1) Being ignored by sales staff (hey, I’m over here!)
2) Staff that have little to no product knowledge
3) Not standing behind your products (do I really need to buy a warranty?)
4) Putting people on the phone, help line, etc. whose English is hard to understand
5) Offices that aren’t available during lunch time (dental, medical, what are you thinking?)
6) Long waits on the phone
7) When a sales person says “it’s not my department”
Lengthy phone trees (is there a live person anywhere?)
9) Putting a caller before a live person (answer the phone, put them on hold, and deal with me)
10) Having to repeat myself to multiple service representatives when I have a problem

Can you sympathize with any of them? Is your company guilty of any of them? These customer service mistakes can be costing you sales. Now keep in mind that only 4% of your customers will complain directly, 96% just go away and 91% WON’T COME BACK.

As a business owner, spend time out on the floor of your retail establishment or spend time listening to service calls or ask your staff about customer complaints and what they hear from customers. If you run a micro business, you aren’t off the hook. Some of these customer service mistakes apply to you too. Ask your customers what bugs them about your business.

There is no better time than now to improve your customer service experience. Need help, check out our services at http://captivatedcustomers.com. Fix it, and they will come.

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Building employee loyalty has its rewards. Employees that are loyal are less likely to leave you.  According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, with each additional year that an employee stays, turnover is reduced by 81%. When you lose a valuable employee, the cost can be high. Estimates range from 1.5 to 3 times their salary when adding in the expenses of benefits, taxes, training, rent, etc.

Driving loyalty is possible. Employee loyalty will grow when you build meaningful connections and compensation for your employees.  I want to share our 3 C’s of Employee Loyalty – Care, Connect, and Compensate.  These are basic concepts that can help you build and improve the employee relationship.
 
1) Care is about developing a culture where employees are respected, honored and appreciated. Putting employees first is one way that you can honor and appreciate them. Hiring the right people shows that you care about the culture you are building. Develop hiring standards and don’t budge from them.  Also, give employees the freedom to make decisions that will allow them to do their jobs effectively and that puts them in the best light with your customers. 

2) Connect by communicating often with your employees.  Management should recognize and acknowledge any extra time or effort that employees put into their jobs. Get in the habit of saying thank-you to show your appreciation.  Listen to your employees. Spend time with them and find out how things are going on a regular basis. Show that you care about them by celebrating birthdays, employee anniversaries and the like. 
 
3) Compensate your employees. Offering fair and competitive salaries and benefits is expected today. Provide incentive programs that are tied to performance.   Recent studies show that cash rewards may not be the best motivators as they are quickly forgotten.  An example of a simple award is to invite an employee to a high-level meeting where they will be noticed and appreciated.  Another recognition program that I have used in the past is to select employees to be part of an “inner circle”.  Being part of a special group can be a big motivator for some.  Find creative ways to reward your employees.

High employee retention and loyalty is something we all want.  Employees who are engaged in providing a superior customer service experience will help you drive sales in this economic downturn.

Norma is an innovative Customer Experience Strategist, Business Coach, Blogger and Speaker and owner of Captivated Customers. Her goal is to inspire business owners to captivate their customers and turn them into raving fans so that their businesses can experience increased profits and more fun.  You can contact Norma at norma@captivatedcustomers.com or call her at(480) 694-6940.

What does Oprah, ABC Nightline and 60 Minutes have in common? They all have featured the online retailer Zappos.com because of their customer service excellence. Maura Sullivan, Customer Loyalty Team Manager shared how Zappos.com leadership, under the direction of CEO Tony Hsieh, has built a solid foundation on customer and employee centricity.

Founded in 1999, Zappos.com has grown to a total of 1,400 employees, located in the Las Vegas headquarters and the Kentucky fulfillment center. They have over 10 million customers and on any given day, about 75% of purchases are from returning customers. Sales have grown from $1.6 million in 2001 to $1,014 million in 2008.

Zappos.com has focused their efforts on what the customer sees, what the customer experiences, and what the company does internally to help employees meet customer needs. The customer sees several value propositions on the Zappos.com website which include 24/7 customer service, 800 number on every page, free shipping, free return shipping, and a 365-day return policy. Returns average 35%, high for industry norms, but they factored that into their business model says Sullivan.

What the customer experiences is fast and accurate fulfillment, friendly above-and-beyond service, and occasional referrals to competitors for out-of-stock product. They see the value in these competitor referrals because of the “wow” factor it produces. Also, they don’t limit handle times for customer calls or have sales-based performance goals for reps. The telephone is one of their best branding devices available, says Sullivan.

Their internal policies include hiring the best front liners. Interviews are 50% based on core values and culture fit. New employees receive 5 weeks of training on corporate culture, 10 core values, customer service, and warehouse training. They even offer to pay $2,000 to trainees in their second week to quit if they don’t want to work for Zappos.com after all. 98% of them stay. They even have their own Culture Book where employees can post their feelings and thoughts about working for Zappos.com. No surprise that they were rated #23 on Fortune Magazine’s <em>100 Best Companies to Work For.</em>

Sullivan shared these 7 steps for building a brand that matters:

1) Decide.  Decide sooner rather than later

2) Figure out values & culture.  Originally there was not a core value list. A list of 37 values was created but they chose to pare it down to a list of 10.

3) Commit to transparency.  Be real and you have nothing to fear. Twitter has opened up getting to know other employees. An “Ask Anything” company newsletter allows employees to ask questions and get answers. Extranet allows vendors to check inventory levels and create purchase orders as needed. Tours and reporter visits are encouraged.

4) Vision. Chase the vision, not the money.

5) Build relationships.  Be interested rather than trying to be interesting.

6) Build your team.  They hire slowly and fire quickly, says Sullivan.

7) Think long-term.

Put a little Zappos in your day. You can email msullivan@zappos.com to get a copy of the presentation or a copy of their Culture Book (include your mailing address). To receive a tour of their Las Vegas headquarters, you can contact them at tours@zappos.com. They will even pick you up at the airport!

One final quote: “People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

Southwest began in 1971 with 3 aircrafts serving 3 cities. Today, under the leadership of CEO Gary Kelly, it is one of the nation’s largest domestic airlines in terms of daily departures and customers carried. They have the safest record, best on-time performance, consistently low fares and the best flight schedules, reports Laraba.

The secret of their success is in the fact that they hire the best front liners. They hire based on attitude and look for people who “live the Southwest way” says Laraba. It takes a servant’s heart willing to follow the Golden Rule, a warrior spirit to do what it takes, and a fun loving attitude that encourages employees to take the work seriously, but not themselves. Needless to say, Southwest experiences high employee retention. Laraba herself has been with Southwest for 25 years.

Empowering employees to do the right thing is key says Laraba. They do this by having employees follow these principles:

Guidelines rather than rules
Golden Rule overrides what few rules we have
Lean toward the Customer and you’ll never get in trouble
Our employees take pride in finding solutions

Southwest has an entire department, Internal Customer Care, responsible for recognizing employee birthdays and anniversaries and giving gifts and care packages. They believe in treating each other like family and being there for their employees in good times and tough times.

What do they get by investing in their employees? Their customers see the difference. This is brought home in a quote from President Emeritus Colleen Barrett, “We are in the Customer Service Business. We just happen to fly airplanes.”

Southwest understands the power of saying “we’re sorry”. A Customer Communication department focuses on contacting customers within 72 hours of an issue and apologizes when Southwest does something wrong. They create customer evangelists by going above and beyond, doing whatever it takes, with proactive communication. They choose to make regular deposits in the “Goodwill Bank” says Laraba.

Southwest’s influence goes beyond the airport and into the community. Employees are encouraged to embrace causes and they do. For example, Southwest has raised approximately $11 million dollars for Ronald McDonald House.

The company is always looking for ways to improve the customer experience. Some of these improvements have included self-service kiosks, online and mobile check-in, power stations, redesigned gate areas, wireless access, and cashless cabins.

Southwest Airlines is a true example of leadership in action with an unwavering commitment to employees. This commitment has fueled their success and will continue to put them on the map as a company to model.

Deutschman shares the example of Starbucks and its CEO, Howard Schultz.  Schultz was responsible for Starbucks incredible growth over the years, building from 400 stores in 1994 to 14,000 stores today, reaching a 75% market share.  He came to realize that in their pursuit of market domination and growth, Starbucks had lost their vision.  Schultz believe that they had strayed away from what made them popular over the years – café-like experience, aroma of fresh ground coffee beans, and personal interaction with the barista, to name a few.  Schultz realized that he had to lead his company back to the basics and “walk the walk”.

A company that built a truly customer-centric focus is Amazon.  CEO Jeff Bezos made leadership decisions that were unheard of in the industry.  For example, he allowed customers to post negative reviews about books, allowed third-party merchants to come in and offer lower prices, and gave away free shipping.  Wall Street analysts asked Amazon’s board to remove Bezos because of his radical marketing tactics.  Bezos understood that these strategies would ultimately create long-term customer loyalty and it did.  Amazon succeeded at putting customers first says Deutschman.

Some companies have chosen to put customers first by putting other things first.  An example of this is Southwest Airlines which has chosen to put employees first.  During bad times, Southwest took a different approach than other airlines.  In over 35 years, they have never laid off a single employee during a downturn reports Deutschman.  Their high retention allows them to train employees in more creative way.  By putting employees first, they have put customers first.

You can also serve customers first by putting a group of employees first.  For example, Sony’s mission was to create a company for brilliant engineers.  When color televisions came on the market, Sony held back from entering the market because they wanted to create a superior product driven by their engineers. Because of their investment in technology, they came out with the best color television in 1968 that had a superior picture quality called the Sony Triniton. Their CEO “walked the walk” because he chose to put their engineers first.

In another example, Deutschman points out that putting “cleanliness” first allowed McDonalds to grow exponentially.  Ray Kroc was a clean freak and made cleanliness their #1 virtue.  Fast food restaurants at the time were originally a hangout for teenage boys.  Families stayed away.  Kroc wanted to create a family restaurant that was clean and could offer value.  Cleanliness, transparency, uniformed staffed, etc., helped to create this value. To date, cleanliness continues to be the #1 concern people have in choosing a fast food restaurant.

Charles Schwab wanted to create a stock broker business that put ethics first. They chose not to do investment banking, removed conflicts of interest, worked with individual investors and did not give purchase advice.  Brokers were on straight salary so that they could provide service with no hidden agenda.  One day, Schwab fired his own son for giving purchase advice to clients.  Sometimes “walking the walk” requires us to make difficult choices.

To walk the walk and be a leader, you don’t need a mission statement or post your value proposition for all to see says Deutschman. Your customers should know you by your actions.  It is rare in corporate America.  In all of his research, he has found few leaders who truly “walk the walk”.

Let me share an experience I had recently.  Friends of ours joined us for dinner at a fairly expensive restaurant.  We ordered our drinks and entrees and the experience with our waitress was positive.  One of our friends had ordered a steak and shrimp dinner which was quite pricey.  Just before bringing out the entree, our waitress brought our friend two different bottles of steak sauce.  He joked with the waitress about whether or not he was going to NEED the sauce.  She laughed and replied by saying, “it’s our policy and I am required to bring it to the table”, even though she felt that it sent the wrong message.

From a customer’s perspective, her providing the sauce sent the message that the steaks may not be of the highest quality.  From management’s perspective, they are thinking that they are providing great customer service.   Now we don’t know if our waitress is encouraged to communicate feedback from customers to management.   We also don’t know if she cares enough to do so. 

Feedback is a gift.  Engage your staff to share feedback from customers.  Look at your policies and determine if your staff has questions or concerns.  Getting engaged is a win-win-win, for you, your staff and the customer.