The Customer Service Training Your Employees Absolutely Need to Have

Updated: January 20, 2024

Customer service training is often an arbitrary decision.

One customer service manager requested a four-hour onsite training class. How did she arrive at that decision?

She hoped the training would help a group of long-term employees become more customer-focused. The manager had a limited budget and though a four-hour workshop would be less expensive than other options.

There are big questions:

  • Is four hours the right amount of training?

  • What specific skills need to be trained?

  • Will training even solve the problem?

Given the manager's limited budget, perhaps the biggest question is whether or not training is a good investment? 

These questions are difficult to answer. Moving ahead with generic training before you've answered them is an arbitrary decision.

You can do better. 

This post will show you how to determine the customer service training your employees absolutely need to have.

The Cost of Poor Training

Before we explore how to make the right decision, let's look at some of the potential costs of making the wrong decision.

Here are a few hard costs:

  • The cost of the training itself.

  • Wages for employees who attend the training.

  • Wages for employees who cover the employees attending the training.

  • Facilities costs (room rental, etc.)

There's also a soft cost to consider that's harder to measure, but can still have an impact on your team. 

Employees might resent attending training they don't feel is useful. Or worse, they might feel punished if they perceive the training is intended to correct their poor performance.

All of these costs can be hard to justify if you schedule the training and customer service doesn't improve.

 

Solution: Construct a Business Impact Model

Robert Brinkerhoff provides a simple method for narrowing down the training content your employees really need while simultaneously building a case for the expense. 

It's called a Business Impact Model. You can read more about it in one of Brinkerhoff's outstanding books, The Success Case Method.

I've borrowed heavily from this concept to create a four-step process below:

Step 1: Identify Your Business Goals

The whole point of training is to help your team achieve something. That means you have to clearly define what they're supposed to achieve.

Forget training for just a moment. Focus first on your overall customer service goals. Here are just a few areas you can explore for setting your goals:

  • Survey scores

  • Complaint reduction

  • Customer retention

You might even try to reduce costs. I've found at least 13 different ways that poor customer service can cost your company money.

Be sure to set your goal using the SMART model. SMART is an acronym:

  • Specific

  • Measurable

  • Attainable

  • Relevant

  • Time-bound

Once you complete this step, you can eliminate any training that doesn't support the goal.

 

Step 2: Determine Key Actions

It's pretty hard to train employees to do something if you haven't defined what exactly you need them to do.

Let's say you want to give your employees training on handling upset customers. In step one, you decided to set a SMART goal for reducing customer complaints. Now, you need to determine what employees actually need to do to serve an angry customer.

Here are a few things you might look at:

  • Is there a process, procedure, or policy employees should follow?

  • Do employees have the tools, resources, and authority to do the job?

  • Are there factors outside their control that contribute to angry customers?

In most cases, this exercise will quickly reveal that training alone won't fix the problem. There are other factors that need to be addressed first.

It will also reveal the specific topics that may need to be trained.

 

Step 3: Describe KSAs

Before you train, it's important to know what training can and cannot do. Training can only help your employees develop KSAs:

  • Knowledge

  • Skills

  • Abilities

So, training won't solve the problem if your employees know how to do something, but won't do it, forget to do it, or don't do it consistently.

Managers often mistake KSAs for other issues. Here are some examples of items that cause poor customer service, but can't be trained:

  • Lack of clear processes, procedures, or policies.

  • Lack of tools, resources, or authority.

  • Lack of motivation.

That last one is a huge challenge. How do you motivate employees to serve their customers? It turns out you don't.

The real challenge is preventing demotivation.

One way you can do that is by involving employees in this process. Get their input on a team goal. Have them help document what needs to be done to achieve it, and identify what barriers get in the way.

Back to training, only the necessary KSAs should be included.

 

Step 4: Identify Missing KSAs

You don't need to train employees to do things they already know how to do. That would be a waste of time.

The only train they need are KSAs they don't already have that are necessary to perform the key actions that will help achieve the goal.

That's it.

This is usually a small, focused list. Once you've created it, you can go back to decisions such as how much time is needed, when to hold the training, and who needs to attend.

 

Focusing Your Training

The truth is most managers will skip all these steps.

They get impatient, so they jump to conclusions and hope for the best. The paradox is the training they offer typically doesn't work and they've just wasted time, money, and resources by taking shortcuts.

In reality, training is only responsible for one percent of customer service. The remaining 99 percent can be attributed to other factors.

The process of finding that one percent is called a needs analysis. You can learn more about the importance of going through this process by watching this short video.

Employees vs. Robots: Who Is Better At Service?

This is a real question.

According to a recent report from Execs In The Know, 47 percent of companies are trying to shift traffic from traditional channels (phone, email, etc.) to lower cost channels such as chat and self-service.

It's self-service that's really grabbing headlines. 

Companies want to lower costs. With California leading the charge towards a higher minimum wage, executives feel pressure to spend less on service. Carl's Jr. and Hardee's CEO Andy Puzder recently speculated about building a fully automated restaurant with no employees. (No word on whether it will be called the Skynet Cafe.)

Customers are demanding faster, more frictionless service. That often means self-service. There's even a rumor going around that Millennials are causing this ruckus because they don't like to talk to people.

So, can robots really serve better than human employees? This post examines both sides of the discussion. 

Note: I'm using the term "robot" loosely to mean any aspect of automated service or autonomous self-service.

The Case for Robots

Imagine booking a airplane ticket in the old fashioned days.

You had to call the airline to make a reservation, which required an expensive employee to take your call. Or, you made your reservation through a travel agent, who took an expensive commission out of the price of that ticket.

Either way, you spent valuable time calling, waiting on hold, and then explaining your travel needs to the person on the other end of the line. That person needed to be compensated, and that compensation added to the price of your ticket.

On your day of travel, you had to wait in line to check-in at the airport. If you got to the gate and decided you wanted to change your seat, you had to wait in line for that too. 

Today, you book your ticket online or via a mobile app. You use the app to check in and download your boarding pass so you can by-pass the check-in counter. You can also use the app to change your seat.

Thanks to automation and self-service, air travel is much more convenient than it used to be. It's also cheaper to fly today than it was 20 years ago (in inflation-adjusted dollars).

It's not just air travel. Robots increasingly deliver better service for a lower price. 

Uber is disrupting ground transportation with it's ride sharing app. You can do your taxes on TurboTax or TaxAct using their simple, question-based system. Or, you can deposit a check using your smartphone without ever having to step foot in a bank.

Netflix recommends movies you might like using an amazing/creepy algorithm. Amazon recommends nearly anything you might like using an amazing/creepy algorithm, and then gets it to you in two days. Or, you can just install an Amazon Dash button and use it to re-order supplies with one click. 

IBM is poised to shake up the world of retail with their Watson artificial intelligence technology. In one experiment, they partnered with North Face to use Watson to help customers pick out a winter jacket.

In short, robots make service easier, faster, and better.

 

The Case for Humans

Automation is great, until something goes wrong.

Take air travel as an example. American Airlines used an automated system to rebook my flight when a delay caused me to miss a connection. That would have been great, except the dumb robot booked me on a flight to the wrong airport. I needed a human to fix it.

Guess who ultimately drives you when you order up an Uber? Autonomous vehicles haven't yet arrived, so you still need a human to drive you from A to B.

Last year, I discovered a bug in TaxAct's software. Getting past it required a full manual workaround by this human.

Order something online and you still need a delivery driver to bring your purchase to your door. My local UPS driver once delivered a package that had the wrong address on it. Some robot screwed up and he fixed it because he knew where I really lived.

Watson may win on Jeopardy, but it's not ready for retail. I tried to use Watson to find a North Face jacket. It didn't do nearly as well as the helpful, in-store sales associate.

Don't even get me started on Interactive Voice Response or IVR. That's the annoying automated phone menu that never understands anything you say.

Robots also can't do warm and fuzzy.

Sure, the automated kiosk at the post office displays "It's been a pleasure to serve you" at the end of each transaction, but I don't really feel it.

OK, so robots can fumble the service bit at times. But, what about cost reduction? Certainly, robots can save money, right?

Not so fast. In her book, The Good Jobs Strategy, Zeynep Ton profiles how low-cost retailers like Trader Joe's and Costco offer low prices by counterintuitively spending more on their employees.

These employees drive both operational excellence and outstanding customer service. They do it by making decisions that simply can't be automated. For example, spotting that "I'm lost" look on a customer's face and then expertly recommending products that customer never even knew existed.

 

The Winner

Calling a clear winner is tricky.

That's because it's not one or the other in a perfect world. When service is done right, robots and humans can co-exist perfectly.

Here's how I see it:

  • Robots are good at: simple or transactional work.

  • Humans are good at: complex or relational work.

The challenge for companies is getting both robots and humans to do their jobs, and do them well. Here's one more example. 

I recently had to call a certain satellite radio company to merge two accounts into one. This problem occurred because a I had bought a new car, and the new car automatically created it's own account (robot fail). 

Even worse, the only way to fix it was to call.

So, I called and spoke to a helpful and friendly customer service rep whose only problem was he had limited English skills. We both worked patiently through the issue and he was eventually able to fix everything the robot couldn't handle.

While I was on the phone, repeating every third sentence, I noticed that my account had an old credit card number attached to it. So, rather than fumble through this simple transaction over the phone, I updated my account with the new card number myself.

Human + robot for the win!

How Confirmation Bias Influences Your Customers

Imagine taking a train from San Diego to Santa Barbara, California.

Beautiful, right? You can probably picture the amazing views of the ocean and the charming beach towns you pass along the way.

That's how I describe it. I took that trip recently when I traveled to Santa Barbara to film my latest training videos at Lynda.com. It was peaceful and relaxing.

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

But, what did I really see along the way? 

Watch this short video for just one minute to see my view from the train. For more than half the trip, my view was much closer to this one.

 

What is Confirmation Bias?

Here's a great definition from psychology expert Kendra Cherry:

A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases.

In other words, once we believe something, we tend to stick to that belief. We naturally filter information based on whether or not it supports our opinion.

Here's an example of how it can influence your customers.

A friend and I were talking about Zappos. She told me she thought that Zappos customer service was amazing. She emphasized the word "amazing" as she shared this with me.

Intrigued, I asked her about her own experiences. Her answer surprised me.

She told me she had ordered from them a couple of times, but there were mistakes made each time. Neither experience was good. She also mentioned another friend who had a bad experience with them too.

I asked my friend why she thinks Zappos has amazing customer service if she's only had bad experiences. Her reply was, "Because that's what everybody says."

There's no doubt that Zappos has a reputation for outstanding customer service. My intent here isn't to refute that. 

It's just astonishing that a customer who can only remember bad experiences would still believe the company had amazing service.

That's confirmation bias.

You can try this exercise on your own. Think of a few companies that deliver amazing service and a few that are poor. Now, list specific facts that back up your impression. See if you can really make an objective argument.

For example, I've professed my love for In-N-Out many times on this blog. What's my real argument for their awesomeness?

  • They rank high on customer service and taste test lists.

  • I consistently have good experiences.

  • It's my favorite fast food burger.

Those are all commendable attributes. But, at the end of the day, In-N-Out is a fast food hamburger joint. That's it. No more, no less.

It's not a magic customer service unicorn that will make all your dreams come true.

 

How Confirmation Bias Affects Your Reputation

Most companies don't have a reputation for customer service that's as strong as Zappos's. Or, as strong as Comcast's for that matter.

These biases can be either positive or negative.

Your customers can still develop a bias about your company. Once customers form a belief about your company, confirmation bias makes it hard to change their mind.

Here are a few examples:

  • A customer's first impression can anchor how they feel about your business.

  • Online reviews can convince customers that you're awesome (or not).

  • How quickly and how well you handle problems can cement a reputation.

  • Making personal connections with customers can strengthen their positive bias.

  • One prickly employee can convince customers you suck.

Sometimes, your business can develop a strong reputation with someone before they ever become your customer. 

That's why local businesses push so hard to land on those "Best Of" lists found in many communities. It's validation that they're fantastic.

It's also why companies worry about a service failure somehow going viral. In one extreme example, the owners of a gourmet marshmallow company appeared on the show The Profit. 

Viewers were so disgusted by the owners' boorish behavior that they quickly voted the company's Yelp and Google ratings down to one star, even though the overwhelming majority of reviewers had never done business with them.

Would you do business with a company that had a one star rating?

 

Developing a Positive Bias

Customers are going to develop biases whether you want them to or not. So, the best strategy is to help your customers have positive biases.

Here are a few things you can try:

Here's What's New In Social Media Customer Service

Social media is still an immature customer service channel.

That's apparent when reading the latest Customer Experience Benchmark report from Execs In The Know and COPC, Inc. This report is the 2015 Corporate Edition and was published in 2016.

I previously analyzed their 2013 report and their 2014 report and came to the same conclusion each year. Most companies still don't get social media as a customer service channel.

Six years ago, I did my own tiny social media study. That's back when the Starbucks Twitter profile said that some guy named Brad did the tweeting. Things are pretty much the same as even back then. (Except for Brad. I'm not sure what happened to him.)

In this year's report, I did see a glimmer of hope that more companies are starting to catch on. Social media customer service is still far from maturity, but it might be entering it's adolescent years.

Below are three of the more interesting trends revealed in the report. You can also purchase the full report from Execs In The Know. It's full of intriguing insights on social media plus more traditional channels (phone, email, etc.) and emerging channels like self-service and chat.

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Trend #1: Ownership

More customer service teams are getting involved, and they're getting more resources to do it. It still isn't great. Here's the breakdown of who owns the social media function:

Customer service has sole or joint ownership of social media in 54 percent of companies surveyed. That's up from 50 percent last year.

The percentage of companies that give their social media agents training is also up, though not quite as high as it was in 2013.

Side note:

What the heck are companies doing that aren't training their employees?! I can just see those managers now.

"Hey Kayla. You're a millennial, right?! Don't all you millennials get social media and stuff? Well, you're in charge now."

I digress.

The other good news is that 60 percent of companies surveyed expected their budget to increase. Only 27 percent of companies surveyed last year planned to increase their budget.

 

Trend #2: New Channels

Twitter and Facebook remain the big dogs when it comes to social media customer service. 

There are other sites like Pintrest, Instagram, and LinkedIn that have millions of users but haven't really caught on for customer service.

However, there are a few alternative social media channels that are increasing. The chart below compares each channel's share of social media engagements in 2015 vs 2014.

Here, it's helpful to remind ourselves what constitutes social media. This is the definition from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)

What types of sites are in these three growing categories?

So, the real trick for companies is figuring out where their customers are trying to interact with them and then establishing a service presence in those channels.

 

Trend #3: Maturity Is Still Low

If something stays the same, does that constitute a trend? 

I'm going to say yes. It's important to acknowledge that many companies are struggling to serve their customers via social media. 

Just 20 percent of survey respondents felt their social media customer service was mature or very mature.

This is going to pose a problem for two reasons. First, social media volume is increasing. The survey found that social media volume increased in 77 percent of companies. 

Second, companies are struggling to keep up with this volume. I examined this 2015 multichannel study from Eptica to learn about social media response rates. 

Here's how the top 500 U.S. retailers fared via Twitter, Facebook, and email:

Yikes! Do these brands hate their customers?

Seriously, brands. I say this with sincerity and affection: If you aren't going to respond to your customers on social media (or email?!) then shut down your account. 

It's social + media. Not media. Sheesh.

Here, I suspect companies are lying to themselves. They think they are awesome when they're not. (I recently wrote about overconfidence causing service failures.) 

There are three data points that support this assertion.

First, the Customer Experience Benchmark found that improving the quality of care was a top priority for contact centers for the second year in a row.

Second, the report also found that 79 percent of companies think they're meeting the needs of their customers, but only 33 percent of customers surveyed agree.

Finally, there's Gartner's famous stat that 89 percent of companies expect customer experience to be their primary basis for competition in 2016.

It's hard to believe we're entering a new age of customer service awesome if companies aren't even responding to basic inquiries. Maybe that's why retail customer satisfaction continues to drop. 

 

One Last Trend

There's one last trend that I think explains a lot.

Take a look at Domo's 2015 Social CEO Report. They looked at Fortune 500 CEOs to see which ones had a presence on social media. 

Their sad finding is 61 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence on social media. It's hard to believe that social media will get the attention it deserves if CEOs don't understand it.

How Employee Overconfidence Causes Service Failures

Hubris created one of the funniest and saddest moments in my training career.

I had been hired to conduct customer service training for an airport parking operator. The night before the classes, I drove through some of the facilities to see whether employees were following the company's five service standards.

The results weren't good.

Only one out of five employees I visited demonstrated all of the service standards. The other employees only delivered on one or two. Most barely paid any attention to me.

I shared the overall results the next day in class. Employees were shocked. They had been convinced they were all doing it right, each and every time.

One woman was particularly upset. She asked me to point out which employees had failed. I refused because I didn't want to embarrass anyone, but she persisted.

She stood up and angrily asked, "Who was it? Who is making us look bad?"

I didn't have the heart to tell this woman that she was one of the employees I had shopped. She didn't recognize me because she had been too busy yacking with a co-worker while she served me.

This employee's overconfidence was comically bad. It was also sad that she didn't realize she was part of the problem.

Employees like this believe they're awesome when they clearly aren't. This post explores why overconfidence is a problem, how employees develop it, and what you can do about it.

The Overconfidence Problem

Overconfident employees believe service is a breeze. They think of themselves as rock stars who can virtually do no wrong.

When things do go wrong, overconfident employees are quick to blame someone else. Do any of these statements sound familiar?

  • "I'm awesome, but management doesn't have it's act together."

  • "I'm awesome, but our customers are a pain."

  • "I'm awesome, but my co-workers don't know what they're doing."

It's very difficult for overconfident employees to learn new techniques or improve their skills. They refuse to learn because they're stuck in the first phase on the learning curve, which is known as Unconscious Incompetent. 

People in this stage don't know what they don't know. It's only when you progress to the next stage, called Conscious Incompetent, that you realize you don't know something. You won't learn something unless you think you need to learn it.

The transition from Unconscious Incompetent to Conscious Incompetent is called the Magic Window because it's essential to learning. Overconfident employees rarely make this transition.

 

How Does Overconfidence Happen?

Blame the Dunning Krueger effect. 

It's a phenomenon where the less someone knows, the more they overrate their ability. David Dunning and Justin Krueger ran a series of experiments where people were asked to rate themselves on a topic and were then tested to see how good they really were. 

The only group that didn't overrate their ability was the top 25 percent. Everyone else suffered from some degree of overconfidence. The people who scored in the bottom 25 percent were the most overconfident of them all.

The explanation is two-fold.

First, people with less knowledge, skill, and ability have a more difficult time distinguishing between good and bad performances. So, your overconfident customer service employee might not truly know what a good customer service rep looks like.

The second problem is the Magic Window problem. Overconfident employees don't feel they need to improve because they already think they're the cat's pajamas.

I've run a similar experiment several times.

I start by asking members of a customer service team to rate their own ability on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being highest. Next, I ask them to rate the team's overall ability on the same scale. The results are remarkably consistent:

  • Individual Average: 4.0

  • Team Average: 3.0

The math doesn't add up, but that's because nearly everyone thinks they're better than the group. Just like the Dunning Krueger experiments, the top performers typically underrate their ability just a tad.

This is a big reason why poor customer service performers don't benefit from customer service training, but good ones do.

 

Overcome Overconfidence

Many customer service leaders have overconfident employees. The good news is there are techniques that can help. The bad news is not every overconfident employee wants to be helped.

Here are a few things you can try.

Start by making sure employees have a clear definition of outstanding service, called a customer service vision. You can't help them become more awesome if you can't clearly define awesome.

Next, make sure they're getting feedback on their performance. It's often helpful to give overconfident employees the ability to self-diagnose.

  1. Have them review their own calls, emails, chats, etc.

  2. Ask them to self-assess against the customer service vision.

  3. Invite employees to describe what they would do differently.

It's important to understand that some employees either can't or won't overcome their overconfidence. They'll continue to believe they're amazing despite strong evidence to the contrary.

Unfortunately, these employees might not be keepers. You may need to let them go if they are unwilling or unable to improve.

 

Resources

Overconfidence can plague everyone, from frontline employees all the way up to senior executives. 

I tackled this topic in my book, Getting Service Right. You can download a free chapter to read about overconfidence or buy the book on Amazon.

You may also enjoy this short video that describes why customer service is so hard. Overconfidence is part of the problem. 

3 Ways Effective Employee Onboarding Can Boost Customer Service

Onboarding new hires can feel like a small miracle.

They start without many of the skills they need to serve your customers. Then, in a relatively short period of time, they transform into customer service superstars.

At least, that's how it's supposed to go.

The reality can be a bit different. Managers don't always devote enough time. Employees can get lost on the learning curve. Customer service often suffers.

This post explores three ways that effective onboarding can boost customer service.

To start, check out this short video that highlights the importance of onboarding by tracking two new hires who have very different experiences.

Increased Engagement

Poor employee onboarding can negatively impact employee job satisfaction, which is a key indicator of engagement. Here's a scary statistic from Benchmark Portal's 2013 Agent Voices report:

It just so happens that the average contact center takes about three months to fully onboard it's new hires.

There are two ways to look at this. One, is onboarding is so great that the actual job pales in comparison.

This might be true. But, the other way to look at this is onboarding is so disconnected from the day-to-day realities that employees are in for a rude awakening as they transition into their new job.

A good onboarding program prepares new hires for success. It helps them become engaged with the company's culture. They become committed to helping the company succeed and feel they can make a difference.

And, it helps ensure their satisfaction rises once they've graduated from training.

 

Customer Impact

It's awkward to be served by an obviously new person.

A new employee was recently learning the ropes at my local coffee shop. The line continued to grow as each transaction took longer than average. He smiled awkwardly as he tried to swipe my credit card several times before realizing he was doing it the wrong way.

Other customers asked him questions he couldn't answer. He repeatedly had to ask another co-worker for assistance, which made it hard for this employee to connect with customers on his own.

This situation wasn't his fault. He hadn't yet been trained. He didn't yet have the skills to serve customers quickly.

It was also an unfortunate choice train him on the register during a busy morning. Every customer that day paid a small price for this employee's learning curve.

Good onboarding programs avoid this problem. They use careful timing and smart design to train employees on important skills while minimally impacting service quality.

 

Wait Time

You hire more people because you need more people to keep up with demand.

The problem is those new people take time to fully onboard and train. Customers have to continue waiting longer until that happens. 

It's not just in my local coffee shop. Think hold times in contact centers, longer lines in stores, or slower service in restaurants. Short-staffed usually equals slow service.

A good onboarding program can help fix this. It ensures new hires are trained faster and better, so short-staffed periods are kept to a minimum.

 

Design Your Own Onboarding Program

My LinkedIn Learning course, Running Company Onboarding, shows you how to create an effective employee onboarding program. Here’s a short preview:

Book Review: The Good Jobs Strategy

What do Costco, Trader Joe's, and In-N-Out all have in common?

You might immediately think of their cult-like customer following. Or, perhaps you're drawn to their great products at reasonable prices. You may even think about their reputation for outstanding customer service.

These companies all have something else in common. They invest significantly more in their employees than their competitors.

That's the core lesson from The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits by Zeynep Ton. 

Investing in your employees doesn't have to come at the expense of profits. A few smart companies have figured out how to succeed by creating better jobs for their employees.

Ton focuses on jobs in retail, a traditionally low-wage industry. She also gives examples from fast food companies like In-N-Out and other industries where wages are typically low.

A good job has a few characteristics:

  • Higher than average pay

  • Better than average benefits

  • Comprehensive training

  • Predictable work schedules

  • Greater levels of empowerment

Ton explains in detail how these companies make a strategic choice to combine high-caliber employees with operational excellence.

Here are just a few characteristics of good jobs companies:

This book was an enjoyable and inspiring read. It proved that companies can become successful by truly treating employees like their most valuable asset.

You can buy the book on Amazon.

Why The Phone Is Still King For Customer Support

The phone is not dead.

Let me tell you why. Actually, allow me to gush. I recently had a customer service experience over the phone that proved why the phone is still king.

Melanie, a Verizon Wireless technical support rep, took a minor frustration and turned it into a great experience. 

She did it primarily over the phone. Yes, she used text and email too. It was a very omnichannel experience. But, the phone was the primary channel.

No other channel would have worked so well.

Read on to learn what Melanie did, why other channels would have failed, and how Verizon Wireless empowered Melanie to make it happen.

Friendly and capable phone reps are hard to beat.

Friendly and capable phone reps are hard to beat.

The Story

My day had just gotten crushed. 

A check engine light forced an unexpected trip to the mechanic. Then, my smartphone died while I was trying to set up an appointment to get the car fixed.

The phone lost it's network connection, giving me a "No Sim Card" warning. Like an estimated 57 percent of customers, I first went online to find some self-help. There were a few knowledge base articles, but none of them fixed my phone.

Time to call.

I dialed Verizon Wireless's customer service line. Pressed the number for technical support. Entered my phone number. Entered the last four digits of my social security number for verification purposes.

And then... I was instantly connected to Melanie. 

Customers like me who are angry about other things (remember my wonky car?) are typically hard to serve. But, Melanie was a saint.

She was warm and friendly. Reassuring without being patronizing. She also clearly knew her stuff as she walked me through several diagnostic steps.

We had to wait a brief moment during the diagnostic process while my phone reset itself. Melanie took the opportunity to helpfully review my plan. She looked at my actual usage and pointed out a new plan that would save me $30 per month. 

Wait, helpful tech support and I just saved $360 per year?!

It got even better. Melanie asked if it would be okay if she called back in 30 to 45 minutes to just check in and make sure everything was OK. 

Dogmatic first contact resolution adherents are cringing right now, because Melanie's follow-up call would technically be a second contact. But, to a customer, it was awesome.

She called a short while later just as promised. She happened to catch me while I was in the waiting area at the mechanic. "How is your car?" she asked, leading with empathy.

Melanie then asked a couple of questions to make sure that my phone was still working fine.

 

Why Other Channels Would Fail

No other channel could do what Melanie did. 

I tried chat before calling support because I thought chat might be faster. I was still waiting for a chat agent when Melanie answered the phone. 

Even if I had gotten through, a chat agent wouldn't be able to empathize in quite the same was as a live phone agent. And, there would be the inevitable delay as we went back and forth to run diagnostics. Once you're connected, phone is faster.

Other written channels like email, text, and social would also have failed. The starting point for those written channels would likely be to send me to the knowledge base article that I had already visited.

There would then have been a significant delay going back and forth. I doubt we would have fixed my phone so fast. I also doubt there would have been time to save me $360.

In-person would have accomplished the same result. The only problem with that is I would have to drive down to the Verizon store. That would take extra time and my car was headed to the mechanic anyway.

No, the phone was the fastest and most satisfying channel by far.

 

How Verizon Supported Melanie

There are many people who don't like the phone as a service channel.

Perhaps one reason is that many contact centers don't support this channel the right way. A 2015 ICMI study found that 86 percent of contact centers don't empower their agents.

So, saying the phone doesn't work is like watching a lightbulb burn out and declaring that all lightbulbs are dead.

Verizon does a lot of things right over the phone. They seem to hire a lot of people like Melanie. I've consistently spoken to helpful, friendly people who quickly solved my problem whenever I've had to call.

Verizon must also do some things to make sure those customer service stars don't get demotivated. After all, demotivation is a much bigger problem in contact centers than motivation.

So, here are a few things I noticed.

First, Melanie had the tools she needed to help me. She didn't have to ask me for my account information because it was already on her screen when she answered my call.

She had diagnostic tools to help her remotely figure out what was going on with my phone.

She had a database of different phone designs so she could access the specs on my particular model and tell me exactly where to find things.

And, she had the ability to schedule a follow-up call to make sure everything was working properly.

Second, Melanie was given time. She clearly wasn't trying to end the call as quickly as possible to ensure she met a draconian average handle time standard. She focused on moving things forward swiftly because we were both anxious to solve the problem, but she didn't cut any corners at my expense.

Finally, Melanie clearly had a lot of training. She was well-versed on her product, knew the right questions to ask, and knew how to ask them.

Don't get me wrong. I like other channels. And, there are a lot of companies that do phone so poorly that you feel compelled to use a different channel.

But, so long as companies like Verizon Wireless can do phone right, that will be my preferred channel for situations like this. 

How about you?

How to Use Surveys to Save Angry Customers

Companies that use customer service surveys fall into three groups.

The first is the majority. These companies just report the numbers. They don't really understand why they're surveying their customers, they just know that higher numbers are good.

Unfortunately, you really haven't learned anything if all you know is your Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score is 85 percent one month and 86 percent the next. 

The second group uses their survey data to identify actionable insight. This group knows why CSAT moved from 85 percent to 86 percent. They also have a clear idea on how to get it to 87 percent next month.

The final group uses their survey to identify actionable insight, but they also use it to connect with individual customers.

This group knows that if 85 percent of customers were satisfied, then 15 percent were not. They want to find that 15 percent and help them before they take their business to a competitor.

This post explains how you can be a part of that third group too.

Why Yelp is (Almost) the Perfect Survey System

Take a moment to consider the beauty of Yelp.

Yes, it has some flaws that businesses don't like. The reviews are public (scary!), some of the reviews are fake (true story), and most people leave negative reviews (patently false).

Yelp also has a simple design that can give you a lot of feedback.

First, it asks customers to give a single rating. There's no convoluted mess of 36 different dimensions that will never be read or analyzed. Just one rating. One to five stars, with five being best.

Do you think people would write Yelp reviews if they had to answer 36 questions? Not a chance.

Next, Yelp asks customers to explain their rating in the comment section. The beauty of this is you can do some basic text analysis to understand why someone would give you a five star rating versus a three star rating.

Best of all, Yelp allows you to close the loop with your customers.

You can follow-up with the customer in private to (hopefully) resolve their issue. You can also respond to their review publicly so other customers know you're listening.

In many ways, Yelp emulates the ultimate three question survey. In fact, the biggest problem with Yelp as I see it is most businesses don't get enough reviews. 

 

Creating Your Own Better Yelp Model

You can easily create a survey that includes Yelp's best features.

Unlike Yelp, you will likely get a lot more responses and the results will remain private unless you choose to release your data to the world.

Here's a sample survey:

A survey like this can yield lots of useful data without burdening your customers with unnecessary questions. You just need to know how to analyze it. 

Fortunately, you can use this handy guide.

Notice the third question allows customers to opt-in for follow-up contact. This is the linchpin that can allow you to identify and follow-up with angry customers.

For example, you can set a rule that any customer who gives a rating of three or lower gets a follow-up contact. (Provided, of course, that the customer opted-in.) 

This follow-up can yield all sorts of great things:

  • You might fix the problem.

  • You might save the customer.

  • You might gain additional insight.

There's also a bonus.

One data analyst at a large company confided in me that customers who received a follow-up contact generally gave top scores on their next survey. So, closing the loop with angry customers can be really, really good for your overall survey score.

Let's not forget that our executives really do care about that score.

 

Resource

You can learn more about creating customer service surveys by watching this training video on LinkedIn Learning (subscription required).

Why Five Stars Might Scare Away Your Customers

Negative reviews can enhance your product's reputation.

That's the finding from a study conducted at Northwestern University’s Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center. The research, commissioned by PowerReviews, looked at customers' likelihood to purchase various products based upon that product's rating on a five star scale.

Unsurprisingly, they found that poor overall ratings can hurt sales. The twist was that sales can also decline when a product's rating is too high!

Here's an overview of the findings along with what this can mean to your business.

Study Results

The study looked at the relationship between consumer reviews and sales for a variety of products including lightbulbs, hair coloring, and baby food.

Each products' average star rating (1 - 5 scale, 5 being highest) was compared to customers' likelihood of purchasing the product. Theresa O'Neil, VP of Marketing at PowerReviews, explained that "Likelihood to purchase is calculated by dividing the number of purchases by exposures to the (review) page."

Here's what they found:

  • 1 - 3 stars: There is virtually no difference in sales.

  • 3 - 4.1 stars: Sales increase as ratings increase.

  • 4.2 - 4.5 stars: Sales hit their peak.

  • 4.6 - 5 stars: Sales decline slightly.

The researchers discovered that the optimal rating was between 4.2 and 4.5 stars!

The study didn't do any testing to determine the reason that sales decline slightly for products rated 4.6 stars or higher. However, the authors offer a reasonable theory.

Citing a previous study that found 82 percent of shoppers specifically seek out negative reviews, the authors believe that a perfect or near-perfect rating seems too good to be true.

Intuitively, this makes sense. 

Many people have told me that they don't trust a business that has a perfect five-star rating on Yelp. They will often look at negative reviews written about that business to get a more balanced perspective and also see how that business responds to feedback.

It makes sense that consumers would take a similar approach to product reviews.

 

Business Impact

Customer service leaders should focus on earning a positive reputation via customer reviews. Whether it's a product review on their website or a business review on an external site like Yelp, a good reputation can boost sales.

The caveat is those reviews must feel authentic.

That means customer service leaders should avoid pressuring their employees into begging for positive feedback. The term survey begging usually applies to customer service surveys, but it could apply to product reviews too.

Companies should embrace negative reviews as an opportunity to fix a problem. 

Keep in mind that a majority of customers don't complain about minor issues. And, if you do receive a complaint (or a negative review), it's very likely that many other customers don't feel the same way.

So, embrace negative reviews as a way to improve both your product and your reputation. They key is handling them properly.

I wrote this post about responding to negative reviews on Yelp and this post about using negative Yelp reviews to improve your business. Both can be adapted to handling negative product reviews.