Tag-Archive for » Who’s Your Gladys «

Guest Blogger Tim Sanchez Shares: The Power of Social Media, and an Apology
August 04th, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest blogger is Tim Sanchez,  the General Manager of ABIS Consulting Group, an enterprise software and consulting firm in Houston, TX. He has provided project management, implementation, and consulting services to a number of small and medium sized businesses since joining the company in 2003. He shares his passion for remarkable customer experiences at DeliverBliss.com.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about a poor experience my wife had at The Gap. I thought it was a good story that conveyed the importance of consistency in the customer experience. I certainly didn’t write it expecting any response or retribution from The Gap, but that’s exactly what I ended up with.

The Gap is Listening

Like most of my posts, it was published around 2:00 AM. By 8:45 AM, someone from The Gap had seen the post (I know this because of the site analytics tool I use). That piqued my interest a little, but I assumed they were using a social listening tool, like Radian6 or something similar. Then the hits really started coming in. The visits and page views from The Gap continued all day; I believe it was over 60 views when I checked it later that afternoon. After the number of visits continued to climb, I started thinking they might actually contact me about the incident, but I wasn’t holding my breath. After all, why should a huge company care about a pissant blogger like me? more…

Category: Communicating with Customers, Customer Service, Dissatisfied customer, Listening, customer service performance, guest blogger, performance, social media  | Tags: Customer Service, Deliver Bliss, the Gap, Tim Sanchez, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Guest Blogger Holly Stiel Shares: The 5 Most Important Questions for Every Employee
July 29th, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest blogger is Holly Stiel. Holly appears in chapter 7 of our bestselling book, “Who’s Your Gladys?” for her work with Preston Wynne Spa. Even in a profession defined by superlative service, Holly Stiel stands out as an authority and pioneer in the field of concierge services and superlative customer service.

Over the years I have been asked countless times, “How do we make training stick?” and “How can we create and become the kind of company that revolves around service?” They know they want the type of environment and the type of employees who live and breathe service — creating a grand experience for the customer and renowned for their property and brand.

While I get asked these questions often, I find the commitment to do the work required to actually have such a company culture is not as enticing to these executives and managers as the idea of it. It’s like wanting to be thin and buff but not wanting to eat a healthy diet and exercise. Some clients claim they want a “sea change” when it comes to their customers’ service experience. They say, “We want to have concierge-type services. We want our people to behave like the employees of The Four Seasons.” When I tell them what is involved in actually having this type of service culture they usually say, “Well, we didn’t mean exactly like the Four Seasons — something sort of like that, something easy!”

Creating a service- and customer-experience-based company culture is quite simple. It’s not easy, just deceptively simple!

Well, there isn’t partway (like partially pregnant) when it comes to superb customer service a la The Four Seasons model. What I think they are really asking for is a Vitamin C pill or a shot of B-12 – an easy fix. It doesn’t work that way to create a total Sea Change. Actually, creating a service- and customer-experience-based company culture is quite simple. It’s not easy, just deceptively simple! more…

Category: Best practices, Customer Service, Leadership, attitude, customer service mindset, customer service performance, group dynamics, internal customer, performance  | Tags: Customer Service, Holly Stiel, Leadership, service excellence, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Resentment Flu: Inoculate Your Employees with Internal Customer Service
July 26th, 2010 | Author: Marilyn

You don’t want to catch it. You certainly don’t want to spread it. And if employees contract it, it can have a devastating effect on your company’s bottom line.

What is it? It’s resentment flu and it’s epidemic in businesses across the country. Surprised? Even though your employees are still working, their first thoughts may not be on how lucky they are to have a job. With financial pressures on businesses higher than ever, taking good care of your employees can help keep them from catching a bad case of full-bore resentment — and damaging your firm’s customer experience as a result.

Today’s workers are experiencing high stressors. They’ve seen friends, family, and peers lose their jobs. They notice homes in their neighborhoods going into foreclosure. Perhaps they themselves have endured unpaid “furlough” time or salary cuts as employers use preventive measures to avoid more layoffs. They’re coping with the discomfort of developing new strategies to work leaner — doing more with smaller budgets and less manpower.

Employees need emotion-management skill development at a time when their own feelings are a bit rattled.

At home, these same workers have had to cut back and deny their families the little extras. “No teenager, you cannot have an iPhone.” “No spouse, we cannot take that vacation.” “No self — you’d better put that money in the bank to pay down those credit cards.” Even those with secure jobs and an optimistic attitude are pausing to question the logic behind company loyalty.

In addition, workers today are dealing with a new breed of consumer. New research shows that the recession has created perfect conditions for the emergence of the “hypersensitive” customer. Who are they? Well, for starters, 74 percent of them will walk out of your business without buying anything if they don’t like the way a frontline employee treats them. Indifference is enough to have them take their dollars elsewhere. They are also quick to use social media (such as online customer review sites, Twitter, and Facebook) to tell the world exactly what they think of your company.

Employers are putting increasing pressure on their frontline employees to be constantly “on” and “highly attentive.” This means they need emotion-management skill development at a time when their own feelings are a bit rattled. more…

Category: Best practices, Leadership, attitude, customer service mindset, internal customer  | Tags: internal customer service, leadersship, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Guest Blogger Douglas Hanna Shares: Delta Gets Proactive
April 07th, 2010 | Author: Marilyn

Today’s guest blogger is Douglas Hanna,  the CEO of A Small Orange, a high-end web hosting company that prides itself on quality customer service and support. In addition to his role at A Small Orange, Douglas founded and writes for Service Untitled, a popular blog on customer service and the customer service experience.

About a week ago, I received a letter from Delta Air Lines with some surprising news. Because a flight I took on December 14 was delayed close to five hours due to weather issues at the airport, the airline was giving me a fairly large amount of SkyMiles as a way to apologize. The letter, which was signed by the company’s General Manager of Customer Care, said the gift was a way for Delta to “demonstrate its commitment to service excellence and as a gesture of apology for its service failure.”

When a business goes out of its way to provide proactive credits or some other form of compensation for an outage, failure, delay or other inconvenience, customers appreciate the gesture.

Needless to say, I was impressed with Delta’s proactive approach. The letter, which arrived less than two weeks after my flight, came without any prompting from me. I didn’t complain to Delta in any way about my delays – no letter, no blog post, not even a phone complaint. They just noticed that my flight was delayed significantly and decided to act on it. Despite having experienced some pretty horrific airline delays in the past, I have never received any sort of proactive apology from an airline, so this was especially interesting to me. more…

Category: Delighting customers, guest blogger  | Tags: Customer Service, Delighting customers, douglas hannah, serviceuntitled, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Customer Service at Its Best – The Value of Social and Emotional Intelligence
March 29th, 2010 | Author: Marilyn

You’ve probably been there. Many of us have attended training events held in hotel ballrooms. To accommodate large groups, and a short time frame for meals, the wait staff have to move fast and accurately to hit every target.

Recently I was part of a training team at the beautiful Hilton Bayfront Hotel in San Diego.  My colleague Sue B. Wade went through the buffet line and sat with me. We enjoyed delicious food and good conversation. When I had finished my meal, the wait staff came around to clear the table and make room for dessert.  A young waiter made eye contact with Sue. He asked, “May I take your plate?”

Sue hesitated for a split second and then said, “Oh . . .  ummm . . . Yes.”

“Are you sure? I can come back later if you aren’t finished,” he said.

Smiling, Sue said, “Well, the beans are really good, and I would like to finish them.”

The waiter nodded with a smile and walked away.

Social and emotional intelligence is the “IT” factor for handling customers with the utmost of care.

As she pushed her fork into the green beans, she turned to me beaming. “That guy has a lot of social and emotional intelligence,” she said. Sue is the founder of Walking the Talk, a brilliant program that builds the character of today’s youth. She is quick to identify these things. I was struck by her words and what I had just witnessed.

Social and emotional intelligence is the “IT” factor for handling customers with the utmost of care. (BONUS! It’s also the key for living a happier, more stress-free life.)  In a matter of seconds, the waiter used social skills to check in with Sue before simply removing her plate.

  • He noticed her plate wasn’t totally empty
  • He checked in with her before taking the plate
  • He noted the hesitation in her response, which clued him in that her feelings might not be matching her words.
  • Then, he checked out his assumption by reassuring her that he could come back if she’d like.

By doing so, she felt cared about and comfortable to keep her plate. more…

Category: Listening, customer service mindset  | Tags: Customer Service, emotional intelligence, marilyn suttle, social intelligence, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Guest Blogger Kevin Stirtz Shares: Six Steps to More Loyal Customers
March 24th, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest blogger is Kevin Stirtz, the Amazing Service Guy. His professional goal is to help one million organizations learn how to deliver Amazing Customer Service to their  customers.

We all know it’s important to have loyal customers. But do you know how important it is? A study by Bain & Company suggests that a 5% increase in customer loyalty can improve profitability by anywhere from 25% to 95%. It shows us there are big opportunities available for owners and managers who are willing to do what it takes to increase customer loyalty.

The good news is, it’s not hard. And you can do it with the people and resources you have right now. It takes time, effort and patience to make it successful. But you can make a huge impact on your business.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Ask your customers what they want. This is different than what they expect. What customers expect is usually less (often a lot less) than what they want. But you need to know what they want.

What do they want in general? What are they trying to accomplish (or avoid)? Why did they choose you instead of your competition? What are their priorities and preferences?

Keep in mind different customers focus on different aspects of what your business does and how you do it. But if you speak with enough of them, you should see patterns and trends. You should be able to develop some profiles of what various customers want.

Also, look for how your customers want to be served. This will vary a lot and is harder to discover. Most people focus on what they want because it’s easier to talk about. But people like to be treated well. We all have different definitions of what being treated well means. You need to learn what it means to your customers.

2. Tell your customers what to expect. Some companies try to be all things to all customers. They do too much and none of it well. Every company has a unique set of resources that gives it a competitive advantage. these are your company’s strengths. Learn what they are. Use them to determine what your company can do better than anyone else in your market.

Once you know what your company does best, compare that list with what your customers want. These two lists should overlap. (If they don’t, you have a problem!) Where they overlap is what your company should focus on. These are the things you need to do for your customers: the combination of what they want most and what you do best.

more…

Category: Best practices, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service, Listening  | Tags: Amazing Service Guy, Customer Service, Kevin Stirtz, lori jo vest, marilyn suttle, Who's Your Gladys  | One Comment
Guest Bloggers Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson Imaginative Service Share: Turning Castor Oil into Champagne
March 17th, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest bloggers are Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson, the authors of Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers. Chip R. Bell is the founder of The Chip Bell Group. His consulting practice focuses on helping organizations build a culture that supports long-term customer loyalty. John R. Patterson is founder and President of Progressive Insights. He has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in the hospitality, business services, real estate and financial services industries.

Castor Oil:  “A foul tasting oil used in the 1950’s to cure whatever ailment a kid claimed he had that would keep him from having to get on the early morning school bus.”

My mother believed castor oil was a miracle cure.  From a stomach ache to sore legs to ringing ears, a spoon full of castor oil was the “all-purpose” answer to almost any malady.  But, she added a small twist.  Before she directed me to, “Open your mouth,” she would ask: “What is the best tasting thing you have ever eaten?”  For me it was wild blueberries.  “Now, think about that great taste.”  Thinking about those blueberries never altered the taste but it surely made the castor oil go down easier.

Smart service providers find ways to “turn castor oil into champagne” by managing their customers’ experiences.

All customers face occasional “foul tasting” aspects of getting service.  Airlines have cancelled flights; doctors have emergencies that leave you stranded forever in the reception area; hotels have room keys that occasionally don’t work; and, popular restaurants have longer than normal waits at peak times.  Smart service providers find ways to “turn castor oil into champagne” by managing their customers’ experiences to “think about blueberries.”

When we exited the Hertz courtesy van at the Hartford airport, the strong below-freezing winter wind bit hard.  But, the Hertz attendant had a warm smile and an eager-to-help attitude.  “This is way too cold!” one of us commented.  She almost giggled. “Now, you guys know in Hartford we do weather as entertainment!”  Ten miles down the road we were still laughing at her unexpected champagne comment.

What do you think? What can you do to make service maladies seem more pleasant to your customers?

For more information about Chip and John, visit: http://www.taketheirbreathaway.com/

Category: Best practices, Customer Service, Delighting customers, customer service mindset, guest blogger  | Tags: Chip R. Bell, John R. Patterson, Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Guest Blogger Laurie Brown Shares: “I Am Not a Table: A Tale of Medical Customer Service”
March 10th, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest blogger is Laurie Brown, a speaker, author and trainer who helps individuals, associations and companies improve their sales, customer service and presentation skills.

This morning I went in for a medical procedure, and left with some pretty strong opinions on how medical personnel can improve their customer service.

The first nurse I encountered was perfect. She walked in, greeted me immediately, introduced herself, and then, told me step-by-step what she was going to do. So that there were no surprises, she explained that she was inserting an IV in my hand, commenting that this would be the last pain I would feel for the rest of the procedure. It went down hill from there.

“I Am NOT a Table”: Lesson #1
The anesthesiologist was the next person in the room. He walked in, placed my medical records on my legs (No! I am not a table) and then proceeded to review it without either greeting me or introducing himself. A few minutes later, he finally decided that I could know who he was and introduced himself.

Customer service tip:
Do not use the patient as a surface to place your records, there are tables in the room. It is disrespectful to use the patient as a table. more…

Category: Customer Service, medical customer service  | Tags: Laurie Brown, medical customer service, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
Guest Blogger Kevin Stirtz Says: Abercrombie Feels the Sting of Bad Customer Service
March 03rd, 2010 | Author: Gladys

Today’s guest blogger is Kevin Stirtz, the Amazing Service Guy. He helps organizations improve the quality of service they deliver to their customers. (That’s why he’s called the “Amazing Service Guy.”) His professional goal is to help 1 million organizations learn how to deliver Amazing Customer Service to their  customers.

We know good customer service can keep customers coming back. And most of us understand the power bad customer service has to hurt our business.

Yet this simple lesson still falls on deaf ears at some large, well- known companies. Take Abercrombie & Fitch, for example. A $3.5 billion-dollar retailer known for attitude in their advertising apparently has plenty of attitude in others parts of their company. Recently, they were fined $115,264 by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights for discriminating against a disabled customer in their Bloomington, MN store.

It should have been more. Much more.

We know good customer service can keep customers coming back. Yet this simple lesson still falls on deaf ears at some large, well- known companies.

First, the behavior of their employees, as reported by Minnesota Public Radio, the StarTribune and others, suggests they have no idea how to handle any but the most common and simple situations.  The situation started because a girl needed to accompany her autistic sister in the dressing room to try on clothing. The Abercrombie & Fitch employees said no. Apparently, they felt the girls were lying because they could not verify the disability.

Imagine if this was your daughter.

Second, the girl’s mother tried repeatedly to resolve this issue with various levels of management. She got nowhere. No apology. No resolution. Nothing. So, she dug in her heels and brought out the big guns. This eventually led to an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

Third, the company seems to have stonewalled this case at every turn. According to news sources their actions caused the matter to take longer and cost more than it otherwise would had they been more cooperative.

more…

Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: Amazing Service Guy, Kevin Stirtz, Who's Your Gladys  | Leave a Comment
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