Article

Re-assuring the assurance factor: Why smiles and happy faces aren't enough

When providing customer service, courtesy is not a substitute for competence and skill.

January 2, 2012

In many companies, the desire to improve service quality has given birth to countless hours of "smile training," as though the key to satisfying every customer's needs and expectations involved nothing more than a cheery greeting and a happyface sticker. Today's customer service professionals know that there's much more involved in creating customer satisfaction than smiles and happy faces.

If being nice were the complete answer, good service would be the norm, but that's clearly not the case. Make no mistake: Courtesy, good manners, and civility are important— treat your customers like dirt and they'll make your life miserable every time. But courtesy is not a substitute for competence and skill.

Consider the service technician who is friendly and accommodating on the phone, but who can't for the life of him figure out how to restore your lost Internet connection or eliminate the virus plaguing your Outlook software. Or the employee at the home improvement store who cheerfully walks you over to the product bin you were searching for, but then is at a loss about what kind of part you need to repair your leaky pipe. While both servers might get high marks for attitude, their lack of product knowledge makes for a less-than-satisfying service encounter.

When you provide Knock Your Socks Off Service, your actions assure customers that they are doing business with a well-trained, skillful service professional. Customers know they can trust you because of the competence and confidence you display in your work.

Today, customers expect to be reassured—to be made to feel comfortable—by the people they deal with. And that takes more than mastery of a few simple "people skills." It's the combination of both style and substance that wins accolades and brings customers back again and again.

Bad Service Drives Customers Away

Knock Your Socks Off Service professionals know that inept service has profound consequences. One study on retailing reports that customers identify "salespeople who know less about their products than I do" as a leading reason for switching from shopping at department stores to shopping via web sites or catalogs. Another study in the automobile industry finds that two out of three car buyers refuse to return to the same dealership for their next car. Their reasons have little to do with the car itself and more to do with the sleight-of-hand salesmanship encountered on the showroom floor and the boorish treatment they encountered when they brought the family chariot in for service. Thanks to the vast amount of comparative data available on the Internet, the number of customers who know more about your products than you do is higher than ever before. According to Chip Horner, vice president of Pfizer Consumer Group in Morris Plains, New Jersey, "Customers have done a lot more research, they go to the Web, and they save the toughest questions for the phone call or the e-mail to our call centers. Some of those questions are so obscure that we have to be prepared for the unexpected in much more detail."

This is why providing Knock Your Socks Off Service has such a positive impact on your company, on your customer, and on your career. Good service providers stand out, so make yourself memorable. Combine substance and style—what you do and how you do it—to reassure your customers that you really do know, and care about, what you are doing.

The Reassurance Factor

The reassurance factor is about managing your customers' feelings of trust. The customer's decision to trust you is built on your honesty, knowledge, and know-how. It is the substance that backs up your style, and it comes in four packages:

1. Product Knowledge.Customers expect you to know the features, advantages, and benefits of whatever it is your company makes, does, or delivers. The salesperson who has to read the manual in front of the customer just to figure out how to use the digital camera or netbook doesn't create an impression of competence. It's helpful to know your products and how they compare to the products of your competition. So, some industry knowledge may help to set you apart in a positive way.

2. Company Knowledge. Customers expect you to know more than the limits of your particular job. They expect you to know how your organization works so you can guide them to someone who can meet their needs if those needs should fall outside your area of responsibility. Can you help your customer navigate the briar patch that is your business easily and successfully?

3. Listening Skills. Customers expect you to listen, understand, and respond to their specific needs as they explain them to you. They expect you to ask pertinent questions that will enable them to provide you with the information you need so that you may effectively meet their needs. They expect you to pay attention and get it right so they don't have to repeat it. And they expect you to tell the truth when a thing can't be done—or done in the time frame they want.

4. Problem-Solving Skills. Customers expect that you will be able to recognize their needs as they express them and quickly align them with the services your organization provides. And when things go wrong or don't work, they expect you to know how to fix things ... and fix them fast.

Extra Points for Style

A competent annual physical performed by a rude, disheveled, or distracted physician isn't likely to be a satisfying experience for the patient, regardless of the technical excellence of the doctor. Once you've mastered the fundamentals of competence, it's your confident style that sets you apart. It starts with first impressions. In their classic book, Contact: The First Four Minutes (Ballantine Books, 1976), Leonard and Natalie Zunin contend that "the first four minutes of any contact is a kind of audition." In some customer service situations, you may have far less time than that: many transactions today are over in twenty to sixty seconds.

But first impressions are only the beginning. In service, everything communicates your style to customers. The way you dress, the way you move, or whether you move at all instead of staying barricaded behind a desk or cash register. The way you talk, your e-mail greeting, the way you do or don't make eye contact, listen, and respond. The way you act when you're not taking care of customers but are still within their view. And the way you take care of the person ahead of them in line.

Caring service, delivered quickly and confidently by knowledgeable, courteous people—what more could your customers want?

Reprinted, with permission, from "Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, 5th Edition" © 2012 Performance Research Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by AMACOM Books, Division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019