero to their customers.

Toporek and I recently discussed how to apply the concepts from his book.

Here are a few of the topic we discussed:

• What is a customer hero?

• Can you be a hero with every customer?

• What is the difference between proactive and reactive service?

• Why are high-intensity experiences so critical?

• How can employees be heroes when they aren't empowered?

You can watch the full interview of scroll down to read some highlights.

What is a customer hero?

"A customer hero is someone who is there when you need them," says Toporek.

I once left my iPad in an airport restaurant. The server found my device and sprinted through the terminal after me, handing me the iPad just as I reached my gate. 

That was definitely a hero moment. Toporek explained that same server likely has many more hero moments that just aren't as recognizable.

For example, airport restaurant servers often wait on guests who have a tight timeline to eat before catching a flight. "The hero," says Toporek, "is the waiter or waitress who actually takes note of that, speeds up your order, makes sure they expedite it in the kitchen, checks in with you multiple times, and then proactively brings you the check at the same time they bring you the food to make sure that you're ahead of the curve."

Toporek is right. As someone who has eaten in a lot of airport restaurants, I see servers who provide that type of heroic service that all day long.

Think about situations where you can anticipate a customer's needs, and proactively address them. It doesn't have to be a major moment or a rare occasion. All you have to do is be there for someone when they need you.

Go to the 3:56 mark in the interview for Toporek's explanation.

Can you be a hero with every customer?

Realistically? Probably not. But that shouldn't stop you from trying.

Remember that a hero is someone who is there when they are needed. We have the ability to do more for our customers than we realize. 

• You can be friendly.

• You can be attentive.

• You can anticipate issues.

• You can use your expertise to guide customers.

• You can follow-up and close the loop.

Toporek explains the concept of closing the loop at 17:54.

What is the difference between proactive and reactive service?

Proactive service means doing things to anticipate problems and avoid them, something Toporek calls "forward resolving." Reactive service involves reacting to a customer's request.

I love M&M's candy. Here are two experiences that illustrate the differences between proactive and reactive service.

The first one happened in a candy shop. The cashier noticed I was looking at M&M's and proactively mentioned that the store had just stocked some new flavors. "I like the jalapeno M&M's," he said. "They're a lot better than you think."

He was right. They were delicious. That cashier was a hero.

A few weeks later I was in my local drug store searching for more jalapeno M&M's. There was a candy display right in front of the cash register that looked pretty bare. The cashier saw me searching but said nothing until I went to the counter and asked if the store had any jalapeno M&M's. 

He reacted by bringing me the last bag the store had in stock, which for some reason had been put behind the counter. I never would have gotten what I came in for if I hadn't asked.

Go to the 5:30 mark to hear Toporek talk about proactive service.

Why are high-intensity experiences so critical?

Toporek spent some time in the interview talking about the importance of being a customer hero during high-intensity experiences.

These are situations when emotions are running high.

People remember experiences based on the intensity of the memory. That makes high-intensity experiences extremely memorable, whether it's good or bad.

Leaving an iPad in an airport restaurant is a great example. I had no idea that I had left my iPad behind until I saw the server running toward me with it. As soon as I saw her, I instantly understood what had happened and felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

Relief is the most important emotion in high-intensity situations.

The challenge with high-intensity situations is many of us don’t encounter many. And when they do happen, we might be so caught up in routine or policy that we miss the opportunity to come to someone's aid.

Go to the 8:42 mark to listen to Toporek explain high-intensity situations.

How can employees be heroes when they aren't empowered?

Employees definitely face a lot of barriers when serving customers.

They might lack resources and training, or have incentives that encourage them to work against a customer's best interests. But Toporek suggests employees can still be attentive.

"A lot of being the hero is personal accountability and personal awareness," says Toporek. "You can always do that."

According to Toporek, being attentive frequently uncovers opportunities to serve that might otherwise be missed. "Do as much as you can, up to your level of empowerment."

I can relate. The cashier who pointed out the jalapeno M&M's was attentive. He did something simple to create a better experience for me just by paying attention.

Hear Toporek discuss some solutions at the 11:53 mark.

Additional Resources

Be Your Customer’s Hero is on my recommended reading list, and I encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself and your team.

Toporek is also an outstanding keynote speaker, and I frequently recommend him to clients when I'm already booked on the date of their event or they want another customer experience speaker for their next event.

Finally, check out Toporek's outstanding Crack the Customer Code podcast that he co-hosts with Jeannie Walters. It’s the podcast that got me to listen to podcasts.

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Four ways to create an effortless customer service experience

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The research started as a quest to discover the most effective ways to delight customers. It soon took an unexpected turn. 

Matt Dixon and his colleagues found that delighting customers didn't pay.

According to Dixon, "Those customers who are surprised, delighted, and wowed are actually no more loyal than those customers whose expectations are simply met."

They did find one thing that creates more loyalty: reducing customer effort.

Dixon co-authored a book called The Effortless Experience that details this research and shares practical ways companies can make it easier for customers to do business with them.

In our interview, Dixon shares four ways companies can reduce customer effort and improve loyalty.

Here are a few topics we discussed in our conversation:

• What is customer effort?

• Why is preventing service failures so important?

• How can companies reduce customer effort?

You can watch the full interview, or continue reading to see some of the highlights.

What is customer effort?

Dixon describes customer effort as making customers jump through hoops, and gave several common examples:

• Making a customer call multiple times to get their problem fixed. 

• Confusing or broken self-service options.

• Forcing customers to switch communication channels to get help.

• Transferring customers from one department to the next.

• Making customers repeat information, such as account numbers.

The difference between a high and low effort experience can be dramatic. For example, updating an expired credit used for automatic payments ranged from effortless to an epic hassle.

Why is it so important to prevent service failures?

"On average, most service interactions don't create loyalty at all," said Dixon. "They create disloyalty."

Think about the service stories people tell you. They are overwhelmingly negative. It's those bad experiences that stick in our memories.

Dixon explained that companies can improve loyalty just by meeting expectations. "There's a lot of good that we as companies can do by simply delivering the basics, simply delivering what the customer expects, and doing it in a consistent and predictable way."

In other words, be easy to do business with and customers will spend less time thinking about your competitors.

Four Ways to Reduce Customer Effort

One of the things I really like about The Effortless Experience is it has so many practical exercises you can use to reduce or eliminate customer effort.

Dixon highlighted four examples in our conversation.

Write self-service articles in plain language

Many self-service articles are poorly written or contain excessive industry jargon that make them difficult for customers to read and understand.

Improving these articles can quickly reduce customer effort. Dixon shared an example from the travel website, Travelocity. 

Customer service reps were getting frequent calls about issues that were easily resolved via self-service articles. Those calls decreased dramatically when the articles were re-written using clearer language.

Go to the 8:00 minute mark in the interview for the full explanation.

Customer service writing expert, Leslie O'Flahavan, suggests getting input from frontline employees to identify troublesome self-service articles. According to O'Flahavan, "Frontline support agents know what customers have already tried to understand on their own."

O'Flahavan's LinkedIn Learning course, Writing in Plain Language, has a lot of terrific tips and suggestions for improving the clarity of your writing.

Avoid the next issue

Try to help customers avoid having to contact your company multiple times.

Dixon gave an example of a wireless phone service provider that created a special $39.99 per month offer for new customers. The company got a lot of angry calls from customers who received their first bill and it was much more than $39.99.

This was explained to customers when they first signed up for service, but the bill didn't come for six weeks and many customers forgot.

A brainstorming exercise with frontline reps revealed a simple solution.

The team decided to send customers an email shortly before the first bill came out. The email clearly explained everything that went into the bill such as one-time set-up fees and required taxes. This simple email dramatically reduced the amount of calls from angry customers who were surprised by their first bill.

You can do the same exercise with your team.

Dixon suggests asking your team to imagine they had an extra 30 seconds to help each customer. What would could they do to help customers avoid future issues?

Go to the 9:13 minute mark in the interview to see Dixon's explanation.

Engineer a better experience

The way we present information to customers can make it more palatable.

Dixon gave an example of a customer trying to book a last minute flight for an important business meeting. The customer wants to use airline miles to travel on a Monday, but the flight is sold out. 

Just saying, "Sorry, that flight is sold out," could be a major disappointment.

A better strategy would be to engage the customer in what Dixon calls "purposeful small talk." This involves asking questions to better understand the customer's situation.

For example, you might discover the customer's meeting is on Tuesday. The Monday flight is sold out, but there are still seats available on Sunday and the customer has enough points to book a hotel in addition to the flight. 

Suggesting the Sunday flight as an alternative might turn an unpleasant idea (missing the meeting), into the positive experience of spending an extra day in a new city.

Go to 12:51 in the interview for more ideas on experience engineering.

Give the frontlines control

Employees must be empowered to deliver a low effort experience.

"Low effort really begins at home," says Dixon. "It starts with understanding what are the things we do today to make life difficult for our representatives."

One exercise that can help you identify this issue is to meet with your team and brainstorm a list of situations where employees frequently have to say "No" to customers.

You can use that list to identify several solutions:

• Policies that need to be changed or made more flexible.

• Resources that can help employees provide better service.

• Alternative solutions that can make the customer happy.

I've run this exercise myself, and it's both a fun and eye-opening experience that frequently reveals immediate opportunities for improvement.

Check out these employee empowerment resources to learn more, or go to the 18:08 minute mark in the interview to hear Dixon's explanation.

Additional Resources

The Effortless Experience is a highly recommended book that's full of practical advice and hands-on activities.

You can also find Dixon on LinkedIn, or check out the work he is doing at Tethr. The company provides a machine learning platform to identify customer effort in customer service calls without using a survey.

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How to Create an Amazing Customer Experience

Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

What do you experience when you encounter a brand for the first time?

According to New York Times bestselling author, Shep Hyken, new customers experience uncertainty. They don't know exactly what to expect from a company or its products. 

Even if that company has a reputation, customers don't know that their experience will match what they've heard.

In the new edition of his book, The Cult of the Customer, Hyken explains how to move customers from the "Cult of Uncertainty" to the "Cult of Amazement."

Hyken and I discussed a few of the key concepts from the book in this lively interview:

• Why "cult" is not a dirty word.

• How every customer starts in the "Cult of Uncertainty."

• Why you need a customer service vision.

• Hyken's unique and practical definition of customer amazement.

• Why leaders need to focus on the details to get amazing results.

You can watch the full interview or scroll down for some highlights.

Why "cult" is not a dirty word

Some people are scared off by the word, cult. Hyken shared an amusing story in our interview (go to minute 1:03) about a customer who so misunderstood the meaning that he refused to take Hyken’s call.

Hyken shared a little history to help explain that cult is not a dirty word.

It comes from the Latin word, cultus, which has several meanings including tilling, adoration, and care. Culture and cultivate both come from this same root word!

While some people associate "cult" with a fanatical religious movement, Hyken uses a broader definition that's much more positive.

Cult: Like-minded people with like-minded beliefs, that are heading in the same direction.

That's not necessarily a bad thing!

You might even belong to a cult and not think of it that way. If you have a group of friends you get together with each Sunday to watch the game, you have a cult! Or if you have a group of coworkers who are passionate about a particular project, then guess what? Cult.

How every customer starts in the "Cult of Uncertainty"

People are not sure what to expect from your company at first.

They might have gotten an impression from your advertising, product packaging, or from talking to an employee. But they won’t know for sure until they've experienced your products or services. 

Unfortunately, many companies keep their customers in a perpetual cult of uncertainty.

A customer might see an ad promising a great product, and then experience something entirely different. Or they might have wildly inconsistent experiences from one time to the next.

Great companies offer a consistent experience that customers can count on.

Why you need a customer service vision

Regular readers will notice I refer to the term "customer service vision" a lot. It's a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.

When I wrote The Service Culture Handbook, I discovered that having a vision is the cornerstone of a customer-focused culture.

Hyken has a different term, but it means the same thing. He calls it a "customer service mantra." It's a simple statement, preferably one sentence, that clearly defines outstanding service or an outstanding experience.

He shares a great example about The Ritz-Carlton’s mantra at the 6:00 minute mark in the interview.

Creating a vision is the first step to moving customers past the Cult of Uncertainty. (Note: you can create your own with this step-by-step guide.)

There are five customer cults, or phases, that customers can go through. Here's a summary of the five phases that Hyken describes in his book:

1. Uncertainty: you're not sure what will happen.

2. Alignment: you understand the mantra, and you're interested.

3. Experience: you have a good experience that matches the mantra.

4. Ownership: you've had more good experiences and you like the company.

5. Amazing: you've had so many good experiences you tell others.

What is an amazing customer experience?

Hyken has a great definition that he shares in the interview: "Amazement is above average, but it's above average all of the time." 

Many companies shoot for the over-the-top, wow experience, but there's a big problem. We just don't have an opportunity to wow a customer very often.

For instance, a client of mine recently told me about an employee saving a customer's dog from a burning building. Now that's a memorable experience! 

So how do you recreate that? 

Unless you work for the fire department, you can't realistically expect all of your customers to have dogs in burning buildings that need saving. And an individual customer is unlikely to have their dog stuck in a burning building a second time. These opportunities don’t happen often!

What you can do is provide a consistently above average experience. That means working hard to ensure there are no service failures. It also entails doing things just a little better than your competition.

Why amazing leaders need to focus on the details

Hyken tells a great story in the interview about a detail-oriented executive (go to minute 17:33).

The executive was touring the gas station where Hyken worked while he was in college. While on the tour, the executive noticed a sign with a slightly jagged edge. He made a note of it, so the sign could be fixed.

When Hyken asked why the executive was concerned with that detail, he explained that he was worried a customer might catch their coat on the sign while walking by. He didn't want to damage customers' clothing.

Hyken took that lesson to heart. By paying attention to those small details, the executive set the expectation that details mattered. It encouraged others to do the same.

Learn more from Shep Hyken

Hyken is one of my favorite customer service keynote speakers. He routinely publishes great content on his blog and his Amazing Business Radio podcast.

In addition to The Cult of the Customer, he's the author of several other books I highly recommend:

• The Convenience Revolution (see our exclusive interview)

• Be Amazing or Go Home

• Amaze Every Customer Every Time

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How do you get your employees to take ownership?

Advertising disclosure: This blog participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

We've all received customer service from an employee who doesn't care.

They are content to do the minimum. They don't seem invested or happy to be there. Anything outside a routine transaction is met with indifference, and they certainly don’t make an effort to solve problems.

If you're a customer service leader, these employees are frustrating.

I recently spoke with Randi Busse, a customer service speaker and trainer, and co-author of Turning Rants Into Raves. Busse has some fantastic advice for getting employees to take ownership.

Here are just a few topics we covered:

• The difference between Rant and Rave employees

• How to hire employees who will take ownership

• What can you do about employees who don't take ownership

• How leaders can encourage more ownership

• The critical importance of empowerment

• How to encourage a culture of ownership

Watch the full interview here or scroll below to read the highlights.

In this interview with customer service expert Randi Busse, we discuss how to get customer service employees to take ownership.

Who are Rant and Rave?

These are personas of employees who work in every organization

• Rant is the employee who is just there for a paycheck.

• Rave is happy to be there, is engaged, and thinks like an owner of the business.

Busse brings life-sized posters of Rant and Rave with her to speaking engagements, which is a fun visual. She showed a miniature version of the two characters during our conversation.

Do we hire Rants and Raves, or do we create them?

It's both.

According to Busse, some employees show up as Rave at an interview. They give all the right answers, and you get a good vibe from them. Then later on they turn into Rant.

It could be that they were always a Rant, and just put on a good show in the interview. (Note: If this happens to you, there's a good chance your hiring process is broken. Check out these hiring resources to help you hire more Raves.)

Or it could be that they were created by leaders who create an environment that doesn't inspire them to do good work.

"The good new is," says Busse, "that no matter how a Rant is created, 9.5 times out of 10, we can convert that Rant into a Rave."

What can you do if you have Rants on your team?

Busse suggests leaders need to start by looking at themselves in the mirror.

"A leader is sometimes Rant. And if the leader is Rant, it goes without saying that the employees are going to be Rants also."

Examples include treating employees poorly or getting upset and talking down to employees. Employees will also observe your interactions with customers. If you act like a Rant when serving a customers, employees will pick that up.

Many managers don't realize they are accidentally training their employees to say the wrong thing to customers.

What else can leaders do to encourage Raves?

"Acknowledging Rave behavior is really important," says Busse. "I'm a fan of giving positive, specific feedback."

Busse encourages leaders to point out exactly what an employee did well, so they know they're on the right track and are likely to do that again in the future.

For example, if an employee does a great job serving an upset customer, you might pull them aside and commend them for keeping their cool and still smiling when the customer was being unreasonable. This sends a message to the employee that they did the right thing and their work is valued.

Busse also reminds us that it's important to hold people accountable for exhibiting Rant-live behaviors. 

"Unfortunately," says Busse, "I don't see that happening as often as it should in businesses." Tolerating behaviors like coming in late, being rude to customers, and not trying hard sends the message to that employee and others that being a Rant is okay.

How do leaders balance accountability and being a Rave?

"We need to trust our employees, and then we need to empower them to make decisions as if they were the owner of the company," says Busse.

Empowerment starts by being really clear about what you want employees to do. One way to do that is by creating a customer service vision.

Some leaders assume that great customer service is just a matter of common sense, without realizing that customer service expectations can vary from company to company. And in some cases, that employee never had a mentor to show them the right way to do things.

Get more ideas for empowerment from the related article, how to empower customer service employees.

Additional Resources

Here are some additional resources to help you.

• Busse shares her phone number in the video so you can contact her for help.

• You can learn more from Busse's book, Turning Rants into Raves.

• Get more ideas and resources from Busse's website.

Finally, you can learn more about taking ownership from this training video.

Taking ownership of problems from Customer Service Foundations by Madecraft and Jeff Toister

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Jeanne Bliss: How to Get Your CEO to Care About Customer Experience

Advertising disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

It's probably the number one question I get in presentations.

Someone will invariably ask, "How do I get my CEO to care about customer experience?" The person will go on to explain their CEO, or other executives, just care about the numbers.

I've struggled to provide a good answer to help get buy-in for customer experience (CX) when it’s not already obvious.

So I turned to CX pioneer and bestselling author, Jeanne Bliss, for some advice. Bliss shared some wonderfully practical tips in our interview and I'm really fired up to share it!

CX Pioneer and bestselling author, Jeanne Bliss. (Photo courtesy of Customer Bliss.)

Here are just a few topics we covered:

• What metrics does your CEO truly care about?

• Why are we losing customers?

• What should be included in an executive dashboard?

• How can silos obscure CX problems?

• What is leadership bravery, and why do we need it?

You can watch the full, 22 minute interview or just skim the highlights below.

What metrics do executives care about?

You ultimately need to tie CX to the company's financials. Unfortunately, many common CX metrics fall short.

For example, a transactional survey score might tell you if customers were generally happy when they visited your store, called customer service, or tried out your latest product. But there's no direct connection to revenue.

Bliss recommends getting your CFO to help you answer the following questions:

• What's the volume and expected value of customers we gained?

• What’s the volume and expected value of customers we lost?

• What's the net change in customer value?

It's important to gain consensus from the rest of the executive team on how new and lost customer numbers are calculated, along with their relative value.

You can then boil down the numbers to a metric your CEO will likely care about: net customer growth. 

Bliss shared an example from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In the past, a St. Jude leader might organize a fun run event to raise money, and report the percentage increase in participants. Now the organization reports the net increase in number of donors, and tracks what activities brought more donors in.

Bliss recommends reporting customer growth data in numbers of customers and expected dollar value, rather than just percentages. She suggests that a percentage can be too abstract to demonstrate a clear financial impact.

Calculating this number is the first step. Attaching it to a clear story is step two.

Why are we losing customers?

There’s a great moment in our interview where Bliss describes the utopia of a CEO pounding on the boardroom table and demanding to know why the company is losing customers.

“Why?! Why?! Why are we losing customers?!”

Finding the answer to that question requires us to reframe the stories we share to focus on your customers' goals. Focusing on your customers' goals makes it easier to draw a line of sight between net customer growth and customer experience.

Bliss shared the example of Bombardier Aerospace, which sells planes to high net worth individuals. Those buyers don’t care a lot about internally-focused data such as the sales process or how many spare parts are in stock.

Private jet customers have somewhere to go, and they need to get there fast. Bliss helped Bombardier reframe its customer stories to focus on how it would keep customers flying. That’s far more important to customers than a survey or the lead time on a needed part.

Bliss described how executive dashboards often contain red, yellow, and green dots to indicate key performance metrics that are doing well (green), in the danger zone (yellow), or failing (red). She said something that really stuck with me:

When you're measuring the wrong stuff, you're going to get a green dot for stuff that's a red dot for the customer.

Learn more from Jeanne Bliss

Did you skip all the way down here without watching the interview? Do yourself a favor and go watch the full interview here. Bliss is both insightful and entertaining.

You can see more videos from Bliss on her website, including her three principles for improving lives. I think you’ll also enjoy her description of the “find your three blocks long” concept.

Bliss has written a number of books, and I'm a big fan of Would You Do That to Your Mother? It describes how to navigate away from burning customers with "gotcha moments" to earning their loyalty through "we've got your back" moments.