Tom Feltenstein

Recently I had to call and make a payment over the phone. What should have been a quick, simple phone call required fifteen minutes. I had to press 1 for English, 3 to pay my bill, 8 for a person…and heaven forbid if I forgot to press #.  By the time the call ended I was ready to don a straight jacket and suck Jell-O through a straw. How can any company expect to retain customers when it is annoying them so much? I thought it can’t just be me; surely there are more people out there who despise automated calling systems. Apparently I’m not alone; check out this hilarious spoof on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUM0KYQrmKM&feature=related

As I sat in the Emergency Room due to the carpal tunnel injury I suffered from pressing #,*, and every other combination of numbers, it again confirmed to me how important personal contact and quality customer service truly is. To quote Barbara Streisand, “People need people.” Bring back the human touch, please!

Most automated call systems originated out of the company’s need to cut costs.  However, it has grown into a convenient excuse for some companies not to offer actual service that is easy and efficient for customers. The frustration consumers experience as a result of automated menus reflects a broad and unsettling shift in the service industry mindset.  The core focus has shifted from being customer-centered – that is, striving to offer an extraordinary customer experience – to being self-centered.  In this new reality, the company chooses to save costs rather than explore more efficient methods of operating and delivering customer needs, and as a result the customer experience is marginalized.

Where does your company fit in this new paradigm?  When you make choices, do you think of the impact upon your customers first?  We all know that without customers our phones don’t ring.  One encounter with a frustrating phone menu reminds us that we need to be constantly vigilant in serving our customers to engage customer loyalty.

I’d like to learn from you.  What are some of your most frustrating or most memorable encounters with automated call systems?

Every time a customer has a bad experience with your business, they’re going to tell at least 10 people. Now add Facebook and Twitter to the mix, and those 10 people just turned into hundreds or thousands.

Social media is word of mouth on steroids — and it can kill your business. This new medium of exposure is here to stay, so why not use it to your best advantage and give your customers something good to talk about. Great customer service is one of the single most important aspects of a successful business.

Below are my Three Quick Tips to improve your customer service:

1.) Have a good attitude. If you don’t like what you do then it is going to show not only to your customers, but to your employees as well. So if you hate the hamburger business, sell your restaurant and do something else.

2.) Build relationships, not just sales. Making a connection with your customers is crucial to your success. People do business with people they like, so call your customers by name, take the time to learn about what they like, and show them that you value them as a person.   When I owned a chain of restaurants, I used to tell my employees: “You only need to remember two things about a customer: their name and one other thing about them.”

3.) Take action. Sweep your floors, keep your restrooms clean, and handle customer complaints. Being proactive gives you credibility and earns the trust of your customers. People are willing to pay for security, integrity, and proper treatment, but they shouldn’t have to. These should all be automatic. Make sure you give your customer the best experience possible. Don’t just meet their expectations, exceed them!

How do you provide extraordinary customer service?

We’ve been bombarded with public relations nightmares recently. From the Gulf Oil Spill to Toyota, to the McDonald’s recall of tainted Shrek glasses, we can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen next. A veteran of the McDonald’s team, I’m impressed at the quick action the company took to remedy the problem. McDonalds’s took care of business pretty darn quick by announcing a voluntary recall of $15 million dollars worth of Shrek glasses when, from a regulatory perspective, the glasses weren’t really toxic to kids. But they know the power of perception and they did not want to lose the trust of their customers. To read more about McDonald’s recall, click: The brilliant lessons from McDonald’s recall.

McDonalds issued the recall as a precautionary measure out of concern for its customers’ health and didn’t allow the crisis to take control — unlike British Petroleum’s fiasco in the Gulf. If we’ve learned anything from BP and Toyota, it’s that allowing negative public opinion to stick to a company is the road to certain death. Granted, these are all vastly different incidents, but the underlying message is the same – take quick action, make smart decisions, and accept responsibility.  As business owners our customers’ trust is paramount if we want to keep them. The most important aspect of business is to adhere to the 10 Commandments of Customer Service, the first of which is “honor thy customer.”  How have you managed crises in your business?

No matter what business you’re in, your employees are a vital part of your organization and it is important to recognize and reward them for their hard work – but it has to be done right. You may have seen or even been a part of marketing programs in the past that were little more than popularity contests. Not only does this type of program not work, it can be very divisive and counterproductive.  It is important to recognize employees based on those criteria that are the underlying backbone of your business. This might include attitude, exceptional customer service or even teamwork. The whole idea is improve employee retention and at the same time encourage them to increase their skill set.

I recommend that you do something monthly so the idea is ever present and something employees want to strive for and achieve. The prizes you offer might be movie or sporting event tickets. Or perhaps you give them a specific management perk like an executive parking spot. This may not sound like much, but not having to hike across the frozen tundra of a huge parking lot to get to work lets your valuable employees how much you appreciate them.

The bottom line is that you are thanking your employees for their commitment to the success of the business. It is not really about the prize, but more about the fact that you recognize their contribution and want them to keep striving to improve. It is amazing, but true, that employees will work longer hours for much less pay at a job where they know they are appreciated and recognized. When you look at how much turnover costs when you have an employee quit, then you realize how much profit a good employee recognition program will bring.

What do you do to retain your best employees?

Awesome hospitality is an experience that is random, unexpected, and out of proportion to the circumstances.

It creates positive & compelling word-of-mouth endorsements.  As a result, when your employees deliver exceptional customer service you’ll entice droves of new customers who are eager to experience extraordinary hospitality for themselves.

A friend of mine tells a story about his experience while shopping at a Nordstrom store in Seattle. He was about to try on a shirt, when he received an urgent call from his wife about a plumbing emergency at home.  He quickly purchased the shirt, confident that the size he had chosen would fit, and hurried home to attend to the plumbing problem.

Much to his chagrin, my friend discovered that the shirt he’d selected was too small.  He described the shirt to the clerk who answered the phone and asked if they had an XL in stock.

“Yes, I do Mr. Levin.  If you’d like, I can bring it by the office.”

Lo and behold, the clerk brought the shirt to the office, and it was a perfect fit!

My friend never tires of telling the story of his world-class customer service experience at Nordstrom.

Share Your Awesome Hospitality Stories and Your Customer Service Nightmares

Do you have an awesome hospitality story to share?  Did an employee of yours go beyond the call of duty to dazzle one of your customers?  Have you received out-of-this-world customer service that you’ve described to your friends repeatedly?  How about an horrific experience that turned your store visit into a nightmare.

Tell us your story – the good or the bad – and we’ll send you a gift (a surprise that I promise you’ll enjoy).