Toyota had that opportunity. But they missed their moment. Big time.

How a company reacts, removes the pain, and repairs the emotional connection shows the true colors of that organization more than almost any situation they might encounter.

An apology when it is executed well is an important peace process between a customer and a company. It repairs the emotional connection. It is swift, it is deliberate, and it makes the recipient feel that they have been listened to, honored and made whole again. Five actions make up that peace process:

1. Delivering a swift response.

2. Showing humility and empathy for what the customer is experiencing

3. Accepting accountability.

4. Providing and honest explanation of what happened.

5. Immediately extending an olive branch – to right the situation and mend the relationship.

The sadness most of us have in watching, experiencing and hearing about what has transpired in the events of the Toyota situation unfolding is that our expectations of this “great” automaker were not met in how they handled the situation. Not even close.

All the opportunities were in place for Toyota to display the type of heroics that move a brand to cult status. Toyota had all the components that Tylenol had to call on when they made the decisions and took the actions that continue to hold that brand up as the gold standard in customer apologies and catastrophe recovery. As Tylenol had, Toyota had the following conditions in place upon which they could decide and act for their customers and employees:

1. Toyota has a large community presence, enabling personal, community-based outreach.

For example; in a 72 hour period, starting September 29,1982 when seven people died in the Chicago land area after taking cyanide-laced capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol, it took Johnson & Johnson twenty minutes to decide “How do we protect the people?” With the golden rule strapped to their back, they set to work. With bullhorns blaring, Chicago health and law-enforcement officials swarmed Chicago-area streets, warning everyone not to take Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules and to bring in suspicious bottles for testing. Tylenol worked with local authorities, schools, even Boy Scout troops. Children were sent home from school with notes, and transit system workers formed a continuous human megaphone, spreading the word. Anti-cyanide kits were distributed to all paramedic units. Telephone drives run by the Boy Scouts and church and civic groups sent folks door-to-door to reach those who might have missed the warning.

What has been Toyota’s response in communities? Some dealerships have been given stipends [of about $25,000 for the entire dealership] to underwrite giving out coffee and giving away some free gas credit cards. But what about the missed opportunity to go beyond handing out coffee to customers who can drive in? What has been done proactively in communities to allay the fear that Toyota consumers feel? Here www.toyotarecall.org, consumers are helping each other to allay those fears.

2. Toyota knows the records of their customers and those who have been impacted, enabling them to reach out and personalize support.

Toyota’s communication has been within the “letter of the law” regarding recall communication, but does not go much farther than the standard letter and process to go in to get your car taken care of. Think of how rich an opportunity Toyota missed here, where they could have worked with dealerships after the initial notification letters went out, to customize content based on customers’ lives and loyalty to the brand?

In addition to the consumers who are identifiable, what about owners of resale vehicles? It does not appear that there has been thought or decisions made to consider and support the fear and worry that these owners are experiencing.

3. Toyota enjoys (enjoyed?) a “halo effect” of customers who were pleased with their vehicles, enabling them to build on that respect and emotional connection.

These Toyota vehicles meant reliability for their drivers. Peace-of-mind. For their owners, this meant that Toyota needed to extend that peace-of-mind in how they empathized and supported the drivers of their vehicles. The halo is tarnished.

4. Toyota has the communication infrastructure to have made their recovery a “wow” experience in terms of proactive, transparent information, process and support.

If Toyota’s decision making and actions had been driven by “How do we protect the people?” rather than “How do we protect our brand, and how do we mitigate our losses?” clearly what we have experienced and heard about would be different. The intent and motivation guiding Toyota’s [early days of the recall] decisions were clearly not connected to our perception of the brand. They certainly didn’t engender a human connection with the people behind the decisions. Now, with pressure, Toyota is becoming more transparent; they are offering more assistance – but under pressure, under duress.

How would you grade Toyota’s performance in delivering this peace process in how they’ve handled the news of their vehicle performance, the recall, and the customer and dealership experiences?Other articles you might like:

• Toyota Recall: The Brand Challenge
• Toyota has a customer service problem
• Why Are Big Brands Losing Customers?
• Put fun in your work
• What’s most important?

It seems that a couple of years ago she started an incentive program to increase add-on sales of bottled water, cookies, and other high margin items. She worked with vendors to sponsor the prizes, ranging from iTunes gift cards to iPods.

Employees were so enthusiastic about the incentive program that they were constantly asking Sandy to see the printout to determine how they were performing compared to their co-workers. The report was the only way that employees could see who on the team was generating the add-on sales.

That gave Sandy another idea. Instead of tracking the incentive program electronically and then letting people know how they were doing only when the report was printed, she decided to clank a stainless steel container with a metal spoon and hoot and holler just a bit to acknowledge—in the moment—when one of her team members had added sales.

In doing so, Sandy included an element of spontaneous recognition to the incentive program. This not only created additional enthusiasm among the team, it also created a stir with customers in the mall’s food court. All of sudden, customers were coming by to see what all the clanking and laughter was about. This increased store traffic in a competitive environment with plenty of other dining options to choose from.

A couple of weeks into the promotion, the staff got together and bought a cowbell for Sandy to use in place of her makeshift noisemaker. From there, the nickname “Cowbell Sandy” was inevitable.

The program was a huge success! Top producers were adding an average of $11.50 an hour in add-on sales. Team members were receiving constant recognition from an inspiring manager in a high-energy environment filled with enthusiasm—and customers!

How about you? Do you know a “Cowbell Sandy”? Or, maybe you are a “Cowbell Sandy”? If so, feel free to chime in…Other articles you might like:

• Should you pay employees for better customer service?
• Chicago Blackhawks beef up customer service with better fan feedback
• To Improve Customer Service, Find a Role Model
• How to make customer service a priority
• Hire smart to start

I wheeled my cart over to the counter with my three kids in tow.  I stood there.  Then I stood there some more.  Both of them made eye contact with me.  I stood there. I stood there some more. My 8 year old son asked “Don’t they see you standing here? Aren’t they going to help you?” “Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Let’s see how long it takes.” I replied. One of them then walked over to the sink and washed his hands. “Finally!” my 11 year old son muttered under his breath. Then, surprise, the clerk went over to a filing cabinet off to the side to get some paperwork.

Now, generally, I am a very patient, non-confrontational person. This situation was just outright funny at that point to me. “I guess we are all just invisible right now.” I said to my kids. At that point, the other clerk, let out a heavy sigh and SSSLLLLOOOOOWWWWLLLLLYYYYY walked over to where I was standing and unenthusiastically asked if he could help me. To be honest, had it not been for the fact that I needed sandwich meat for lunches tomorrow and I make it a personal policy not to mess with people who handle my food, I just asked for a pound of the turkey meat that was on sale.

The point to this story is that consistency is key.

I was in one location of a rather large supermarket chain. The deli counter should be consistent from location to location so that folks don’t spend time looking for something that is at one location, only to find it not being available at another (the pre-bagged sliced meat). The level of service should also be consistent among all staff at all locations. At my regular location, there are usually three or four clerks working and all jump right to attention when customers walk up, they are friendly, generous with their smiles, and get through the line of customers without giving the feeling of being rushed.

Because the consistency of service is low, I will be making every effort to NOT shop at the location I was at tonight. I will actually drive a few miles further to the store I frequently shop at because they think ahead for the customer by putting out the most popular items for easy purchase and are helpful when personal attention is needed. Think if this were not a large chain but two stand alone stores. Guess which one would do the better business and make the most profits? But, that may work out well for the two that were working behind the deli counter today because they didn’t seem to really want to make an effort anyway.Other articles you might like:

• You Lost My Sale Today
• Know your customer
• Plato Would Not Approve
• Customers like to be remembered
• How do your customers see your business?

Saturday, I had to work at Sparkspace. We don’t do a lot of Saturday meetings because we are primarily a business meeting space and most businesses don’t make their staff go to meetings on the weekend. It’s probably why we have very few revolts in this country.

You might be thinking, “Good golly, doesn’t he have staff he could make work on Saturday?”

Sadly, no. No, he doesn’t.

Like many businesses, we’re currently operating very lean and mean (ok, not mean…we’re actually lean and friendly). That means that two of us are now trying to do the work that eight of us used to do.

I realized this morning that my “superhero syndrome” that I thought had been cured was, in fact, only in remission. It took an extreme circumstance (a significantly downsized staff) to make it flare back up again.

You see, when I first started my business I did everything myself. I was Superman. I did the marketing, I did the bookkeeping, I made the coffee, I greeted every guest, I even cleaned the toilets!

Eventually, I was able to hire people to do many of those things. I took me a long, long time to learn how to delegate even the most simple tasks to others. But I did learn.

Then the economy nosedived and our staff shrank, so I’m back to doing many of my previously delegated tasks. Here’s what I realized on Saturday: I’ve taken it too far. I try to do too many things myself, even when I don’t have to!

I took my kids to work with me on Saturday. Surprisingly, they went willingly, and even cheerfully. In fact, they asked if they could HELP me at work! My immediate reaction was, “Who are you, and what have you done with my real kids?”

But they insisted. They really wanted to help.

Our building is locked on the weekend, so when we have a weekend event we have to have someone to let people in the front door. Typically, I would do that job myself while running back and forth to make coffee, greet guests, etc. The kids practically begged me to let them play doorboy and doorgirl.

I couldn’t have a 9 & 7 year old greeting people at the front door, could I? They would set off the alarm, they wouldn’t know what to tell people as they arrived, and they’d surely get into a no-holds-barred cage fight if left unsupervised for more than five minutes. No, I thought, this was a job I should do.

Then the wise voice of the Universe smacked me on the side of the head and said, “You can’t do it all. Let them help…especially since they really seem to want to.”

So I delegated the job to them, and they performed it amazingly well. Not just amazingly well for a 9 & 7 year old, but for anybody. They were friendly, they were helpful, they guided our guests to the elevator like a couple of professional tour guides, and there wasn’t a single cage fight! By delegating this job to them, we were actually able to perform way better customer service together than I ever could have all by myself.

In my mind now, I’m going through the hundreds of tasks and responsibilities that fall in my lap each week. There are probably a dozen or so that I really don’t have to do personally, but my superhero syndrome has been forcing me to do them instead of delegating.

If you’re a great service person, one of the worst things you can do is try to do everything yourself. You can’t be there all the time, and even if you could you’d probably burn out quickly! If you’re like me and you suffer from “superhero syndrome,” you need to work on a cure before your service really begins to suffer.

Delegation is one effective treatment. That might mean you have to train somebody, set more clear expectations, and even check up on your staff to make sure they’re doing what you want them to.

Think I didn’t check up on my 9 & 7 year olds at the front door? Are you nuts? They’re 9 & 7! Of course I checked up on them. And they totally surprised me by exceeding my expectations.

Lesson learned, life. Thanks for teaching me…again.Other articles you might like:

• Put customers before tasks
• For More Success Break Your Routines and Traditions
• Don’t Miss The Easy Opportunities!
• Walk a day in your employee’s shoes
• Beware of Doug…

I dropped by on the way home — unfortunately I arrived at 5 minutes past closing time. The doors were open, people were shopping and cash registers were open.

However, I was denied entrance. I asked if I could enter, explaining that I was there to pick up a specific item and that I knew exactly where it was located. No deal. The young man at the door had his orders. No one was allowed in after closing time.

I didn’t get my back-up remote. They lost the goodwill of a customer.

Which was worse?

My Perspective: This is a perfect example of the need for guidelines versus rules. It is difficult for rules to be flexible. But guidelines allow for real people to make decisions based on specific circumstances. Why was this employee not empowered to make a simple call on an issue?

Frequently I have discussions with clients that are based on a specific issue that has arisen. My advice is always to avoid creating a rule that will fix that issue — but to look for the guideline that would have prevented the issue.

Then you either need to create a guideline that will avoid numerous similar issues — or communicate the existing guideline better so people know how to work within it. We usually agree that communication and training is the issue versus creating a new guideline.

So the next time an issue arises and you are thinking about creating a rule — stop, and look for the root cause and focus your efforts there.

Do you need a new guideline — or do you just need to communicate the existing guidelines better?

By the way — I did get the remote — my wife was kind enough to drop by the next day and pick one up. But Staples never regained their goodwill.Other articles you might like:

• How can you help your customers?
• Make sure to communicate value when adding extra charges
• Help your customers get the outcomes they want.
• For more loyal customers, talk to them.
• Plato Would Not Approve

I ordered my usual steak kabob with plain baked potato.  When it arrived, I opened the bottle of steak sauce and proceeded to pour some onto my plate.  Unfortunately, what came out of the bottle was a very thin fluid of unknown origin, which spread all over my food. I notified the waitress and we poured more into a small cup.  The majority of what was in the bottle was the wrong color and consistency to be A1 Steak Sauce.

While my family began to eat their meals, I waited for my next attempt at dinner to arrive.

A short while later, the waitress brought my meal.  It looked great, but when I cut into my baked potato, a big portion of it was black.  It was completely unappetizing and at this point, I was hardly hungry anymore. I allowed the waitress to take the offending potato off my plate and ate a small portion of the kabob.

The strangest thing about this experience?

There was a manager on duty and though we were one of only three tables of diners, he never came over to apologize for the issues we were having.  He stayed behind the counter or in the kitchen. When our check arrived, we were billed for all of the meals as if everything had been just fine.  My husband politely asked if they would give us a discount on my dinner, since it never was properly served.  The waitress asked the manager, who stayed at the other end of the counter, then returned with an offer of a $3 discount.

Needless to say, we won’t be returning to what had once been one of our favorite restaurants.  Had the manager simply made an effort to apologize personally or offer to take my meal off the bill, we would have understood.  We’d had so many great experiences, we would have simply chalked it up to one difficult night in the kitchen at one of our favorite restaurants.  Instead, it seems like incompetent management, which will most likely mean many more difficult experiences if we ever choose to return.

From a customer service standpoint, I can’t help but wonder, what was this guy thinking?  Was he hesitant to talk to us because he thought we’d start yelling?  Did he think I was being too picky in choosing not to eat the food that had been flooded with weird sauce?  Why was he a manager if he lacked such basic skills?

What do you think?  What should this manager have done?  What would you do?Other articles you might like:

• Are Your Customer Service Recoveries Really Recoveries?
• Showing up is just not enough!
• Customer service and calorie counts
• Stop Saying “It’s Our Policy”
• Customers don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care

It is amazing how many people make it hard for their customers to do business with them. Everything from making finding their phone number on their website into an Easter Egg hunt (tip: have your phone number as the footer on every page or at least have a clear “contact us” navigation button) to responding to emails and phone messages quickly (tip: 24 hours is TOO long these days. People want to hear back the same day if at all possible)

People need/want to have what they want quickly. Anything you put in their way ends up costing you the customer. We all have way too many choices where to do business. Easy to do business with will end up winning.

Yes, even “free” services need to be convenient. An article in the Star Community Newspaper talks about Shelley Holley, who has taken over the roll of library director at the Frisco Public Library. Holley’s goal is to make her library relevant and convenient. She hopes to create a central area where where patrons can “…do things that sometimes now you have to go to several different areas of the library to do.” Holley said.

What can you do to make it EASY for your customer to do business with you?

Look at these areas, as your customer might:

Phone systems:

Have a friend or relative (who doesn’t know the secret routes) to try and call your business. We sometimes haven’t tried our own system since it was put in. If they they have to go through more than two sets of prompts you are NOT easy.

Email:

Again, have someone outside attempt to contact you by email. How long did it take to get their mail responded to?

Parking:

Is it easy to get into and out of your building. Sometimes you can control the parking but you can get innovative. Holiday Market has valet parking during holiday peak hours.

Returns:

Yes, people can take advantage of liberal return policies. But I know people who ONLY shop at stores that allow returns easily. If you feel the need to have policies to protect you than make sure that they are clearly marked EVERYWHERE (Ie. on the sales slip, on your website, at the cashier etc. It doesn’t hurt to have the salesperson say it out loud.

These are just a few of the ways you need to make your business easy. Now, let’s hear from you.

What have you done to make your business easy? Or, what have others done that have made it hard for you to do business with them. (A prize to the best response!)?Other articles you might like:

• Connect with your customers
• Meet your customers where they are
• Make sure your service HELPS your customers
• Engage Your Customers as You Get their Feedback
• Connect to your customers on their terms

Then we need to do it well. In fact we should do it better than anyone else in our market. And we need to do it that way with every customer every time no exceptions and no excuses.

But we all have a big obstacle that stands in our way. We never really know how good we are. Or, to be more precise, we never know how good our company is in the eyes of our customers. This is because we can only see our company from OUR perspective. If you’re the owner or manager or otherwise removed from the front line then your vision of your company is even more obscured.

However, there is a solution. There are people who see our companies as they really are. They see every transaction. They experience every customer contact. They understand exactly how our company delivers its products and services.

They’re called customers and employees.

No one else sees your company like they do. The sum of their experiences make up your company’s reputation, your corporate karma and in many ways, your brand. They alone know how well your company is doing.

The problem is (in most companies anyway) these two groups of people have no compelling reason to do anything with this information. They have no reason to remember it or to evaluate it in any way. Even worse, they typically have no way to share it with anyone.

Knowing this, you can do two things to help your company perform at its best.

First, create ways to tap this goldmine of information in your customers and employees. Build processes that ensure you are connecting with them on a regular, frequent and ongoing basis. And develop feedback mechanisms that make it easy for customers and employees to share what they know. The golden rule here is “get everyone involved”.

Second, create standards. These standards should tell your customers what to expect when they do business with you. And they should tell them why they should business with you. They’ll help differentiate you from your competition. Some companies call these “customer service standards”. Others call them a “brand promise”. What you call them is not as important as creating and publishing them.

When your employees have standards like these, they’ll know what experience they are accountable to deliver to their customers. It paints  a picture for them. It tells the customers what to expect every time they do business with you. And it gives management a roadmap and helps them know what they need to empower their employees to do.

Having these standards will help customers and employees know how to evaluate their actual experience against what’s expected. They’ll understand the goal, the actual expereince and the gap. This helps them more easily communicate that gap to management.

And that’s what you need to know. The gap tells you how good you really are. The gap that is identified by employees and customers is the only true measure of whether you’re giving your customers what they want.

Focus on that and you’ll increase customer loyalty like never before.Other articles you might like:

• Customer Retention Tip: Tell your customers what to expect
• Use customer service standards to engage customers and employees
• Know your company’s customer service standards or create your own
• You are your company’s brand
• Why Slogans are Worthless (and What You Should Use Instead)

This is the introductory letter to my USA Today home delivery I received with my first paper.  It was crafted, copied and conveyed by Hazel, my local newspaper carrier.  Take a look at its tone and information!

Research shows the number one concern of customers of home delivery newspapers is: “not getting a paper.”  Hazel’s letter deals with that loyalty driver right up front.  And, it clearly leaves you with the distinct impression you and your business are truly valued.

What are ways you can make your new customers feel important?  Are you addressing their concerns early and in a fashion that reflects authenticity and confidence?  Are you providing easy ways for them to communicate with you?  Are you offering a back-up plan in case they cannot reach you?

Imaginative service is not “rocket surgery!”  It’s simply making customers matter and carefully managing the details important to them.  Thank you, Hazel, for being a great example of service that is simply the best!Other articles you might like:

• Don’t always tell your customers the truth
• Little Things Make the Difference
• The power of a handwritten note
• The top five customer service mistakes companies make and how you can avoid them
• Imaginative Service: Honesty is not a policy

By simply putting writing that note she created the beginning of a relationship with me. Do you think I made sure I left another tip the next day? You betcha. I would guarantee that this woman receives more tips than her counterparts.

But, unless you are in a similar position you might wonder how this might help you and your business. In March I blogged about a Dentist who used handwritten notes to help his business.

No matter what business you are in, your customer will notice when you take the time to write them a note. It doesn’t matter if it is on the bottom of the invoice you send, a postcard, a thank you note or a letter. Just take the few extra seconds it takes to write a note.

We have become adept at using technology to communicate in a variety of ways. Twitter, Facebook, E-mails, IM’s, text messages allow us to instantly communicate to our friends and our customers. That’s great. Instant communication can keep our customers in the loop. But for making a real impact on our customer nothing can beat a handwritten note.

Write someone a note today. See what happens.Other articles you might like:

• Never Leave Your Customers Wondering
• Two Simple Rules for More Loyal Customers
• Customer service and Twitter
• Are You Listening To Your Customer
• Imaginative Service: Simply the best

Knowing I had a lot on my plate, my husband offered to find the warranty and pick up the replacement for me. What a relief! Poor guy, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. It should have been a simple process of dropping off the old printer and swapping it for a new one. Instead, the store had him jumping through hoops for two-and-a-half hours. First, they surprised him, saying that the store has a policy against swapping out printers. Then they gave him a phone number to call to have a new printer shipped to us.

He didn’t want to wait for a printer to be shipped so he asked if he could get a store credit or gift card to purchase a new one immediately. He had to phone in again, push multiple buttons, and finally reached an automated voice that gave him yet another phone number to call. When he called the next number, it was answered by a person with a robotic voice that wasn’t nearly as friendly as the automated system. “You can get a gift card,” she told him, “but it will have to be processed and mailed to you. Since it would be considered low priority it could take even longer than waiting for the printer to ship.”

Serving a customer who paid for a warranty is low priority? Hmmm. You would think that a store with such a complex automated system would also have a way to approve a gift card without making the customer go through a long waiting process.

Not willing to take no for an answer, my husband pressed them for an alternate solution. He was told that he could purchase an open boxed printer from their store and return it within fourteen days. The only problem was, they couldn’t guarantee what type of new replacement printer we would get, so we would take the risk of having to buy seventy dollars worth of printer cartridges that might not work in our replacement printer.

Frustrated, he settled on having the new printer shipped to us and vowed not to buy equipment from that store again. The customer service representative’s lack of both empathy and effort were surprising. Fortunately, there are several other computer stores nearby that can manage our needs in the future.

What do you think?

How can you make it easier for your customers to resolve problems quickly with minimal effort on their part?  Where in your company’s services flow could you redesign the process to create ease and efficiency?Other articles you might like:

• Don’t Make It Hard For Customers To Spend Their Money
• Here’s a Textbook Example of How to Chase Away Customers
• Are You Accountable?
• Yawn… I can’t wait to stop helping these customers and leave this place
• How Would Your Phone Calls Look in Person?

The outcome of their new-found focus on existing customers was revealing. They increased revenue from current customers by 15%. Even better, their referrals jumped over 100%.

As they focused more on existing customers, they no doubt did things that improved their relationships with them. And, probably they learned more what their customers wanted from them, how they were doing and what the current gap was. Perhaps they also took action to improve the service they delivered to their customers. (It makes sense they would.)

By doing all this they delivered a powerful message to their customers: You are important. We are here to serve you.

I’ve seen this happen time and again. When you honestly and sincerely reach out to your customers and ask them how you can do better, you build a stronger relationship. Your customers begin to see you less as a vendor and more as a partner. They see the value in having an ongoing, two-way exchange of ideas, feedback and best practices with you. This increases your value to them.

You become more important to them. You might even indispensable.

I think these numbers show how important this company became to their customers. By increasing referrals over 100%, their customers told them “we trust you”. It’s their way of saying, we want to help. Sometimes, it’s as much about bragging as it is helping. Either way, the increase in referrals is a sure sign this company built tremendous value and better relationships with their customers.

And they did it all by reaching out, by connecting with them.

How could you do something similar in your company?Other articles you might like:

• Amazing Customer Service Means Focusing on What Your Customer Wants, Not What You Want
• Seven reasons why customer relationships matter to your business
• Where are your sales and marketing efforts focused?
• Never Ask for Referrals
• Seven steps to more customer referrals

Need a simple way to reduce the pressure to discount your offing:  consistently exceed your customer’s expectations.

Simple.

But not always easy.

Give more than expected – deliver faster, add bonuses, giveaway extras, respond faster, increase your quality, and outperform your competition in all areas of customer service and support.

Give far more than expected and you will reduce your need to discount. Your price is justified by your actions.  Your customer will realize the benefit and value of doing business with your company.

Win-win.

Do you know of a better or more cost effective way to reduce the pressure to discount?

Other articles you might like:

• Open letter to David Allen
• Match your offer to the person you’re offering it to
• Intel’s Actions Speak Louder than Donations
• Do you really know what your customers want?
• Be consistent then great!

A ticked off IT guy once told me, “Hey, our customers would not be customers for long if my department wasn’t working hard on the computer systems that run everything, but do we get credit? Are we highlighted throughout the company? No. The only ones who get any good attention are the customer service people. We all have to hear about their successes and how they make our company what it is today. I’d like to see them try to use their smiles and attention without my department running 24/7 in the background. There wouldn’t be a business without us.”

Ouch! Sounds like his company has not created a customer service culture. This IT guy, just like all the other employees at his company, are “internal” customers.  Your internal customers are made up of all the people that are impacted by the work you do.  Let’s use the example of the administrative assistant.  While her external customers are the people that call in to the business, some of her internal customers would be the people whose calls she screens or the accounts receivables people for whom she sorts incoming checks.

Are some of your internal customers going unnoticed? They need to benefit from the same effort that is used to make customers fall in love with your company.

While it’s vital to share the successes of your customer service heroes, it’s just as vital to celebrate the internal customer service heroes.  Celebrate the successes of each department and the people who show passion and accomplishment in their work. Notice them and SHARE the good news. Don’t keep it a secret.

This guy’s IT department has practically no interaction with customers. HOWEVER, what they do dramatically affects the customer’s experience with the company. Does your company highlight HOW each department affects your customers? Do the various departments in your company feel appreciated or celebrated?  Would you treat a customer the way you treat your employees? If not, why not?  I’d love to hear from you. Do you have an example of how your company loves up their internal customers?

Please click on the word ‘comment’ below right now and share.Other articles you might like:

• 23 Ideas to be a better boss
• Make the Most of Customer Service Week 2008
• Make customer service fun
• Walk a day in your employee’s shoes
• Has the Recession Improved Customer Service?

“Cheese: Product Knowledge for Retail Staff” is a companion to the successful customer service module “Prepare to Serve: Product Solutions for Customers, Fresh Perishable Foods.” The series motivates associates to provide extraordinary customer service on the sales floor and to stay focused on the importance of product knowledge and solution selling.

This approach is one that will serve both the customers and businesses well.  Trained staff greatly increase the customer satisfaction levels because consumers will feel confident in their purchases.  Whether it is cheese, cars, financial services, or components to a forklift, consumers expect knowledgeable answers from those they purchase from.

Better yet, ask your teams what questions they have been receiving from customers.  Design short training sessions around these topics.  Your customers, both internal and external, will thank you for it.Other articles you might like:

• Amazing Customer Service Resource: WBSOnline.com
• Ask Open-Ended Questions
• Don’t upsell or cross-sell
• Amazing Service News: Radio, interviews, products and more!
• Respond verus react

My wife and I recently dropped by our local Blockbuster video to rent a movie. There was a special on previously viewed movies that offered 4 movies for $20.00 vs. $6.99 each. They had a large selection and we noticed there were a number of movies that either we hadn’t seen or thought they would be good to add to our home library — so we decided to purchase some.

After sorting through the selection, we chose 10 movies – assuming that anything over the 4 movies would be available at same rate of $5.00 each.

We assumed wrong.

When we went to the cash, we were told that we could have 2 bundles of 4 for $20.00 each, but we would have to pay $6.99 ($13.98) for the remaining 2 movies.

I explained that they were all from the same bin and that since they were trying to entice people to purchase more movies — we should get the same deal for the remaining 2 movies.

Wrong again. We were told we should go and pick 2 more movies if we wanted the same deal.

We chose to only purchase 8 movies.

My Perspective: This is a perfect example of letting rules override common sense. When you have a customer looking to purchase, what barriers do you put in their way that prevents them from giving you their money?

They worked hard to get their money — don’t make it hard for them to spend it!

As an aside, Blockbuster often waives late fees etc for customers, so I know they have put some guidelines in place to empower their employees. I don’t know whether the cashier would have gotten in trouble for accommodating my request, or whether they just didn’t want to go to the trouble.

Regardless, my opinion of their brand was influenced by a single employee who may have been acting on their own.Other articles you might like:

• Don’t Make It Hard For Customers To Spend Their Money
• Customer loyalty requires honesty from the start
• Amazing Customer Service Means Leaving the Spam in the Can
• Customer Service Recovery Gone Awry
• Green grass (and a great company) takes time

Diners then began to show up at restaurants located throughout the Denver area with the coupon and puzzled restaurateurs contacted the paper to see who took out the ad. As the word spread between restaurateurs that my father-in-law was responsible for the ad, they began to call him at his restaurant.

The conversations went something like this: “Hey Ed, there are some customers here at my restaurant who are trying to use your coupon!” to which my father-in-law responded, “It’s not my coupon. It’s everyone’s coupon. But if you don’t wish to be their favorite restaurant, then send them to me. I would be honored to be considered their favorite restaurant!”

To me, that illustrates an abundance mentality versus a scarcity mentality.

While a person with a scarcity mentality sees the world as a finite pie—and feels threatened by forces that may reduce the size of his or her slice—a person with an abundance mentality sees the pie getting larger and larger with more opportunities for everyone to increase the size of his or her slice!Other articles you might like:

• Give customers the gift of attention
• My commitment to Tiffany and Co.
• Lie to Your Customers
• Great customer phone skills have not changed in 40 years
• Customer service and calorie counts

This funny little phrase reminds us that life is much easier if we keep things simple. When we make things too complicated, we freak out worrying how we’ll get things done, or how we’ll ever achieve the level of perfection we desire.

So to remind ourselves to lighten up, we tell ourselves to “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”

I think the order of the phrase is wrong. I believe it should be “Keep it STUPID Simple.”

This arrangement encourages you to not just keep it simple, but keep it as simple as humanly possible — stupid simple. If we can learn to keep things stupid simple, we’ll stay far, far away from over-complication.

Here’s a stupid simple idea that came up in my life recently. A friend asked me if I was drinking enough water each day. I said I’ve been trying, but a lot of days I know I don’t get enough. My friend said he lines up four bottles of water on his desk each morning, and he makes sure they’re empty before he goes home.

A simple idea would be to keep one water bottle handy on my desk and refil it throughout the day. A STUPID simple idea would be to keep four of them so I know exactly how much water I have to drink.

My initial response was, “Wow, what a simple idea.” My second thought was, “I’ve got to figure out a way to sneak this idea into a newsletter article.”

There are about a million places in my life where I can apply the new KISS philosophy. And when I think about how I interact with my team, there are about a million more places I could apply it.

Here’s a step-by-step method to apply the Keep It STUPID Simple philosophy on your team:

1. Ask yourself, “What seems complicated or overwhelming on my team right now?

2. Consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, it might be a little too complicated.

3. Forgive yourself for being human and over-complicating things.

4. Strip the complexity out of the situation and state the absolutely most simple way you could resolve the issue or solve the problem.

5. Take it one step further — to the “stupid simple” level. How could you make it really, REALLY simple?

6. Give your stupid simple solution a try. If it doesn’t work, you can always go back to the complicated way (but I doubt you will).

One more thing I like about the new arrangement of KISS is that, in a weird way, it’s a much more positive statement. The old version called me stupid. I’m not real fond of being called stupid, even if I’m the one saying it!Other articles you might like:

• What do the Ritz and Waffle House have in common?
• Stop disrupting your flow
• Educate your customers
• Little things can make a big difference
• What might happen if you treated everyone well?

Peachtree, a provider of small business accounting software, not only has the typical customer service department, but also has a more proactive social media group. They find and respond to what people are saying about their company.

Andrea Moe heads up the team of seven people. They are constantly reviewing the conversation on social media platforms as well as their own internal community forum.

Andrea says they are using social media to put a human face on the company and brand. They have learned that they need to be part of the conversation, but not just be reactive. This year, during tax season, their support team reached out to  to  about  5,000  customers who typically have tax questions this time of year. The reaction by the customers was amazement: exactly the goal of Peachtree.

When one of their customers, Andrew Yellis, tweeted that Peachtree was for the “cool people” they sent him a care package with all sorts of schwag. Now that’s cool. Peachtree gets it!Other articles you might like:

• Where does social media fit in?
• Social media elevates the power of Nice
• The social customer
• Top 10 Social Media Brand Segments
• McDonald’s Connects with Employees and Customers

I came across a good blog posting titled, “A Primer on Providing Professional Customer Service,” that addresses the basics of customer service in an electronic world. (Be patient when you go to the link; it takes a moment to download). The posting provides some practical ideas for making your electronic customer contact channels more user-friendly.

For me, the article highlighted a valuable customer service lesson. Leaders should regularly contact their own companies via the same electronic channels their customers use.

• Call your 1 800 number and see how user friendly it is – it probably isn’t.
• Log on to your company’s Website and see how easy it is to get the information you need – and be sure to ask a question via the interactive feature.

See what happens. If you don’t like what occurs, imagine how your customers feel. They get mighty frustrated and while they might tolerate the frustration for awhile, they sure don’t get a warm, fuzzy sense of care. Making your phone and Web systems easy for customers to use (even a delight to use!) is an important part of any customer service strategy that shouldn’t be neglected.

Do it now – call your company or make contact via the company Website. How’d it go?Other articles you might like:

• Every Contact Counts
• Customer Service Example: Meet your customers where they are
• Meet your customers where they are
• Customer service = convenience
• San Francisco uses Twitter to provide exceptional customer service