Measuring and maximizing customer value

 

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Customer Satisfaction

 

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How to Deal with Difficult Customers: 5 Tips

 

Good customer service is what differentiates a company from its rivals.

Anyone working in customer service would understand that no matter how much time you spend in delivering good customer service, you can’t please everyone every time. Sooner or later, support agents will have to deal with difficult customers. Whether it’s a customer with some outlandish demand or an otherwise rational customer who happens to be having a bad day, your skills are put to test. And it’s time to pass the test with flying colors.

We suggest powerful yet simple tips for dealing with difficult customers and effectively helping them solve their issues. Before we get started, here’s the thumb rule: learn to make the best of troublesome customer interaction and tackle the situation in a manner that satisfies everyone. It’s important to realize that your difficult customers represent a source of learning and an opportunity to make things right.

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business." ~ Zig Ziglar

 

Inside the Mind of a Difficult Customer

Understanding is the first step in dealing with any problem. So let’s take a closer look inside the mind of a difficult customer, psychologically. Why do they get angry at all?

There may be multiple reasons for a customer’s anger; however, most often, it’s just a few factors. Understanding these factors will help you gain a keener insight into what could have gone wrong. You get an opportunity to transform the customer’s mindset about your brand from negative to positive through your way of handling their concerns. Ideally, customers are frantic when they feel they’re:

Treated Unjustly:
Whenever customers feel that the promises made weren't kept, they think it's unfair on your part. It makes them feel disconnected, invalidated, and angry. Leaving a customer request open for too long or not fulfilling their expectations is sometimes inferred as mistreatment.

Threatened:
Service silos like no data privacy or security, hidden motives, loss of essential information, etc. make customers feel that they are always under threat. What's more, it's because of your service processes they have to face this situation.

Ineffective or Frustrated:
Situations where things are not working as expected, customers don't get to have a proper onboarding, features, engagement, value from your product, or service, they get frustrated. When their queries are not resolved quickly, they feel ineffective, and the customer service delivered to them was inefficient.

"Almost 9 in 10 customers have abandoned a business because of a poor experience."

 

Disregarded for their feedback:
Customers usually are very vocal about their feedback. At times you may notice a pattern where the likability towards your product keeps decreasing over a period of time. In a situation like this, when you do not take action or try to discuss their concerns about the product, it shows that you do not respect their feedback. It makes them disappointed, and they may resort to using some other product.

5 Tips: How to Blow Off Steam

#1. Play by ear and reassure:

Before you begin with the panacea for their problems, LISTEN. Take a while to hear them out carefully and thoroughly understand their concerns. You could even put your end at mute and let them vent. It’s not really a pleasure to be subjected to the frustration, but interrupting them will only aggravate the situation, making it more difficult for you. You can begin by reassuring them that their problem will be solved by saying :
“ I’m glad you called and I could be of service.”
“ I’ll let you explain your issues, and then we’ll find you a solution.”

If you've understood their sentiments and issues, move on. If not say, "Could you please elaborate on the issue, it will help me better understand."

#2. Empathy - The Green Light:

Empathy is beneficial, so it can show that anyone would feel the same under these circumstances. The quickest way to anger somebody is to suggest that they are exaggerating. After the customer has finally taken a breath, the first thing you do is - empathize. Make them feel you’ve understood where they’ve come from. Use phrases like:
“I understand.”
“Don’t worry, let’s see what we can do to sort this.”
“Your issue is a cause of concern; let's find out why this happened?”
“Let’s work together to sort this.”

Always remember the customer isn’t angry with you, so placing yourself on the customer’s side will give them faith. Empathy and understanding go a long way toward smoothing things over.

#3. Move to the drawing board:

After diffusing the anger to a certain level and ascertaining the problem it's time to offer solutions. It is here that you bring the customer experience back on the right track, so make sure you work hard to resolve the issue. Use the tools in your arsenal to find a solution. But here’s a heads up, do not keep the customer on hold for too long; they might have already spent many minutes waiting to connect to a live person. You could say :
“ Please hold on.”
“ Thank you for being patient while I was looking into it.”

In case it takes longer, make sure you update the customer rather than keep him waiting.

#4. The Apology:

Sometimes it becomes important to de-escalate and apologize. It is necessary to apologize for what happened and avoid excuses.
You could say:
“I understand why you’re disturbed; I would be too. I am sorry that.”
“ I apologize for.. ”

It is essential to keep in mind that although you weren’t a part of the problem, however, at that time you’re the face of the company - its eyes, mouth, and ears.
As vital as it is to apologize, don’t take the blame when there’s no-fault. Just apologize for the situation in that case.

#5. Take a break:

While it's important not to take a negative call to heart or mind, that can be hard to do. Once an arduous situation has been resolved, take a mental break by stepping away from your desk or getting some fresh air. Demanding customers and their complaints are part of life, but so is excellent customer service. It is essential to de-stress from time to time and rejuvenate your sagging nerves. To maintain quality Customer service, take your time to relax and get back to another customer. Remember to treat every customer as new and tackle them with a zen mind.

Always shape up the conversation into a solution. Have confidence in your ability to deal with difficult customers confidently. And don’t forget to utilize the feedback as customer response demonstrates the problems and gives you a chance to troubleshoot. Put these customer service tips into practice and make a lasting impact on your business and customers.

Most importantly – stay calm and stay passionate!

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4 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Customers

Lynn Hunsaker 

Are some customers just difficult people? Is there such a thing as a difficult person, anyway? Not really. The accurate viewpoint is it’s a difficult situation or a difficult interaction — not a difficult person per se.

Why do difficult situations or interactions occur? Quite simply, people get impatient because of a situation not meeting their expectations. The root causes of resistance to just about any issue are:
a) Concern that their needs will not be understood or met
b) Concern about loss of control or self-esteem

Knowing this can help you de-personalize uncomfortable situations and let go of your natural fight or flight reactions. Let go of your initial emotion to handle the situation from a neutral position.

A customer service rep who attended one of my recent classes said she’s feeling much happier in her job by conscientiously following the 4 steps to managing resistance:

1) Identify the issues causing the resistance
2) Understand the underlying factors of the issues
3) Provide solutions
4) Follow-up

Here’s how she applied the 4 steps:
1) A sample was requested by a channel partner in another country, emphasizing urgency to ship immediately, so the service rep booked the order free of charge and scheduled shipping, but the channel partner wouldn’t approve shipment.

·        The service rep, frustrated from these situations over the past year, immediately placed herself in a neutral position; this way she found it easier to open herself up for a conversation to start identifying the real issues.

·        The channel partner wanted a draft commercial invoice, but the service rep’s company has system-generated documents printed at time of shipping, so the approval process was a chicken-and-egg dilemma.

2) The service rep strove to understand the underlying issues behind the channel partner’s request for a draft commercial invoice: to satisfy the channel partner country’s customs requirements to present a legitimate document from the shipper.
3) To provide a solution, the service rep offered an alternative by sending the system-generated order acknowledgment in her company letterhead.

·        But the situation went back to step one, because the channel partner was upset that the order acknowledgment listed the sample free of charge.

·        The service rep went to step two by asking why a dollar amount was needed in the order acknowledgment: the customs bureau of the channel partner’s country requires a price declared to determine customs duties.

·        The service rep went to step three by suggesting the solution of entering a unit price under the part number and total price in the special instructions field – this would satisfy the channel partner’s need for price documentation and still accurately reflect that her company was shipping the sample free of charge.

·        Because of time zone differences, 3 days were consumed without approval – just as it seemed all was resolved, the channel partner requested the service rep to re-print the order acknowledgment with a lower price per unit.

·        The service rep felt very frustrated yet immediately placed herself in a neutral position, and went back to steps one and two: the channel partner wanted to save money by paying less customs duties.

·        Under-declaring price for customs purposes is against company policy and against federal customs laws, so the service rep escalated the situation to her immediate manager and the regional sales director; they were able to convince the channel partner to accept the current sample order and approve shipment.

4) To follow-up, the service rep reflected on the series of events and realized there was a lack of understanding by her channel partner of federal customs laws in her company’s headquarters country, so as a follow-up, she asked her company’s export manager to send a letter explaining the relevant customs laws.

·        My recommendation is to also ask her company’s operations department to set up an automated solution for future sample requests from international channel partners; generally, if one customer has a certain need or concern, there are also many others with the same need or concern.

These 4 steps can make your job much more fun as you become skilled in handling difficult situations. The customer depends on it! And so does your career and your company’s long-term success. Do these 4 steps work for you?

Customer Service Satisfaction

 

Employee Engagement + Customer Satisfaction = Financial Performance

 

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How mind maps make researching easier

When you’re first brainstorming a new idea or researching a topic, you don’t know what ideas you’re going to come up with. As such, it’s hard to plan a layout for the information in a typical report format. A mind map allows you to free yourself from a predefined structure, and lets the ideas grow as you develop them, ensuring that you don’t lose track of your thoughts.

What is a mind map?

A mind map is a visual tool for structuring thoughts. It can be used on an individual or team basis, and results in a hierarchical diagram of everything that has been discussed. The diagram is focused on a single element, where it is discussed, ideas are written down, spreading outwards from the original focus. This spreading and recording of key ideas helps trigger further ideas, and results in their natural grouping.

Records of the use of mind maps date back as early as the third century, and the idea of visually plotting one’s ideas has been used in many different ways throughout history. Through this time, the concept did not have a specific name, and it was only in the 1970’s that British psychologist Tony Buzan popularized the term mind map.

When to use a mind map

Mind maps are extremely versatile and have a number of potential uses. A mind map’s hierarchical and graphical nature also assists one in memorizing the information you lay down on it, giving them a number of applications:

• As a study aid — you were quite likely taught how to use one growing up, but their visual element is great at triggering memories.
• Researching new products and developing new ideas — as you discuss topics, they are recorded, allowing you to track idea development more easily, and for visualization for multiple people.
• As a problem-solving tool — helpful in brainstorming problems and building on ideas to determine solutions.
• As a presentation method — one is able to show how a process was developed, visualizing alternatives and topics discussed.

While useful for an individual to come up with ideas on their own, a mind map is a great tool for teams that are brainstorming together, ensuring that everyone’s ideas are heard and recorded in a logical, easy to absorb manner.

Making a mind map with a template

Making a mind map is a fairly straightforward task, but there are a few steps and hints that you can follow to ensure you get the most out of the exercise. To make things easier to understand, we’re going to demonstrate by creating our mind map. While you can jot one down on a piece of paper, there are a number of advantages to be had when using an online mind map maker. So, for our example we’ll use a template from Miro online whiteboard to demonstrate each step.

Step 2: Plot sub-groups

From your main idea, you will determine key areas, which are sub-groups of your focus. These can be extremely varied or similar, as long as each group is a distinct subset of the main focus. These groups are connected as lines to our focus.

For our user research, we start quite broad and choose to consider the following three topics:

• Customer Development — we want to confirm that our app will be beneficial to our clients and that the added value will result in maintained or increased profits.
• Trends — to ensure our user experience is up-to-date, we want to discuss new trends that could be implemented.
• Competition — to help understand the current market and identify ways to make our product better, we must analyze competitors’ products.

Don’t be concerned if you only have a few sub-groups. Ideally, you will have less than five, but each mind map has its own requirements, so this can vary.

Group tips:

• To help reinforce the grouping, make use of different colors for each group. You can either draw the lines in different colors, or write or highlight the words in separate colors.
• If you’re not sure what groups to create, try to answer questions about the topic, for example, how you want to perform the research, what results you expect. Each question can be associated with a word and used a group.

Step 3: Develop further

Each of your sub-groups will likely have their own set of sub-groups. For each of your areas, consider what they mean, and what ideas you feel link to that topic. Look at one group at a time, but come back to a group if there is more to add to it.

When we consider our groups, the next tier for each one could be:

• Customer Development
  • Field visits — how do users use similar apps now in their day-to-day job?
  • Beta testing — to get feedback from customers to the MVP version.
• Trends
  • UX design — look at recently released apps to see what works well.
  • Integrations — what other services do, which our users use, where there would be a benefit integrating with our app.
  • Market trends — read latest blogs and articles to keep app design up-to-date.
• Competition
  • Features — what features competitor products offer.
  • Traffic estimate —  how popular competitor products are among users.

We’ve only included a few possible expanded groups here. No doubt, you can easily come up with several more for our fictional situation yourself. Add as many as you feel is necessary for your mind map.

Further development tips:

• For each branch and new item that you use for your mind map, try make use of a single keyword, or keyword pair instead of writing entire phrases. It makes your mind map easier to view and manage, but also prevents you from restricting your thoughts too much, leaving terms open to interpretation.

• Mind maps are often made by writing each keyword on a line. Some people prefer to have the keyword at the end of a line. Both ways work well, and are left to user preference. Try using both to determine which works better for you.

Step 4: Expand

At this stage, you’ve done all the groundwork, and you just need to add as many ideas as you can. Remember, you can always cull ideas at a later stage or move them, so don’t hold back. Record everything that you think of or that is discussed.

As you continue, you might find it easier to focus on a sub-group and fully populate it. Other times, especially when working in teams, people are focusing on different areas at the same time, and you will find as you jump from one group to the next, both approaches will give you the same result.

If necessary, don’t be afraid to add a whole new sub-group to your main focus. There may be something which you didn’t think of earlier, or an existing branch which you have developed to an extent that you feel it deserves to be on its own.

Our example mind map is far from complete. We can expand on some of the points as follows:

• Field visits (Customer Development)
  • Who — who will participate in the research?
    • Current users — clients who currently use our software.
    • Potential — identify users who use similar apps.
  • Format — how will the field visits be done.
    • Online interviews — for those customers who are based in other countries.
    • Observation in the users’ offices — for customers who are close to the office.

Expansion tips:

• While you’re working on a mind map, you might find that it generates tasks that need to be completed. You can easily assign tasks to people in your team by encircling certain points and writing a team member’s name and a due date.

How to save time when making a mind map

Mind maps are a tool to help you work more effectively. Effectiveness is minimized if you spend the whole day working on a single mind map. Your mind map doesn’t have to be perfect. Your mind map doesn’t have to be a work of art. With practice, you’ll figure out what works best for you, but don’t be concerned about finding the perfect image to represent your thought, and don’t worry about colors clashing. What’s important is putting the ideas down. If you need to present the results, you can tidy it up at a later stage, but the most value is found in the creation process, and this should be easy.

As we’ve shown you, a good way to speed up your mind map making is to use a virtual whiteboard instead of pen and paper. The pages expand to fit the extent of your ideas, and you don’t have to waste time trying to plan your layout. You can also easily delete, edit and move ideas on the board. They have the added benefit of allowing remote teams to work together on the same mind map.

If you’re looking for more information or tips about making mind maps, consider checking out one of the following links:

• TonyBuzan.com — learn from the master, Tony Buzan’s website offers a number of additional resources for making the perfect mind map.
• IQMatrix.com — a very extensive article with more information than you could ever need.

Conclusion

Different people will often come up different ideas or groups that they feel are the key areas of focus for a mind map. Given the same inputs, different people will all develop a different looking mind map, but the process will still generate the same end items, just grouped differently. That is not something to worry about, though.

One of the great things about mind maps is how much freedom you have with them, both in potential uses, and how you develop them. The more you practice, the more you’ll find a style that suits you, and new ways to use them.

Mind maps are quick and easy to use. Try find new ways to implement them into your work.

Effective Listening to Voice of Customer (VoC)

Once you have established that customer service is paramount to successfully running your service business, the obvious next step is to devise systems and procedures that can help you effectively learn, combat and manage customer grievances and any shortfalls in service levels from customer expectations.

This is a complex process, though not overly so, and can be succinctly summarised in the following points:

Being concerned

The very first step is to view each customer as a potential detractor, and thus being concerned about any untoward reviews from them. Studies have shown that a single negative review can offset 12 positive reviews. This puts an ever greater pressure on management and support staff to be actively involved with each and every customer, so that no customer leaves disgruntled. The caveat here is that being concerned alone won’t solve the problem, unless supplemented with the following actions.

Installing effective feedback tools

An effective listening to voice of customers would work only when effective tools to collect feedback are in place. While the definition of ‘efficiency’ in the context of feedback collection tools may be subjective, there are three things that any feedback collection mechanism must provide for it to be deemed worthy of consideration:

• Ability to capture vast amount of data – Only an innovative and unconventional feedback collection method will excite customers to leave their feedback.
• Ability to manage all collected data – A massive amount of data is meaningless if not stored in a format conducive to drawing business insights and trends of customer behaviour.

Ability to allow immediate addressal of customer grievances

As important as it is to store and record trends of customer behaviour, it is equally essential to solve service-related issues that customers may have, while they are still on-premises as this can eliminate the possibility of a customer venting their dissatisfaction online. A study has gone so far as to report that 82% of customers say that the most important factor leading to a great customer experience is having their issues resolved quickly.

Given that a manager’s focus is on effectively listening to his customers, a logical conclusion would be the installation of a strong and reliable feedback collection procedure.

Understanding your customers and their complaints

This is basically a continuation of the definition of an effective feedback collection system, but merits a separate mention. Immediate addressal of customer complaints becomes feasible only with a thorough knowledge of what the exact issue is and where the grievance has arisen from. Gaps in service quality can be plugged in only with an in-depth understanding of why and how the lapse in service occurred in the first place. Complete data capturing of customers can help in a more robust loyalty module allowing personalized service to regular patrons.

This points to the development of a process that naturally tends towards a “systematic listening” and address of customer grievances.

Empowering customer-concerned employees

With the installation of a sound feedback collection system, comes the added responsibility of delegating responsibilities appropriately to the front-line, customer facing staff members. Doing so will ensure that all customer grievances are handled in a timely and accurate fashion.

An effective feedback collection tool, should, therefore, provide a means for assigning tasks to staff members, particularly the customer-centric staff. It would be even better if this mechanism could work in real-time, thereby resolving customer complaints quickly and ensuring cent per cent customer satisfaction.

Overall monitoring of customer’s behaviour

With on-premise resolution of customer grievances taken care of, the real value of a customer feedback system can be extracted from its ability to track trends in customer satisfaction and behaviour over time.

Customers rate a business over several parameters – pricing, service quality, attitude of staff while interacting with customers to name a few. Their overall satisfaction of interacting with the business will then, not be limited to just the quality of service provided but will depend on a delicate balance of these parameters, based on what weight they assign to each of them. An important thing to note is that these preferences may change over time and vary across customer segments. In an effort to keep all customers equally satisfied over time, these changes must be carefully measured and appropriate actions taken.

An effective feedback system will allow business managers to understand their customers changing preferences and make business decisions in accordance with those changes. This will truly include the customer’s voice in implementing business strategies.

Getting involved personally

Last but certainly not the least, nothing makes a customer’s day more than the pleasure of having his issue resolved instantly, and that too with the knowledge that their servers took a “personal” interest in their service. Establishing a personal connection with customers is becoming a vitally important aspect of service-oriented businesses.

Therefore, merely assigning customer complaints to staff members may no longer help the business acquire and retain customers, but taking a “personal” interest in the resolution of their customer’s issues will. Since this personal connection will help the customers achieve a sense of belongingness with the business and there will then be a higher likelihood of them returning again and again.

An effective methodology to listen to customer’s voice, then, remains incomplete without a mechanism to getting involved personally with the customers.

Managing a business that does not sell tangible goods but intangible service can be tricky, but a task that can be accomplished if the basics are done right – listen to what the customers are saying, respond effectively and analyse their feedback to make sure things don’t go wrong again.

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3 Ways Customer Listening Powers Marketing Effectiveness

Ernan Roman

Today customers can make sure that their voice is heard like never before. And, if marketers don’t have measures in place to listen, they are turning a deaf ear to potentially significant problems and missing out on essential insights for improving their customer experience.

Following are 3 ways to leverage customer listening and examples of how companies are putting these strategies into action.

1. Realize that Customer Listening (and Responding) is a 360-Degree Commitment.

Engagement with customers includes business partners who are also the face of your brand. So, how every aspect of your brand listens to the voice of your customer and responds is key.

For example, NASCAR made the decision to revamp its marketing and listening in five key areas. But that’s not where it ended. NASCAR also encouraged its business partners and drivers to do the same.

“We developed an industry action plan,” stated Steve Phelps NASCAR CMO, “… A plan for digital and social, a plan for driver star power–and within each plan, [we came up with] a number of different action items … [In an] effort to be thought leaders who provide the best available experience to our fans. We strongly encourage those across the entire landscape of the sport to embrace digital and social media — from drivers and teams to tracks and corporate partners.”

2. Customers are More Than Numbers, They are People, Talk to Them … (And listen.) 
Data gives you a good view of what customers are doing. However, it is not going to tell you why or give you theemotional factors like a conversation. Personal interactions can be more valuable than all the big data you will ever collect. 

Starting in October, Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, a telecommunications company serving the Caribbean, asked customers to tell them how they felt. Michele English, Columbus’ executive vice president and chief customer officer noted, “Our plan is to significantly enhance our customer ‘listening’ systems and ensure that feedback is integrated into our daily decisions and connected to our customers’ experiences across the organization… we have to design and implement [operational processes] to ensure that every customer touch point in the organization can support our customers’ needs efficiently and effectively… We now look forward to more customer feedback. “ 

The Company designed an easy to use online customer survey and sent communications to customers to encourage them to complete the survey and tell the company what matters. 

3. Make Conversation (and Listening) Easy with Social Communities 
Online communities enable the exchange of ideas in discussion forums, polls and social media. They provide brand information, mitigate problems and provide opportunities for a collaborative two-way conversation.

Southwest Airlines launched a Listening Center to monitor its online communities using a keyword-based listening tool that pulls in mentions from social platforms. The Listening Center monitors insights in real time to quickly identify issues and immediate engagement opportunities. Customers can connect their Twitter handles to their Rapid Rewards frequent flier numbers to get personalized services. Southwest Airlines also leverages the Listening Centers to send apology letters for delays, find new opportunities for engagement and implement company-wide customer care. 

Alice Wilson, social business advisor for Southwest’s marketing organization notes that sharing the information collected is the key to listening success. “The customer feedback means something different to each [department] and can inform each group in a different way…From a social care standpoint, [employees] want to help assist and resolve. But somebody from the marketing team may be looking at that [data and ask], how do we alter communications to help these future situations?…The point is not to keep it as a silo.”

Keys to Effectively Listening to the Voice of Your Customer:

• Listening should be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
  Listening lets you understand the “why” of what your customers are doing and experiencing so that operational issues, communication, and experience can be overhauled for a more positive overall brand impression.
• Learnings from Listening Needs to be Shared with Every Part of your Business.
  Having data without acting on the implications does nothing for your business. Set standards for how the insights from your listening programs are regularly integrated and shared with all departments so that changes and actions are put in motion to respond to customer needs and comments.
• Meaningful Dialogue Based on Listening.
  Develop authentic, honest and direct conversations based on listening, which lead to meaningful connections and two-way dialogue.
• Use Listening to Develop Strategies.
  Once you launch programs to listen, develop means for incorporating these learnings into new strategies that address the issues identified in customer conversations. Put in motion ongoing review of the data collected through listening programs so that you have a clear roadmap that delineates what customers are expecting, their pain points and their current/future demands.
• Listening Objectives Must be Established.
  If you don’t know how you are going to listen, you will not be able to hear what your customers are trying to tell you. Whether you have the means to set up a full scale listening center, a social monitoring program, a survey, or a call center monitoring program, know what you are implementing and how you will regularly harvest and utilize the insights.

In summary, customers have a lot to say and they want you to listen. The good news is that customers generally have valid concerns and smart advice to offer. Marketers and customers will both benefit if the marketer creates multichannel ways of listening to customers and processes for acting quickly on their input.