توضیحات جورج

BEC : Service -George

Hey, it’s George here and I’ve got some comments about this customer service stuff.

Where do I begin? I mean you heard AJ and I have a conversation there and it’s what I would classify as a negative conversation, meaning that we came up with an awful lot of not good customer service situations.

That’s not a good situation when you can talk about the entire country of the United States and it’s hard to come up with a lot of companies where you really think ooh, customer service, that’s one of their best qualities and it’s so easy to come up with a lot of companies where you say ooh, customer service, that’s one of their worst qualities, but there are so many of those.

I’ve been wondering here, what’s the reason. What’s the reason for all this? Well, at the very bottom line I guess we’re talking about uninterested, unmotivated, unchallenged employees, because that’s generally how you see it. By the way, when we’re talking about customer service keep these things in mind, simple things, politeness, fast response, friendly, a nice appearance.

Okay, so it starts or it’s most noticeable, let’s say that, with the employees, what I’ll call the frontline employees, the ones that end up being face to face with the customer or the consumer or the client, whatever terminology you want to use. It’s such a simple thing. What is so difficult about being polite? What is so difficult about responding quickly? What is so difficult about being friendly? What is so difficult about maintaining a nice appearance? Your hair is combed. Your shirt or blouse is buttoned and it’s straight and it’s clean. You’ve brushed your teeth. You know all that kind of stuff. What’s so hard about that? I will have to tell you I’m not sure I really know the answer, but I do know on the companies that customer service is important and the companies that people recognize as having good customer service it starts at the top of the company and it starts with a commitment to customer service. It starts with a commitment to get customers, clients, consumers back to our store, to our organization, the Internet, however people buy from us. It’s to get customers to come back. ‘Repeat customers’ is what the official term is.

We sold you something once we want you to come back. That’s the real bottom line of this whole thing.

How does that happen since that’s what the top of the organization wants? Well, it’s a commitment and it’s a culture. It’s a company-wide behavior and, by the way, it can be a fireable offense if you’re not providing customer service. By fireable (f-i-r-e-a-b-l-e) offense I’m talking about if you do this, if you are rude to a customer or you do not provide the proper response and you’re not friendly, you can be fired for it. That’s part of our code. That’s part of our creed. That’s part of our culture in this company and you will adhere to and abide by those rules.

So just like failing to come to work one day or failing to call in sick or taking a dollar out of the cash register and putting it in your pocket, bad customer service is built in to the job description of a lot of companies and they’ll fire you. They don’t need that stuff and it’s so easy to do.

Besides this demand, this edict from the very top of the corporation, how do they make this happen at all levels in the company? Training programs, they literally train their employees. They train their employees how to deal with customers, how to respond to the obstacles that customers put up or the arguments or whatever you want to call them that customers put up in a polite, professional, friendly manner and I’m not just talking about salespeople. I’m talking about maybe people in a retail organization.

Let’s take something like Home Depot or Lowe’s. They train those employees that wander around the store making sure the stock is right on the shelves and all that kind of stuff and they’re there specifically to help customers. They train them to be polite to the point that if you’re standing on aisle one with this look like you’re lost on your face and one of those associates comes up to you - ‘associates’ is another name for the clerk -they say can I help you.

You’re standing there looking down the aisles and say yes. I’m looking for duct tape (du- c-t) duct tape. That’s the kind of tape that you see wrapped around pipes and things of that nature. Generally, that associate will then say oh, that’s down on aisle seven.

Follow me and I’ll show you were it’s at. They will actually walk you halfway down the store down to aisle seven. Not only down to aisle seven, but they’ll take you halfway down or three-fourths of the way down that aisle and there you go. On the right-hand side they’ll point out, here’s our duct tape.

Well, obviously there’ll be about 12 different brands or 12 different sizes or varieties and they’ll ask you what are you looking for? What do you need it for? You explain that to them and they’ll help you narrow down your choices to one or two. This one will probably work for you. This one might work for you. Here are the advantages of this one and here are the advantages of the other one.

Now that’s customer service and that doesn’t come about just because these are nice folks wandering around stocking the shelves. Home Depot, Lowe’s, they train their people to do that. That’s their responsibility to know the entire store, if you will, what things are on what aisle so they can help people find their way, get what they need and get out of there. It’s a situation where the company insists on a certain standard of behavior and they will take the time and effort in the orientation process, usually, with new employees to train them to do that. Be polite. Be friendly. Be responsive. Look the right part. Make sure your appearance is good.

Well, if you don’t work for a company that has that particular type of program that doesn’t mean that you and your company can’t still do the same thing. Here’s another one of those opportunities, another one of those opportunities that we continually talk about, about making yourself unique. You can make yourself unique in any job that you’re in through your attitude and your behavior.

Those traits, the friendliness, the politeness, the quick response, the appearance, all of those things go hand in hand with your skills and your abilities and the qualities that you bring to the job. In fact, those qualities are many, many times the ones that really make you truly unique --your ability to be positive, to be polite, even in a tough negotiation- type of situation. You still can do the give and the take of a negotiation in a polite, professional, upbeat manner.

So, as I said, AJ and I could talk for hours on bad customer service. I’ve given you a little bit of an idea of some good customer service. The qualities are the same.

Politeness, friendliness, appearance, response, those are the key ones. Go the extra mile. By that I mean don’t just do what’s required of your job, put some personality into it. Act like that consumer, that customer or that client is your friend and you want them to come back and see you again. That’s how customer service comes out and that’s how you become unique. Insist on a standard of behavior for yourself and make yourself unique.

That’s about I’ve got right now on that subject. I think AJ probably has a thought or two on it though.

The End.