SENDING SIGNALS!

Showing posts with label empathy for your audience. Show all posts

Saturday, September 15, 2012

JUST ANSWER - Personalized Customer Service [The Finest Example Of 'Customer-Centric' Service]

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CUSTOMER SERVICE REQUIRES DIALOG

After exhausting all of the possible combinations of search terms I could think of to "ask" Google and other search engines, I had become desperate to simply have my specific question answered. I was having a problem with my computer printer (an HP dinosaur), and I simply wanted someone to guide me through the process of fixing it. Sadly, the search engines merely provide information, but they don't provided a conversational forum wherein you can have an expert navigate you through a repair or installation process step by step.

I actually needed to have a conversation with another Human Being who could help me personally, and who could tell me if was doing things properly or merely compounding my problem and further corrupting my computer programming to the extent that it would either a) burst into flames, or b) stop operating, and exhibit the dreaded BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH ("BSOG," to those who have seen this hopeless, horrifying, inaccessible screen on their own computers).

I felt a bit like the inexperienced idiot-passenger on the airplane whose pilot and co-pilot have been knocked out by now-subdued terrorists, and who has to land (why me?) the airplane while receiving instructions from the tower...with the cold terror enhanced by the fuel gauge getting close to empty and the vessel rapidly losing altitude. I needed constant conversation -- instructions, feedback, empathy and encouragement -- from an experienced and articulate expert in the tower. I think that we've all seen a movie with this scenario written into the script.

Through the course of my five full hours of wandering through the one-sided automated Boolean desert of non-answers and insanely complex answers (usually with some Greek letters and equations thrown in to supplement the obscure jargon) written by high-tech experts for their brethren in advanced geekdom, I stumbled across a magic box just like the little box which appears below:

I wept with tears of joy, diluting my cup of coffee and shorting out my cellular telephone which had been programmed for speed dial to the Suicide Hotline for situations precisely like this one. Fortunately, I didn't need the coffee or the Hotline.

My technical issue was "Printers," and the little box actually opened up to a screen where I was given a choice of experts on duty, each with his or her customer satisfaction ratings, number of clients serviced (and a mini-biography) displayed. The expert whom I selected was Bernie K. At a cost of about $29.00 (which, by the way does not get paid to this company until you state (in another little box on another screen at the end of the process) that you are fully-satisfied with the answer which you received. Interestingly, the company offered me the ongoing option, throughout the session of switching experts if my selected expert and I were incompatible).

I took almost an hour of poor Bernie's precious time -- in retrospect, I was a tough case and I needed a great deal of repetition to fully understand what to do, as well as constant feedback and encouragement.

When my session was over and my computer printer was functioning, I was overjoyed. I have used this service repeatedly for other issues. Prices vary, but they are generally quite low, depending upon the complexity of your issue and the rating of the expert you choose to have work with you.

My experience was a case study in customer satisfaction, and Customer Experience Management. Here's why I chose to discuss it in this article in The Sending Signals Blog:

1) The service was focused entirely on me and my particular problem;

2) The expert provided comfort and reassurance as well as detailed instructions;

3) I felt a sense of communion with another Human Being -- this is a heck of a lot better than those "press '4' if you call if you wish to pay an outstanding bill..." numerical routing barriers to Human Contact which we are all too often faced with in dealing with large companies and utilities. There is nothing you can do if there is not a specific item on their routing menu that does not address your specific issue; if you are fortunate, there may be an option to speak with a customer representative during certain hours and usually after an indeterminate waiting period.

Note: The wonderful thing about a one-on-one interpersonal dialog with another Human Being is that answers can be crafted to suit your specific questions... instead of searching through endless lists of FAQs, other peoples' question threads, or limited menu options by the number.

Customer-Centric Service is the distillation of everything a customer service manager or service executive needs to know. This broad term [which I rather like] incorporates, subsumes and symbolizes:

Focusing on the customer as an individual Human Being;
Working to eliminate the customer's frustration, pain, discomfort or lack of hope;
Being patient, holding your temper, and addressing each issue raised by the customer;
Engaging with the customer in useful and positive feedback;
Being responsive and truly involved;
Being empathetic and concerned;
Continuously asking the customer if your efforts are helping him or her, knowing that you may have to adjust your course or tactics accordingly.

Customer service, at its very finest, involves truly understanding the customer's needs (and not merely guessing, or over-simplifying to suit your own agenda) through the careful observation and interpretation of signals (regardless of how subtle) being sent, and through constantly asking if you have truly satisfied that customer's needs.

Douglas E. Castle for The Sending Signals Blog and The Daily Burst Of Brilliance Blog

Monday, October 10, 2011

3 Steps To Effective Communication

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When you are going to express yourself to a third party, bear in mind the context in which the recipient will be hearing it. Communication involves a combination of the message that the speaker wishes to convey and the mindset (i.e., sensitivities) of the listener. If you do not stop to analyze the psychological territory before you speak words which cannot be unspoken, you may be worse than misunderstood -- you might be downright offensive. This is especially true if you tend to speak in cliches; these may seem like simple shortcuts to expressing yourself, but most of them carry a certain weight of connotation.

The three steps summarized:

1) Listen;

2) Think about what you'd like to say, and how it might sound (and feel) to recipient;

3) Speak.

These steps are crucial in any management or function or business environment.

Abraham Lincoln once said (I wasn't there on that particular day, so I'm paraphrasing the Great Man based upon anecdotal attribution [now is the time for Dictionary.Com]:

"It is far better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and eliminate all doubt."

A great example was delivered to me earlier today.

A fellow who had owned a business which was an abysmal failure, a fellow who couldn't manage either personnel or technology, a fellow who was dependent upon his former colleagues (all of whom were quite loyal to him despite the hard work and lack of adequate compensation) not only to do everything for him, but to constantly reassure him that he was worthy of a position with the firm he founded, said something to me, quite casually.

Bear in mind that his these people worked with great dedication and with great hopes for this 'gentleman' (despite his less than adequate planning, communications, leadership or basic business management skills). They had, to my view, carried him, and tried to accomplish things while he himself stood in the way, not unlike a child abandoned by its mother at a construction site where workers who were trying to operate heavy equipment had to keep an eye out to 'look after the little tike'.

He has now found a newer, simpler business venture (after exhausting all energy and hope of the earlier one succeeding), and is proceeding enthusiastically forward, without having adequately either thanked or settled with those who served him. They are trying to re-establish themselves now, having lost a great deal of time with no reward.

Two of these people are friends of mine, and I (admittedly) tend to be protective of them. I saw, first hand, what they went through to keep this young man's dreams afloat. Importantly, they were very sensitive to his feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, and tried to help him to help himself -- often despite himself.

He recently said, after boasting about winning his first client engagement in this new venture, "I don't know what to do about the 'old company'. There's so much dead weight there. I've got these shareholders, and they're not doing anything for me." Then he proceeded to deride the people who had supported him, to my great offense.

Wanting to express this hurt to him, I pointed out (quite in violation of the 3 steps outlined above -- I'm an occasional hypocrite), that the company's only 'dead weight' had been him, and that these unappreciated, unsung and largely unpaid heroes had carried him for several years. Ironically, but somehow consistently, he didn't apologize for his transgression at all. He was just bothered that he had to deal with the complexity of other human beings whom he had impressed into service, but who not of use to him now.

He might have been better served by observing the 3 steps, above, and saying instead, "I wish I knew what to do about the shareholders in the old company to set things right. Could you help me to figure something out?" But he hadn't been astute enough to frame his concerns as a compassionate-sounding question.

In communications, as in all Human Affairs, if you don't fully trust your own discretion, try to abide by some simple rules, or to follow some simple steps in a protocol.

This fellow lost a great deal of my respect today. His words, spoken about others, showed me some aspects of his character, i.e., selfishness, carelessness and short-sightedness, that made me wonder why these 'others' had put up with him -- had carried him -- for so long.

Use care in communicating, both verbally, and non-verbally. Your signals can win you some new friends, or make you some new enemies. In this case, his offhanded comment spoke volumes to me (a cliche....sorry) about why we should part company.

I learned some disappointing things about a person whom I had previously considered to be a friend because of both 1) what he said (content) about some third parties, and 2) the callous manner in which he said it to me (delivery).

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

If you have an interesting or important point of view regarding any aspect of communications -- we are absolutely to open to any topic relating to interpersonal or organizational communications, public speaking, the art of persuasion, better writing, or even such wondrous things such as subliminal and hypnotic messaging, multi-sensory communications, intuition, instinct, extrasensory perception (ESP) or the fast-evolving notion of the Collective Intelligence, SHARE if you CARE. You might just want to write for The Sending Signals Blog as a guest columnist! If you have something important to say, let it be said HERE where it will be read, and where you'll receive the attention and audience which you deserve.