Excellence In Customer Service

Excellence in Customer Service Alana Seddon, Presenter Saturday, November 1, 2008 4:15-5:30pm

Excellence in Customer Service

How long have you wanted to improve customer service at your organization? Do you need a method that shows your staff concrete facts and helps them think about their own delivery of customer service instead of judgment on staff attitudes and demeanor often resulting in defensive behavior? During this workshop, you will engage in a discussion on improving customer service by creating a healthy, self-reflective atmosphere where your staff can lead themselves (under your guidance) to a systematic solution based on self-reflection, policy changes, analysis of school procedures, information-readiness, physical environment, and all details related to delivering great customer service. Attendees will leave with a packet of materials including forms to bring home for use with staff, information to help you lead this initiative, as well as reading material, suggested literature and data to support you in this process.

Goals

To provide a broader understanding of what encompasses customer service

To discover best practices in delivering great service from colleagues as well as articles, books and other experts

To layout a plan for leading your organization toward delivering better customer service

To provide a set of resources, forms, and procedures empowering participants to return home and get started!

Packet Overview

Workshop outline

Hartt Community Division Customer Service progress summary

Complaint & Compliment Forms (HCD & Zingerman’s)

Customer Service Success Index (Staff Survey)

Customer Service Workshop Checklist – leader guide for after the conference

Creating a plan of action – leader guide

Resources List

Workshop Checklist

Towards the back of your packet

If you think of ‘to do’ items you’d like to try after the conference, add them to the open lines on the back side of the checklist

What is Customer Service?

Good service is about getting all parts of the process right.

Customer satisfaction occurs when the customer’s impression is favorable that you have done something worthwhile to their benefit.

Always doing the right things right

Why is Customer Service important?

Basic business success – keep your customers coming back!

Greater Employee Satisfaction

Word of Mouth Marketing

Creating a brand for your organization

Excellent instruction; excellent service (be consistent)

The school that cares about my child

The school that treats its’ customers well

What Results can it Yield?

Loyal customers

Greater marketing success through word of mouth promotions

Satisfied staff who have greater loyalty to the school and therefore greater longevity

Increased revenues and greater efficiency

Business Success – all around!

People Involved Parents/ Students Faculty Staff Director

Activity

The best of times & the worst of times.

Actions

Attitude

Circumstances

Body Language

Jargon

Management

Topics to Consider

Leadership

Personnel

Forms

Website

Physical Layout/building

Hiring – interview questions

Training – customer service focus

Employee Handbook – customer service requirement

Other school materials

How?

Select a Leader

Establish Objectives

Organize & Plan

Communicate the plan

Motivate personnel

Train Staff

Measure & Analyze results of training

Revisit often & consistently

Choose a Leader

To succeed – you’ll need 1 person in charge

Review training options

Plan content appropriate for your staff

Create a timeline, select methods, guest speakers, software support, lesson planning, etc.

Track progress and evaluate

Examine all school communications for customer service-oriented text and style

Oversee all changes to ensure action and success

Engage your staff

Think about your staff and their personalities, strengths & weaknesses

Consider various approaches and choose one that will yield a prompt commitment

General surveys as a group lead to less defensiveness and more initial support

Begin analyzing policies, forms, etc. if staff are slow to engage (direct behavioral adjustment will come later)

Indentify Strengths & Weaknesses

Utilize staff to brainstorm strengths & weaknesses of the school regarding customer service delivery

Have examples or thought-provoking activities ready to generate discussion

Identify common complaints

Utilize staff to brainstorm common complaints

Review parent/student surveys from recent past to uncover collective issues

Solicit feedback from your board or a focus group of parents/students for further direction as needed

Define common Resolutions

List common complaints

Determine latitude granted to staff to resolve specific complaints

Determine parameters under which a staff member should refer a complaint to a manager

Support your staff!

Specifics – Equip your staff

First Impressions Matter

Take responsibility for your own service delivery

Recognize the impact of your service on your colleagues

Be aware of your own body language

Keep responses simple and clear

Handling complaints

Behaviors to implement

Diffusing irate customers

Transferring a call

Taking a message

Activity

Apology vs. Acknowledgement

Goal – to improve responses to disgruntled customers

How – determine when to apologize and when to acknowledge frustration; provide examples of appropriate responses.

Dealing with Unhappy Customers

Listen for what they want to happen

Allow a little time for their frustration to burn out

Visualize them cooling from red to green

Keep yourself calm (breathe, smile, empathize, etc.)

Acknowledge their frustration

What not to do with unhappy customers

Get angry

Tell them to calm down

Defend yourself or others

Interrupt the customer

Fail to acknowledge their frustration/anger

Defusing their frustration

“ I’m sorry for your frustration” or “I apologize for our error.”

“ Please tell me what happened.”

“ I understand why you are frustrated.”

“ I agree with (choose a point).”

“ We have a few ways we can resolve this. . . . “

“ Here is what I propose to do.”

“ Let me look into this for you and get back to you tomorrow (or later today).”

Follow up and Stay in Communication until their situation is fully resolved!!!!

Establishing the Whole Picture

Policies & procedures

Website

Staff Training

Employee Handbook

Interviewing

Access to Information

Office Structure

Surveys

Review policies & procedures

All forms, materials, policies & procedures should be user-friendly, clear, customer-focused and consistent

Remove any barriers preventing staff from providing consistent & accurate responses

Review phone greetings, signs, etc. for clarity and accuracy.

Review policies & procedures to find barriers to delivering great service

Review website text

Look for jargon that ‘outsiders’ may not understand – remove it!

Re-write text orienting visitors to successfully navigate your website

Consider adding pictures of staff to your website along with contact information and a description of what topics each person can help with.

Revise (or create) a staff training manual

Staff training manuals should have significant reference and material regarding customer service expectations

How do you define excellence?

How do you expect people to answer the phone?

What are your expectations for returning calls & responding to emails

Revise (or create) an employee handbook

Employee handbooks should outline your expectations regarding delivery of customer service.

Be clear on your expectations and discuss customer service at each performance review

Revise standard interview questions for potential employees

Establish a standard set of interview questions for all new hires

Make sure that perspective on customer service is part of the interview process

Be aware of attitudes core to customer service – those that are innate.

Review staff access to general information

Ensure staff members have access to all information required to do a good job

Review the organization of information and documents to prevent errors that could result in poor service

Review office physical layout

How welcoming is your main office?

Is it clean and organized – consistently?

Do you have inviting signage, furniture, space & layout fostering positive interactions with customers?

Is the space organized to allow good flow of traffic?

Revise (or create) surveys

Surveys should be distributed for all students, parents, visitors

Are they satisfied with their current program?

Retention – why did they leave? Would they come back?

What can you do better to meet their needs?

Activity

Amateur Architects – split up into partners; you’ll need a pen or pencil & paper

Goal – to end up with 2 drawings of the same house

How – person ‘A’ has the sketch of the house and person ‘B’ has a blank piece of paper & pen. Person ‘B’ asks enough questions to accurately draw the house that person ‘A’ is holding. Person ‘A’ is not allowed to give more information than person ‘B’ is asking for.

What has Hartt done?

Workshops with Neighborhood Music School in New Haven to generate discussion & openness

Add complaint resolutions as a weekly item to our staff meeting agendas.

Re-organized computer files to be more intuitive (receptionist folder)

Created staff training handbook & manual highlighting customer service

Revised faculty manual and faculty orientation to include customer service as a topic for discussion

Revised phone greetings (many times) to better accommodate customers

Minor renovation of main office to be more inviting, nicer looking & more efficient for staff usage.

Customer Service Survey (see handout)

Staff knowledge

Staff engagement

Communication

User-friendly forms

Website

Follow-up

Complaint Management

Leadership engagement

Policies/Procedures

Physical Layout of space

Information readiness for support staff

Equip your Staff (see handout)

Customer service training is much, much more than guiding your staff to ‘be nice’ and smile a lot.

Recognize that you can help your staff by taking this seriously, engaging yourself as the leader & looking at all aspects of customer service excellence

Creating a Plan of Action