Are Your Service Staff Destroying Your Productivity?

If you are work for a company, any company, you know how difficult handling clients, with a problem you have the ability to sort out effectively, can get. Remember the last time you were dealing with a frustrated unhappy client. You were squirming, frustrated, nothing you said helped, the crazy personalities made you want to scream. You could feel your energy and creativity draining out the door.

When a client has interaction with your company, how are people in key positions representing your company?

The combination of an excellent attitude, focused motivation and action are essential when dealing with customers. 

We know that Service contacts are one of the critical leverage points for creating Magic Moments in your organization. What if handling your clients’ problem actually contributed to productivity and teamwork?

They can!!

You need to offer a Service where:

1. The objective of the call is dealt with effectively... and is sorted out every time, on time.

   Success is often defined due to an individual being at the right place at the right time. This is not true for a service orientated person. True Service success lies in you being the right person all the time.

2. The attitude of the team keeps the team moving forward. All the team members need to be willing to serve. The theme of servant hood is far more powerful when one understands the reason for serving. A king only looks good when he is surrounded by awesome servants. A servant chooses to be there, while a slave has to be there. Choose to serve with an upbeat attitude and a smile on your face.

   Good, better, best, never let it rest, till the good gets better and the better is the best.

3. You fulfill service within SLA times

The time spent doing what you do needs to be streamlined, and process needs to be defined. If you do not know the ins and the outs of the SLA then you are wasting your time. Explain this to your customer if necessary and ensure that they are aware of what is in the SLA .

Make it your business not only to know your business, but also to get an understanding of what you are empowering your customers to do. Remember you are impacting your customer’s customer by providing a service that allows them in turn to provide a service, especially within the Service management environment.

4. Everyone becomes proactive and willing to help.

   When last have you approached your leadership team / leader with a new idea? 1982?

   You may protest at this point and tell me that you have tried and they shot your idea down, which is something that leaders may do from time to time, especially if the idea is a new one that has never been tried before.

If this has been the response then you need to:

v  Get your ideas on paper and share them and allow them to grow within the team

v  Get passion for your ideas – If you give up at the first sign of resistance to new ideas, then your passion for the proposed change you wish to see is not that high and this idea won’t get much momentum. Remember the Law – Motion causes friction.

5.   Difficult and rude customers and are effectively dealt with and won over.

If you let the unhappy or even abusive customer know that you are happy they got hold of you and that you are the right person for the job, they always tend to respond with an apology, and tend to want to always deal with you specifically. The magic words I have always taught people to say are as follows: “ Mr. Jennings, I have written this all down and I am so glad you got hold of me, (Showing that you have truly listened), because now we can finally sort this problem out.

Nine times out of ten you will get an apology for the abuse and for the one customer you don’t get the apology from you will most definitely get agreement to sort the problem out.

6.   Action plans and commitments are agreed upon before ending the call

Andrew Carnegie once said, “I have stopped many years ago listening to what people say they are going to do and have simply started watching what they do, and that has made all the difference.”

If you say you are going to do something then get the customers agreement and do what you said you would do. It really will surprise you to know that this would be a rare event in the life of the customer you are dealing with.

Many say they will, but saying is simply not enough.  "If this were the norm for every service agent in your company, how much more productive could your people be?"

So, Does this really work?

I have written this and you are reading this because you deal with customers on a daily basis.

Service Excellence is so simple to achieve if people understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Service excellence is about being there for a client or customer when they need you, no matter the situation.

Service Excellence is displayed by showing the correct level of competence and making your customer feel totally comfortable with the interaction with the person providing the service.

Unless you clearly communicate with clients and win them over to your company for keeps, by giving them the best service their money could buy, they could perhaps start buying elsewhere! Become the best servant and remember you are the best representation of your business. You are the business.

Contact me at nick [at] kwadonata [dot] co [dot] za for more information regarding the above subject.