I like to hear from a wide variety of points of view so I read a good number of blogs and follow a number of folks on Twitter. Are there other blogs I should be reading or other twitter feeds I should be following?
Here are some of my favorites:
Blogs
Blog Maverick (www.blogmaverick.com). Nothing like the candid and colorful insights of Mark Cuban.
SeeClickFix (http://seeclickfix.blogspot.com). Named one of Business Weeks most promising start-ups, SeeClickFix was founded by some friends to give communities tools to help themselves.
O’Reilly Radar (http://radar.oreilly.com/). Insights and analysis from the one and only Tim O’Reilly. Sorry, no Talking Points here.
Seth’s Blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com). Billed as the most successful marketing blog in the world.
The Tom Peters Weblog (http:
//www.tompeters.com/). From the author of In Search of Excellence.
Keith Ferrazzi’s Blog (http://www.keithferrazzi.com/). The author of Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back.
Tim Ferris’s Blog (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/). The irreverent and extremely intelligent author of the Four Hour Work Week.
Miles Lasater’s Blog (www.mileslasater.com). Miles is a serial entrepreneur who founded Higher One and SeeClickFix.
I recently took a direct flight from New York to San Francisco on Virgin America. It was a great flight and blew away my recent experiences on Delta, Northwest, and American. The legacy carriers have a lot to re-learn about service and quality. New carriers like Virgin are acting like start-ups to the stale mainstay carriers.
I started thinking about what organizations could learn about customer/client service from flying on Virgin. Not so much Virgin’s business model rather the customer experience.
1. First impressions matter. Walking on to a Virgin America flight the mood lighting was on throughout the cabin and the crew seemed genuinely glad to see you. The plane was new, clean, high tech, and well decorated. My first impression was that I wasn’t cool enough to be on plane. I felt excited and was looking forward to the flight.
Have you practiced your organization’s first impression with your customers? How’s your customer’s service representatives call openings? Do callers feel like you are generally glad that they called? Is your website clean, crisp, and easy to use? If you use an interactive voice recording (IVR) system is it easy to use?
2.Self-service is an important part of your overall service plan. I had read about Virgin’s RED entertainment system. This system allows for on-demand movies and TV shows, satellite TVs, games, and text messaging. It also allows a flyer to order drinks and food and paying for your order by swiping your credit card at your seat. This is perfect for someone like me who would prefer to schedule my dental appointments online instead of calling. I used the self-service ordering system to buy lunch and order a drink. It was easy and the food was actually good.
Customers like well organized, easy to use self-service options. On-line knowledgebases, scheduling systems, movie ticket purchasing and other convenient features that allow consumers to get information faster and allow you to provide more features and services at a lower cost.
3. Keep it simple. Keep it fun. With all of Virgin America’s high tech systems on board it might be easy to be overwhelmed. While self-service is a big plus the flight attendants still go down the aisle to hand out drinks and you can always ring a flight attendant if you want help. Virgin also keeps things lighthearted. Their pre-flight safety video is eye catching and humorous. Even Sir Richard makes an appearance in an ad for Wi-Fi on the plane using self-deprecating humor.
There is no reason your customer service should be complicated from a consumer perspective. Anything that is too complex turns customers away from using your service. Use the KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) methodology. Your backend procedures might be more complex, however, service interactions between departments should be seemless to your customers.
At the same time, its okay to have a sense of humor when working with customers. I often use self-deprecating humor to ease a tense moment in a service interaction or laugh at something a customer says that is funny. Being fast, efficient, and knowledgeable doesn’t mean your a robot. Have some fun with your customers.
Have you flown on Virgin America? What has your experience been?
I was at the RightNow Summit ‘09 in Colorado Springs this past week. One of the keynote speakers was Dave Carroll. You may have heard of him from his appearances on CBS, CNN, Oprah Radio, the BBC and on. If you haven’t heard of him you will want to know his story and how it impacts the customer experience and ultimately your bottom line.
Dave is a musician from Canada. He was flying from Halifax to Nebraska for a show. While on a layover in Chicago a passenger on the United flight he was on noticed the baggage handlers were throwing guitars. Sure enough, when he landed in Nebraska he found his guitar had been broken. If that wasn’t enough United’s Customer Service didn’t seem to be very sympathetic to his plight. It was a nine month saga that went nowhere. They played the odds that he would continue to complain and that United could outlast him. United made a common mistake of having a narrow vision for how large an issue could be and this became huge. Dave wasn’t a lawyer so he wasn’t going to sue them. Instead, as a musician, he promised three songs. The first two have been completed and posted on YouTube (the first song is available above). His first video went viral and has had almost 6 million views. He has been through a media frenzy with interviews on CNN, BBC, CBS, and more. While Dave does not take credit or blame for it after his song went viral United lost nearly $280 million or 10% in market cap. This should wake up business owners. The days of playing the odds and providing bad service are long gone.
I have some thoughts on how to avoid Dave Carrol situations:
1. Create a culture of service. Situations like Dave’s would happen less frequently if more businesses created cultures of service. That is, organizations build outstanding service into their very DNA. When building new products, selling new services, or even evaluating policy changes ask how does this affect our core value of providing world class service?
Dazzle your customers by investing in training at all levels of your organization. AchieveGlobal provides excellent materials with their Stellar Service training.
In Dave’s case, if United had a culture of service it’s unlikely the baggage handlers would have been throwing guitars around.
2. Exceed customer expectations. The airline industry has very low service ratings. Customer expectations basically consist of get me to where I want to go in about the time you say you are going to get me there and oh, yeah please don’t lose my luggage. The bar of the airline industry is pretty low and they often do not seem to be able to hit the low standards.
In almost every other industry though customers demand excellent service. They have access to information (reviews about your product or service), they have choice (many markets are saturated with multiple players), and they have a voice (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.). One bad service interaction requires twelve positive service interactions for the same customer to change their mind about your company. Providing mediocre service is no longer acceptable. Price is often no longer the determining factor in a sale customers service is.
For the RightNow Summit ‘09 Dave Carroll was forced to fly United Airlines. They lost his bag. Good one United.
3. Empower employees and managers to be flexible. If an employee or manager is smart they can often see how quickly a small issue can become a big issue. Being able to empower employees and managers to be flexible in these situations can quickly calm a customer and prevent a problem from going nuclear.
If United’s customer service had been able to recognize how serious and persistent Dave Carroll was AND was able to be flexible then there would have been two less videos on YouTube.
4. Admit mistakes and quickly remedy. While your aim may be to provide world class service and flawless execution the reality is that everyone makes mistakes. It’s important to recognize your mistakes and quickly remedy the situation. It’s often much cheaper to the right thing by the customer than to drag it out.
In Dave Carroll’s case had United admitted it’s mistake and paid the $1200 to fix his guitar then the media frenzy would not have happened and United would not be eating crow…at least not because of this issue.
5.Monitorthe cloud. It used to be that if someone had a bad experience they would, on average, tell eight of their friends. Those eight might use word-of-mouth to tell more friends. While this is bad the scale is usually not huge. In today’s age of social media someone with a bad experience will tell 8 million “friends” instead of eight. The costs for cleaning up such a mess could be huge. The reputation risks could have a significant impact on your bottom line.
There are lots of tools to monitor what clients or customers are saying about you. If you use RightNow CX then you can get the Cloud Monitor add-on. Or, you can use Google or Bing to set alerts for Twitter and blog entries. It’s important that you evaluate what your customers are saying and take action to mitigate. If you do remedy the situation for a customer it’s important to have them update their tweet or blog entries that their situation has been resolved.
I am sure that United is well aware of the success of Dave Carroll’s videos.
Don’t let a Dave Carroll situation happen to your company. Create a culture of service, exceed customer expectations, empower employees and managers to be flexible, admit mistakes and quickly remedy the situation, and monitor the cloud. Your business may depend on it.
I started using Google Voice today. I plan on testing the app for the next few months to see how well it works. Here are some of my first impressions.
What I like
1. I like the idea that I’m not tied to the insanely expensive text messaging plans my wireless provider offers. While $5.00 a month for 250 messages may not seem like a lot the actual cost of a text message is about $0.015 per kilobyte of data as opposed to the $1.10 per kilobyte or so that is being charged. Cell phones maintain a fairly constant connection with the cell tower. To maintain the connection the tower and the phone send 160 character messages back and forth hence the 160 character limit. Same technology just a lot more expensive.
The Google Voice SMS interface (both on my Blackberry) and the website are easy to use.
2. I like the idea of being able to ring multiple phones at the same time when someone calls. I haven’t configured my setup to do this yet, however, I like the idea. If I had a landline this would be a very useful feature.
3. Call screening. I really like the idea of having another number to give to places like Amazon or other stores that will allow me to screen my calls. I feel more comfortable giving out this number. It’s almost like it creates a layer of protection from the folks I might not want to talk to and is configurable enough to let my friends and family get through easily.
4. Voicemail transcription. Another feature I have not tried yet. It’s next on my hitlist. I like the idea. We will see how if it delivers as promised.
What I Don’t Like
1. SMS Push Notification or Lack Thereof. As I mentioned I am using Google Voice in conjunction with my Blackberry. Blackberry supports Push technology which means that an application is aware a message is received and pushes it to my phone. Google Voice doesn’t seem to support this yet. Supporting this will be a game changer. Google Voice does offer sending notifications by e-mail which is great except I haven’t figured out a way to have my Blackberry notify me when a Google Voice notification arrives. I don’t want to get notified every time I receive an e-mail to my Blackberry e-mail account.
Anyone found a work around?
2.No Sent Items Foler. I can see what I sent on the web-based app not the Blackberry app though. It would be nice to have the option of seeing what I sent instead of just what has come in.
3. No Shared Contacts. There does not appear to be any sharing between my Google Voice and Gmail accounts. Seems like a major oversight to me. Why not share the contacts?
I will be posting more on my experiences with Google Voice as utilize it more so stay tuned.
Wanted. Men for hazardous journey.
Low wages. Bitter cold.
Long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful.
Honor and recognition in the event of success.
Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 ad in London’s Times, recruiting a crew to sail with him on his exploration of the South Pole.
When Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail for the South Pole he had a handpicked crew of sailors (both seasoned and fairly new) that met his stalwart standards that he could trust his life with. Dangerous expeditions like his required specialized skills and a certain mentality to thrive the long and arduous voyage and the harsh climates of the South Pole. While our lives may not depend on our ability to recruit talent, the productivity of your teams, and their trust and relationship with you are impacted by the people we hire. Recruiting the right people that fit your organization’s culture is essential.
We all want to hire the superstar: the person you can always count on to get the job done, come up with the solution to the difficult problem, or that swoops in to close the big deal. The reality is that most superstars are either not looking for a new job or their salary requirements are excessive. Instead we should focus on identifying the someday superstars, the diamonds in the rough. These are the candidates who have the potential to be superstars and only require nurturing, some training, and opportunities to succeed and to fail. With someday superstars you are generally able to bring them on to your team more cheaply than superstars and more importantly you have more opportunity to shape their development and take great pride when they turn the corner to being one of your company’s superstars.
Avoid Mediocrity at All Costs
Instead of hiring superstars or someday superstars we hire mediocre performers, the ‘C’ players because we either are not able to identify mediocrity or we have some hope of rehabilitating them and bringing them along. Sometimes we pick up the signals in the interview process and ignore them because we want a body to fill a position and we haven’t had much luck finding the ideal candidate. Settling for mediocrity often means less productivity overall, more direct oversight requirements, more time and money in remedial training, coaching, and staff development. Not to mention the costs of replacing this person. This can also lead to the possibility of alienating your ‘A’ players because they will be called on to do more and that can place stress on the organization. In a pinch your ‘A’ players would rather pick up the slack then have you hire someone who ends up being a drain on their time.
Screening and Assessment
A great HR team will learn what makes your team successful; the skills, temperament, drive, and personality that you look for in your ‘A’ players. If you want to develop top performers then you want to work with your HR team to develop screening and assessment processes to identify the someday superstars and weed out everyone else. Some hiring managers screen and assess after the first interview. I don’t agree with this method. Let your HR team and your screening and assessment process narrow down the field for you.
1. Make a list of the attributes and skills that are non-negotiables for you as well as a list of nice to haves. For example, for my team my non-negotiables are:
A proven self-starter
Strong organization and follow-thru skills
Detail oriented, able to multi-task and prioritize
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Thrives in fast pace, service-oriented environment
History of creative problem solving
Ability to acquire new skills proficiently
Demonstrates analytical problem solving
Integrity and good character
2. Set up screening tests. If the candidate makes it past the initial HR screening you will want to put them through screening tests to test their hard and soft skills. For example:
If you are hiring a java programmer then have them take a java test
If you are looking for someone who is able o use their analytical skills to troubleshoot an issue over the phone call them up and run through a scenario.
If stellar writing is an important part of the job then have them write an e-mail responding to a scenario.
Is learning a new skill or software quickly important? Teach the candidate about a piece of software they would use daily as part of their job then have them teach you about.
Is training a must have skill? Have the candidate train a room full of people on a piece of software or on a process.
3. Conduct background checks prior to interviewing. If part of your hiring process is to check backgrounds, references, or credit consider checking these BEFORE the interview. As a hiring manager I don’t have time or the desire to interview someone who fails a background or credit check.
The Interview
You’ll notice that extensive screening has occurred before the interview process. It’s more efficient and more cost effective to weed out someone who does not have the hard and skills you are looking for early in the hiring process.
Structured vs. Unstructured Interviews
In The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings, the authors show clearly that a structured interviews is statistically significant in improving the outcome in identifying ‘A’ players. Structure vs. non-structured relates to the nature of the interview processing. Structured interviews typically have a set list of questions that can be scored while unstructured interviews consist of the interviewer asking whatever pops into their head at the time.
There are a few different structured interview methods including:
Behavioral Interviewing. Ask questions that highlight the non-negotiables we listed earlier. In behavioral interviewing you ask about real situations some has been through and talk about how they handled a situation. For example, “Tell me about a time you made an important decision and what was your thought process in coming to the decision that you did?”.
Situational Interviewing. Create hypothetical situations and ask the candidate how they would handle the situation.
Relational Interviewing. Ask the candidate job-related questions that do not involve real or hypothetical situations. For example, “What is your favorite part about being in Customer Service?”.
Group Interviews
I want my team to have a say in the person I hire to work with them. It’s important to me. I don’t believe in group interviews though. They are often distracting, more difficult to run, and often hard to coordinate. I prefer that that everyone on my team take 10 minutes to interview the candidate. At this point it is less about skills then it is about fit. No one has veto power; however, I take their thoughts and recommendations very seriously. I would not hire someone who the majority of my team did not think would be a good fit.
Try Before You Buy
One of my colleagues has an open position. It’s been rather difficult to find a strong candidate to fill the position. Since some of our work is seasonal we have the opportunity to bring in seasonal help. In my colleagues case she has enough work for two seasonal workers. Both, as it turns out, are excellent candidates for the opening and would be great additions to her team. She has the opportunity to try both of them our before selecting either one (if either) for the open position. If you have the opportunity to bring someone on as a seasonal employee or to try out an internal candidate for few weeks then you will be able to really gauge their ability to be a successful part of your team without a longer-term commitment.
Final Thoughts
Finding ‘A’ players is essential to the success of your organization just like they were with Shackelton’s adventure. A strong screening and assessment program along with structured interviews increase your odds of hiring a candidate who’s hard and soft skills and organizational fit are more easily identified.
What is your company’s most valuable asset? It’s not the intellectual property, it’s not your product line, and it’s not your senior management. Yes, they are all very important to your company’s success, however, the most important asset your company as are the people who work there.
When I first started to manage a team I didn’t really understand the importance of team dynamics and the human dimension of managing. My focus was on servicing our customers and ensuring process and procedures were followed. Bottom line it was all about addressing business needs. I learned through experience and through mentors that if you don’t address the human needs you will never get to the business needs. Know your team and motivate your team and they will walk through walls for you. Not because they have to rather because they want to.
I have a growing client services help desk team which means new people join my team a couple of times a year. It is a priority for me to get to know each and everyone of my direct reports. I want to build relationships with my team that is based on trust and open communication. Getting to know my team helps me:
know what motivates them and what they are passionate about
know their limits and see their potential
identify when something is wrong, ie, stress, home life issues, work life issues, etc.
celebrate important events in their lives
support them in their time of need
gives me freedom to be blunt about performance-related issues, ie attitude, productivity, interpersonal issues with their colleagues, etc.
There are six things I prioritize to help me to build my relationship with my staff:
1. Connect over lunch
I go to lunch with every one of my new hires typically on day 1. This allows us time to get to know each other outside of the office and gives me a chance to start building my relationship with this person. I ask a few questions and let them do most of the talking. I want to learn about their families–including the names of their spouses, children, and immediate relatives–their interests, where they are from, and start to get an insight into what motivates them.
2. Regular check-ins
If you are like me you probably have a lot of projects you are working on at any given time not to mention all of the administrative tasks to complete and the abrupt fires to put out. My business is cyclical which for us means that twice per year we are all hands on deck dealing with huge spikes in call and work volume. All of this leaves me with very little time to interact with my team much less coach and equip them. Even though I have a very busy schedule I make it a priority to meet with each of my direct reports once per week. You can probably stretch the one-on-one meetings to once every two weeks if necessary, however, I do my best to avoid this scenario as its easy to get disconnected.
Thanks to the helpful tips at manager-tools.com I’ve structure my weekly check-ins consist of 3 parts:
10 minutes to talk about whatever the team member wants to talk about (life, sports, their families, etc.)
10 minutes to talk about my agenda (company updates, feedback, etc.)
10 minutes to talk about future events or things to follow-up on such as training sessions, future development, etc.
This format works for very well for me and I’ve gotten great feedback from my team. In addition to building a relationship weekly check-ins also give your team a chance to talk to you about non-urgent issues they might otherwise bring to you at other times.
For more directed feedback I also perform quarterly reviews as well as our company’s annual review.
3. Regular Staff Meetings
Whether it’s bi-weekly or monthly, regular staff meetings gives the group a chance to discuss issues, learn about new features/products/skills, and be at the same table together. Since my client services team answers phones all day it didn’t work to have our staff meetings during regular business hours so we hold our meetings bi-weekly on Wednesday mornings at 8:00 AM. Since I’m asking my team to come to work an hour early I bring breakfast.
4. Social Gatherings Outside of the Office
My team works hard. They especially work hard during our two really busy seasons in the fall and in the spring. At the beginning of our fall busy season I have made it a tradition to have a BBQ at my house. For me, this approach works best because I am opening my home to my team which is a bit more personal than going to a restaurant. At the end of our busy season we generally go out for drinks to celebrate. On our training days I like to infuse a little fun as well. We will train for half the day then go to lunch and do something fun afterwards. Last year we went rock climbing at a local rock climbing gym. It builds good teamwork to have your colleague belay you.
5. Recognize Special Events
Now that you know your team member’s story it’s important to recognize special events in their lives. Here’s what I do:
When I promote someone I take them out to lunch. It gives me another opportunity to learn more about them.
Give out cards with handwritten notes for birthdays.
Organize wedding gifts from myself or throughout the team.
I celebrate a team member’s company aniversary.
Visit them in the hospital when they deliver a child.
Mourn and grieve with them in times of need.
6. Be Available
Last and certainly not least. My team can handle a lot of things on their own and I give them a lot of latitude, freedom, and the authority to back to it up. Sometimes my team has questions about a decision their thinking through or a problem they do not have an answer for. In each case I pull aware from my computer and keyboard to so I can be away from distractions and focus on them. If I’m working on something urgent than I may ask them to wait until I am done otherwise I make myself available. I may point them in the right direction or ask them more questions to help them think a problem. The point is I am always available and always interruptible. If I really want to focus and work on a project I will either put my head phones on or go into a conference room to work.
Take time to get to know your team and set the stage for success.
My wife is a general surgery resident at a local teaching hospital. When all is said and done she will have completed ten years of training including medical school. Early on, medical students are exposed to the teaching concept of see one, do one, teach one. See the procedure, do the procedure, teach the procedure. The thought is that repetition of a task will lead to retention and eventual mastery.
I have been thinking a lot lately about training new staff members and the best ways to improve learning and task retention. Ramp up for a new member of my team typically takes about 2 weeks with a measurable degree of comfort of job knowledge at about 3 months and 6 months. I’d like to shorten the ramp up.
In the past our approach was essentially two-fold:
On-line learning environment for many of the tasks and some of the job knowledge
On-the-job training (getting thrown in the deep-end)
This model worked, however, it increased stress on new hires and is not that scalable…or desirable if there are other options. With this process quality can vary and there is not a focus on staff development.
So, we made some changes:
Implemented well-defined levels of responsibility to break up training into more manageable sections. This was an important step and required management buy-in. In addition to breaking up training it gives my team something to work towards because they know what training is required to be completed to get tot he next level.
Moved to a blended model of training (e-learning, instructor led training, and on-the-job training with a trainer riding shotgun). The big change here was having a trainer riding shot gun. It allowed the new hire to take risks and gain confidence while having a safety net available. It also means that our clients are still being serviced well.
Utilizing skill-based proficiency testing to tell me when someone is ready to move to the next level of training. Team members know what training is required to be completed to get to the next step. The proficiency testing keeps them honest and test retention.
More frequent monitoring through structured quality assurance feedback. We do this in two sessions: one-one-one with the client services team member to monitor calls with me and someone from our training team, and a second session with our trainer and myself. This second session allows me to listen to a wide variety of calls and provide instruction to our trainer on new procedures or areas I want her to focus on with my team.
Weekly check-ins to offer feedback (both positive and constructive) to reinforce good habits. This also gives your staff a chance to tell you what they are struggling with as well as boast about what they are doing well. Frequent check-ins with your staff will be the subject of a future post.
While this is a vast and welcomed improvement there is more that I’d like to do:
More e-learning modules that cover more skills.
Implement more peer-based training (that is a staff member one to two levels higher training a new hire). This is often overlooked when establishing training and it should not be. Peer-based training helps keep a new hire honest and helps your team invest in each other. When someone succeeds its a win for the whole team.
Certifications and graduations to celebrate.
Refresher training for some of the core skills that might get rusty.
And more…
With a growing team it can be a challenge, however, having a strategic vision for maintaining consistent quality across your client services team, the motivation to make training and staff development a priority, and giving your team the tools to succeed will result in client loyalty and a happier staff.
Steve Fitzgerald is the director of a highly successful and much loved client services help desk for a Fast 500 company. He has been involved in customer/client services in one form or another for almost 20 years. Learn more about Steve.
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I started using Google Voice today. I plan on testing the app for the next few months to see how well it works. Here are some of my first impressions.
My wife is a general surgery resident at a local teaching hospital. When all is said and done she will have completed ten years of training including medical school. Early on, medical students are exposed to the teaching concept of see one, do one, teach one. See the procedure, do the procedure, teach the procedure. The thought is that repetition of a task will lead to retention and eventual mastery.