How to inspire customer service staff to focus all day, every day.
If you have, or are seeking to hire frontline customer service staff, you will be wanting those individuals to care about the customer experience. From the moment staff commence a position that has a customer service element, you want them focused on what’s best for your customers and you want them providing a level of service that has customers not only coming back, but speaking highly about the business to everyone they know.
The truth is that providing consistently high levels of customer service is not natural for everyone. For some people it takes a lot of energy and over time, even the most highly skilled and service focused employees can become complacent.
They may forget how important the first 3 seconds are when they greet customers face to face.
They may forget how it’s vital to consider their tone of voice when speaking on the phone.
They may forget that customers within eye or ear shot, will assess them on they interact with each other.
Complacency is quite normal - it’s hard to sustain excellent service behaviours if it’s not in your nature. So, how do you inspire frontline customer service staff to provide consistently excellent service all day, everyday?
Ask them to identify their WIIFM: What’s In It For Me. Ask them, to ask themselves; “What’s In It For Me to provide excellence service to every customer, every day”
This is a personal question. Everyone’s motivation to be better than just a good customer service provider may be different. Some will find it easy to answer and others might have to dig deep to identify why they will get out it. Encourage each person to identify the reason they should keep their service skills sharp and their attitudes positive. You want to know the reason/s that goes beyond getting paid and doing what you (the boss) or the business wants.
Again, it’s personal. Some may say it’s to pay the mortgage, some may say it’s to put food on the table, others may be saving for something special. These are what we call external rewards as they are all related to moneyand those goals and reasons are important, but this activity is about what internal rewards.
Some examples of internal rewards are:
Get to interact with new people everyday - good for developing empathy
Get to make great work friends - sometimes they can be friends for life
Get to learn soft skills (people skills) - great for now and wherever my career takes me
Keeps me active - physically and mentally
Once you know each persons WIIFM, never let these be forgotten. Talk about them at meetings, share them across the team, invite new staff to add theirs to the list and where possible, give staff an opportunity to refresh and improve their soft skills as they are transferrable. To help you make it clear why seeking and completing soft skills development is worthwhile, tell them this:
“I/We may not be able to guarantee you a job for life, but I/we can guarantee you a career for as long as you want as soft skills are in high demand by all employers.”
I refer to employees who know their WIIFM, as Customer Service Professionals in the making. They know the internal rewards they gain from providing excellent service is more valuable than their pay packet (which is an external reward). They know that when they provide a level of service that exceeds a customer’s expectation, they benefit too.
The Top 5 benefits of becoming a customer service professional
1. Increased compliments
2. Decreased complaints
3. Increased job satisfaction
4. Increased personal satisfaction
5. Increased confidence when dealing with angry or upset customers
The preceding list was created by attendees at our Customer Service Boot Camps. Staff at all levels in all businesses benefit greatly from attending a customer service re-fresher session like our Customer Service Boot Camp. They get the chance to refresh and improve their soft skills, hear from a service excellence expert and vent their concerns in a professional and supportive environment.
They leave feeling valued, inspired and with their service excellence lights fully charged.
Employees that are only motivated to provide great service by a pay packet or to keep the boss happy, rarely stay motivated long term. This will leave you (the manager or leader), shaking your head and scrambling to try and work out what will turn on the customer service lights. Haven't you got enough to do?
If you would like help creating a culture of service excellence in your frontline team or business, grab a copy of my book "The A-Z of Service Excellence". It's packed with ideas, insights and actions that will help you keep your team focused and inspired to reach their WIIFM.