Of course, the results are a bit skewed by Generation Y (born 1977 or later). Members of this generation aparently do their best Veruca Salt impersonation when it comes to receiving email, since 43% of them expect a response within one hour.

People have a little more patience when it comes to receiving a response to emails sent to a business. Companies should always try to respond to customer emails as quickly as possible, but 75% of us are willing to wait at least a day:

The survey also asked how quickly we expect our friends to respond to email. Here, we're a bit more lenient, with 88% of survey participants saying they thought they should receive a reply within 1 or more days.

I conducted the same survey last year (see the 2011 results), so have there been any changes? The short answer is no, not really. The only thing noticeable was members of Generation Y have grown slightly more impatient, since 35% of them expected co-workers to reply to email within one hour in 2011, but that number has risen to 43% in 2012. 

What does all this mean?

Service, whether it's external to your customers or internal to your co-workers, is all about expectations. Should our co-workers be more patient? Certainly, but the reality is right now they're not. Do people misuse email? Yes, but screaming at your computer won't change that.

While we can't change others, we can lead by example. For businesses, I wrote a short post on managing customer service email three years ago that still feels relevant today. The top tip? Track email response times and set a goal of 1 business day for everything. (You can read it here.) For individuals, I wrote a post on 10 ways to avoid email overload. (Read that one here.) Perhaps the most important lesson there is to have the discipline to use email correctly rather getting sucked in to becoming part of the problem. 

For many companies that gather customer satisfaction (C-Sat) data, the answer is, "We'd keep doing things the same way." 

Sports talk radio personality Jim Rome has a favorite saying for his callers, "Give me an A or give me an F." If your company gathers C-Sat data, I hereby challenge you to do the same. Either make sure your C-Sat process earns an A, or stop wasting time and annoying customers with a process that yields no value.

How can you tell if your C-Sat process gets an A?

I propose three simple tests to get you started. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you answer "Yes" to these three questions you are probably doing OK.

#1 Do you know why you're asking what you're asking?

Forget your survey questions for a moment and ask, "What do I want to know?" Now, ask, "Why do I need to know that?" If you can't think of a really good reason to ask the question, don't.

I recently received a survey after getting my car's oil change that contained 36 questions (see "Customer Service Survey Mistakes to Avoid"). Does it really take 36 questions to find out if I was happy with my oil change? Of course not!

Surveys of any sort consume your customers' time. The shorter you make them, the better. As a rule of thumb, if you can't get the information you need in five questions or fewer, you are probably asking the wrong questions.

#2 Do you do anything with the data?

The whole point of capturing C-Sat data shouldn't be getting a good score. It should be using the data to improve actual customer satisfaction. If you aren't acting on the data you receive, you aren't extracting any value from the process.

In most cases, you don't have to be an expert in statistics to find value in your C-Sat data, provided you are asking good questions (see #1, above). For example, a client of mine recently grouped the comments attached to their C-Sat survey and discovered that the majority of negative feedback was attributed to one particular process. My client used this insight to fix the process and make it more customer friendly. Customer satisfaction immediately jumped and many people commented on how pleased they were with the improved process.

#3 Do you close the loop?

C-Sat instruments usually collect individual data points and combine them into an average. That's helpful for an overall score, but what do you know about each individual customer? A good system allows you to follow-up with people to either thank them for their business or fix a problem. It can be as easy as asking for their email or phone number at the end of the survey, but it's essential that you follow-up if you request this information.

Here are two examples that highlight the value of closing the loop:

A shipping company recently left a case of wine on my front doorstep. Not only did they fail to get an adult signature for the wine, they left the wine outside where the wine might have been ruined if it had been a hot day. They never asked for my opinion, so they never got my feedback. However, the next time I ordered wine from a winery that used them, I shared the story and asked the winery to use UPS instead.

One of my favorite hotels, the Napa River Inn, sent me a survey after my wife and I stayed there last year. The visit was terrific overall, but there were a few things that weren't up to their usual standards. The General Manager emailed me in response to my survey, thanked me for my feedback, and assured me she would correct the problems I had noted. She also invited me to let her know the next time I visited so she could personally ensure I had a wonderful stay. I took her up on her offer and on my next visit my wife and I had an absolutely amazing time. And, the problems we had noticed on our previous stay had clearly been corrected.

As my audience for this blog continues to grow, I think it's time to apply this personal policy here as well. My goal is to use examples of good and bad customer service to inform and perhaps entertain, while recognizing that customer service is difficult, mistakes can and will happen, and sometimes even the best companies and employees fall a little short.

Here's my policy:

• When I receive poor customer service, I won't mention the company by name unless I've first attempted to address my grievance with a company representative.
• I will mention companies by name if I am commenting on a news story (rather than my own experience as a customer).
• I won't hesitate to identify companies by name when I receive exceptional service.
• When discussing individual customer service employees, I will only use their first names unless I've been given permission to quote them by name. 

Like all policies, it may get broken or stretched from time to time, but I'll do my best to be faithful to it.

The survey will close on Friday, May 18 and the results will be posted on Monday, May 21. The final results willbe posted on my blog. You can subscribe to updates via email by clicking here

Service makes a difference when mattress shopping

Last Place: Nightmare service

The worst example came at a mattress store near our home. As we walked through their door, we heard a guttural, "Howyaguysdoin?" from across the store. We both looked in that direction but couldn't tell who it came from since nobody was looking our way. After a minute or so, a woman approached us and revealed herself as our greeter by repeating, "Howyaguysdoin?"

If you haven't purchased a mattress in awhile, the process generally involves lying down on a bunch of mattresses and trying to imagine how comfortable you'd be sleeping on each one. Our salesperson made this fairly impossible because she never stopped talking. She told us about the great deals they were offering each mattress, about the cutting-edge technology integrated into the designs, and then somehow segued into her personal medical problems. None of those topics had anything to do with whether we'd get a good night's sleep on a particular mattress, and her medical history threatened to give us nightmares.

I'm sorry life dealt you a rough hand, lady, but that approach was a huge turn-off. 

Distant 2nd: Slow service, dirty ceilings

We also visited a major department store where our salesperson was nice, but he was too busy to be helpful. We had to wait a few minutes while he served another customer, which wasn't so bad, but after we caught his attention it was hard to keep it. He left us repeatedly to serve other people while we were trying out various mattresses and discussing their pros and cons. Each time he left us, it made us less enthusiastic about shopping there. It also gave us time to notice things like their incredibly dirty ceiling.

Holy cow, that ceiling was gross! Seriously, store, lie down on one of your mattresses and look up at your disgusting ceiling and tell me if you feel restful. 

The Winner: Dan at Sleep Train

Our winning salesperson was Dan at Sleep Train. The Sleep Train store was nicely organized with sparkling clean ceilings, so the deck was already stacked in their favor. However, Dan really nailed the customer service aspect of the sales process. Here are just a few things he did right:

• He greeted us immediately and introduced himself.
• Dan asked questions to get to know us and our needs.
• He encouraged us to try out various mattresses and adjusted the models he showed us based on our feedback (too hard, too soft, that sort of thing).
• There was silence, glorious silence, while we tried each mattress, but Dan remained nearby to immediately answer our questions.
• Dan didn't discuss price until we had picked our top choices. He realized that price was irrelevant if the bed was uncomfortable.

Service Pointers

In retail, service can have a huge impact on sales, especially on bigger ticket items. Here are just a few take-aways from our mattress-buying experience:

• Train your sales staff to first identify their customers' needs and tailor their pitch accordingly.
• Literally see things from your customers' perspective so you won't miss problems, like dirty ceilings in a mattress store, that are costing you sales.
• Consistently remind your sales staff that their job is to solve their customers' problems, not dump their problems on their customers.

My new head shot - it looks like the real me

Finally, I decided to just be me. I wanted my headshot to pretty much look like the person who would show up at a client's office or be at a speaking engagement. In other words, the look I was going for was authentic.

Fortunately, I think Ted Donovon at Donovon Photography nailed it. (Shout out for great service - Ted is personable, does great work, and turns things around fast!)

Why Authenticity Matters

The short answer is your customers can tell the difference. We like authentic - it can feel trustworthy, welcoming, and enthusiastic so long as your company and your employees really are those things. 

Customers can also tell when an employee is faking it. I love this vintage commercial from Pacific Southwest Airlines that promoted the difference:

(Here's a link in case you can't view the video.)

Terrific stuff, right? Unfortunately, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was acquired a number of years ago by US Airways, but I still have fond memories of flying on PSA when I was a kid. 

3 Ways to Keep it Real

There are many ways to promote authentic customer service, but I'll give you three of my favorites.

#1 Hire people who want to do what you want them to do
It's never fun to encounter a customer service employee who clearly doesn't want to be there. This challenge can be partially remedied by hiring people who not only have the skills to do the job, but the passion to match.

My wife, Sally, and I were on vacation in Napa a few weeks ago when we met Bob at one of the wineries we visited. Over the course of our conversation, we learned that Bob worked in the tasting room at Rombauer Vineyards, but enjoyed wine so much that he went wine tasting on his day off. He gave us his card and invited us to stop by Rombauer later in the week. We decided to pay Bob a visit that Saturday, and despite a large crowd in the tasting room, he remembered us and treated us to an outstanding tasting experience. 

#2 Ditch the script
Scripts are for actors, not customer service employees. Give your employees guidelines if there's an essential message you need to convey, but don't trip them up with a clunky script that makes them sound like robots. (My disdain for scripts is frequently documented in this blog -- see my "ditch the scripts post.")

I once visited my local True Value hardware store and was greeted with, "What are you doing in here?!" That greeting would never pass muster in a corporate brand standards meeting, but it felt wonderfully authentic to me. The employee who greeted me had been helping me with a home project that required several unexpected trips back to the store. After each trip, we both hoped it would be my last visit for this particular project. Alas, when he saw me once again, he knew something else had gone wrong. 

#3 Give employees something to smile about
There's a flip side to authenticity, where customer service employees harbor negative feelings about their co-workers, their boss, or their company. Venting frustrations to customers is certainly authentic, but it's very unappealing. I want the people who serve me to keep it real, but I still want a great experience.

The antidote to this problem is to help employees maintain a positive outlook. Show appreciation for their contributions, acknowledge their successes, and help them recover from their mistakes. Be quick to share good news, but don't hide the bad news either. Involve them in solving problems. Make them feel like partners.

I'm sure there are many other ways to promote authentic customer service. Please be sure to share your ideas and comments.

You won't find much debate about the merits of employee engagement. However, you will see disagreement when it comes to finding a common definition of employee engagement. Which leads to my question:

What is employee engagement?

Here are three different definitions from respected sources:

Gallup

The Gallup Organization may be among the best known of the big consulting and research firms that focus on employee engagement. However, finding their definition takes a little bit of work. The best I could find was this: "Engaged employees are involved in and enthusiastic about their work." (Link to article reference.) There are many great resources on the Employee Engagement section of their website, but I couldn't find a definition.

BlessingWhite

Page 4 of the BlessingWhite 2011 Employee Engagement Report defines employee engagement as the intersection of job satisfaction and job contribution. (Download their free report here.) This seems to be an important distinction from the Gallup model which focuses more on employees' emotional connections to their work. The BlessingWhite model also takes into account employees' contributions to organizational success.

DecisionWise

Tracy Maylett, DecisionWise's CEO, co-authored an article on employee engagement with Julie Nielson, the American Society for Training and Development's (ASTD's) Senior Director of Human Resources and Organizational Learning. The article, titled "There Is No Cookie Cutter Approach to Engagement," appeared in the April 2012 issue of T&D Magazine and argued that employee engagement is the intersection of an employee's job satisfaction, effectiveness, and motivation. Their model seems like a hybrid of the Gallup and BlessingWhite approaches. Maylett and Nielson are hosting a free webinar on April 26 called "Halting the Engagement Exodus" where you can learn more. (Click here to register.)

Why does it matter?

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but there is a potential for confusion when we're all talking about engagement but we mean different things. Here's why I think this is important:

1. No matter what the definition, research has shown that employee engagement is a critical driver of organizational success.
2. If we want to improve something, we should gain agreement on what "it" is.
3. Your definition will affect your strategy for getting better results.

My Definition, and a Resource

I prefer to think of employee engagement as the extent to which an employee is deliberately contributing to organizational success. This would be the "contribution" aspect of the BlessingWhite model or the "effectiveness" component of the DecisionWise model. I don't disagree that job satisfaction, motivation, and an emotional connection to the company are important, but I also view them as drivers of an employee's willingness to help their company succeed. 

When I work with my own clients on employee engagement issues, I will often use a simple alignment assessment to start the conversation. This assessment looks at how well the organization's core "people processes" are aligned with organizational goals. The closer the alignment, the more likely you are to have engaged employees. Try the assessment out for yourself.

What's your definition?

Please comment on this post with your definition of employee engagement. Do you agree with one of the three mentioned above? Or, perhaps you have another twist you can share? Please share links if available!

In December 2010, Patrick Maguire posted an excellent story on his Server not Servant blog about a restaurant that was overwhelmed by an unexpected walk-in party of 47 guests. Even worse, they were all wielding Groupons good for $35 worth of food and drink for $15 and expected 47 separate checks so each person could receive the discount. (Read about “The Perfect Restaurant Storm” here.) The post naturally generated a lot of conversation about the customer service challenges presented by this situation.

This may be an extreme example, but there is some evidence that suggests daily deal customers may be pickier about customer service. A September 2011 study published by researchers at Boston University and Harvard discovered that when Yelp reviewers mention a daily deal they rate the business an average of 10% lower than other reviewers (read the study here). A negative review can have a double impact on a business since it means the customer likely won’t return and lower average ratings can also warn off other potential customers.

Repeat customers are essential to making a daily deal promotion work. Businesses typically split the revenue with a daily deal provider, so a restaurant offering $35 worth of food and drink for $15 might receive only $7.50. If all goes well, customers have a great experience and return again paying full price. If not, then perhaps the customer posts a negative review on Yelp and visits the next restaurant offering a terrific bargain.

The two major daily deal sites counter with some impressive stats of their own. According to Groupon’s website, 90% of Groupon customers spend more than the face value of the promotion. LivingSocial’s website cites a study which found that 85% of customers are satisfied and plan to return to the business.

An article in the April 2012 edition of Fast Company provided a good overview of some of the emerging trends in daily deals, including three examples of promotions that worked with varying degrees of success (see “Are Daily Deals Done?"). The most successful example had a clear strategy for not only bringing in new customers, but selling them on other products and services that would make the offer pay off.

Perhaps that’s the best conclusion for businesses thinking about going the daily deal route. Be careful in how you construct the promotion and approach it with the bigger picture in mind. If not, you might just find yourself with a room full of impatient customers who can’t wait to write a scathing online review about your business.

Combining my a la carte items onto one plate seems like such an obvious move, but there’s a simple explanation as to way it infrequently happens. The culprit is process.

Why is process to blame?

Processes get drilled into employees’ heads. That’s how they learn and it’s often how they’re managed. It’s also how work flows in many service environments. As a result, it's what employees often focus on.

Take my a la carte order for example. It’s not a specific meal on the menu, so the server has to ring it in as individual items to generate a price and get the order into the kitchen. Plating my entire meal on one dish requires the server to think outside the normal process and consider my needs as a customer. Again, it seems obvious, but here process usually causes the server to lose customer-focus.

Why is customer-focus so important? 

The rare server who puts all my breakfast items on one plate really stands out. My colleague, Liz, recently wrote to tell me about a similar experience she and her husband had where the focus was on her and not the process:

“We frequently stop for a sandwich at Great Harvest Bread Company in Temecula. Their sandwiches are enormous, so we only eat half, and save the other half for the next day’s lunch. Apparently their staff has noticed, because the last time we visited, they served up half the sandwich in the basket, and half in a to-go bag. It was a very pleasant surprise, and you can be sure we will remain loyal customers.”

In another example, a client of mine recently asked me to develop some sales scripts for his call center employees. After a spirited discussion, he agreed to let me develop guidelines that would help reps steer the conversation towards a sale while using their own brains and personalities to adapt to each customer’s unique needs. My client initially feared that his reps would be inconsistent without a strict script to adhere to, but thankfully he relented. Customers aren't the same, so why should we approach each on the same way? The results have already started paying off in the form of increased sales. (See a previous rant about scripts here.)

How can you achieve customer focus?

A good place to start is by designing customer-focused processes, such as using broad guidelines rather than scripts.

Training can help too. For example, cashiers often give change by scooping coins out of their till, grabbing the bills, and then flipping the whole thing into the palm of the customer's hand. The result is the loose coins end up on top, making it more difficult for the customer to put their money away. A customer-focused way to do it is take the extra half-second necessary to place the coins in the customer's hand first. Last week, I received an email from Jesse who reminded me how this little move can make a big impact:

"I had a cashier who was aware of this very small thing and just by consciously giving me my coins in a manner that let me put away bills in my wallet first, I felt like it was the best customer service I had gotten all week! And all I got was a small juice at a coffee stand.  Also because she gave me change first it was easier and quicker for me to tip her with a bill."

I received a surprise when I reviewed the latest bank statement for one of my business accounts. My bank had imposed a mysterious 50 cent fee for something called "Currency Straps Ordered." It wasn't a lot of money, but I didn't want my bank to get in the habit of charging random fees, so I decided to give them a call.

You may already know what a Currency Strap is, but I had to do some digging to find out. It is a bundle of cash that has a paper "strap" around it to keep the bills together. Banks give them to businesses who work with cash. I've also seen them in quite a few action movies and spy thrillers when someone has a dufflebag full of cash.

My consulting business doesn't use currency straps, but I was still charged 50 cents for one. How?

I had visited my bank branch to deposit some checks into my account. At the end of the transaction, the teller had asked if there was anything else she could help me with. I realized I needed to get some tip money for an upcoming trip, so I asked her to give me change for a $20. Little did I know that this was considered a "currency strap" in the banking world. Gotcha!

The teller didn't advise me of the 50 cent charge, or I certainly would have gotten change elsewhere. It may be in the fine print of my banking agreement, but I don't remember seeing it. This fee was an unpleasant surprise.

It took 15 minutes on the phone with a customer service representative and then a branch manager to get to the bottom of this unexpected charge. To her credit, the branch manager quickly reversed the charge and was empathetic, but she also explained this was their corporate policy.

I'm now thinking of moving my accounts to another bank. It's not just the 50 cents, but all of the fees I've had to worry about avoiding lately. This bank clearly wants to make their money on fees, not service. 

Customer Service Tips

• The only surprises your customers should ever receive are pleasant ones. 
• Nobody likes fees. 
• It's probably not worth Chase-ing a customer away for a lousy 50 cents.