All Hands on Deck: How to Create and Sustain a Customer-Centric Culture Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame? Amazon? AT&T? Dish Network? Chick-fil-a? Bank of America? Marriott? Direct TV? Kroger? Apple? Comcast? Your agency? 24/7 Wall Street in collaboration with Zogby Analytics, 2015. What s Your Differentiator? What separates you from your competitors who provide the same service or sell the same products? 4 of every 5 customers will pay up to 25% more for a service or product if given superior customer service. The bottom line is that if your customers have a better experience with you than they would or did with your competitors, then they will choose YOU! 1
Is Your Culture Names in a Hat Worthy? When we talk about culture Your customer service culture is shaped by the worst behavior your leaders are willing to tolerate from the team members. If you ve never had a bad landing, then you ve never flown a plane. Airline Pilot How do your team members react under pressure? In a customer service crisis, you cannot count on everyone rising to the occasion, they will instead default to the level of their training. That training is up to YOU! 2
Customer Service v. Customer Experience Customer service is what you do. Customer experience is how your customers interpret what you do. Your Customers Experience is up to YOU! At the end of the day, all customers really want is someone who smiles, remembers their name, seems genuinely grateful to serve them, and who follows through. A culture is created, not mandated. Every team member is crucial to the culture nobody is just a. Create the Culture Who is creating your culture? You need a collaborative approach to have a shared vision. Top-down mandates = disconnect from the team Find a customer experience champion to lead it. 3
Sell the Culture You need feet on the street sponsorship. The challenge is building the bridge between the initiative and the rest of the team. Stories sell tell the team the why of what you re doing. Unless the passion reaches the front-line, there will be no follow through. Implement the Culture Biggest risk for failure lies here Creating it and rallying around it is not enough The calendar needs to be set up with training, follow-ups and support materials. Measure the Culture Survey your customers just before you begin the project and survey them consistently after implementation. What is your employee retention rate before, during and after implementation? Keep score publicly people play harder when you keep score 4
Sustain the Culture Be relentless! You will never arrive, yet you must strive for constant improvement. The long-term benefit is that it will reshape your recruitment, orientation and training. Brand Your Hall of Fame Stories Professionally produce your team s success stories to promote your services. Reward your day-makers with consistent recognition. Make your standards what your competition would consider to be above and beyond. Who Are Your Day-Makers? Celebrate your positive feedback every time! Reward your day-makers with consistent recognition. Make your standards so high that those who refuse to meet them would de-select themselves. 5
Leave it in the Driveway Leave what? Previous client Next client Personal business/drama Bring what? A+ Attitude Undivided attention Servant s heart How Do You Keep the Team Motivated? Show them how big your dreams are, how deep your values are and how high your hopes are. Team members who feel truly connected to the leader, their colleagues, and the mission will be loyal. What is your WHY? Get Rid of the Yes, Buts When things go wrong, take responsibility with no excuses B ehold the U nderlying T ruth 6
The Professional Apology: How to Get Over Yourself L isten E mpathize A pologize D eliver the proper result Meeting Folks Where They Are Service work is challenging it can be difficult to make it about them and not about us. Folks may not live like you do Avoid crossing the TMI line. Don t assume the communication is working just because they love you. We live in the Selfie era. Yousies Let s make our customer service efforts about others. Why? Because your clients are your either your brand ambassador or your brand assassins. 2016. www.steveyeatts.com. All rights reserved. 7
YES! The answer is YES, now what was the question? The power of saying/hearing yes. Feel empowered to say YES! Info To Go Go all-in on providing a culture of providing a first class customer experience for your customers. Create, Sell, Implement, Measure and Sustain this is an all-in ongoing investment. Brand your Hall of Fame stories. Info To Go Customer Service Culture reflects leadership Do you feel good about your team s names in a hat? Just say YES! 8
Bibliography www.steveyeatts.com DiJulius, John. What s the Secret to Providing a World Class Customer Experience? Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008. Print. www.huffingtonpost.com www.christianpost.com 9