Lessons from The Overlook: Find the Right Partners

Note: Lessons from The Overlook is a monthly update on lessons learned from owning a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. It's a hands-on opportunity to apply some of the techniques I advise my clients to use. You can find past updates here.

Chances are you rely on partners to help serve your customers.

It might be a vendor, a supplier, or a delivery company. Your organization may even outsource the customer service function to another firm.

Choosing the right partners is essential.

My wife, Sally, and I own a vacation rental property in the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. Called The Overlook, our cabin is a two hour drive from our home in San Diego. 

Needless to say, we must rely on several partners to keep our guests happy.

We count on partners to book guest rentals, keep the cabin clean, make repairs, and keep the utilities running. 

Here's how we do it and how you can too.

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

But first, what's a partner?

I use the term partner to describe just about anyone who is not an employee that helps you deliver customer service. This could be a specific person or a company.

Here are just a few examples:

• Delivery companies

• Repair technicians

• Suppliers

• Contract or contingent labor

• Marketing agencies

• Business process outsources (ex: outsourced contact centers)

• Cleaning and janitorial services

• Technology providers (communications, software, etc.)

Great employees are essential to outstanding customer service, but your partners play an important role, too!

Now, here's how to find a partner that will treat your customers right.

Step 1: Identify Key Characteristics

It's helpful to decide what qualities make a great partner before you start searching.

Some people make one of these big mistakes when finding a partner:

• Focusing solely on price

• Exclusively choosing well-known companies

• Picking partners because they are nice

There's nothing wrong with any of those qualities, but I recommend you dig a bit deeper. Look for partners who can align with your customer service vision.

The customer service vision for The Overlook is:

Welcome to your mountain community retreat.

So naturally we searched for partners who fit three criteria:

• Are they welcoming?

• Are they part of the Idyllwild mountain community?

• Are they responsive?

That last part was key because we want our guests to feel like The Overlook is a retreat. To us, this implies relaxation. It's hard to relax when you need something and the owners are two hours away, so we need partners who can be responsive!

Step 2: Screen Potential Partners for Vision Alignment

The next step is to screen potential partners to see if they can truly align with your customer service vision.

For example, we contacted several companies to discuss managing our property. This is an essential role since the property manager oversees guest bookings, day-to-day customer service, cleaning, and maintenance.

One of the companies was a big-name property manager that had a centralized contact center and dedicated sales team. That's fine, but we wanted to know if this company was truly part of the local community, so we called the company's local office directly. The local manager never returned our call, which told us we'd probably get poor service from this person.

The property manager we did select, Idyllwild Vacation Cabins, was a different story. The owner, Martha Sanchez, agreed to meet us at the cabin to show us how she would manage the property and to give us tips to make it more appealing to renters. (Very welcoming!)

We also asked around the community and discovered she was well-known and had a good reputation.

And Martha is extremely responsive. She gave us her cell phone number and we soon found she is always quick to return a call or text.

Step 3: Develop a Partnership

Ditch the "customer is always right" mantra.

A true partnership is a two-way relationship. This means you need to invest in your partner's success just as much as they're investing in yours.

Go out of your way to be helpful. Make it easy for your partner to serve your customers. And be sure to live your customer service vision when it comes to working with your partner too.

That's why we try to be welcoming to our partners. We want them to accept us as part of the Idyllwild community, so we work hard to build positive relationships. And we're always responsive because we know our partners have a job to do too.

Jon Millhouse, our real estate agent at Town Real Estate, is another great example.

He went out of his way to give contractors access to the cabin so they could bid on a few upgrade projects without us having to drive all the way up from San Diego. And he did this even after the sale was final and he was no longer obligated to help us!

It turns out Jon is also an incredible photographer, and he let us use his photos for our website. You can find Jon's photography here.

Bonus Tip: Don't forget your neighbors

The Overlook is located in a quiet residential neighborhood. The people who live on both sides of our cabin live there full time.

This makes them essential partners!

Not long after buying the cabin, we went over to each neighbor's house to introduce ourselves. We brought some homemade fudge and a card with our contact information.

Lucky for us, our neighbors couldn't have been nicer! 

They immediately realized how we could help each other. Our neighbors offered to keep an eye on our place and let us know if anything seemed amiss. In return, we told them it was our intention to ensure our guests didn't cause any problems and asked them to let us know if there were any issues (noise, damage, etc.) so that we could address it immediately.

Many businesses have neighbors who share an office building, a retail center, or some other space. It's always a good idea to build good relationships with your neighbors so you can help each other.

Insider Perspectives: UL's Nate Brown on Implementing a Vision

Nate Brown, Director of Customer Experience

A customer service vision is essential to customer focus.

If you've not heard this term before, a customer service vision is a shared definition of outstanding customer service that points everyone in the same direction. You can read this backgrounder for more information.

Implementing a customer service vision can be tricky.

Employees may struggle to relate to it, remember it, or incorporate it into their daily activities. Leaders don't always realize the thoughtfulness that goes into creating a great vision or the effort and commitment required to make it stick.

Nate Brown is facing this challenge head-on, and is making great progress.

He's the Director of Customer Experience at UL EHS Sustainability, a company that provides software to help organizations manage environmental health and safety in the workplace. Brown also writes the excellent Customer Centric Support blog and is one of ICMI's Top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter.

Brown shared some of his insights and lessons-learned with me.

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Q: Why did you decide to create a customer service vision for your team?

"I attended your workshop on getting agents obsessed with service at ICMI's Contact Center Expo conference in Long Beach last May (2016). You talked about the importance of creating a customer service vision, and it sounded like exactly what we needed.

"I had thought a lot about making my team's day-to-day work in the contact center relevant to the company's mission. UL EHS Sustainability is a division of the safety science company UL. The mission statement is Working for a safer world, which makes sense because we're a global safety science company that provides a wide range of services such as consumer product testing and helping manufacturers build safer products.

"UL EHS Sustainability provides software to help employers create healthier, safer and more sustainable workplaces and my team provides technical support, so my team was initially focused on the technical aspect of their jobs. We needed a way to connect our work to the mission."

Q: What did you come up with?

"Our customer service vision is Supporting our customers and each other in a manner that is effortless, accurate, and friendly. 

"The thinking is if we can do these things, our customers will be able to use our software better which ultimately contributes to UL's mission.”

Q: How did you develop the customer service vision statement?

"I initially thought about what I'm trying to drive through our quality management program. Those three words, effortless, accurate, and friendly described what we were already doing. So I took those concepts and put them together in one clear and concise statement.

"For example, I'm a big fan of The Effortless Experience and we've been trying to implement concepts from the book in our contact center.

"Once I developed an initial draft, I shared it with the managers on my leadership team to get their input. It really resonated with them, so we then rolled it out to the entire team on a conference call.

"We talked through the vision and I asked everyone to tell me what they thought. I didn't get any pushback or suggested changes, which I think is because the customer service vision is grounded in what we were already doing."

Q: What are you doing to integrate the vision into your employees' daily activities?

"This is definitely a work in progress, because I'm still working on getting it out in front of employees on a regular basis. We've only had this vision for eight months and it needs to be more widely adopted, but here's what we've done so far:

"We now introduce it to all new hires and then include it in one-on-one coaching. We're trying to get people to see how they can put each part of the vision into practice.

"For example, one part of the vision is effortless. In the past, an employee might answer a customer question by sending a knowledge base article. Now, that same employee might include the article in the email along with some commentary that customizes the solution to the customer's needs. We also are striving for ‘next issue avoidance’ which takes the resolution beyond the surface level issue and resolves that question the customer may not have known to ask.

"Another word in our vision is accurate. We have a big initiative right now to upgrade our knowledge base so that it's fully up to date and easier for our employees to use. If we support the team with the right tools, we can make it easier for them to support their customers with accurate information. I’m starting to see more and more that a great indicator for the health of a support organization is their ability to collect, share and curate knowledge.

"Our marketing department has just gone through a huge re-branding process and one of their guiding factors was trying to create an even more approachable brand, so this naturally ties into the friendly aspect of our vision. We're encouraging agents to develop rapport with their customers to help create a better experience."

Q: What advice would you give to other leaders who are trying to implement a customer service vision?

"The toughest lesson for me is to be more patient. Awhile ago, my boss challenged me to be more of a marathon view versus a sprint mentality. What he meant was that we all want to achieve immediate results, but it takes time for these initiatives to take hold. I've only been in this role for a year now and we've accomplished a lot during that time, but there's still a lot more left to do.

"I've really been influenced by John Kotter's book, Leading Change. It explains that change is a process and you have to have checkpoints along the way to keep things moving. You also have to clarify the benefits of what we're trying to accomplish so everyone will get on board.

"One of the things I'm doing now is creating our 2017 strategy. The customer service vision is the glue that provides consistency from one year to the next. It's wonderful for our contact center to have that ever-present north star."

Q: You mentioned strategy. How has having a customer service vision helped you become more strategic?

"Organizations generally don't look to the contact center to be strategic, but it's so important for customer service leaders to control their own destiny.

"Our customer service vision tells us we need to fight for both a better customer and agent experience. We're going to advance that vision in 2017 in a variety of ways, including a customer experience program that includes all functions of the business.

"I can also show our executive leaders how we're aligning with our brand. The new corporate brand identity focuses on being a friendly brand that feels young, energized, and engaging. That's exactly the way we're supporting the customers who use our software. It’s going to be an awesome year!"

How to Share Customer Service Tips with Your Team

A customer service leader recently asked me for some best practices for sharing my Customer Service Tip of the Week with her team.

If you aren't familiar with this, the Customer Service Tip of the Week is one tip sent via one email once per week. Here's an example of one tip, The Five Question Technique.

The customer service leader shared a few potential challenges:

Her intended audience was too large to use the "Forward to a Friend" feature that's included in each email.

She thought about having employees subscribe themselves to the tips, but worried that many wouldn't read them.

Does this sound like you?

I shared a few suggestions and I think she ultimately came up with a good plan. Here's what I shared with her plus some additional ideas I've received from other customer service leaders.

Ask Your Employees to Subscribe

People are more likely to pay attention to something when the same message is reinforced in multiple ways.

So a natural starting point is to ask employees to subscribe themselves to the Customer Service Tip of the Week email, even if you plan to share it with them as well. It's fast, free, and easy.

How easy? Just click here.

You can also ask your employees to visit www.toistersolutions.com/tips to sign themselves up or go to the website yourself and do the sign-ups for them.

Will everyone read every email? Probably not. But many employees will read many of the weekly tips, and that's a good start.

Discuss the Tips in Team Meetings

Many customer service leaders have daily, weekly, or monthly check-in meetings with their teams.

Customer service leaders often tell me the Customer Service Tip of the Week makes a great discussion topic. Here's how it works:

1. Introduce the current tip.

2. Lead a conversation to discuss how it can be incorporated.

3. Review success stories at the following meeting.

Discussing the Customer Service Tip of the Week with the team makes the weekly email more valuable to your employees. 

They're more likely to read it before the meeting if they know it's going to be a topic of conversation. They'll also be more likely to reference it throughout the week if they know you'll be looking for success stories at the next meeting!

Share Tips on a Case-by-Case Basis

Let's say you've been coaching an individual employee on rapport-building skills.

Can you keep a secret? My weekly tips have a pattern that rotates every three weeks:

1. Week 1: the topic is rapport

2. Week 2: the topic is exceeding expectations

3. Week 3: top topic is solving problems

That means every third Customer Service Tip of the Week focuses on building rapport! 

So you can wait for the next relevant rapport-building tip and use the "Forward to a Friend" link in the email to send the tip to the employee along with some of your own suggestions and commentary.

What if the employee receives the tips already? No matter. Your additional email reinforces the concept.

Tip from the pros: Never click on "forward" in your email client (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) to forward a Customer Service Tip of the Week email. 

Why?

Because each email contains an active unsubscribe link that's attached to the original recipient. That means your recipient can unsubscribe you from the email by clicking that link. 

The "Forward to a Friend" feature in every email eliminates this problem.

What Did the Customer Service Leader Do?

She asked me if she could include my weekly tips in her division's monthly newsletter. 

Of course I said yes and simply requested that she cite my company, Toister Performance Solutions as the source and include my website (www.toistersolutions.com/tips) in the newsletter as well.

You can do the same thing to if you'd like to share these tips with your employees!

Insider Perspectives: Keynote Speaker Teresa Allen on Executive Buy-in

Teresa Allen, Keynote Speaker

Customer service initiatives won't go anywhere unless your company's top brass gets fully behind it.

That can be a tall order for many customer service leaders. Executives don't always feel they have the time or see the value of fully committing company resources.

I asked Teresa Allen, a veteran customer service trainer and keynote speaker, to share her perspective on getting executive buy-in.

Allen is the author of Common Sense Service and the owner of Common Sense Solutions, a national customer service training and consulting firm. She currently ranks #1 on the Global Gurus list of the top customer service experts in the world. She's also one of ICMI's Top 50 Thought Leaders to Follow on Twitter.

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Q: What do customer-focused companies do differently than other organizations?

"The common thread is a fearless leader who considers customer service part of the company mission and culture. 

"Providing great customer service gives you permission to sell to your customers. It's marketing, not an expense, but senior leaders need to believe that. It's got to be a top-down approach. 

Q: Why are these fearless leaders so scarce?

"I generally see two different types of organizations.

"In one type of organization, the top executive is out there every day talking to customers, soliciting feedback, and leading the charge for exceptional customer service. They have often risen from the sales side of the business and have seen the link of service to sales revenue and profits.

"In another organization type, executives are not keyed into the value of a customer service culture.  They look at it as an expense item instead of a revenue generator. In some cases, this is because customer service has never been their world. They may have come from a finance or legal background and thus have never been directly exposed to the customer side of the business.  In this environment, building a service culture can be a real challenge, because a customer service initiative will never be fully successful unless top leadership of the organization are supporting it and driving it.

"Developing a customer service culture can't be a revolution. It has to be an evolutionary process. Executive buy-in combined with hiring of service minded individuals is key.  Training should be designed to support the company’s service objectives across all departments and positions until gradually everybody in the company is on board."

Q: What are some ways that customer leaders can encourage more executive buy-in?

"Customer service leaders in organizations are often not able to prove outcomes, particularly as that relates to the bottom line. If I invest in improving customer service, can I show that it's driving sales and profits?

"Net promoter and customer effort scores are nice metrics, but a good NPS score doesn't prove value to many executives. I can almost hear the Jerry Maguire refrain, 'Show me the money!'”

"Customer service surveys can be helpful if executives use them to drive results. Whenever I get contracted to do a customer service program, I always ask my client to forward any available customer service survey data.  It's okay if they send me the numbers, but what I really want is the comments. I want to look for what I call red lights, yellow lights, and green lights. The red lights indicate pain points that can lead to serious loss of business, the yellow lights are comments illustrating areas to be cautious about, and the green lights are compliments and kudos on exceptional service that serve to strengthen customer relationships.

"Organizations should market to their strengths and train to weaknesses. Companies can evaluate those green lights and find a way to use them as a marketing business building tool. The red lights should be incorporated into the next customer service training program so the problems get solved.

"I ask the leaders I work with, 'How are you sharing this data?' Sadly, I often hear that it is only held by the marketing department.  Survey data is valuable far beyond marketing.  It should be shared with employees so improvements can be made as well as to recognize team members who are growing the success of the organization through exceptional customer service."

Q: Assuming you can get an executive to sign-off on investing in customer service, what are some ways to keep him or her involved?

"Whenever I deliver customer service training or keynotes, I always ask someone from the executive team to introduce the program and tell everyone why it’s important to the organization.

"It would be great if the CEO or President did this, but that's not always possible since they're often very busy people. But some executive should be there, such as the vice president of human resources or the vice president of sales or marketing.

"Customer service can't be perceived as the training ‘flavor of the month.’ With regular executive emphasis and follow through, customer service will be viewed as an integral success strategy and will be more likely to be taken seriously by the organization as a whole.

"When an executive makes a real commitment to being customer-focused, it provides a mandate for the company to do things differently. For example, managers must take the time to hire the right people who can help the company deliver outstanding service.

"A customer focus can also help guide future investments. One executive frustration is the constantly evolving digital service technology that can come at a high cost. While many organizations are investing in these high-tech bells and whistles, recent studies show human interactions can actually be equally if not more important. The more complex an issue, the faster a customer wants to connect with a human who helps to solve it. [Side note: You can see data backing this up here.]  

"The human touch is big!  This means that training representatives in face-to-face and telephone customer service and communication skills is still critical. You can help steer more investment into the right service initiatives if you can show executives this is what customers really want and combine that with solid ROI data."

Three Ways Excuses Inhibit Learning

The workshop participant arrived 30 minutes late.

"Sorry," she said. "I was stuck in traffic. It was terrible this morning." She found a seat and sipped her fresh cup of Starbucks coffee as the class continued.

This wasn't the best way to start a two-day workshop, but we've all been unexpectedly delayed before. The important part is that we learn from experience and take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.

She was late again the next day. This time, she had a muffin in addition to her Starbucks cup.

Unsurprisingly, the woman struggled with the content. 

It wasn't because she lacked the ability. It wasn't even because she had been late to the class — she could have caught up with the material if she was really motivated.

The participant's challenge started with that lousy excuse about traffic. Here are three ways that excuses prevent learning.

Excuses Reinforce the Status Quo

We must have a strong desire to change in order to learn.

The training participant told herself the traffic was out of her control, so she saw no reason to do anything different on day two. She stuck to the same routine and accepted the same result.

Excuses inhibit our ability to change. 

Customer service professionals must constantly find ways to do things better. We can't do that if we let excuses stand in our way. For example, if we tell ourselves that an angry customer wasn't our fault, there's no reason for us to learn from the experience. 

Excuses Limit Options

Learning involves finding new ways to do things.

The training participant had stopped at Starbucks on her way to class each day, which contributed to her lateness. Her excuses prevented her from realizing that she could leave earlier to make time for a Starbucks stop, skip her morning coffee, or brew her own coffee at home.

Customer service professionals must constantly find innovative ways to serve their customers.

Things break, processes fail, and customers have unusual needs. We'll be blind to possible solutions if we allow excuses to stand in the way of our ability to attempt a solution.

Excuses Extinguish Passion

Learning is fueled by desire.

The workshop participant had no real desire to be in the class. She paid little attention to the content, half-heartedly engaged in activities, and returned late from every break. Her habit of making excuses allowed her to believe that the training wasn't effective, even though her colleagues embraced it whole-heartedly.

Customer service employees must go the extra mile to overcome challenges.

There's no reason to expend additional energy doing that if you let excuses hold you back. In this sense, making an excuse instead of making the effort is the easy way out.

Let's get real: Think about excuses you make. What would happened if you stopped making excuses and started finding solutions?

Insider Perspectives: Public Sector Service Expert Wendi Brick

Wendi Brick, Customer Service Consultant

Think about the service you get from government agencies.

What comes to mind? Perhaps you think about your last trip to the DMV, an interaction with the city planning department, or a municipal utility.

Outstanding customer service may not be the first thought that crosses your mind when you think about the public sector, but several million dedicated professionals go to work each day in service of the public.

I sat down with Wendi Brick, President and CEO of Customer Service Advantage, Inc. to get her perspective. Brick's company helps public sector organizations deliver world class customer service.

She's also the author of The Science of Service: Six Essential Elements for Creating a Culture of Service in the Public Sector. I highly recommend her book for any public sector employee.

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Q: What are some challenges unique to serving customers in the public sector?

"There are two primary differences between customer service in the public and private sectors.

"The first is in the public sector, the customer is not always right. A police officer making an arrest for a crime is first concerned with protecting public. If you think of the person being arrested as the customer, they might not walk away 'satisfied' with the process in a traditional sense. Someone working in a city planning office can't approve an eight foot tall wall when the zoning regulations say the maximum height is six, no matter how much that customer wants the wall to be eight.

"The second difference is the service provided by government agencies is often regulatory or enforcement oriented. In the big picture, government exists to protect people in some way, whether it's food quality, public safety, or something else.

"It's not the Disney Way or Nordstrom, but you're still there to help, even if in the end, the customer doesn’t walk away with exactly what they want. Satisfaction with the outcome isn’t always the goal for the interaction."

Q: If public sector agencies aren't always targeting traditional customer satisfaction, what should they be targeting?

"The focus should be service delivery. In my book, The Science of Service, I outline three criteria for excellent public sector service delivery.

"First is professionalism. This means doing your job and doing it well. You want to treat customers with courtesy and respect.

"The second is knowledge. Public sector employees often need to keep track of extensive rules, regulations, laws, and procedures. It's important that you have accurate information to share with your customers.

"The third is timeliness. We're all familiar with bureaucratic red tape. Public sector employees must navigate through that too to provide the fastest possible service.

"At the end of the day, a customer may not get exactly what they wanted, but they should walk away believing they were respected, they received accurate information, and they didn't waste their time. And maybe they feel they were offered some options that would work, even if they weren’t exactly the same as the original request."

Q: Public sector employees don't always have the best reputation for outstanding service. Why do you think that is?

"I can tell you that 99 percent of the government employees I meet are really dedicated. They make less money and often put in more hours than their private sector counterparts because they really believe in what they do.

"So it's heartbreaking to these employees when one of their colleagues does something wrong, especially when it makes the news or is held up as an example of what's wrong with public sector service.

"Keep in mind that a lot of customer service is driven by systems and process. There are so many instances when a public sector employee would like to do more, but they're constrained by an antiquated system or cumbersome process. 

"Working in the public sector really is a noble mission. It takes a certain type of person to do it. The vast majority of people who work in government do so because they really want to help."

Q: It sounds like public sector service can be frustrating for employees too.

"It can be. Employees give a lot of themselves, so the biggest risk is burnout. People can get jaded.

"I always try to remind people that it's a marathon, not a sprint. It's important for public sector leaders to help their staff prevent burnout. This includes giving people time to recharge and letting employees talk through their frustrations.

(Side note: download this exclusive report on the causes of contact center agent burnout.)

Q: What are some of the similarities you see between the public and private sector when it comes to customer service?

"In any industry, an organization's reputation is built on everyday impressions. Employees need to understand that everyone has a sphere of influence. You might make an impression on a customer or even a coworker.

"That makes it important to model the right behavior so you can have a positive impact on others."

Insider Perspectives: ICMI's Erica Marois on Contact Centers

Erica Marois, Community Strategist

In any industry, there are a few people you absolutely need to know.

Erica Marois is one of those people for contact center professionals. She's the Community Strategist for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and a terrific source of information on Twitter. Her role involves connecting people in the contact center community to give them the tools and resources they need to advance their careers.

Marois is uniquely plugged in to contact center trends and the people who are driving them. She's also one of the industry's most passionate advocates.

She recently took some time to share insights on how contact center professionals can grow in their careers and what leading contact centers are doing to succeed.

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Q: Tell me about some of the ways you help contact center professionals connect with each other to learn and grow?

"Customers like to connect with their favorite brands in many ways, and our members like to connect with ICMI and each other in many ways too.

"One of my favorites is the weekly ICMI Chat on Twitter [Tuesday's at 10am Pacific, #icmichat]. The discussion revolves around a new topic each week and participants provide a lot of fun and insightful commentary. It's even led to a sort of mastermind community where people connect outside of the weekly chat to discuss challenges and share ideas. A lot of regular participants have had a chance to meet in person at ICMI conferences and have become good friends, which is fun too.

"We've just launched our ICMI book club on Goodreads. A couple of people mentioned they were thinking of starting a book club in their contact centers, so I thought it might be a good idea for ICMI. Our industry has such a thirst for knowledge, and books are a great way for directors, managers, supervisors, and agents to learn new ideas. Each month, we'll feature a new book and have a live discussion with the author at the end of the month. The first book is The Culture Engine by Chris Edmonds.

"We also publish original case studies and articles, a weekly newsletter, and host the annual Contact Center Expo and Contact Center Demo conferences."

Note: You can save $200 on the upcoming Contact Center Expo conference when you use the code SPKR at checkout.

Q: You seem to be everywhere at those conferences! What's your primary goal while you're there?

"My top priority is to meet as many people as possible. I enjoy hearing from them and what their struggles are because it helps me do a better job. I’m passionate about helping people overcome those struggles. 

"I also try to maintain our social presence at the conferences. There are a lot of great discussions happening on the conference's Twitter backchannel [note: the backchannel refers to the conference's Twitter hashtag, such as #ccexpo]. I've learned there are even more people who aren't necessarily active participants in those online discussions, but they're still actively listening."

Q: What do you see top contact centers doing that others don't necessarily do?

"The most successful contact centers treat their employees like adults. They empower them by giving them the tools and resources they need to serve their customers, and they don't chain them down with rigid scripts or cumbersome policies.

"If you hire people you trust, you need to trust them.

"Employee engagement is a top priority for leading contact centers. They don't get too bogged down in tactics or employee satisfaction. These contact centers understand that engaged employees are self-motivated and invested in the mission of the company. 

"To do that, employees need to know the mission. In The Culture Engine, this month's book club book, the author talks about having a 'cultural constitution' that spells out the company culture and what behaviors are expected. 

"It's so easy to get stuck focused on metrics, that contact center leaders often forget to focus on people. The best contact centers have an employee engagement champion who is constantly making sure this is a priority."

Q: What do you think are some unique aspects about serving customers in a contact center?

"I didn't have any contact center experience before I joined ICMI, but I quickly learned to appreciate what these professionals do every day. It's such a relatable industry because we've all been on the receiving end of a contact center's customer service.

"What really stands out for me is the passion. People are hungry to learn, improve, and share their experiences. You've got to have a servant leader's heart to be successful in this industry."

Q: Is there something about contact centers you wish other people knew?

"People need to realize the great value that contact centers provide.

"In many cases the contact center is the company's first and primary point of communication with customers. Agents have a big opportunity to create a positive impression of the company in their customers' minds. The contact center also collects an awful lot of customer data that the marketing department, R&D team, and even the CEO should be paying attention to.

"Too many organizations think of the contact center as a cost center where expenses need to be minimized, but the contact center is really one of the most customer-focused aspects of any company."

The Amazingly Simple Way to Develop Better Interview Questions

Coming up with interview questions can be tricky.

I'm going to focus on hiring customer service employees, but my experience as a recruiter has taught me that it's a tricky process for nearly any role. 

There's no shortage of ideas on the topic. Books, articles, and webinars galore are dedicated to coming up with interview questions. The problem is it's just too much to make sense of it all.

You might ask the typical questions, such as "Why do you want to work here?"

Some people ask challenging questions, such as "What would your last boss say was your biggest weakness?" (Correct answer: "Sometimes I work too hard because I care too damn much.")

Others enjoy weird questions that focus on how the candidate answers: "If you were a fruit, what kind of fruit would you be and why?"

There's often a fatal flaw in all of these approaches. A flaw so bad that research shows you'd make better hiring decisions if you skip the interview questions entirely.

Three simple steps can fix that.

Step 1: Create an Ideal Candidate Profile

Just as a teacher wouldn't give a test without making an answer key, asking interview questions without knowing what a successful candidate should say is a recipe for disaster.

You can solve this problem by creating an Ideal Candidate Profile. It's a list of the specific skills and attributes that would make a job applicant the ideal candidate. The profile ultimately serves as the answer key for your interviews. 

For example, let's say you manage a tasting room at a winery and want to hire a wine room host to conduct tastings and sell wine. Some wineries promote a party-like atmosphere, but your winery really focuses on educating guests about great wine so they'll appreciate it more.

So one item on your Ideal Candidate Profile for a wine room host might be "a passion for learning about wine." Someone who loves learning about wine is more likely to share that passion with your guests, which is exactly what your winery wants.

You can use this handy tool to create your own Ideal Candidate Profile. I've even included a couple of how-to videos.

Step 2: Develop Your Questions

The next step is to develop at least one interview question for every item on Your Ideal Candidate Profile.

The idea is to use the interview to help you uncover whether or not a candidate has the specific qualities you're looking for. If you want someone who is a team player, you should have a question that helps you learn if this person is truly good at teamwork. 

Let's go back to the winery example. Here's a question that might help you discover if a person has a passion for learning about wine:

"Can you tell me about the last time you went wine tasting?"

Someone who has a passion for learning about wine will spend their own time exploring wineries and learning all they can. They'll be able to describe a specific experience and what they learned from it.

The advantage of developing your own interview questions (versus copying from a generic list) is you can use the questions to target specific characteristics. I found Janis Whitaker's excellent Interviewing by Example workbook to be a huge help with this task.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Candidates

By now, you should have an Ideal Candidate Profile and an interview question for each characteristic. The final step is to apply these in a job interview. 

Let's say you interview three candidates for the wine room host position. All have prior customer service experience and have warm, outgoing personalities. Take a look at their answers to the question, "Can you tell me about the last time you went wine tasting?"

Candidate A: It was a long time ago. I went with some friends and I remember it was a lot of fun. Let’s just say it was a good thing we had a driver! If I get this job, I definitely plan to go a lot more often.

Candidate B: I love wine tasting! I went out with some friends two weeks ago and it was a lot of fun. At one winery, we got to do a cave tour where we walked through these elaborate wine caves. Another winery offered flights on this beautiful patio that overlooked the entire valley.

Candidate C: I’ve been so busy with work and school that I don’t get to visit wineries too often. However, my friends and I like to organize our own wine tastings. We pick a theme, such as a particular region or grape, and everyone brings a bottle. The bottles are covered in paper bags so we don’t know which wine we are tasting, and we all compare notes about what we like and don’t like.

Candidate D: I read about a winery where you can taste the same wine out of two different oak barrels. I often hear winemakers talking about American oak or French oak, so I thought this would be a great way to learn how oak influences wine. It was a fun experience, because you really can tell the difference when you're tasting the same wine from the two barrels side by side. I learned the American oak is a little bolder and brings out more vanilla flavors, while the French oak is a little more subtle with spicier tastes.

Which candidate would you pick?

All four seem to enjoy wine. But the Ideal Candidate Profile indicates the perfect employee will have “a passion for learning about wine.”

Based on their answers, Candidates A and B do not fit the profile. Neither expressed a passion for learning about wine.

Candidate C fits the profile, even though they don’t go wine tasting. Their thoughtful answer made it clear they still enjoy learning about wine and found a creative way to do it with limited time and money.

Candidate D also fits the profile. They actively sought out a tasting experiences to learn more.

This is just one interview question. Perhaps Candidate C or D will further separate themselves as you ask them additional questions.

The Ideal Candidate Profile helps you identify up to five must have qualities for your ideal candidate. Each dimension will give you a clearer idea of whether the candidate is qualified for the job.

Insider Perspectives: Hyundai's Sprina Moon on Franchises

Sprina Moon, Sr. Manager Retail Process Improvement

Customer service is outsourced in many businesses.

That fast food chain may be run by a franchisee, not the brand on the building. Your delivery driver might be an independent contractor. The contact center you call with billing questions might be run by an outsourcer.

This creates a challenge for businesses that want to deliver outstanding customer service, but don't directly control the people that are delivering it.

The automotive industry is set-up this way. The vast majority of new cars, trucks, and SUVs are sold through a network of franchised dealerships.

I spoke with Sprina Moon, Senior Manager, Retail Process Improvement for Hyundai Motor America to ask how her company tackles this challenge.

Moon works with Hyundai dealerships to improve the customer sales experience which ultimately leads to better customer satisfaction and loyalty. Her company is doing quite well as Hyundai has been ranked #1 in customer loyalty for seven years in a row.

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Q: How important is customer-focus to the success of Hyundai's dealerships?

"Hyundai typically offers more value than our competitors. What I mean is that for the same dollars or less you get a Hyundai vehicle with more options than the competition, so we should generally win if customers are looking for a vehicle we offer. But if a customer doesn't trust their salesperson, they will go somewhere else. Most Hyundai customers spend a large amount of time researching the vehicle they are interested in buying so when they get to the dealer, they can tell if the sales person is being less than honest. The thing to think about in this day and age is that most OEM’s [original equipment manufacturers] make good quality vehicles, so what separates the good dealers from the bad ones is how well they do with the customer sales experience and added value of why a customer should buy from your dealership.

"Salespeople don't always realize the customer's buying decision is not just about price. People want to buy where they're treated with respect. Respect of their time and respect of their buying decisions. 

"Dealerships don't actually make the bulk of their profit on new car sales margin. They make a large portion of their money from the new car finance and insurance department. Another very important department at the dealership is the service and parts department so you want to start creating a long-term relationship with a customer during the sales process by getting them comfortable with coming to the dealership for their maintenance service needs. 

"That first lease or purchased car can lead to many others. Some people lease a new car every two or three years. Even people who purchase a car are likely to come back within about five years to buy their next one."

Q: How do you help dealerships improve customer satisfaction?

"I do a lot of training around sales, product knowledge, and soft skills. In a dealership, soft skills are things like a proper greeting and doing through needs analysis so that the consumer is buying the right vehicle for their needs. I also work with the dealerships' owners and general managers to help them better understand how customer service can impact their bottom line.

"For example, one project I've been working on is identifying buyers who live near a Hyundai dealership, but purchase a vehicle at another Hyundai dealership that's farther away. I can share this data with a dealership's general manager to help him see how a poor customer experience might be costing the dealership sales.

"Another thing I do is share best practices. One thing I share with dealerships is how to create a wow moment when a customer comes in to pick up their new vehicle. The salesperson can put the vehicle on display in the showroom or put a big over-sized bow on it to make them really feel special when the customer comes in for their new vehicle. This can create a lasting impression that makes the customer feel great about their purchase. 

"Many of the best practices that I review with the dealer are common sense practical items that we experience every day. Some of the things I ask dealers to think about is their non-dealer experiences like how they get treated at their favorite restaurant or when they go shopping at a high end retailer. The customer experience they get is no different than the way that their customers expect to be treated when they buy or service their car at the dealership.

"I also learn a lot from the dealerships too. Hyundai might have a new program that seems great in theory, but it doesn't work for our dealers for some reason. I can share that feedback with our National office and help to make it better."

Q: What are some of the most important skills that a dealership's salespeople should have?

"Salespeople need to be able to ask the right questions to uncover customer needs. Asking a customer what color car they wanted can backfire if they ask for a specific color that's not available. A better approach is to ask if the customer is looking for a lighter or darker car. This might give the salesperson more options to share. 

"One of the biggest and most underrated skills in understanding what your customer vehicle needs are is to not say anything and listen carefully to what your customer is looking for and then ask appropriate open ended questions. 

"It's also helpful to be resourceful. The specific vehicle a customer wants might not be on the dealer's lot, but the dealership can often track it down for the customer.

"Customers visit just 1.4 dealerships on average before purchasing or leasing a vehicle, so it's important to create a positive relationship right away. That's where it helps for a salesperson to have the right attitude. You can teach someone with the right attitude how to sell cars."

Q: What's the biggest challenge you face in your role?

"I look young for my age, so sometimes these veteran sales managers and general managers see me and think, 'Why is this young lady trying to tell me how to sell cars?' Some of the really tough ones will ask, 'Have you ever sold a car before?'

"I tell them, 'No, I haven't. But I have a lot of customer information, and that information can help you get more customers to buy from your dealership.' That usually gets their attention. I also worked at our National office building training curriculum that was designed to help our dealers provide a better sales experience. 

"Employee turnover is a major challenge for some dealerships, so I try to share some best practices with sales managers. A dealership's sales manager is often someone who was a really good salesperson and got promoted. They might be good at selling cars, but they have not had proper training on how to train and motivate their sales teams."

Q: What have you learned from the automotive industry that you think could help people in other industries improve customer-focus?

"I was talking about this with a dealership's General Manager the other day. He was telling me about an experience he had buying a television where he spent a little more money at one store because he felt they treated him with dignity and respect.

"We discussed how this should be the way his customers felt too.

"It's a helpful exercise. Think about the last difficult experience you had as a customer. The customers who are walking in to do business with you could be you in another environment. You would never want to treat your customers the same way you were treated in that bad experience.

"A lot of dealerships are worried about negative online reviews, but if you treat someone with dignity and respect they won't give you negative reviews. We often see someone buy a car from another dealer but still recommend that dealership to a friend and say, 'They didn't have the vehicle I was looking for, but I think you should give them a try.' People tend to write those negative reviews when they feel disrespected."

How to Tell if Your Mission Has Lost Its Meaning

Raise your hand if your company has a mission statement.

Most companies have one. Yours probably does. Mine does. But have you ever wondered what purpose the mission actually serves?

You could go with the stock answer here. "The mission tells everyone why the company exists." Ok, let's test that. See if you can answer three questions about your company's mission statement:

1. What is it?

2. What does it mean?

3. How do you contribute?

Nobody's listening to that voice inside your head, so you can be honest. Did you struggle to come up with a quick answer to those three questions? If so, your mission isn't fulfilling it's purpose.

Now, go ask your employees the same three questions and see if you get consistent answers. If you get a lot of blank looks or wildly different responses, your mission has lost its meaning.

How the Mission Drives Service Quality

I'm taking some liberty with terminology here, so let me take a moment to clarify.

Elite organizations have created a shared definition of outstanding customer service that all employees understand. I call this a customer service vision.

This customer service vision can be a stand alone statement, but often it does double duty as a company's mission, vision, values, or customer service standards. Most, but not all, elite organizations use their mission statement to define outstanding service for their employees.

So a clear mission can give employees guidance in their daily activities. Here are just a few benefits:

• It provides a sense of purpose when they come to work.

• It acts as a compass to point in the right direction in moments of uncertainty.

• It reinforces what employees should be doing to serve customers.

For example, JetBlue has led J.D. Power's North American Airline rankings for 12 consecutive years. A lot of their success comes from using their mission statement, Inspire Humanity, as a shared definition of outstanding service.

Every JetBlue crewmember (i.e. employee) knows his or her job is to bring a human touch to service. In an age of self-service and automation, humanity is sorely needed.

JetBlue is one of the outstanding companies profiled in my new book, The Service Culture Handbook. It's due out in April, 2017, but you can download Chapter One when you sign-up for updates.

Why Employees Don't Know the Mission

There are three common reasons why employees don't know or understand the mission.

1. It's never mentioned. The mission is almost never openly discussed.

2. It's not trained. Employees receive no instruction on what it means or how to live it.

3. It's not a priority. Employees are overloaded with too many statements like a mission, vision, values, credo, slogan, brand promise, customer service standards, etc. that create confusion about what's important.

That last one really stands out. Employees won't know or understand the mission unless you make it a priority. That challenge here is many leaders fall into the multiple priorities trap.

The Know Your Mission Challenge

Back to those three questions.

You can restore your mission (or customer service vision) to relevance if you can provide the training and coaching necessary to help each employee give a consistent answer to these three questions:

1. What is it?

2. What does it mean?

3. How do I contribute?

Are you up to the challenge?