Inside Twitter's New Customer Service Guide

Twitter has published a playbook to help companies serve customers via Twitter. 

Overall, it's a very useful guide. It's also a pretty hefty volume, clocking in at 125 pages. This post is a "Cliff's Notes" version that summarizes a few key aspects:

  • Twitter's unique position as a service channel
  • Creative ways to engage customers via Twitter
  • Top challenges companies face
  • How to implement a successful Twitter care strategy

You can also download the full guide here:

TwitterLogo_#55acee.png

Twitter's Unique Position

The Playbook highlights Twitter's unique combination of attributes:

  • Public: Anyone can see it
  • Real-time: Tweets are immediate
  • Conversational: Anyone can join in
  • Distributed: Tweets can easily be shared

Here's a great example of an exchange between a customer and a brand:

Twitter claims that serving a customer via Twitter can cost up to 80 percent less than via phone. I couldn't find a source for that calculation, but it wouldn't be surprising given the short-burst nature of Twitter.

The Playbook also makes a really, really bold claim:

Twitter is the ideal customer service channel.

It's a bold claim. And, they could be right.

The argument hinges on the fact that customers are already on Twitter. They don't have to go to a company-specific channel such as phone, email, or an app to receive service.

Consider this choose your-own-adventure customer service scenario:

You experience a flight delay that will cause you to miss your connecting flight. You now need to get booked on a later flight.

Do you:

  1. Wait in line to speak to a gate attendant?
  2. Use your smart phone to navigate the airline's website?
  3. Call the airline and sit through IVR hell?
  4. Email the airline and wait two weeks for a response?
  5. Trust the airline's wonky app?

None of those sounds like a great option if you're in a hurry. 

The promise of Twitter is you can fire off a Tweet to let the world know you are bummed about your flight delay and the airline's super-responsive Twitter squad will see your Tweet and instantly book you on another flight.

Yeah, it does seem a bit far-fetched. 

But, imagine the possibilities if your company can pull off this magic! You keep the customer in their preferred channel. And, your brand's snappy response signals to others that you are on the ball.

(Yes, I know some airlines automatically re-book passengers in these situations. That service is far from perfect. One airline auto re-booked me to the wrong airport. #fail)

As a side note, Twitter's argument for being the best channel actually works better for text. Text is another way companies can serve you where you already are. Plus, it has the added advantage of being one-to-one versus one-to-one-to-many. 

In fact, text has amazing potential as a customer service tool.

In that same scenario, you could receive an automated flight delay notification from the airline via text. It could also propose rebooking you on another flight. All you'd have to do is text back to confirm. Voila!

 

Creative Use Cases

The Playbook lays out three general ways that companies can use Twitter for customer service:

  1. Issue resolution
  2. Proactive engagement
  3. Voice of the Customer listening

Many companies are familiar with issue resolution. A customer Tweets about a problem and the company tries to fix it.

The nice thing about using Twitter for issue resolution is other customers can see the resolution too. Let's say your customer asks a question a lot of other customers ask too. You can include a helpful link to additional information.

Proactive engagement is another way to use Twitter. This is where a brand steps into a conversation to offer helpful service. Hilton provides a good example with their @hiltonsuggests handle:

One word of caution here. There's a fine line between helpful and creepy when a brand is being proactive.

Voice of customer listening involves looking at the larger trends. Twitter's Playbook cites an example at T-Mobile where a change to a corporate discounting program caused a large spike in negative Tweets. They were able to quickly address the issue before it got larger.

 

Top Twitter Challenges

The Playbook also highlighted some of the top challenges companies face when using Twitter. The report mentioned two, but I'll add a third:

  1. Keeping up with volume
  2. Managing multiple touch points
  3. Low preference (my addition)

Twitter's analytics show that tweets to major brands have increased 2.5 times in just two years. They also show that approximately 40 percent of those Tweets go unanswered. 

(Note: a recent Freshdesk study puts the number of unanswered Tweets at 78 percent.)

Managing multiple touch points is also a challenge. A customer interaction might start in a store, migrate to the company's website, and finally escalate to Twitter. 

Companies struggle to maintain a consistent brand voice across all these channels. Many companies also lack the systems necessary to present customer service reps with a single view of customers who engage through multiple channels.

My own addition is that very few customers actually prefer Twitter. 

An Execs in the Know study revealed that only 9 percent of customers prefer social media as their primary channel. And, my own research shows that most customers turn to Twitter after failing to get a resolution from another channel.

Would more customers prefer Twitter if more companies got it right? I don't know, but I'd guess the answer is yes.

 

Twitter's Guide to Twitter

The most useful portion of Twitter's Playbook are the step-by-step instructions for getting started on Twitter or optimizing your company's presence.

They offer seven steps:

  1. Set your vision (here's a handy worksheet)
  2. Size and prioritize your opportunities
  3. Define the customer service experience
  4. Set goals for performance metrics (try the SMART goals worksheet)
  5. Establish the measurement mechanism
  6. Operationalize your strategy
  7. Iterate and innovate

You can download the full guide if you think these steps might be useful.

Are Bogus Customer Service Stories Hurting Your Cred?

The conference speaker had his audience riveted.

He was explaining how organizational culture influenced customer service. He told us a story about a fascinating experiment to make his point:

A group of monkeys were placed in a cage. There was a ladder in the middle of the cage with a banana hanging over it. Whenever one of the monkeys would go for the banana, researchers would spray the other monkeys with cold water.

The monkeys soon learned to attack anyone who went for the banana so they wouldn't get the hose. 

Researchers then began removing one monkey at a time and replacing it with a new monkey. The new monkey would inevitably go for the banana and get attacked.

Eventually, all of the monkeys in the cage were new monkeys who had never gotten the hose. Yet, they'd still attack any monkey who went for the banana.

The speaker used the story to emphasize his point that customer service teams picked up poor habits from their colleagues. The story was also bogus. The experiment never happened.

I approached the speaker after his presentation and asked him if he knew the experiment was bogus. His response surprised me.

"I know, but it's a great story!"

This got my wheels turning. Are we sharing bogus customer service facts and stories just because they're convenient? And, does this hurt our credibility?

Famous Quotes

People often use quotes to make a point. The trouble is that quotes are often distorted or misattributed in an effort to give them more impact. 

Pop quiz. Here are two famous quotes. Which is bogus?

There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
- Mark Twain

This quote is often used to describe how information can be manipulated. For example, your customer satisfaction scores may look rosy, but they could be hiding a big problem. 

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
- Henry Ford

The idea expressed here is that customers don't really know what they want. It's often used to describe the inherent danger of relying on customers for product development suggestions.

OK, so which of these quotes is bogus? 

The truth is both of them are. They've just become so pervasive that they're accepted as facts. So, the question is do these quotes hurt our credibility if they're false?

(Note: You can check the backstories here: Mark Twain, Henry Ford.)

 

False Statistics

Statistics are also used to prove a point, even when they're false.

For example, many customer service training programs refer to communication coming from three components:

  • 55 percent comes from body language
  • 38 percent comes from tone
  • 7 percent comes from words

It sounds right, but it isn't. These percentages are a myth.

You may also have heard this one. Happy customers will tell five people while angry customers will tell ten.

Like the other examples in this post, it sounds right but there's some important nuance. This statistic came from a study conducted by TARP on behalf of Coca Cola in 1980. The study examined word of mouth behavior from consumers who had made a complaint.

Both the 55-38-7 statistic and the "angry customers tell 10 people" story sound plausible. They're convenient. But, they're not really facts.

 

Unknown Sources

Customer service statistics and stories are often quoted without a source. They may or may not be accurate, but nobody really knows. Here's an example:

Only 4% of customers complain

I saw that statistic on the Stride blog. It cited a Help Scout blog post as the source. The Help Scout blog attributed it to a publication called "Understanding Customers" by Ruby Newell-Legner.

Finally, I'm getting somewhere! The only problem was I couldn't find any publication called "Understanding Customers." 

I did find Newell-Legner, so I sent her an email to ask about the source of the 4 percent statistic. She graciously replied:

I started my business in 1994 and the first five years was spent creating training programs from scratch. I remember finding a number of statistics from surveys and reputable sources (including some government agencies who document customer service statistics.) I created a true false test out of the statistics. I never changed the stat but it may be worded in a way that enabled me to make it part of my True False Test. Because it was so long ago, I do not have a record of where it came from. 

I can verify that the statistic is true as I wouldn’t make a statistic like that up. Years later, a client in the Navy posted my True/False Test on one of their servers and it was spread virally throughout the world. The program wasn’t even called “Understanding Customers” even though I talked about that concept before the True/False Test.

Over the years I have been contacted numerous times to inquire about the source. I am sorry to say, I cannot provide it. 

Let's assume Newell-Legner found this statistic from a credible source. There's no reason not to believe her. However, what about the blogs that quoted each other without verifying the source?

 

What's the Harm?

There's an old marketing fable about the Chevrolet Nova. The story is that the Nova didn't sell well in Latin American countries because Nova translated into "no go" in Spanish. 

You might guess that this story isn't really true. The Nova sold just fine in Latin America.

So, I'll leave you with the big questions:

  • What's the harm in using these stories, even if we know they're false?
  • How much responsibility should we take to fact check our stats?

Please use the comments section weigh in and let me know what you think.

 

Customer Service Pros Face Obstacles to Learning New Skills

A small experiment in Do-It-Yourself Learning has just wrapped-up. The idea was to see if customer service professionals could learn new skills on their own.

The results were very mixed.

None of the participants achieved their learning goals. However, many did make valuable progress. And, broader lessons were revealed about learning new skills.

Here's a rundown of what happened, what we learned, and how you can apply these lessons to learning customer service skills on your own.

Background

I launched the experiment a month ago on the Inside Customer Service LinkedIn group. 

A few people said they were interested. Then, the inevitable dropouts came. People were busy. We ended up with four participants plus me.

That's obviously not enough people to draw any scientific conclusions. However, there are still plenty of insights to be gained.

The first major question is why did people think they were too busy. Shouldn't we always be learning something new?

One possibility is that we can't shake the idea that learning new skills has to be a big formal thing. The reality is we're learning new skills every day as we try to solve the various challenges thrown our way. 

 

 

The Results

Each participant was asked to set a specific learning goal. 

Most of the goals were focused around building customer service skills. I set a goal to so I could participate, but I chose to focus on photography because it would be easy to provide visual updates. My goal was to take a landscape picture that my wife would agree to hang on a wall.

I'm happy to report this is now hanging on the wall in my guest bedroom:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

It's a picture of a small mountain called Kwaay Paay in San Diego's Mission Trails Regional Park. The shot is taken from the park's visitor center loop trail. The top of this mountain is one of my favorite places in San Diego. The stairs in the foreground represent unlimited possibilities.

The other participants made progress even though they didn't achieve their goals. So, what got in the way?

 

Obstacles to Learning

Malcolm Knowles developed a framework for adult learning more than 30 years ago. It helps to look at the challenges participants encountered through this framework.

(You can also watch this short video explaining Knowles's theory.)

The framework consists of six principles:

Need to Know. People must have a clear reason for learning. This factor held back many participants and potential participants. Most of their learning goals fell into the nice-to-have versus need-to-have category.

Foundation. Learning should build on things we already know. There probably weren't any problems here.

Self-concept. People should make decisions around their own learning. This was the lure of a DIY learning project. It may also be a challenge since nobody was being held accountable.

Readiness. Participants have to be ready to learn. This was a major challenge in the experiment. People like the idea of learning something new, but there wasn't an urgent reason to invest a lot of time in doing it. Several participants told me that other priorities got in the way.

Orientation. Learning should be focused on solving a specific problem. This was a challenge for some participants and it kept a few people from participating. Each person was asked to define a clear and specific learning goal.

Motivation. Participants must be internally motivated to learn. Here, competing priorities hurt participant motivation. They had other, more pressing projects to work on. 

 

Lessons Learned

There was a common thread that ran through all of the participants. The people who expressed interest, but ultimately didn't participate, had this in common too.

None of them identified an urgent learning need.

That's the biggest lesson learned. Many of us like the idea of learning something new but we don't follow through on it. We're just too busy. Other priorities get in the way. 

Urgency is the key. Learning a new customer service skill shouldn't be abstract. It should help solve a real problem.

Start with the need and the rest will follow.

The other lesson learned is that most people perceive learning as a big, formal event. It doesn't have to be this way. In fact, most of us are learning something new every day. Knowing how to learn can simply make this process easier.

Am I discouraged? Yeah, a little, I really wanted the participants to build new customer service skills that could help them achieve great things.

But, I think I can learn from this.

New Report: Contact Centers Fall Short on Surveys

Contact centers struggle to use customer service survey data.

That's the conclusion suggested by a new report from ICMI called Collapse of the Cost Center: Driving Contact Center Profitability. The report, sponsored by Zendesk, focuses on ways that contact centers can add value to their organizations. 

Collecting customer feedback is one way contact centers can add value. This feedback can be used to retain customers, improve customer satisfaction, identify product defects, and increase sales.

So, what's the struggle? Here's a statistic that immediately caught my attention:

63% of contact centers do not have a formal voice of the customer program.

Yikes! It's hard to use your contact center as a strategic listening post if you aren't listening.

Let's take a look at some of the report's findings along with some solutions.

Key Survey Stats

Here are some selected statistics from the report.

First, let's look at the types of surveys used by contact centers that do have a formal voice of the customer (VOC) program:

Source: ICMI

Source: ICMI

Customer Effort Score (CES) presents an untapped opportunity. 

CES measures customers' perceived effort (see this overview). A good CES program will help companies identify things that annoy customers and create waste. This makes it a great metric for improving efficiency.

Why is efficiency so important in a customer-focused world? Here's another statistic from the ICMI report that explains it:

62% of organizations view their contact center as a cost center.

That means efficiency is one of the most important success indicators for those companies' executives. CES marries cost control and service quality by measuring efficiency from the customer's point of view.

Another revealing statistic shows what's not measured:

44% of contact centers don't measure customer retention

Keeping customers should be the name of the game for contact centers. If you don't measure this statistic, than customer retention can't be a priority.

 

Challenges With Surveys

The report highlighted challenges contact centers face with survey data. Here are the top five:

Challenge #1: Using survey data to improve service. Survey data is more than just a score. The key is analyzing the data to get actionable insight. That's a skill that many customer service leaders don't have. One resource is this step-by-step guide to analyzing survey data.

Challenge #2: Getting a decent response rate. Response rate is a misleading statistic. There are two things that are far more important. First, does your survey fairly represent your customer base? Second, is your survey yielding actionable data? Your response rate is irrelevant if you can confidently say "Yes" to these questions.

Challenge #3: Analyzing data. See challenge #1. You can't improve service if you don't analyze your data to determine what needs to be improved.

Challenge #4: Designing effective surveys. Survey design is another skill that many customer service leaders don't have. Here's a training video on lynda.com that provides everything you need to get started. You'll need a lynda.com account to take the full course, but you can get a 10-day trial here.

Challenge #5: Taking action to help dissatisfied customers. You'll need a closed loop survey to tackle this challenge. A closed loop survey allows customers to opt in for a follow-up contact. Once you add this, it becomes very easy to initiate a program to follow-up with upset customers.

 

Additional Resources

The full report provides a lot more data and advice on leveraging contact centers to improve customer service and profits. It's available for purchase on the ICMI website.

Here are some additional blog posts that can also help:

 

The Lost Art of Practicing New Skills

My BS meter was pinging loudly.

A participant in my customer service training class had just informed me that he was awesome at customer service. He told me he was only attending the open enrollment workshop because his boss had sent him. "I've never had a complaint," he insisted.

The very first exercise proved him wrong. 

It was a rapport-building challenge. Participants were asked to meet three people and learn three things about each person in three minutes. It seems simple, but it's really hard. Typically, only 10 percent of participants can do it on the first try.

Mr. Awesome wasn't one of them.

His problem wasn't a lack capability. His challenge was that he'd convinced himself customer service was easy. The participant's overconfidence prevented him from practicing his craft.

This post is part four in a series about Do-It-Yourself customer service training. We've been exploring techniques for learning new skills without formal training. 

Today, we'll focus on the lost art of practicing.

Background: The DIY Training Project

You might want to catch-up on the project so far before reading ahead.

  • The first post provided an overview of self-directed learning.
  • The second post focused on using goals to get focused.
  • The third post described how you can engage experts to help you grow. 

You can also check out the Inside Customer Service group on LinkedIn. A few people are using the group to document their DIY customer service training journey.

 

Why Practice is Essential

Imagine your favorite athlete.

Picture him or her performing at peak level. It could be in a team sport like baseball or football. Perhaps your favorite athlete plays an individual sport like golf or tennis. 

Whatever the case, picture this athlete at their best.

You know they don't just show up on game day and perform. There's countless hours of training, preparation, and practice that goes into their performance.

There's no reason we should be any different. If we want to get better at the customer service game, we need to practice. 

Practice does two essential things.

First, it gives us feedback. The participant in my customer service training class got immediate feedback that his rapport-building skills weren't as awesome as he'd thought.

Second, practice helps etch skills into our memories. Without practice, it takes just one week to forget half of what we learn in training.

 

How to Practice

Practice won't make you better if you do it the wrong way.

There's a kid in my neighborhood who plays the drums. He's terrible. He can't keep a simple beat despite having years of experience.

It's easy to understand why when you hear him practice. He never works on the basics. His sole aim appears to be nailing some sort of crazy Neil Peart drum solo.

So, what's a better way?

I like to use David Kolb's experiential learning model:

Kolb's experiential learning model

Kolb's experiential learning model

I've been working on my photography skills for the DIY Learning Project. My goal is to take a landscape picture that my wife will agree to hang on a wall in our home.

Here's how I used Kolb's model to work on my ability to using lighting to my advantage.

The first step is to reflect. I did this by reviewing some pictures I took to make note of what I didn't like about the lighting. Here's an example:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

 

The color in this picture is washed out. That's because the picture was taken into the sun. A thin layer of clouds diffused the light even more.

Deciding what to improve is the next step. I found a training video on lynda.com called Up and Running With Lighting: Natural Light by Erin Manning. The course gave me some great tips to try out.

Experimentation is the third step. I took my camera to the Presidio in San Diego to try out some of the lighting techniques I'd just learned. This also allowed me to learn how to make adjustments on my camera.

This first photo is too dark:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

This next photo is too light:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

This last photo has much better lighting:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

I used skills I learned from the training video to make adjustments that would improve the use of lighting for this scene.

All this practice leads to more experience and Kolb's cycle begins anew.

This technique is also perfect for developing your customer service skills. Here's how I used it in my recent training class to help Mr. Awesome actually be awesome:

First, we reflected on reasons why most participants (including Mr. Awesome) weren't able to successfully complete the rapport-building challenge.

Next, we decided what we'd do differently the next time. People quickly came up with some great ideas.

Finally, we ran the exercise again so participants could experiment with their ideas. This time around, Mr. Awesome nailed it. He really did a great job.

 

Recognize Progress

This brings us to the last piece of the practice puzzle: you must recognize the progress you are making.

It's unreasonable to expect perfection right away. Many people give up on learning a new skill if they don't nail it on the first try.

Don't be that person! Step back and take pride in progress. 

Here's an example from my photography project. I wanted to capture a beautiful beach I had seen in Hawaii. 

The original photo had too many shadows:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

I took the new photo earlier in the day from a slightly different location so I could maximize the sun's natural lighting:

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Using pictures makes it easy to see the progress I'm making.

You might not have that luxury with the skills you're learning. But, you can still evaluate your progress by using Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Reflect on your experience, decide what (if anything) you'd like to do differently, and then experiment with new techniques.

Practice is an essential part of learning new skills. The payoff is discovering that you can do something you couldn't do before.

How Unrelated Anger Follows Your Customers to You

"Maybe they're just having a bad day."

Ugh. I've never liked that explanation for a customer's anger. It feels dismissive while avoiding responsibility. My view was that a customer might be a little upset to begin with, but any emotions they felt were largely our responsibility.

Newly discovered research proves me wrong.

An upsetting event completely unrelated to your company really does impact service. That customer is more likely to get upset. And, customers with anger baggage are less likely to listen to helpful advice from a customer service rep.

Here's the research along with what you can do about it.

Study #1: Anger Makes Us More Judgmental

Scott Wiltermuth and Larissa Tiedens conducted an experiment to test whether anger makes people more judgmental.

They first primed people to be angry, sad, or neutral. This was done through a recall exercise where participants were asked to recall an event that made them angry (angry group), sad (sad group), or just think about what they did yesterday (neutral).

Participants were then asked to rate how appealing they would find doing a task where they rated business ideas.

The result? People in the angry group rated judging others' ideas 16 percent more appealing than average.

Put this in a customer service context. 

Imagine a customer is stuck in traffic on their way to a store. The parking lot is jammed and they nearly get into an accident when a car swerves around them and steals their parking space. The customer is fuming by the time they walk into the store.

This customer will be more intently focused on service quality than normal. They'll nitpick minor service issues that most people would overlook. And, because they're already angry, they'll be viewing service through a negative lens.

 

Study #2: Anger Makes Us Less Open to Other Ideas

Maurice Schweitzer and Francesca Gino conducted an experiment to learn whether anger affects our openness to ideas from other people.

Participants were shown a picture of a person and asked to guess their weight. They were told they'd be paid for the accuracy of their guesses.

They were next divided into two groups - neutral and angry.

The neutral group was shown a movie clip that showed fish swimming in the ocean. The angry group was shown a movie clip that previous tests showed triggers angry emotions in viewers.

After watching the video, participants were shown another person's estimate of the weight of the person in the picture. They were then given a chance to revise their estimate.

Here were the results:

  • 68% of the neutral participants considered the other person's estimate.
  • 26% of the angry participants considered the other person's estimate.

This data shows that we're much less open to other ideas when we're angry, even if the thing that made us angry is completely unrelated.

Let's go back to that hypothetical retail customer who was angry about traffic when they walked into the store.

Customer service employees often suggest solutions to help fix a customer's problem. A customer carrying their anger baggage into the store will be less open to those solutions. When that happens, the anger continues and might even escalate.

 

What You Can Do

We can't easily prevent our customers from carrying around anger baggage accumulated from other sources.

However, we can do a few things to help them feel better and avoid making it worse.

Avoid broken promises. These are things we promised to do for customers, but didn't. Customers who are already upset will really be unforgiving when we don't keep our basic agreements.

Emotions first, then solutions. Our customers' emotional needs are often overlooked. Don't ignore their emotional state! Take a moment to help an upset customer feel better before jumping to solution mode. 

Empathize. It's hard to be understanding when a customer gets angry for what seems like no reason. Keep in mind they might be dragging along some anger baggage from somewhere else. Take a moment to empathize with them. You can use these five tips to help you. 

Finally, you can watch this short video for more information on serving upset customers.

DIY Customer Service Training: Harnessing the Wisdom of Experts

This post is part three in a series about Do-It-Yourself customer service training. 

You can learn new skills on your own. You don't need to wait for a class or for your boss to pull you aside and teach you. 

This post focuses on finding experts to help you achieve your goals.

You might first want to catch up on the project so far. The first post provided a general overview of self-directed training and how it has the potential to transform the way we learn. The second post focused on setting clear goals -- an essential step towards learning new skills.

You can also check out the Inside Customer Service group on LinkedIn. A few people are using the group to document their DIY customer service training journey.

The Power of Expertise

Here's a great definition of an expert from dictionary.com:

a person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; specialist; authority

Experts have the amazing ability to speed up your learning process. 

Let's use my DIY learning project as an example. I want to learn more about photography. In particular, I want to take landscape photographs of places I visit so I can hang them up in my home. 

(I know, it's not a customer service project, but it does let me visually show you what I'm talking about.)

My first challenge was upgrading my camera from a pocket-sized point-and-shoot model to something a little more powerful. 

How should I pick out a new camera?

  • Wade through endless reviews on photography websites?
  • Take a photography class to learn the ins and outs of various models?
  • Visit an electronics store and hope for the best?

All of those options would take a lot of time. And, they still might not help me make a great decision. So, I decided to ask Tony Cruz for advice instead.

Tony is definitely a photography expert. He's directed a few of my courses on lynda.com, including Customer Service Fundamentals, Working With Upset Customers, and Using Customer Surveys to Improve Service.

He also takes some amazing surf photography. (Do yourself a favor and check out his Instagram feed. You can also see some of his projects on his website.)

Pacific dreamer III #totallyother #ISD #WHPlowaltitude

A photo posted by Tony Cruz (@tonycruz) on

Tony asked me a few questions before making some recommendations. He suggested I look at mirrorless cameras since they combined the features of high-end DSLR cameras with the compactness of point-and-shoot models. 

I checked out his suggestions online and quickly decided to get the Olympus OM-D E-M10. It combines idiot-proof performance with an amazing array of high-end features.

Going to Tony first saved me a ton of time. It also gave me the confidence that I was making a great decision. 

This approach works for almost any type of DIY training.

  • Who do you know that could help you improve your customer service survey?
  • Do you know someone who can help you develop a customer-focused culture?
  • Can one of your colleagues help you improve your skills with upset customers?

(Hint: feel free to drop me a line if you'd like expertise in any of these areas.) Experts can help you find solid answers to your questions in a lot less time.

 

How to Approach an Expert

Experts typically have a lot of passion about their field of expertise. They are also typically short on time. So, you have to be efficient when you ask an expert for help.

The wrong way to do it is to bring up a vague topic.

If I had approached Tony and said, "I want to know more about photography," he'd likely have struggled to give me the specific advice I needed.

The right way to approach an expert is to ask for advice on something simple and specific. This is when it helps to have a clear learning goal for your DIY training project.

I asked Tony to recommend a camera that would be an upgrade from my point-and-shoot model. I told him my purpose (shooting landscape photography) and skill level (not much). This meant I needed a camera that was easy to use but also had more advanced features that I could learn.

Tony was able to answer my question immediately with some great advice.

So, before you approach an expert, make sure you have a clear learning goal.

 

Applying Expert Advice

Tony helped me pick out a great camera, but he also helped me use it.

One of his first suggestions was to take it somewhere interesting and just take pictures. He told me to play around with the various settings and notice the differences when I did. 

Here are a few examples I took from the beach in Santa Barbara while I was there filming one of my courses for lynda.com.

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

The late afternoon sunlight had this amazing effect coming through the trees. This picture doesn't do it justice. I'm still learning.

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

It's incredible how the same scene can look so different just by altering a few camera settings. My next challenge is to understand what adjustments product what effect. Here, I was just selecting random options.

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

This was the best photo I took. The dog hit me in the head with that huge branch as he walked by me on the sea wall. The camera was in full automatic mode and the shot was pure reaction. Sometimes, lucky is best.

I showed Tony these pictures the next day and he gave me some great advice. He pointed out how a large contrast between light and dark made it difficult for the first two pictures to come out. 

Tony also explained how the light worked in my favor on the last picture. Sunlight was diffused by the trees in the background and there weren't dark shadows to contend with.

Here's the key to expert advice:

If you're going to ask for it, you'd better take it. Following-up on Tony's suggestions opened the door to ask more questions. It wouldn't be very fair to Tony if I asked him for insight and then did nothing with it.

So, go ahead an ask an expert for advice. Just make sure you follow-up to let them know how things go. 

 

Finding an Expert

There are many ways to find an expert.

If you're lucky, you already know one. I was already working with Tony and knew about his passion for photography. I'd also seen his work and knew he could take the types of photos I aspired to take.

Of course, there are other ways to find an expert if one isn't already inside your inner circle. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Search LinkedIn - you never know what skills are in your network
  • Ask friends - it's often easy for them to recommend someone good
  • Get social - many experts are very accessible on social media

Once you find your expert, don't be afraid to ask a question. You may just be surprised at how much they love to share.

Book Review: Be Your Customer's Hero

Where did you learn how to serve customers?

For customer service veterans, serving customers becomes so instinctive that it feels like common sense. It isn't. That knowledge has to come from somewhere.

All of us faced a time when we didn't know what to do.

We lacked the experience. We hadn't received enough training. Perhaps we didn't have a mentor to guide us through difficult situations. We've all been there at some point in time.

Adam Toporek's new book was written with those employees in mind. It's called Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines and was designed to be a how-to guide for customer service professionals.

Toporek says in the book's introduction, "I'd always wanted something that showed frontline employees not just what they needed to know to be competent at customer service but what they needed to know to be great at it."

The book is divided into ten parts. This makes it easy to pick and choose the subjects you'd like to review most:

  1. Great service is all in your head
  2. The mind of the modern customer
  3. The seven service triggers
  4. Be a great teammate
  5. Own the service floor
  6. Communicate like a pro
  7. Master difficult situations
  8. Handle nightmare customers
  9. Understand the digital front lines
  10. Be your customer's hero

What I like most about the book is Toporek devotes the first three sections to the psychology of customer service. Understanding how we think as employees and how our customers think when they're being served is essential. I know I'd have been saved a lot of grief if I knew this stuff 20 years ago!

You might find this book too basic if your an experienced service pro. That's ok. Be Your Customer's Hero wasn't written for you. This is the book you give to each member of your team as part of their development.

Of course, you'll still need to read the book too so you can follow-up with your employees to discuss what they've learned and how they plan to apply it.

Be Your Customer's Hero is available in paperback and on Kindle. I highly recommend it.

 

DIY Customer Service Training: Setting Clear Goals

This post is part two in an ongoing series on Do-It-Yourself Customer Service Training.

Today, we’re going to focus on setting clear goals. You might want to start by getting caught up on the first post in the series where we explore what DIY or self-directed learning is all about. You can also follow along in real time on the Inside Customer Service group on LinkedIn.

The first step in a DIY learning project is setting a goal to learn a useful skill. This post will look at how to set a good learning goal and provide some examples.

Getting Clear

Most people falter here. Their goals are too squishy and ambiguous. Learning goals have got to be clear and very specific.

A great way to start is to choose a specific focus area.

I chose to focus on photography for this project. It’s not a customer service topic, but it does make it very easy to provide visual updates.

My starting point was pretty squishy:

I’d like to learn more about photography.

A goal like this isn’t really a goal. It’s just a theme. It’s also a recipe for procrastination - something to put on your “someday, I will…” list.

Your learning goal needs to focus on something more specific. A great way to boil things down is to ask yourself these questions:

  • Why do I want to learn about this topic?
  • How will learning these skills help me?
  • What’s an example of something useful I could do with this skill?

These questions bring much more clarity to my photography goal:

Why do I want to learn about this topic? I spend a lot of time outdoors and want to capture some of the beautiful scenery.

How will learning these skills help me? My wife and I want to use pictures of places we’ve been as art in our home.

What’s an example of something useful I could do with this skill? I could start by taking one photograph my wife agrees to hang on a wall.

The answers to these three questions add much needed clarity. I went from “I’d like to learn about photography” to “I want to take one picture good enough to hang on a wall.”

My friend Jenny provided a great success story on our LinkedIn group. She started with a very squishy desire to "learn tips and tricks to allow myself to do better with time management at work!"

We talked a little about why time management was an issue and how new skills could help her. Afterwards, Jenny made some revisions. She ended up focusing on playing guitar and singing at one open mic gig in San Diego.

Wait! That isn't customer service. What gives?

I actually think Jenny's focus area is really smart. She moved to San Diego several months ago. Work has been crazy and she hasn't played any gigs since moving here. Her real struggle with time management is prioritizing work, setting clear boundaries, and making time for things outside of work that she's really passionate about.

Carving out time to play guitar and sing at an open mic gig will help Jenny develop time management skills. Those skills will be very useful in her day job as a customer service manager.

 

Words of Caution: Many customer service initiatives falter here. They never get specific enough to take action.

To be clear, this step is difficult. 

Impatience often gets the better of the people. They decide to skip this part and keep moving, not realizing this part is essential. You won’t have clarity until you have direction.

 

Setting A Goal

Now that you’ve clarified where you’re going, the next step is to set a specific goal. A good goal should fit the SMART model. 

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant
  • Time-bound

Let’s go back to my photography goal. Here’s what it looks like when I make it SMART:

By August 7, I will take a landscape photograph that my wife agrees to display on a wall in our home as art work.

Here’s how it fits the SMART model:

  • Specific: Take a photograph my wife agrees to display on a wall.
  • Measurable: If my wife agrees, I’ve achieved it.
  • Attainable: I like my chances here, but I also know I have to earn it.
  • Relevant: It’s definitely related to photography.
  • Time-bound: August 7 is my deadline.

Jenny's goal provides another great example:

By August 7th, I will play guitar and sing at an open mic in San Diego.

Here's how it fits the SMART model:

  • Specific: Play guitar and sing at an open mic in San Diego.
  • Measurable: If Jenny plays the gig, she achieves the goal.
  • Attainable: Yes. Jenny already plays and sings quite well. She just needs the gig.
  • Relevant: It’s definitely related to time management and prioritization.
  • Time-bound: August 7 is her deadline.

 

Words of Caution: A SMART learning goal is an example, not a destination. Learning to take that one picture will give me skills I can use to take many other pictures. Playing an open mic gig will give Jenny skills she can use to prioritize projects and work.

Setting a clear goal makes it easy to focus my energy on accomplishing something tangible. And, once I do, I’ll have learned some skills that are transferrable to other situations.

 

Finding the Gap

A clear goal can also help you pinpoint what you need to learn. The key is to compare your current performance to your desired performance.

Here’s a landscape picture I took of a place in Kauai called Mahaulepu:

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

The place is gorgeous. Unfortunately, my camera skills weren’t good enough to capture an image that I’d want to blow up and hang on my wall.

Here's another photo I took of a Kauai beach at sunset:

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

I like the view, but the sunset part is severely missing. This wasn't a great choice in terms of composition.

Finally, here's a sunset photo taken on the water in Kauai:

Credit: Jeff Toister

Credit: Jeff Toister

The sun was bright, but the scene is missing the pastel hues and sharp contrasts that make a great sunset picture. There's a little something in the right hand corner (the tail of a surfboard?) but it's not clear enough to be interesting so it's just in the way.

The key is figuring out what I don’t like about these pictures so I know what I need to learn. For me, three things stand out.

Lighting. None of these photos really pop. For example, in the first picture, there are too many shadows on the beach. A better understanding of lighting would help.

Composition. All three scenes looked amazing in person but that didn't translate to a great photo. My challenge is to find scenes that will look great in pictures. Some variables might be timing, location, and technique.

Equipment. These pictures were taken on a point-and-shoot camera. It’s great for snapping a few vacation photos, but not the best tool for taking a picture for my wall. I might need to upgrade.

Jenny's gap was much easier to sort out. She hasn't played any open mic gigs since moving to San Diego. Playing just one puts her in the right direction.

 

Next Steps

I’ll post updates on this blog over the next few weeks. 

For now, here are a few things to get you started:

I’ve already discovered one cool technique for DIY Learning.

If you are trying to learn something, put it out there. Let your friends and colleagues know what you’re up to. Share your goal so they know exactly that you’re trying to accomplish.

When I shared my photography goal, my friend Jess sent me some resources. One was Ted Forbes’s Art of Photography YouTube channel. The first video I saw was a short tutorial on exposure. Perfect!