Hospitality: "Welcome to my store"...

I go to the local public library pretty frequently - in order to work someplace else than where I live, and because the computers there are a lot faster than mine.

Now, libraries are not always known as big customer service hot spots. But some of these librarians - especially the reference librarians, who do after all get to have more meaty encounters with their customers - have really got it goin' on. One of these women (most of them and all the outstanding ones are women) just really stood out to me today, even though she was today at the circulation desk.

What really captured my attention about this tall, attractive woman - probably, like me, in her 50's - was her sense of gracious hospitality. She is not "perky" or "chipper". I wouldn't even say she is exactly cheerful or enthusiastic, though in no way negative. She is really very calm - actually, to me, quite soothing. She exudes a kind of genuine warmth and welcomingness that one could never learn in a customer service training class. She just comes across like a good host - like she is happy you are there and would like to help you feel at ease. In fact, she comes across like a very experienced host, who is not at all stressed out by hosting. In fact, there is even a gleam in her eye like the whole thing is easy, fun, and maybe even a little funny. Now how she keeps that kind of freshness through all the hours she does this work, I would like to know. Maybe I can get her to let me interview her through my survey.

My style of customer service tends to be more upbeat, a little more towards the enthusiastic side. But today I found myself really admiring this woman's kind of customer service. It may not be exactly as much my style - and I probably could not pull it off quite like her - but I think it will serve me to learn how to integrate some of it.

There I go, annoying the counter person again

I went into a store today where in the past I have experienced genuine curtness from the counter person. I would definitely go to their competition (who are very friendly and helpful) in a second - and do for big jobs - but, for small jobs, this place is just so much closer.

This same counter person, an attractive young woman, came out of the chute way better today. She helped me, in a very nice, friendly fashion, with the self-service machines. Then, a few minutes later, I swear I only could have been looking lost for a couple of moments when she again very nicely asked if I needed more help. I was impressed.

Then there was a little slip. I went over and got her because I was having a problem with the machine again. I showed her in a very non-critical fashion what about the machine was confusing me. She showed me how it worked in a way that indicated I was an idiot. I then asked if I had to pay for the little bit of work that came out wrong. "We usually don't do that, but ok." (Disgusted - here they have to write off that 20 cents because of my stupidity.)

Then, when I checked out, she bounced back amazingly. "You know, that machine really is marked in a confusing way", with a very engaging smile - and then a big smile as I left.

So, she seems to me to be in transition - still caught in some old irritable habits, but really wanting to move to more care for the customer.

There also is a system glitch here - a machine that is not customer-friendly, and a practice of just turning the customer loose on the machine, without explaining the confusing machine. It occurs to me that some of her crankiness may have been caused because she knows the machine is problematic and part of her is just feeling defensive about the whole process - which she either has not yet figured out how to fix or feels it's the boss's problem to fix, or whatever.

Smiling at customers

Smiling at customers - 05/05/05

I saw a young woman at the bank the other day, talking to a customer on the phone. She clearly was enjoying that interaction and valuing that customer - it just knocked me out. That customer could not see her radiant smile, but I’m sure they could feel it. At the call center where I had been working, they talked about “putting a smile in your voice”. One trainer even talked about putting a mirror in your cubicle and going for a physical smile.

I hesitated just now to call it a “real smile”, because I don’t think anyone was really proposing that. In fact, the expression I mostly saw from my colleagues (at least us newbies) was dogged determination. We were “saves” agents and our mission was to make “saves” – to take calls from folks who were calling to cancel their service with the company and to convince them to not do so. We were definitely on a mission and that mission got in the way of genuine smiles.

Are agents taking routine customer service calls more likely to smile? Maybe. Their work is certainly less stressful – they are not trying to do anything but to accomplish the customer’s requests. Saves work is more complicated: you are not simply accomplishing the customer’s request – you are actually looking for an opening to change their minds.

I am going back to that job, which I had left very discontented. I am convinced that the problem was that – in the middle of a pretty hard sales orientation, I lost my service slant. I believe that, if my mission is to accomplish the greatest good for the customer, I can have fun, smile more – and make lots of saves.

Lots of these folks have, at some point, had a good experience with our company. If I can – through customer service interventions, “master” technical support, and good old financial incentives – get them back to feeling good about the company, why is that not a win for them and us? They don’t need to try a new company, which is – as my dad used to say – a “pig in a poke”. I don’t know the exact translation for that, but I know it essentially meant that you don’t know what you’re getting, this next thing may be no better or maybe even worse. And it’s a lot of hassle to search and to get transferred over.

I want to serve people in ways that make me feel good, make them feel well cared for, and put a genuine smile on my face.

Starbucks

I interviewed for a job at Starbucks this morning. The pay is lousy. The chain is not politically correct in this town. I like Starbucks - always have, since they came to Chicago and started handing out little sample cups of coffee on street corners. Even in Chicago, where people tend to like their coffee strong, people were not used to coffee this strong. It took the town like wildfire.

I like Starbucks - so shoot me. Call me a yuppie...part of me is. I want to work at Starbucks. I've served in a restaurant, I've sold retail, I've done call center customer service rep (CSR) work. This is another slant into CSR land.

Here are three things I noticed at Starbucks this morning:

1. This work is really hard. There are a lot of things you need to know to make all these different drinks. (I want to watch the Steve Martin movie "Los Angeles" again, where there's that classic scene of all these yuppies ordering their specially customized cappuccinos.) I saw the new girl referring to the cheat sheet on the back wall and eagerly receiving coaching from the experienced pro. You have to multi-task. When the line is out the front door (it was), you have to both keep up the pace and be poised and friendly (even fun!?)
2. There definitely is, as everywhere, a hierarchy. There are people who are more senior, who know lots more. When this is handled elegantly - as it seemed to be in this store with this crew this morning - it truly is not about one-up/one-down. In that first sentence, I started by calling it a "pecking order", but then realized that what I saw this morning involved no pecking. It's just about differences and everyone pulling together to have it go well. Different people have different roles, according to skills and experience. No one is better.
3. Interpersonal warmth - genuine warmth, not just "nice", goes a long ways. The new girl, a lovely young African American woman, was genuinely slow and confused - right on time for being new. I bet that’s just where I’ll be. But she kept her poise and when she was handing someone their drink, she would smile at them like they were the most important person around and she was really happy they were there and she knew she was cool, too. Wow, that smile was dynamite. Even if you were feeling frustrated with the line and the unskilled barista and maybe running late for something, that smile would absolutely melt concrete. To see it – even second hand, like me watching – is to know that you have received a gift.
4. Often the managers are more anxious than the employees - even the interviewees. Why is this? Pressures of the job? Caught in the middle? The Peter Principle? I honestly don't completely know, but it's pretty interesting. At the restaurant where I worked, the only manager who didn't seem anxious was the general manager - and he was ferocious, prone to suddenly firing people, then (sometimes) rehiring them the next day. Which probably explained some of the other managers' insecurity - but not, I think, all.

Customer server survey

Following is a link to a survey I have created for people who are now or have been (recently enough to remember), front-line customer servers. Or if you know someonw who is or has been, you might want to refer them here.

It seeks to give you an opportunity to reflect and comment re. what stands out for you about this experience. People report that just the process of responding to this survey can be very valuable. It also can give me data to bring back to this blog – and to try to find ways to improve how servers are treated/managed/incented, etc.

The survey is located online at my Authentic Customer Service home page - a more structured web site dealing with these same issues. The survey can be found at:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~authenticcustomerservice/id16.html

Have fun...

Real Teamwork

The trick to world-class teamwork in front-line customer service is not just working together with your co-workers. It goes beyond helping them out. It is partly helping them have fun at work. Even beyond that, though, it is serving as a role model around “authentic customer service” – not just making the customer’s day, but making your day at the same time.

The way most servers get trained is all about the customer and very little, if at all, about the server. But how can you truly make the customer happy if you are not happy? Some would say that making the customer happy should make you happy. But this is way too outer-directed.

It is possible to find your own way into customer service, find the way to do it that really expresses your own unique gifts. This will, obviously, go well beyond any script, any “company way” of doing the work. It is, in fact, a path that most of us have seldom, if ever, had encouraged in us.

But it is possible. And to the extent that you have found or are finding that path, you can truly be a role model for your co-workers, can help them slip the tether of the “company way” and become so truly good at what they are doing that only the most neurotic, control-oriented manger would do anything but stand up and salute – knowing that this kind of worker can truly delight the customer.

I have held front line cs jobs – especially as a restaurant server and as a retail sales associate, where I have experienced this. I was not technically the best server - especially in the restaurant job - but I was able, at my best, to bring so much fun, so much joy to the work that I could see my colleagues start to wake up, looking at what was happening, and start to wonder if they could not have more of it for themselves.

In the retail store, in particular, it was as if other workers, cowed by some oppressive styles by management, had truly fallen asleep and then started to rub their eyes – almost in disbelief. You could see them start to wake up to the possibility that more could be possible for them in this job. It was so obvious to them that I was truly coming from self in my work with customers that they started to rankle at settling for less.

I actually got fired form this job, by one of those neurotic, control-oriented managers. I think it was not so much because of the gripes she had about how much fun I was having with customers as because she saw the other associates start to watch me and even experiment with more freedom. In fact, the incident over which she fired me was, I am convinced, not primarily upsetting to her about the liberties I took with a customer – all of which worked completely with that customer, who totally joined in the fun. More disturbing to her, I believe, was the fact that some of my co-workers joined in the play.