Customer Service

Underground Vaults & Storage, Inc.An Overview of Customer Service

Overview

• Customer service statement• What is excellent customer service?• What prevents excellent customer service?• Customer service cycle at UV&S• Front line employee • What are we really selling?• Going above and beyond• Creating a passionate team• Be a hero

Customer Service Statement• “we appreciate the opportunity to work with you”• “we’re glad you called”• “serving you and getting the information you need is our

#1 priority”• “committed to customer service”• “we believe you deserve the best service possible”• “our friendly and knowledgeable staff”• “Dedicated to meeting or exceeding the expectations of

our customers at all times. Our signature is the assurance of quality and that is what makes us the leader….”

• “Providing quality services to our customers is our number one priority.”

• “Security in storage, quality in service”

“A slogan without action is a lie”

~ John DiJulius III

What is Excellent Customer Service?

• Discuss experiences with excellent/poor service• Make the customer feel welcome, comfortable,

important, and understood• Exceptional customer service takes you from

discretionary to necessary• Physical, Setting, Functional, Technical, Operational,

Experiential• Guestology – understanding their preferences,

developing relationships with the customer• Customers pay for their experience, not ours

What Prevents Excellent Customer Service?

• Lack of service aptitude• Declining people skills• Inability to connect employee job importance to

company success rate• Poor hiring standards• Lack of experiential training• Not letting employees have input• Failure to implement and execute consistency• Lack of strong employee culture• Lack of measurements and accountability

Customer Service Cycle at UV&S

• Group think activity– What are all of the stages in customer service– Initial service request– additional contact – follow up

etc…– For each stage, what are the

• Service Defects – things that can go wrong• Operational Standards – tasks/jobs we do• Experiential Standards – excellent customer

service that we give to make them recommend us to friends

• Above-and-Beyond Opportunities – how we can make their day

Front Line Employee

• The person who gives the first impression of our company to the customer either on the phone or in person

• Sets the tone for the experience – ex: doctor office• On the phone, can you hear expressions or attitudes?• In person, can you see expressions or attitudes? • As a customer, what do those expressions or attitudes

lead you to believe about the company you are considering or currently doing business with?

What Are We Really Selling?

• Customer service experience– Excellent customer service creates happy customers– Happy customers create referrals– Referrals create new contracts!

• “It takes months to find a customer, and seconds to lose one.” ~Eileen Brownell

• Work is a theatre and every business a stage• When economy slows, customers give their business to

those who have earned it.

Going Above and Beyond

• Remember, exceptional service takes you from discretionary to necessary

• “Concentrate not on making a lot of money, but on becoming the type of person people want to do business with.” ~Patricia Fripp

• Make a personal relationship with customers• Use their name 4 times in a conversation• Make notes on things in their personal life • Always greet the person on the phone and introduce

yourself• Avoid ‘oversharing’• Train your team to recognize opportunities to go the

extra mile, then recognize them for doing so

Creating A Passionate Team

• Help team think about what it is like to be one of our customers

• Teach new employees expectations our customers have for us

• Create a constant awareness of customer service culture• People leave supervisors more than they leave jobs

– Culture reflects leadership– Bring your ‘A’ game to work every day– “See a man for what he is and he only gets worse,

look at him as if he were what he could be and then he becomes what he should be.” ~John DiJulius III

Creating A Passionate Team

• Show the team the expectation you have for customer service – lead by example

• Make customer service enjoyable• Follow up on the expectation you set for your team• Think about smiling all the time – when you smile,

people can hear it in your voice, see it in your attitude, and appreciate the positive you project

Be A Hero

• When a customer comes to supervisors with a complaint, how many other people have already heard of their complaint?

• Fix the situation right away• Never make the customer wrong• Avoid ‘oversharing’• Plan ahead for problems• It is never appropriate to discuss failures or fault in front

of a customer

Role Playing Scenarios