Four bizarre reasons customers may not like you

Fair or not, we’re often judged on first impressions. This harsh reality is nowhere better seen than in today’s ultra-fast business world where customers size you up in a second based on your personal image. Since their impression of you will determine whether or not they want to do business with you, the impact on your career and on your organization’s bottom line can be staggering.

Ironically, when corporations ask me to speak, I often find that there’s been little or no professional training for employees about personal image. Since it’s often awkward to confront employees on these sensitive issues, you need some ammunition to make the task easier. Here are four image-related reasons that customers may not like you or your employees.

1. You look different than expected.

Customers prefer conducting business with individuals who meet their visual expectations, so dress in a manner that customers expect. A plumber dressed in an Armani suit makes the client uncomfortable. An alderman in khaki shorts would shock the council members of city hall.

“But that’s not fair” say employees, at the thought of being told what to wear – but they are the realities of the business world. You hire employees to take care of customers – not for the sake of expressing their sartorial individuality. Your job as a business owner or manager is to create an environment, including a staff wardrobe, where your customers feel comfortable.

The most effective way to convey this message to employees is to have a written dress code. When writing your code, check with an attorney for the laws that apply in your jurisdiction. The great thing about a dress code is that it often weeds out applicants who wouldn’t feel comfortable in that environment.

2. You’re hard to understand.

Customers don’t want to strain themselves to understand front-line staff. If you or other employees don’t speak the local language clearly, then customers will generally go to your competitors. This is doubly important when speaking on the telephone, where customers don’t have the benefit of non-verbal communication to help them interpret what’s being said.

This concept has nothing to do with discrimination based on ethnic differences or nationality. It has to do with basic communication skills that are essential to do the job. If it’s a question of improving your knowledge of the local language, then take courses until you’re fluent and easy to understand.

3. You exaggerate.

Don’t exaggerate to tell customers what they want to hear. If a task will take 15 minutes to complete, don’t say, “It’ll only be 5 or ten minutes.” This is called lying. Customers hate that. Organizations that stay in business over the long term adhere to the concept “under-promise and over-deliver.

4. You’re indiscreet.

‘Indiscreet’ describes the cashier at a self-serve gas station who chatted with his friends while I entered to pay. He barely stopped his conversation with his buddies to take my money. I felt like I was crashing a private party. I never went back.

A more common example is when employees converse amongst themselves in front of the customer. Numerous times I’ve been on airplanes when flight attendants, while rolling food carts down the aisles, are so engaged in their personal conversations that they barely stop long enough to take the dinner orders.

Finally, far too many employees tell customers more than they want to hear. For example, when a customer asks a front-line employee, “How are you?” they really don’t want to hear complaints. It’s just a greeting. Yet some employees use this as an excuse to complain with, “Oh, I’m 60-40,” or as a security guard once told me, “I’m vertical.” (Yikes)! Some employees respond with, “I’ll be great when my break starts.” In other words, the employee will be happy as soon as he or she can get away from their job and us – the customers.

Awareness of these problems is half the battle. A lot of employees simply don’t realize they’re committing these offenses. Another part of the solution is training. Bringing in a professional trainer to address the employees as a group provides the advantage of third-party objectivity in a fun, non-threatening manner. If you do nothing about these issues, your business will continue to suffer without anyone telling you why.

I learned a powerful lesson about selling from a 15 year old.  My wife and I had just picked up a dog from the humane society.  On the way home, we stopped at a pet store to pick up some dog food, a dish, and a leash.  I’m figuring this stop will take eight minutes. That was before we met the store’s teenaged employee, “Tina.” 

“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Tina asked.  My wife replied that we’d just picked up a dog from the SPCA and needed a few supplies.  The teenager’s response: “Really? You adopted!  That is so sweet.  You know, I’m working here because this is more than just a job to me.  I’m doing this because I love animals.  So, no matter where you buy your pet supplies from, I want to make sure that we get all of your questions answered, so that your little dog gets the best possible care.”

I glanced over at my wife and notice that she’s looking at Tina with the kind of expression that says, “You are a child of God who this world needs more of and of  course we’re going to buy all of our pet supplies here and let’s not even dicuss anything as petty as price.”
Fifty-eight minutes later, I’m pushing a cart out the door with over two hundred dollars worth of pet supplies.  The dog was only seventy five.

We get it!

That part-time teenaged employee had done something refreshingly unique and convincing.  She expressed what I call a “Grand Intention.”  She shared that she was there not simply to make a commission or sell dog food but to help people take better care of animals.  By expressing her Grand Intention, Tina demonstrated that she cared about our big picture.  In other words she proved to her customers that she gets it.  The good news is that you can have the same impact when you bring this approach to your company.

Crafting your own “Grand Intention”
I’m sure that you care about your customers.  I hope your employees do as well.  The problem is, do you consistently tell your customers that you care?  That’s why one of the goals of our Influence with Ease training sessions is to help employees to clarify their “Grand Intention.”  Usually, it involves expressing to customers that you understand not only their immediate needs but also their larger desires.  An insurance adjuster, for example, might acknowledge the pain and hassle the customer is going through to get a claim settled.  So, the adjustor might start the conversation with something like, “First of all, I want you to know that I understand what a hassle and inconvenience it is to be involved in accident.  One of my goals is to make this part of the process as easy as possible for you and to ensure that you get every penny of coverage that you are entitled to.”

The Grand Intention can be used in other non-sales-type scenarios.  An attendee of one of my training sessions, a manager of collections for a utility power company, said that he would urge his employees to use the Grand Intention for collections.  So, rather than starting a conversation with a late-paying customer with a negative like, “We need to do something about your outstanding bill,” instead, using the Grand Intention, they would begin with, “Our goal is to help you to reestablish your good credit.”

Grand Intentions also work well for enhancing trust and cooperation with internal customers.  Picture being in the Information Technology Department and receiving a call from a stressed co-worker who’s having computer problems.  Early in the conversation, you say something like, “I understand how frustrating it is when you are in the middle of dealing with a customer and the darned computer crashes.  I want to get you back up and running as fast as possible so that you can get back to those customers that pay all of our wages.”  Again the Grand Intention proves to the customer—in this case internal customer—that you get it.

Disarming the cynical customer
You’ve probably noticed that today’s consumer is better educated, streetwise, and, frankly, more cynical about other people’s motives than ever before.  Consumers seem to be taking the advice that parents give their children: “Come straight home, and don’t talk to strangers!”  Beyond telling employees to be friendly with customers, managers need to equip their staff with tools for establishing trust.  Expressing your Grand Intention is an easy way to break through the barriers.  Not a bad lesson from a 15 year old.
    

Customer service strategist and professional speaker, Jeff Mowatt is an authority on The Art of Client Service .  .  .  Influence with Ease.  For Jeff’s other tips, self-study resources, and training services on establishing trust, click Greeting Customers and Establishing Rapport.  Visit www.jeffmowatt.com or call 1.800.JMowatt

Diplomacy tips that keep customers
When corporations ask me to train their employees in order to enhance customer retention, I find one skill-set that is frequently weak—how to diplomatically give customers bad news.  Unfortunately, the task of giving bad news goes with almost every job.  You may have to inform your customers of a price increase, of a product being out of stock, or that their children aren’t allowed to use your coat rack for rappelling practice.

Employees facing these scenarios worry that customers might become defensive, offended, or, worst of all, simply take their business elsewhere.  Employees thus get stressed, absenteeism and turnover increases, and customer retention plummets.  In other words, everyone loses.  So, in our training programs we equip potential “bearers of bad news”  with valuable tools to help make the process less painful for everyone.  Here’s a sampling:

1.  Warn in advance
When you realize that you may not be able to give the customer what he is expecting, give him some advance notice.  Example: An insurance underwriter or broker calls his customer.  “George, I’ve been looking at your application and it’s not looking very promising in terms of coverage.  I’m wondering if I might have missed something . . . ”

You can even turn advance warning into a selling opportunity.  “Martin, you’re an important customer so I thought I’d better inform you about this right away.  Our energy costs have almost doubled over the past year so we’re forced to increase our prices by 10% effective July 1st.  As you order items regularly, I thought I’d better check with you to see if it would make sense to reorder now in order to save money and prevent any unpleasant last-minute surprises.”

2.  Accept responsibility
While serving as President of our professional speaking association, I received a bad news call from one of our event organizers: “Jeff, I wanted to talk to you about a situation that has just come to my attention.  I want you to know that I accept full responsibility for the foul-up.  It was a stupid mistake that I shouldn’t have made and I will do everything that needs to be done to fix the error.  What happened was . . . “  Since he was already berating himself, my response could only be magnanimous.  Accepting full responsibility, while recognizing the consequences of the error, shows that you’re prepared to “take your lumps”  like a grown-up.  People respect that.

3.  Tone it down

Literally.  Lower the tone of your voice and your rate of speaking. When people get excited or emotional about ideas, they tend to raise their voice pitch and pace.  When you’re giving bad news you want to give the impression that you are thinking clearly, logically and reasonably—not emotionally, and certainly not irrationally.  You can do this easily by slowing down the rate you’re speaking and lowering the pitch slightly.  That way, you come across as the calm, quiet voice of reason.

4.  Begin with the good news
When you have both good news and bad, start with the good.  When people hear bad news they have an internal stress reaction that causes them to tune out other information.  So, to ensure that the customer fully comprehends and appreciates the entire message, make sure you give the good news first.

5.  Express empathy
Empathy helps soften the blow.  A claims adjustor attending my seminar explained that she used to have difficulty telling clients whose vehicles had been stolen and damaged, that they still had to pay the deductible, even though they weren’t to blame.  Ironically, she’s been much better at dealing with these customers since her aunt had a similar experience with her vehicle.  Now that she shares this personal experience, her empathy shows. Sometimes misery does love company.

6.  Avoid “trigger”  words
Two words that act as hot buttons—”It’s policy.”  A better approach is to explain why a policy exists.  Compare the word choices of two driving examiners who are dealing with a beginner driver who rolls through a stop sign.  First examiner: “You’ve rolled through a stop sign and our policy is to fail anyone who doesn’t come to a complete stop.”  Second examiner: “The fact that you have rolled through a stop sign is a safety concern that we just can’t overlook.  So you didn’t qualify this time.”  Same information, but the second examiner’s word choices made her sound more reasonable.

7.  Express negatives as positives
Rather than saying, “Your order won’t be here until Tuesday,”  try “Your order will be here as soon as Tuesday.”  Same information, but wording it positively enhances customer perception.

8.  Help them find an alternative
If you’re out-of-stock when the customer’s rushed, recommend your competitor.  They’ll go there anyway.  When you help them find another supplier, the customer associates your service with solving their problem.  So, there’s a chance that they may return.  In other words, you have nothing to lose and something to gain when you recommend a competitor.  Besides, it’s the decent thing to do.

9.  Remind them of the bigger picture
Sometimes customers don’t realize that the “bad news” is in their own best interest.  In the example of children swinging on the coat rack, you might say to their parent, “You seem like a nice person and I’m sure you wouldn’t want your children to get injured.  Perhaps we can give them some paper and felt pens so they can draw while they wait.”

10.  Follow up
With some incidents, a well-timed phone call after the bad news goes a long way in proving to the customer that you’ve gone the extra mile.  “I just wanted to check with you to see how things are going with that replacement item we provided . . . “  Such follow-up raises the perceived value of your service without spending more money.
    
© This article is based on the critically acclaimed book Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month, by customer service strategist and professional speaker Jeff Mowatt. To obtain your own copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team, visit www.jeffmowatt.com or call 1.800.JMowatt (566.9288).

Let's be frank -- if you work for a company, then your primary goal is to make money.  Period.  You may have secondary goals to serve the interests of your customers, employees, and be a good corporate citizen, but your number one priority is strictly return on investment.  Profit.

When I speak at conventions and meetings on how to boost profits through customer retention, I often find that business owners and managers don't have their priorities straight.  The result is they lose customer loyalty, face increasing operating costs, scramble to replace staff turnover, and struggle just to keep up to the competition.  They may work hard and think positively, but their impact is marginal.

On the other hand, by simply realigning their priorities, managers can lead their company or department in a way that builds customer and staff loyalty, reduces operating costs, makes more money, and serves as a model corporate citizen.  You won't have to work any harder; just smarter.  To find out how, answer the following questions according to your current practices.  Then read the accompanying suggestion for the best way to optimize your time and effectiveness.

What is normally your first task of the day?
• * a) returning phone calls
• * b) administrative paperwork
• * c) work on strategic projects
• * d) dealing with customers
• * e) responding to employee requests

Your first priority of the day should be c) working on strategic projects designed to prevent problems and increase profits.  Typically however, managers put off strategic work to do other work that has a deadline.  They confuse urgency with importance.

It's always easy to put off work that's strategic in nature because the deadline is usually non-existent or not urgent, and strategic work requires something many of us prefer to avoid -- thinking.  The problem is that if you continually put off projects designed to increase profits or reduce problems, then you end up having more crisises to deal with.  So you get caught in the vicious cycle of crisis management.

"A lot of managers and business-owners secretly love putting out fires because it makes them feel like heroes.  In fact, they live in a fool's paradise; treating symptoms every day rather that curing the disease."

Doing strategic project work for the first 1 to 1.5 hours of your day puts you in proactive mindset.  Even though crisises may spring up during the day, at least you have the comfort of knowing you're doing something to prevent these problems from reoccurring.  In other words, doing strategic project work gives you a sense of control and a feeling that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

When I speak at seminars about the hour and a half of uninterrupted strategic project work, I often hear a chorus of protests from the audience.  People talk about the emergencies that require their attention.  The truth is, unless you work in emergency services, there is almost no problem or 'crisis' or customer request that can't be handled by someone else in the organization, or wait a mere hour and a half for your personal attention.  Realistically, you'll accomplish more in that hour and a half of strategic project work than the other 7 hours of crisis management combined.

Of your major project work, which do you typically work on first?
• * a) the one with the most pressing deadline
• * b) the one that's the easiest to do quickly
• * c) the one that will generate the most profits over the long term

Obviously, you should work on c) the project that will generate the most profits over the long term.  That's what you're in business for.  Ironically, most managers don't do it.  They react to deadlines -- submitting to the tyranny of the urgent.  It's fine to work on projects with urgent deadlines, but at least spend the first hour on the long term profit project, then work on the other projects with the urgent deadlines.

Administrative activities are some of the most important tasks as a manager
• * a) true
• * b) false

Answer: b) false.  Adminis-trivia is the day-to-day organizing of money (cash flow) manpower- (scheduling) and machinery (inventory).  It's the tedious, mindless reporting and paperwork that simply has to be done.  And it's the lowest form of work for any manager.  It should be automated, delegated or outsourced.  If you are doing this work yourself, you are a clerk -- not a leader.

The path of least resistance
The problem is that adminis-trivia is seductive because it's easy to do and it usually has a deadline.  Ditto for dealing with customer requests that should be handled by your employees.  They are paths of least resistance.  Long term strategic project work, on the other hand, requires concentration, vision, and rarely has an immediate deadline. 

A classic example is developing an ongoing staff-training program.  You can put it off indefinitely and still look busy doing paperwork.  The consequences are that the rest of your day is spent in crisises management because your front line staff isn't properly trained.

The bottom line is that to be an effective manager, you don't have to be the most intelligent, the most enthusiastic, or even the hardest worker.  You simply need to learn how to organize your working day so that you're less busy and more productive.
  
Jeff Mowatt is a corporate trainer, business author and internationall speaker.
1-800-JMOWATT

I've discovered an interesting phenomenon when organizations bring me in to help "motivate their people."  They may be suffering from customer complaints, staff turnover, or a lack of teamwork. At first glance, these appear to be front line people problems. What we frequently find however is that most problems involving attitudes and teamwork are actually just symptoms of flawed infrastructures. Let's see if this could be true in your organization.

Check off any of these people problems occurring in your organization:

 Employees are not getting along with each other. Individually, each person appears to be hard working and capable enough, but when working together their personalities clash.

• Conflicts exist between departments. One group blames another for foul-ups. They are unwilling to share information, key people, or resources.
• Employee turnover is an ongoing challenge.
• Employee theft is an ongoing challenge.
• People are complaining about certain employee behaviors.
• Your team's service has been good, but you are having difficulty taking their service to the next level.

If your organization has none of the preceding issues, then either a) you are already your industry's Service Icon or b) you have so few employees that no changes are needed (providing you plan on staying small). If however, you have checked one or more of the preceding scenarios, then you know you have a problem. The question is what's the real problem? Frequently, managers conclude that they have a personnel problem. What often lies beneath this tip-of-the-iceberg, however, is a flawed infrastructure. These underlying systems not only affect morale but also impact productivity, customer satisfaction, and profits.

To see if your infrastructure may be causing the people problems, score your organization with a 0, 1, or 2 as follows:

0 = That's exactly what's happening in our organization.

1 = We are not as badly off as that, but there is room for improvement.

2 = Statement does not apply to us. We have formal systems and processes that have addressed this issue.

1. Customer service training consists of a job orientation, then learn as you go.
2. Either no corporate mission statement exists, or there is one but no one refers to it or uses it in a meaningful way.
3. You either have no written service standards or you do have service standards but they are all focused on speed and fast turnaround times.
4. Employee and customer feedback goes to managers, but there is no formal system for converting feedback into product and service improvements.
5. There is no formal employee recognition system.
6. When it comes to developing employee skills, managers do more correcting and reacting than proactive coaching.
7. Training events and team-building events appear to improve productivity and morale momentarily, but eventually people revert back to the old ways interacting with each other.

  Your Score (Maximum is 14)

What your Score Means

12-14 Congratulations! You have the systems in place to become your industry's Service Icon.

8-11 There is room for improvement with your infrastructure.

0-7 Your organization is vulnerable to employees and customers leaving. Time to focus on your infrastructure.

The bad news

If you scored less than 12, chances are that your people issues are actually just symptoms of deeper problems with your infrastructure. By infrastructure I'm referring to your formal systems for customer service training, service standards, customer feedback and implementation, and employee recognition. You can waste a lot of energy trying to fix the people problems, but unless you fix the underlying infrastructure, you are just painting over rust - the problems keep resurfacing.

The good news

Most managers think that fixing their infrastructure takes a huge amount of time and resources. That's a myth. Working with dozens of organizations over the years, we've found the solutions to be surprisingly easy. We developed a process for making slight adjustments to the organization's existing practices that creates substantial results.

One client for example, a government crown corporation, found that within six months of making the adjustments ... "employee morale improved significantly... employee productivity improved by 34 percent ... and public complaints decreased fourfold" The bonus is the process can be conducted in-house by your own staff in just 90 minutes a month. So much for the idea that this requires an onerous commitment of time and resources!

Bottom line

If you are suffering from people problems make sure you're not expending time, money, and management focus treating the symptoms of instead of addressing the underlying cause.

Jeff Mowatt is a corporate trainer, business author and intarnational speaker.1-800-JMOWATT

When it comes to dealing with dissatisfied customers, most believe that money back guarantees and/or exchange policies will fix the problem. Lousy strategy. Money back guarantees and exchanges may fix the problem, but they do nothing to fix the relationship. Policies don't fix relationships – people do.

When I speak at conventions and meetings on how to boost customer retention, I often find that there is little attention paid to how employees can fix the damaged relationship when the customer has been let down. The consequences of this are staggering.

When it comes to dealing with dissatisfied customers, most believe that money back guarantees and/or exchange policies will fix the problem. Lousy strategy. Money back guarantees and exchanges may fix the problem, but they do nothing to fix the relationship. Policies don't fix relationships – people do.

When I speak on how to boost customer retention, I often find that there is little attention paid to how employees can fix the damaged relationship when the customer has been let down. The consequences of this are staggering.

Inadequately trained front line employees chase away repeat customers and referrals, spread damaging word-of-mouth advertising, and become frustrated and de-motivated because they're constantly dealing with upset customers.

Let's be frank. If you're in business, then your primary goal is to make money. You may have secondary goals, such as serving the interests of your customers and employees or being a good corporate citizen, but your number one priority is return on investment – profit.  

I often find that business owners and managers   don't have their priorities straight. They lose customer loyalty, face increasing operating costs, scramble with staff turnover and struggle to keep up to the competition. They may work hard and think positively, but with marginal impact.

But by simply realigning their priorities, owners and managers can lead in a way that builds loyalty, reduces operating costs, makes more money and serves as a model corporate citizen. You won't have to work any harder, just smarter.

Quick, what’s the typical greeting used most often by 60% of retail stores? You’re right if you guessed, “Can I help you?” The visitor’s usual response, “No thanks, just looking.” The problem is the walk-in customer is never “just looking.” They came into the premises because at some level they perceived a need. This greeting only reminds visitors that they’re not here to buy. Lousy selling strategy.

Whether it’s fair or not, we are often judged on first impressions. This harsh reality is nowhere better seen than in today’s ultra-fast business world where customers size-you-up in a nano-second based on your personal image. Since their impression of you will determine whether or not they want to do business with you, the impact on your career and on your organization’s bottom line can be staggering.