Be Different or be dead

May 7, 2018

How to turn a service nightmare into a sales win

My assistant burst into my office with a horrified look on her face!

The General Manager of one of our premier hotel clients in Vancouver was on the line and wanted to speak with me IMMEDIATELY.

My EA warned me that he was going ballistic.

Apparently we had somehow put his entire communications network out of service earlier that morning and he had been “in the dark” for at least 3 hours.

I was the executive leader for business services at the time, and he chose to escalate the service breakdown to my office.

I took the call of course and listened to his concerns. He “wailed” on me with wild abandon. He couldn’t contain his anger; he screamed and let it flow.

He wanted my head!

His demands were quite simple. He wanted to be compensated for the lost business he suffered by virtue of having no communications service and he wanted it taken care of fast.

I told him that I was extremely sorry for our screwup (exact words) and that I would take care of this right away.

I called my sales director who was going apoplectic over the situation and asked him if there was a secret desire the GM had that we could satisfy and perhaps turn things around.

The sales guys had done their job and discovered through the GM’s assistant that he had been coveting an antique telephone for his office credenza for quite some time but had never make the decision to buy it. For some reason this particular type of phone was almost a fetish of his; an itch he had never scratched.

Armed with this information, we executed our recovery plan.

Our recovery plan

First, I got a cheque cut for him as my way of responding to the business he had lost during the service outage. There was no way I wanted to get into a negotiation of exactly how much business he thought he lost.

My strategy was to preempt that whole process. (Important side note: I didn’t tell our lawyers what I was up to as they would only tell me that I SHOULDN’T do it because it would be tantamount to admitting that we were in the wrong. REALLY?)

Next, I contacted our installation folks and asked that they get the specialty phone the client wanted and join me at his office within the hour.

Finally, cheque in hand, I headed to his office with my sales director riding shotgun.

About an hour and a half after his call to me our team arrived at his office.

This is how it played out.

At his office

I apologized (again) for our shabby treatment and handed him the cheque as restitution for our sins. Right away I could see him come down from his emotional peak. “It’s ok” he said. “Mistakes happen”.

I then asked the installation team into his office (with his permission of course) with the object of his affection and asked where it could be installed. He could not contain himself when he saw the phone.

Suddenly our meeting was not about the egregious way we screwed over his business that morning. And it wasn’t about whether the cheque actually was sufficient to recover his lost business (which by the way we were not obligated to do by law in any event).

The conversation and energy in the room was channeled to the actions we took to recover from our blunder rather than the blunder itself.

The meeting ended with our sincere apology (once again) and an offer to do more to atone for our sins if he thought more should be done.

He was quite frankly delighted with where we ended up; we could do no more for him.

This sales tale ended miraculously; it couldn’t have been better.

A fan forever

After the service incident and our recovery, I heard stories from other clients who recounted how this GM told the story of our service OOPS! and how amazed he was at how far we were prepared to go to make amends.

This client never left us in spite of what we did to him.

In fact his loyalty to our organization intensified over the ensuing years.

The morals of the story

✔️ Always apologize (endlessly but earnestly) regardless of the circumstances. And NEVER quote company policy or “it was beyond our control” reasons that caused the service disaster.

✔️ Don’t consult lawyers or anyone else; don’t ask for permission; do the right thing to serve the customer’s best interests;

✔️ Act quickly to remedy the offence. You don’t have much time before the customer leaves screaming how crummy your service is to one and all.

✔️ Charge sales with the role of discovering customer secrets which contain the power to recover from the inevitable client screw over;

✔️ If done correctly, a mind blowing recovery actually build loyalty and turns the victim of the offence into a raving fan who tells everyone they touch how great you are.

P.S. This is not an isolated story illustrating the power of service recovery on customer retention and ongoing sales. Over my 33+ year career I have used the strategy to build remarkably successful sales organizations.

Brilliant recovery when you screw a customer over always works.

Try it and see.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.7.18 at 02:30 am by Roy Osing
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April 30, 2018

How better informed frontline people can be made a leadership priority

Source: Pexels

How better informed frontline people can be made a leadership priority.

I believe that frontline people “rule the world”.

They control the customer experience and live the brand of an organization every moment of every day. If customer transactions go well, loyalty is created; if not, loyalty is destroyed.

Frontline employees are always on the receiving end of customer “Why questions” — “Why don’t you add this type of draft beer?” or “Why did you take spaghetti and meat balls off the menu?” Or “Why do I have to wait so long to get a customer service representative on the phone?”

These are tough questions to answer, because frontline people are rarely given the answers in the detail they need to satisfy a customer’s query.

Leadership, for whatever reason, generally chooses not to share the details on matters such as product line selection, pricing rationale, credit rules and customer service policies with customer contact employees.

They think either that the frontline doesn’t need to know the details or that they can figure it out themselves.

I once asked a teller at a Credit Union why I should do business with them and not a bank. She was startled with my question and said “Because we share our profits with our members, and banks don’t” — not a compelling answer.
The truth is it wasn’t her fault; she wasn’t given the appropriate answer by the leaders who should be supporting her efforts. And so she was left to improvise and invent the answer herself.

This leaves the frontline in the untenable position of not being able to answer questions that customers have.

On more than one occasion, “It’s a corporate decision” is the answer that comes back to me as the reason a particular decision has been made. They know the answer sucks but that’s the truth to them because they have been left out of the loop.

And, of course, this does nothing to assuage the customer.

Frontline people hate having to use the ‘corporate’ reference when engaging with customers; they feel incompetent and regret not being able to satisfy the customer.

But they have no choice because it’s the only answer they can give.

Leaders must make informed frontline employees a priority; here are four actions to make it happen.

1. Promote the frontline’s importance

Elevate frontline employees to the top of the “need to know” funnel. Effective customer engagement creates loyal customers and long term profitability so why would you not want to equip frontline employees with every tool they need to satisfy and dazzle customers?

And communicate what you are doing throughout the organization so everyone knows the cultural change being made.
Beats me why they seem to take the back seat to other groups when it comes to getting the information they need to talk to customers.

2. Determine their information needs

Ask frontline people — strike a frontline panel to help — what the top 10 questions customers ask them for which they have no answers.
And take their questions verbatim. Don’t allow some staff person to translate them into what they “really mean”, because all this does is allow their bias to enter the equation to distort the frontline truth.
Feed the questions back to the panel and ask for sign off before providing answers.

3. Modify the management performance evaluation plan

Rate managers’ performance in part on how effective they are at providing the frontline with the information they need. Ask the frontline to rate managers; they will provide honest input.

As president of the data and internet company, I implemented a report card process that had customer service reps rate my management team on their ability to equip them with the info they needed to serve their customers.
The first report card rated managers poorly; improvements in subsequent rounds were seen as action plans were implemented to address the shortfalls.

4. Engage the frontline in systems design

Who better to determine what information systems look like than the people who use them? Unfortunately this is rarely done.
Yes, we stipulate that systems designers determine the requirements of all stakeholder groups, but the frontline teams are not given top priority.

Frontline supervisors are asked along with managers in finance, inventory control, marketing and business development but frontline employees — those actually engaging with customers — generally aren’t given the chance to input directly to what the system should look like.

To deal with this issue, I created cross functional teams of frontline people who had the final say on how information systems that affected the customer contact process should be designed. And they were given top priority stakeholder status; others came after the needs of customer engagement were recognized.

This action did two things: first, it demonstrated to the rest of the organization that frontline needs were the top priority to support your customer service game plan and second, it showed frontline people themselves that their needs were paramount.

Informed frontline employees is THE essential ingredient in not only building a base of loyal customers, but also enhancing employee engagement.

Simple stuff and a competitive differentiator.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.30.18 at 04:29 am by Roy Osing
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April 23, 2018

Spectacular new ideas have a strong social purpose

Source: Pexels

The entrepreneur’s dream is to launch THE new product idea that will “change the world”.

Aspirations, however, must be tempered by the reality that less than half of startups survive five years — the kill rate is high.

At the heart of whether or not the entrepreneur survives is the nature of the idea itself, the problem it solves and how it compares to other ideas and solutions in the market.

Successful new ideas must serve a compelling purpose and be different

The success of a new idea starts with the purpose it serves and ends with it’s uniqueness . The mind blowing new idea has to serve a relevant, compelling, easily understandable purpose and it needs to be different from competitive alternatives.

And, on the other hand, a new idea that is simply different won’t necessarily be a winner if it doesn’t easily resonate with people as having huge benefits that could be realized by many people.

There are two bookends that describe new ideas: one is an idea that addresses a narrow specific need. These tend to be innovations targeted at a small specific application. Go to the App Store to see some examples — different types of keyboards, music apps, photo apps and a plethora of others targeted at niche demand.

At the other end of the spectrum is an idea that addresses a broad purpose and is often driven by societal problems.

eBrake is an example of a new idea that is a unique solution to the distracted driving problem where drivers use their mobile devices to text, email, watch videos, post on social media and engage with practically every other app that takes their mind off the road.

Both niche and broad spectrum new ideas are valid, but eBrake is likely to outperform the more micro specialized solutions for these reasons.

1. Distracted driving kills people

It addresses a broad compelling need. It’s common knowledge that distracted driving causes more traffic accidents and deaths than any other cause. Worldwide media are constantly reporting on the problem and what governments are doing to solve it. Social media as well keeps the topic alive.

2. eBrake talks to many people

It resonates with multiple market segments; it’s a special solution for many types of applications.
eBrake’s flexibility to deal with many segments needing a distracted driving solution is appealing, whether you are a parent concerned about your new driver or an organization with a substantial fleet operation.

3. A 10 year old could explain it

It’s easy to explain. Everyone knows what the distracted driving problem is all about and how the problem can be solved by locking out the driver’s phone while they are driving. eBrake does this while allowing passengers the use of their phones.
In less than a minute eBrake can be explained in simple terms that people understand and, what’s even more important, they can explain it to their friends and family in the same way.

4. It’s the only real distracted driving solution

It’s the only solution that does what it does. There is no other solution that does what eBrake does.
In fact eBrake is the only REAL solution to distracted driving because, unlike other solutions in the market, the app can’t be turned off by the driver. People get that if the driver can turn the app off, it provides no solution at all as the driver can simply text away to their heart’s content.

New niche oriented ideas that can be clearly differentiated from a competitive product can be successful but the energy and resources to turn them into profitable businesses is significant. And the investment required could exceed the time one has available to “stay alive”.

5. Find an idea with HUGE social appeal

In these cases the key to success is not simply being different; rather it’s about simplicity of the value proposition and the social narrative it serves.

Better to find an idea that has HUGE social appeal — large potential market available — and can be explained by a 10 year old.
And one where the cool technology isn’t relied on to sell it; rather the technology merely sits in the background doing what it should do — making the new idea work.

Serve a compelling social need in a way that is different than any other solution and you will indeed have a big idea that could — but not guarantee — win you the lottery.

But it has a better chance than a new niche idea that may be cool but doesn’t have the emotional appeal and potential critical mass to attract massive interest.

Cheers,
Roy
Checkout my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.23.18 at 04:07 am by Roy Osing
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April 16, 2018

5 easy ways you can be successful with angry people

Source: Unsplash

5 easy ways you can be successful with angry people.

Anger can be turned into adulation; pissed off can be transformed into hugs.

In the world of an organization, this fact is huge because, however unintended, customers get screwed over from time to time.

There are two actions that every organization should take given this eventuality.

▪️First, ensure internal systems, rules and procedures are designed to make it easy for the customer to engage with and do business with you.

Design your ‘inside’ with the customer in mind so they have a pleasant experience with you not a nightmare.

▪️Second, given the fact that Murphy’s Law is always lurking in the shadows poised to strike, develop a strategy to deal with customer screw ups.

Most organizations don’t even think about determining the appropriate course of action when customer engagement goes sideways; they hope and pray it doesn’t happen and put all their resources and energy into preventing its occurrence.

Prevention, as a singular approach, won’t work; it will help, but it will never avoid the unintended mistakes that makes a customer go postal.

Leaders should view dealing with customer complaints as a priority and as a vital component of the organization’s strategy to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Every customer ‘anger moment’ is disguised as an opportunity to improve the strategic position of an organization if the customer is handled the right way.

Customer Anger Management 101 — There are 3 overriding principles that need to be understood to achieve the benefits of anger.

1. Relationships

Recovering the right way from an angered circumstance can improve the relationship you have with the person you pissed off.

If an organization recovers from a complaint exceedingly well, the customer is delighted and they are more committed to the organization than they were before the anger episode. They remember the recovery not so much the problem that caused it.

2. Speed

Speed is of the essence; the screw up needs to be fixed FAST.
When you have committed an egregious act the customer expects their complaint to be rectified, but it must be done quickly.

Studies have shown that you have at most 24 hours to repair your blunder; after that period you’ve missed the opportunity to be in the game for a hug.
If immediate action is not taken, the hug never comes and your victim typically communicates far and wide how disastrous your service is and the crumby values you have as an organization.

3. Actions

Do more than fix the mistake; Surprise the customer with what they don’t expect. Even if the OOPS! is dealt with expeditiously, all you’ve done is met their expectations. It’s the surprise element that turns them from “expectations met” to leaning in for a hug.

The SURPRISE is the magic dust that amazes and delights the victim; leaves them awestruck and breathless. And bonds them to you more than they were before the OOPS!

Tactical plan — To implement these principles, you need a solid tactical plan that must be consistently practised in every anger moment to earn a hug and build a band of loyalists.

1. Apologize

Apologize regardless of who’s fault it is. Trying to blame the customer for the event won’t get you a hug.
Apologize for the impact the event had on the customer. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you” is a way to move forward into the recovery process without having to admit culpability for the OOPS!

And when it’s your fault own it! Your currency in the customer’s eyes depends on your honesty.

2. Shut up about company policy

NEVER quote company policy to justify what was done to piss the customer off. EVER!
People don’t care about them your and to remind them that they ‘don’t understand’ how you do business and that they should have behaved differently will only anger them even more.

3. Don’t escalate

NEVER have the issue referred to a supervisor as a means of control; empower your employees to solve the problem then and there.
This gives your employees currency in the customer’s eyes and enables a fast resolution of the complaint. And gets you closer to a hug.

4. Personalize your surprise

Never use common ‘trash and trinket’ items as the surprise vehicle you use to move beyond merely fixing the OOPS!
People hate them. Develop a list of more personal surprise tokens that employees can choose from depending on what they learn about the customer during the complaint experience.

5. Have humans standing by

Have a real person standing by any of your self serve applications.
Complaint recovery cannot be suitably handled through automated systems. When is the last time you enjoyed being served by technology - like an automated voice messaging system - when you had a problem with an organization?

Every organization looks for an edge over their competitors, but most of them miss an obvious strategy that can truly separate them from the herd.

Be the ONLY one that leans into customer anger and takes its energy to earn a hug — hugs breed success.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.16.18 at 03:44 am by Roy Osing
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