October 11, 2020

My 50+ audacious podcast shows will help you and your business soar

Check out these podcast shows—over 75 now!—where I break down my seventh book, Audacious Unheard-of Ways, and show you how to grow your business and your career.

***NEW! In this episode Chris Dubois and I break down the Moves I made and the Methods I used to incorporate the right business toolset to stand apart from the herd and get a BILLION DOLLARS IN SALES! Unbound

***NEW! “Business plans are traditionally too expensive, they take too much time, they’re too rigid, and they’re not properly implemented. Roy Osing advises on his Strategic Game Plan with a rule of three: focus on the three things that will produce 80% of your results.
Beware, though, of being diverted by what he calls the “Yummy incoming”, the distractions that will pull you away from your game plan.” — Chris Ashmore, for Business Essentials Daily. Don’t Be Distracted by YUMMY!

***NEW! “We All Live in Red Oceans” podcast on Business is Blumin!
Some people preach that you should look for a “Blue Ocean” where you have ZERO competition. That would be nirvana, but for most business leaders, we have to learn how to win in “Red Oceans” with hungry competitors and powerful customers.
Listen and learn how I not only survived in a Red Ocean, I grew a startup business to A BILLION IN SALES!

***NEW! “Osing’s mantra—be different or be dead—has been the backbone of his audacious journey, driving him to constantly innovate to create ripples of value for his customers.
Osing dissects the magic of differentiation through offering customer experiences that customers can’t resist while ensuring that you’re the only game in town offering it.
This discussion is peppered with personal encounters of working with small companies, outlining the significance of differentiation, and the power of prioritizing the customer experience above all else.
Osing also dives into the world of audacious Leadership by Serving Around and how this seemingly simple idea can pave the way to success in business.” The Power of Differentiation and Audacious Leadership

***NEW! In this Mindset for Growth Show, we unpack my crazy secrets to growing a startup TO A BILLION IN SALES. They’re not complicated but they work.
Pick one gem to try and see what happens! From a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES | Part Two

***NEW! “Ready for a jaw-dropping journey into the world of audacious entrepreneurship? I just had a mind-blowing chat on the Grownlearn Podcast with none other than Roy Osing, the genius who took a startup to a BILLION in annual sales!
We spilled the beans on “The Audacious Entrepreneur’s Guide: Roy Osing’s Journey to a Billion in Annual Sales.” From crafting bold brands to tackling those make-or-break business moments, Roy’s story is nothing short of extraordinary.”

From a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES | Part One.
What’s the motivation to BE DiFFERENT? Why go on this “painful” journey? Why put up with the backstabbing? Why be The ONLY One? The Mindset Growth Podcast.

In this episode, I discuss why most organizations are too myopic in their #sales #strategy, pushing monthly or quarterly goals rather than embracing a long-term strategy for effective sales. I share my ‘customer report card’ Move to refocus sales teams on nurturing the customer rather than foisting pushy sales techniques. Business Essentials Daily

In this Chasing Happiness episode, we strip the layers of a journey that transformed a startup into a billion-dollar powerhouse.
Roy Osing, a maverick in the business world, shares his unfiltered, raw insights on what it takes to scale the heights of entrepreneurial success. From laughable mistakes to strategic masterstrokes, get ready for a rollercoaster ride of emotions and lessons.” Turning Bold Ideas Into Billions

The Audacious Unheard-of Ways of Using Practical and Common Sense Strategies to Drive Success, The Disruptive Minds Podcast

“Special guest Roy Osing shares very thought-provoking and audacious ideas to help you differentiate yourself from your competition, so you can achieve your goals sooner rather than later and maybe even exceed what you thought possible. This is a must listen to interview.”, The Accountability Podcast

Audacious Leadership is all about breaking away from the normal way leaders practice their art. In this ‘Biz Gone Social’ show we explore the Moves I made to successfully grow a startup to A BILLION IN SALES! Biz Gone Social Podcast

“Roy discusses the importance of breaking out of the “sameness” that businesses have accepted as the norm and standing out to be the ONLY ONE doing……(fill in the blank). We discuss practical ways to make that happen and touch on some of the points from Roy’s many books.”, Customer First Podcast

“This week I was lucky enough to interview a very cool and articulate guy named Roy Osing. One of the highlights of Roy’s illustrious career was driving a company to a BILLION in annual sales. Roy documented his journey in a book - not the ordinary how-to textbook type - but based on what he did differently to actually grow a business to a billion in annual sales.
Let’s fly all the way to Vancouver and explore Roy Osing’s ocean of thoughts through his book ‘Be Different or Be Dead’!”,  The First Customer Podcast

A Journey to A BILLION in Annual Sales. “Join me this week as I talk with Roy Osing, Author of “BE DiFFERENT or be dead,” about his journey to bring his company to $1 billion in annual sales. Roy and I talk about how he reached this milestone through learning on the run, “leadership by serving around” and building trust and consistency within his organization. Roy shares many tips that he has implemented throughout the years and encourages front line recognition and a strong culture to create a successful team.” The Positive Polarity Podcast

From a Startup to a Billion Dollar Sales. “In this episode, host Michael Brooks dives deep into the world of business success with Roy Osing, a renowned business advisor with a remarkable journey. Roy takes us through the audacious strategies he employed to take a small data company and grow it into a billion dollar industry behemoth. If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or aspiring leader looking for practical, real-world strategies to scale your business, this episode is a goldmine of insights you can’t afford to miss!”. The Scaling Edge Podcast

Growing Business at an Audacious Level, Your Spectacular Life
The Audacious Unheard-of Ways Roy Osing took a Startup to A BILLION IN SALES. “Roy provides tangible tips and frameworks for developing effective business strategies, leading teams, standing out from the competition and more. You’ll come away with new perspectives and motivation to take your business to the next level.” The Profit Answer Man Show
Famous Interview with Roy Osing. “ Roy is a stellar man with a grand vision and unique walk .. very cool cat….” Joe Dimino, Neon Jazz

Unleashing Audacity: Being DiFFERENT and Dominating the Market. “ This is an episode you won’t want to miss, packed with practical advice, proven strategies, and audacious ways to break away from the norm. Join us in the conversation and learn how to stand out in today’s competitive business landscape. So, tune in, get inspired, and learn how to be audaciously different.” Financial Freedom for Physicians
How a Guy Took A Startup To A Billion In Sales. “Dive into the remarkable journey of Roy Osing, a true powerhouse in the business world. Roy has seen it all and done it all.”, The Pete Primeau Show
Breaking Away From The Herd: Why it’s critical to break away from the herd, be different and the key elements of an audacious leader, The Audacious Living Podcast
How to be the ONLY ONE who does what you do, In Turn Podcast
How to Avoid Being Forgotten, Design your Legacy
Keys to a Great Sales Team, Business Essentials Daily
Standing out. Defining the Fox. Being The ONLY One, Remarkable People

Your Mistakes Could Win You Business, Business Essentials Daily
Differentiation. Why? Why now? Ian Selbie Sales Pro
Being Memorable with Dazzling Customer Service, Business Essentials Daily
What’s Wrong With Blue Ocean Strategy? Business Essentials Daily
How to Build a Remarkable Personal Brand, Author to Authority
How to Stand Out, Spark The Genius

You Can’t Sell People on Ideas Alone, You Must Deliver Results, Time to Shine Today
Building a Unique One-of-a-Kind Business Strategy, Business Essentials Daily
Executing Bold Moves to Unlock Billion-Dollar Growth, The UNLOCKED Show
A Journey to A BILLION IN SALES, From Embers to Excellence
Roy Osing Helps People Cut Through The Noise, Life’s Essential Ingredients

Don’t run with the herd! Business Essentials Daily
How Being Different is the Real Path to Success, Hurricane H
Small Business Mobes for Unbelievable Growth and Success, Time to Thrive Show
How to be Audaciously Different, The KAJ Masterclass LIVE Podcast
Why Compliance Sucks, , Coaching in Session

I’m a guy who took a startup to A BILLION IN SALES, The 12|30 Podcast
Win In A Competitive World With Strategic Differentiation, CPA Marketing Genius
Roy Osing, The Original “How To” Guy, Online for Authors
How to Outperform Your Competition and Achieve Astonishing Growth, Biz Help for You
How I Took a Startup to a Billion in Sales, SalesPop!

The Contrarian Leader, The Introspective Manager
How to Use Books as a Strategic Tool to Standout, The Author Factor
How to Build Your ONLY Statement to Declare Your Uniqueness, Mind for Success
How to Build a Remarkable Personal Brand, Stuck in My Mind

Satisfy Cravings not Needs, Business Essentials Daily
Avoid the Price Trap, Business Essentials Daily
Breaking Through the Noise: Building a Winning Brand that Stands Out From Everybody Else, Curate Your Success
BE DiFFERENT or be dead, Deep Conversations with Dope Individuals

Hiring people Who Like People, Business Essentials Daily
Making Your First $1 Billion, Late Boomers
Debunking Leadership Myths, Business Essentials Daily
The Audacious Communications Skills I Learned as a Leader with Roy Osing, Publicly Speaking with Peter George
Breakaway from Boring! Be Different, Be Audacious, Straight Talk About Small Business Success
Avoid the CLAPTRAP and Move to the ONLY, Weekly Wins and Losses with James Heppner

Differentiating for Success, Success for Life
Creating an ONLY Statement to Differentiate Your Organization, Lubar Executive Education
How to Differentiate your Business and YOU, Terminal Value
Being an Audacious Leader is about Breaking away NOT Pivoting, Leading to Fulfillment
How’s That for Marketing, Leadership Powered by Common Sense

To Have a Successful Career, It’s Important to be YOU, Pursuit of Relentless
It’s Not Complicated. Look Here For the Roy’s Simple Stuff That Works, Business That Matters
Don’t be #1… be the ONLY ONE, Business Essentials Daily
Behind the Numbers is a Different Leader that ‘Lights Fires in People , Behind the Numbers
Be Audacious with Roy Osing, Straight Talk No Sugar Added

Be Audacious and Different, OR Be Dead, InnovaBuzz
Roy Osing’s Leadership Rules for being Audaciously Different, Zoe Routh on Leadership
How to Break Out, Be Different and Make an Audacious Impact, Evolution of Brand
Here’s What Sales Must Do To Succeed In 2022, The Confessions of a Sales Pro
Be Different or be dead Leadership, Tech Pro Unicorn

The ONLY way to Build a Great Business, Hive with Us
From a Startup to a BILLION, Science of CX
Audacity or Death, Fire in the Belly
If Your Sales isn’t Different, it’s dead (or soon will be), The Business of Sales
Going Boldly is about Being DiFFERENT, Russ the Big Guy
Audacious Leadership - Why it’s Absolutely Critical to your Organization’s Success, Lubar Executive Education

Why Innovation Needs You Need to be an Audacious Leader, Mind the Innovation
Roy’s Unheard-of Ways to Achieve A BILLION IN SALES, Aim to Win
How to be Different and Audacious, Leadership is Changing
An Audaciously Different Brand Story, BrandAPeel: Brand Storytelling in a Digital Age
To Live Your Best Life, Live Label Free (But BE DiFFERENT), Label Free Podcast

Cheers,
Roy

Order your copy of ‘Audacious’ NOW at:

Amazon
Google Books
Barnes and Noble
Indigo.chapters.ca
Books-A-Million
Indie Bookstore
Bookshop.org

• Posted 10.11.20 at 06:23 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

September 7, 2020

4 proven ways to deliver the best customer service

Source: Unsplash

4 proven ways to deliver the best customer service.

Blowing the socks off your customers is not a one act play; it’s a synchronized series of continuous actions that is repeated throughout an organization day in and day out.

Consistently delivering amazing service requires a carefully thought out service strategy, with two essential elements: core service — what you deliver to people — and the service experience — how they feel when it is delivered.

Core service

Core service is the basic product or service you provide the market.
Without a core service you don’t have a business.
If you’re in the communications business, for example, your core services are defined by your product portfolio and include television entertainment, internet and mobile services as well as billing and repair services.

If you’re in the hospitality world, your core service includes clean rooms, interesting surrounding attractions and good food.

Core service is not a source of customer loyalty. Customers expect their internet service to work every time they use it; they are not dazzled when it actually works — I’ve never heard a customer say ‘WOW! I’ve just sent an email and it was sent through the internet incredibly well — it was delivered just the way I wrote it.’

Likewise I don’t recall anyone saying ‘OMG! My hotel room was so clean it was a Rembrandt in every way.’

Customers expect your core service to deliver on its promise and work flawlessly every time, and when it does they give you a ‘C’ on your service report card. Meeting expectations earns you and average rating and that’s all.
On the other hand, when the internet service doesn’t work or the hotel room is a mess, the customer is extremely dissatisfied and quickly tell their friends and family how crummy their service provider is.

The bottom line is if you want to earn the right to build a loyal customer base, you must deliver consistent core service as your foundation.

The service experience

The service experience is the critical layer of service that must be wrapped around your core service. It’s the feelings layer that answers the question “How do you feel when you receive your provider’s core service?”
— How would you rate the experience of signing up for internet service?
— How do you feel about the cleanliness of your hotel room?
— How’s your patience after waiting 40 minutes in a call center queue for a rep?
— Do you feel honoured and respected by your financial advisor?
— Are your questions met with friendliness and charm by the service people you reach out to?

On the back of consistent core service, the source of customer loyalty is the service experience; dazzling a customer will get you an ‘A’ — or excellent — on your service report card and they will keep coming back and tell everyone else how wonderful you are.

Amaze = deliver consistent and seamless core service for each and every customer transaction and dazzle them when you do it

How does an organization create dazzling experiences for their customers and amaze them?

Source: Unsplash

#1. Hire people who like humans

First, they need to recruit people who like to deal with other people. How can any organization provide amazing service if their people don’t like homo sapiens?

The most critical step if you want to amaze your customers is to hire people with the innate desire and ability to serve and please others

Why is it that we run into service people who obviously hate their job and would rather be taking inventory or working with technology rather than real people?
Why is it that frontline positions are filled with people who have a lot of seniority in an organization but basically don’t like working with other people?
Ever been in a restaurant and have been afraid that the server would either throw something at you or subject your underdone steak to the germ population residing on the floor of the kitchen?

First of all, there is no more important position in any organization that one that deals directly with the public.
These people should be called, as Tom Peters once called them, ‘Supreme Commanders’. They literally control all aspects of an organization that involve its brand: honesty, integrity, caring attitude, responsiveness and overall service quality.

In any call center operations, reps handle thousands of ‘moments of truth’ every single day! Do you think they could influence customer perception toward the company and subsequent decisions to buy a product or service?. No question.

Second, why would the leadership of the organization put anyone into such an important job if they didn’t have the requisite skills and attitude to serve other people? Beats me but they do.
I believe this dysfunctional behavior is due to the fact that they look at these positions as entry level junior jobs rather than a career destination responsible for influencing customer loyalty and long term profitability.

These actions can be taken to make sure you get people obsessed with serving people in frontline positions.

Ask the right question — Ensure the recruitment guide asks the right questions to expose this virtue. I find that there are many of what I would call hygiene questions asked, but rarely do I find that the ‘love’ questions are absent to any significant degree.

Come right out and ask the candidate ‘Do you love people?’ and then ask them to describe 3 situations that proved it. You can tell quickly if the person is suitable to turn loose on your most valuable assets (customers) or not.
The ‘lover’ will tell you a story that makes you tingle; the rest will tell stories that leave you cold. Hire the ‘tinglers’.

Engage leaders in the interview — Have a senior person (an executive leader is the best choice) in the organization to participate in the panel interview process — I did this all the time.
This achieves three purposes:
— it shows people in the organization that hiring frontliners is a critically important matter;
— the candidate understands how serious the organization is about getting ‘people lovers’ in these positions;
— it enhances the richness of the interview itself in terms of the questions senior people bring to the table.

Don’t look to training for the solution — Can you train people to like people?
My experience is a resounding NO! You either have an innate proclivity to like humans or you don’t; no amount of training will change that. Training might influence how you behave — talk with a smile in your voice for example — and as long as the customer interaction is scripted you might get away with it.

The reality is, however that customers can’t always be scripted and sooner or later the trained frontliner will have to rely on their natural abilities to handle a challenging customer in an elegant and memorable way.

Be proactive in finding the ‘lovers’ — You should always have a frontline recruitment program underway to ensure that you are gathering the best people lovers you can to fuel the funnel created by employee turnover.
Tag ‘em early by going to schools at all levels and spotting the chosen ones.

#2. Recover from your service blunders

The second source of customer amazement is how service breakdowns are handled. Typically service breakdowns include such things as a broken promise made to a customer, a product or service that doesn’t work the way the manual says it should, billing mistakes or service repairs that need to be redone because they weren’t completed right the first time.

The solution to these missteps is called service recovery and it’s formula is simple:

Service recovery = fix the screw-up and do the unexpected.

Let’s face it when you screw a customer over, they expect you to fix it. But they’re not particularly blown away when you correct your error; they don’t say ‘WOW I can’t believe you actually remedied what you screwed up!’
This is where most companies fall short. They actually believe that by merely fixing their mistake the customer will be satisfied and their obligations will have been fulfilled.

The rule of recovery: fix the mistake fast and then blow the customer away by surprising them with something they don’t expect

If your goal is merely to satisfy a customer, you may be content with having a fix it capability that is incredibly efficient. But if you want to create the ability to consistently build customer loyalty and earn their lifelong trust you need to go further.
You need to move from a positive response to ‘Were you satisfied with what we did to fix our service screw up?’ to ‘Did we blow you away with what we did to recover from our mistake?’

The surprise factor

If you choose the path of wanting to delight your customers and create memorable service experiences for them, you need to understand that the source of of an amazing experience is doing what the customer doesn’t expect. The challenge, therefore is to discover exactly what that little bit extra is and for them to do it in a way that makes their eyes bulge out with amazement.

And the key is that the surprise act must be relevant to the customer. Providing something extra for the customer that doesn’t resonate with their needs, wants and desires will leave them scratching their head.
And it’s not about coming up with a boilerplate trash-and-trinket program that provides the same bland response to every customer — you’re wasting your money.
The surprise must have personal meaning to the customer otherwise it will be ineffective — in fact could make matters worse!

The surprise must also be extremely compelling to the customer; it must be a high priority with them if you want to impress them.
This is the emotional component of recovery. A compelling act will stir the emotions and make the customer believe you actually care about them.

Customer secrets and speed

The successful surprise requires that you need to understand what makes the person screwed over tick; what turns them on and what action on your part would most likely trigger an emphatic emotional response. You need to know their secrets — reread ‘How to build an amazing marketing machine’.

You can be relevant and compelling in your recovery act, but if you take a week to get it done, forget it. Your investment will be worthless.
Studies have found that you have about 24 hours to get it done; after that, the ability to capitalize on the screwup and build stronger customer loyalty goes down the tube.

If you make a mistake and recover in a dazzling way, the customer is more loyal to the organization than they were prior to the screw up

If recovery is such a critical element in building customer loyalty, why are there very few organizations that have a recovery service strategy? I suspect it’s because no one likes to admit that they will have a service OOPS! from time to time; they pride themselves on trying to get it right the first time. But if you know that mistakes will happen from time to time — and they will — and that there is tremendous strategic value in recovering well — and there is — why wouldn’t you have a plan on the actions to take when the event happens?

In my past role as Business Services VP with a major telecommunications company, one of the elements of our service strategy was: ‘If we fail, Recovery will be our #1 priority’.
We had a specific recovery plan that, for each customer segment, provided the range of recovery actions that could be considered to respond to an OOPS! and the level of recovery investment necessary given the value customers represented to the company — the higher the value, the more robust the recovery actions requiring greater investments.
And substantial training was given to all employees to ensure they understood the power of the strategy and what to do when a screwup occurred.

5 key recovery takeaways

▪️Recovery = fix it and do the unexpected;
▪️Do something personal; make it relevant and compelling;
▪️Know your customers’ secrets;
▪️Get it done in less than 24 hours;
▪️Build a detailed recovery strategy.

#3. Kill your own ‘dumb rules’

One of the most effective ways to create memories for your customers, amaze them and earn their loyalty is to break your own rules to favour them when it makes absolute sense to do so.
This opportunity normally arises when your rules clash with what the customer wants; they simply don’t want to play by them.

Dumb rules

‘Dumb rules’ are given birth usually by some control freak in the organization with a nonsensical purist view that a customer should behave in a certain way that serves the organizations purpose with little regard for whether or not a customer will react favourably to getting treated in the prescribed manner.

One of my favorite dumb rule stories took place at The Mirage Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. There is a wonderful deli in the casino that serves the best rueben sandwiches ever but the customer friendliness of their policies sucks.
My wife and I show up late one night and asked the hostess for a booth and were told flatly that our request was not possible since it was their policy to offer booths only for parties of 6 or more.
I get that management wanted to maximize the check value from these specific seats, but in this case the store was empty save my wife and me! Maximizing revenue beyond the two of us was an impossibility!

In my experience the fathers and mothers of dumb rules can be found in staff type jobs whose role is to develop and implement operating procedures to govern, among other things, customer transactions. In these circumstances the objective is to meet internal requirements like efficiency and productivity rather than ensuring rules enhanced the customer experience.

And, unfortunately where customers are not considered the prime target for the rule or policy they become collateral damage in the rule’s application; they are mistreated and tell hundreds of other people how crummy the organization’s service is.

But there is a way to both have your cake and eat it to. You can both realize efficiency gains by applying the rule to the masses and bending or breaking the rule for those few customers who don’t accept it and push back on you.

The apply-the-rule scenario gets you the productivity gains you want from the majority of your customers who are ok with it; the bend-or-break-the-rule scenario avoids the pain of an unpleasant customer encounter and impresses them and makes them more loyal to your organization.

When apply-the-rule is winning

You’re in loyalty do-do when apply-the-rule is winning. If your frontline employees spend a great deal of their time enforcing the rules, policies and procedures of your organization and, as a result, are constantly saying ‘no’ to your customers nothing good comes of it — loyalty is threatened — and employee engagement is in jeopardy because being a rule enforcer is not a rewarding role to play in any job.

Job frustration can eventually lead to employees finding another organization where day to day existence isn’t so painful.

Employees can’t create delightful moments for customers when they are constantly trying to get someone to tow the line on something they don’t agree with — empower your frontline to ‘say yes’

I’m not suggesting that a frontline person should break a rule that would violate the law, but they should have permission to bend-or-break an internal policy that has no significant negative long term consequences for the organization.

When you test your policies

Rules and policies impact people differently; each person will react to an enforce-the-rule encounter in a different way; some will be ok with having to comply with the rule while others will go postal.

One way to anticipate how your customers will likely respond to one of your rules is to ask them before it is implemented. Unfortunately I’ve never witnessed a process where detailed due diligence is done to brainstorm the negative reactions that customers may have to a particular rule or policy that is being considered, but there should be.

Given that customers are likely to respond to a rule in ways we never imagined, the only solution (if you want to protect and grow customer loyalty) is empower your frontline people to bend one of your standardized rules, policies or procedures when the customer needs a different treatment; when their needs are quite reasonable but out-of-bounds to what the policy manual says.

To those who think that empowering frontline folks will result in them giving away the shop, stop worrying. They won’t.

In my experience, empowering them to use their judgment and determine when and how a rule should be bent-or-broken actually produces a greater degree of rule enforcement as they typically reserve flexible treatment for those customers who truly need it.

Once given the latitude to apply flexibility to policy enforcement, they actually take a more active role in advocating the company’s position behind the policy.

When frontline people are allowed to control the bend-or-break process, the organization is rewarded by a customer who is blown away by how they are being treated and how humane the organization is. And they tell others how truly great you are.

The solution: the dumb rule committee

How do you go about identifying and killing these ugly loyalty threateners?

Go ask your frontline what dumb rules they are constantly having to deal with. They know them but do you have the courage to listen and do something about them?

I created dumb rules committees in the operations areas of my organization and appointed a dumb rules leader for each committee whose responsibility it was to seek out and destroy (or otherwise modify) rules that made no sense to customers and drove them crazy.

Fun was had by all over this concept. Everyone, particularly the frontline, welcomed this initiative; they all were passionate about the purpose; we made real progress.

We had contests among the committees to see who could come up with the most dumb rules to kill, and we celebrated the winners. The committees were expected to not only identify rules, policies and procedures that annoyed customers, they were also charged with the responsibility of eradicating them by taking whatever action was necessary to get it done.

My role and that of my senior leaders was to remove any roadblocks preventing the committees from getting a rule dealt with.

Customer-friendly dumb rules

Certain rules are required by law or regulatory governance. First of all do your due diligence to make sure that the claim is real and not the posturing of a champion who doesn’t want their rule or policy removed. If the rule is necessary, however, then at least look for ways to make it customer friendly.

And reconsider how the rule is enforced with a customer; what communications strategy is used. Is it friendly and helpful or is it demanding and intimidating?
Take the time to design the customer communications content to minimize an adverse reaction; it’s not always possible but it is worth considered doing nevertheless.

If you are able to expunge even 20% of the dumb rules you have in your organization, your customers will reward you with their loyalty and your reputation will soon attract new customers as well.

#4. Bend your own rules; empower your frontline to ‘say yes’

Even if you think you’ve purged all the dumb rules in your organization, I guarantee there will be some residual ones that some customers will find and it’s crucial you have a strategy to deal with them.

You can’t amaze customers if your frontline is enforcing rules all the time; telling them what they can and can’t do to comply with the company’s position.
Saying NO! constantly does nothing to endear someone to you; it’s a de-dazzling event that won’t encourage any sense of loyalty.

Allow your customer contact people — and systems — a certain amount of flexibility to bend the rules when it makes sense to do what the customer wants.
Most organizations limit this type of empowerment; they are unwilling to trust that their people will make sensible decisions that will favour the customer and the company.

When a rule is bent for a customer, they feel listened to, respected, honoured — and amazed, when it occurs.

An amazed customer is a loyal customer who provides a never ending stream of sales to an organization and pulls their friends with them

To recap

If you want to amaze your customers and have them for life, do these 4 things:

▪️Hire people who love people;
▪️Recover from your service screw-ups with a SURPRISE! factor;
▪️Eliminate the dumb rules in your organization;
▪️Allow customer facing employees to bend your rules and ‘say yes’ most of the time.

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

• Posted 9.7.20 at 04:16 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

June 10, 2020

Why being sorry is the secret to great customer service

Source: Unsplash

It’s counterintuitive perhaps, but if ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t in your customer service playbook you’re missing the opportunity to create amazing experiences for your customers.

And be rewarded for it.

No apology = no service recovery = no customer

The service recovery chain goes like this:

— You screw-up;

— You acknowledge that you screwed up;

— You apologize;

— You atone for your sins;

— You fix the problem to the customer’s expectations;

— You blow the customer away by doing something they DON’T expect.

A failure to apologize breaks the chain and a de-dazzling event (with a loss of customer loyalty) ensues.

So, lose your ego.

Take responsibility for your actions.

Its not about culpability, its about empathizing with the customer and feeling bad that you screwed them around.

Being human, not an impersonal organization.

Some claim an apology will actually reduce settlement claims for major screw-ups.
That said, the short term economics of “I’m Sorry” are overshadowed by the long term loyalty you achieve by not breaking the chain and having a mind-blowing Service Recovery.

Be at ease with apologizing; it’s a strategic act.

Make no mistake about it.

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

• Posted 6.10.20 at 12:59 pm by Roy Osing
• Permalink

May 4, 2020

Customer service needs a major change for 4 simple reasons

Source: Unsplash

Customer service needs a major change for 4 simple reasons.

I’m really tired of hearing, reading and seeing claims organizations make about the customer service they provide.

They know if they don’t deliver great service, customers have many other options to consider. So they make outrageous declarations about the level of service they provide, and if they were all completely accurate our markets would be inundated by superlative service providers and customers who are blown away constantly.

But of course, this isn’t the case. In fact I’m inundated with complaints from people who are pissed off constantly with the service they receive from most of the organizations they deal with (I know there are exceptions, but most companies are challenged to make their service words and music actually line up).

Here’s why customer service needs a major do-over.

Because many policies are stupid

When a customer runs into an organization’s rule or policy they don’t understand or that doesn’t allow them to engage with the organization the way they want to, they freak out.
“I’m sorry we can’t sell you the T-shirt on the mannequin, it’s for display purposes only” pretty well describes the condition that drives customers crazy.

Or “You and your wife can’t be seated in a booth for your meal because booths are reserved for parties of four or more.” — BUT THERE’S NO ONE ELSE IN THE RESTAURANT!

The rules and policy systems in organizations need a major do-over.

Rules and policies in organizations are for the most part conceived to control customer engagement not to enable it. The auditors and folks in risk management define the process that satisfies internal concerns without regard for customer impacts.

Internal policies are a major “POF” in too many organizations and need a do-over to allow customers to transact with organizations in an easy manner; to empower THEM to define the rules of the game.

Because many service people don’t like humans

There are too many people in customer service jobs that shouldn’t be there because they don’t like dealing with humans.
You can spot them: they avoid eye contact, they try and move through you as fast as possible, they are borderline bullies and they could care less whether they satisfy you or not.

Recruitment practices need a major do-over.

Customer service should be treated as a priority in every organization and command the resources necessary to acquire the best, most caring people to work for their customers.
Why is it that the engineering function is paid more attention than customer service in terms of the quality of people hired? I’m not saying service is more important than engineering, but it’s at least as important.
What should you look for in recruiting new service people? Goosebumps.

Because cost trumps care

Leadership in most organizations view the service function as a cost to be controlled. For example, call centers are first consolidated and then outsourced to somewhere is the world where labour costs are low.

And they are managed to internal KPI’s such as call holding times — get the customer off the call as quickly as possible — without regard to call answer wait times at all. It seems leaders really don’t care that people wait 45 minutes to speak to a call center rep.
What’s important is that the costs of providing customer service are held in check.

The philosophy of running a service operation needs a do-over.

Customer service should be measured on how effective they are in creating memorable experiences for customers, not cost management. They should be viewed as a key driver of customer loyalty rather than a call processing cost reduction machine. There are very few examples of organizations that practice this philosophy, unfortunately, but one does exist.

Because service drives sales

As sales moves away from the product-flogging mentality to a focus on building strong relationships with clients, the importance of serving them in every way possible is on the rise. Clients are more likely to buy a product or service from a salesperson who listens well, takes the time to explore options, is always available and who is naturally empathetic with the client’s circumstances.

How the client feels about the sales engagement experience is rising to be the most critical element of their decision making process — whether they buy or walk.

The sales process needs a service do-over.

Serving a client in a caring way with the objective of creating a great experience for them should be a prime outcome of the sales engagement process because how clients FEEL about the sales experience determines whether they buy or not.
And the sales kit bag should be modified to include serving skills and methods in addition to traditional sales techniques.

For organizations aspiring to deliver unmatched customer service, they need to blow up the traditional sales model and be prepared to replace their operating model with a philosophy that places a priority on the service function.

Past service practices need to be replaced with new serving practices that focus on the experience created with a customer and the belief that a customer who is emotionally connected with an organization will buy — and continue to buy.

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 5.4.20 at 05:45 am by Roy Osing
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