Lessons from the Overlook: How Standardization Drives Service

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.

When my wife, Sally, and I purchased The Overlook, we had a lot of big ideas.

We wanted our place to be unique, with a lot of value-added touches that would wow our guests and make them want to return over and over again.

So we brainstormed a list of ideas:

  • Leave bottle of local wine on the counter as a guest amenity?

  • Give our guests free firewood in the wintertime?

  • Put high quality toiletries in all the bathrooms?

It turned out the best way to wow our guests was to do none of these things. The biggest reason wasn't cost, although cost certainly was important.

It was standardization. Here's why standardization is crucial to service.

Photo credit: Jon Millhouse

Photo credit: Jon Millhouse

Fear of Service Failure

When we thought about extras at The Overlook, we also worried about service failure.

In their outstanding book, The Effortless Experience, authors Matt Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick Delisi make a compelling argument that service failures have a much greater impact on customers than wow moments.

That's because people naturally tend to have a negativity bias. Negative experiences are much more memorable and are more likely to sway future behavior than positive ones.

What happens if one guest gets a bottle of wine, tells people about it, but the bottle of wine fails to appear for the next guest?

What happens if we promise free firewood (so guests don't bring any of their own), but the firewood isn't there when guests arrive late on a cold winter night?

What happens if the fancy toiletries aren't replenished and the bathrooms look like the last guest just left a few half-empty bottles behind that weren't removed by the cleaning crew?

We were concerned about all of these potential failures because we knew we'd need to rely on our property manager to handle any extras. Our property management company has a well-defined, standardized process for servicing the 40+ homes it manages.

Asking them to change their routine for just us would be begging for trouble.

 

How Variables Create Failure

Think about cleaning and re-stocking a vacation cabin from an operations perspective. The easiest way to ensure consistency is to standardize.

  1. Write standard procedures.

  2. Train everyone to follow those procedures. 

  3. Stock standard replenishment items (paper towels, toilet paper, soap, etc.)

Our property management company has it down to a science. There are even standard sheets and towels so linens can quickly be replaced without having to launder everything onsite.

Now, imagine changing everything for just one house. 

The procedures change. You need to remind employees to follow the different procedures, and you need to remind them again because the same employees might not service the house each time. You also need to stock special supplies and make sure you don't run out for just that one cabin.

All of those variables are a recipe for things "falling through the cracks." 

Even big companies struggle with this. For example, extreme variability is one of the reasons why McDonald's has struggled with service and food quality.

 

The Standardization Cure

You're much more likely to deliver consistently excellent service if you can standardize your service delivery process. With that in mind, we couldn't just consider our own cabin. We had to think of it from our property manager's perspective. (This is an important aspect of partnership, a topic I covered last month.)

All of our original ideas required our property manager to deviate from a standard procedure.

So we re-thought our approach and came up with some new ideas that didn't require our property management company to alter its normal routine:

Idea #1: Don't charge for snow removal. Standard procedure was for our property manager to shovel and plow snow at each cabin whenever a snow storm hit. It's a required safety item, but most cabin owners charge for this service. We decided to pay for it ourselves.

Idea #2: Stock back-up dishes. Most vacation rental guests expect a few cracked plates or mis-matched dishes. We put in an entire set of matching dishes and then added some back-ups to our owner's closet. Once a month, we inspect the cabin ourselves and replace any broken or missing items so the kitchen feels fully-stocked. (Many guests have commented on this.)

Idea #3: Stock extra kitchen items. The Overlook has four bedrooms, so it's really geared for families or couples traveling together. That means they'll cook a few nice meals in the cabin, so we made sure the kitchen was stocked with items you don't normally find in a vacation rental: a crockpot, extra tupperware, a full set of pots and pans, and even an apron for the chef. It turns out this has become one of the biggest delights for our guests!

Idea #4: Remove clutter. We talked to many people who regularly rent vacation cabins and one of their top pet peeves was clutter. They'd say, "How can I put my stuff somewhere if the owner's stuff is all over the place?!" So we went through the entire cabin and kept every table, counter, nightstand, and chest of drawers as clutter-free as possible.

Idea #5: Provide a nice guest book. The typical vacation cabin has a ratty three-ring binder that contains all of the house rules, instructions for using various items, and information about the local area. We spent a few extra dollars and created a beautiful bound book on Shutterfly. It's a classier way to share the same information.

In his new book, Kaleidoscope, customer service guru Chip Bell calls these items value-unique. They don't necessarily cost a lot of money, but they make The Overlook standout compared to other options.

We've been lucky so far. It's been booked nearly every weekend.

A Powerful and Simple Way to Retain Customers

Customer loyalty is a huge business driver.

Selling to existing customers is typically cheaper, faster, and more effective than selling to new customers. They buy more and buy more often. Best of all, they encourage other people to do business with you too.

Unlocking the secret of customer loyalty would be gold, right?

A new study from customer experience software firm InMoment reveals the best way to ensure customer loyalty is pretty simple. I've synthesized the data with some additional research to give you a few steps you can take to boost loyalty with your customer base.

Spoiler alert: customer service plays a giant role.

The Study Results

Let's start by taking a look at the data from the study. Here's a snapshot:

  • 10,000 brand representatives surveyed

  • 20,000 customers surveyed

  • 12 countries represented (including the U.S.)

The responses to two survey questions really jumped out. The first was "What does it take to foster brand loyalty?"

Notice the differences between what brand reps said and customers said:

Data source: InMoment

Data source: InMoment

The second really interesting question was "What emotions do you associate with a bad experience?"

Data source: InMoment

Data source: InMoment

These charts reveal that the way to win a customer's loyalty is to ensure their satisfaction and avoid disappointing or frustrating experiences.

OK, so what does that really mean?

 

The Story Behind the Data

Notice what customers aren't telling us.

They aren't saying they need to be wowed or amazed. Customers aren't telling us they need to have a magical, life-changing experience.

Customers are saying they want brands to do exactly what they expect them to do.

  • A new product should work the way it was intended.

  • A service should do exactly what was advertised.

  • Getting assistance should be simple and hassle-free.

Consumers were asked to rank a number of factors in order of importance. Number one was personalization. But look closely at the statement driving this selection:

When you reach out for help, the associate and/or the self-service channels already knows who you are (name, status, loyalty, VIP, etc.) and demonstrates strong knowledge of your recent interactions.

This isn't a desire for more personalized marketing or selling. It's a desire for better service.

It's already disappointing when a service failure occurs. It's frustrating and feels disrespectful to consumers when they're forced to repeat their story over and over again in an effort to get an issue resolved.

 

Action Steps

The biggest thing companies can do is fix chronic problems. 

It seems simple, yet it isn't. Research shows 50 percent or more of customers don't complain when they experience an issue. Those who do complain typically lodge their complaint with a frontline employee. That frontline employee, for variety of reasons, probably won't share it with a supervisor.

One step you can take is to ask your frontline employees for the top complaints they hear from customers. In my experience, employees are quick to share when they're asked to help identify and solve these challenges. This exercise almost always yields opportunities for quick action.

Don't forget those customer service surveys. It's a well-known secret that most companies do very little with this data, but it's a gold mine of service improvement opportunities if you know how to quickly analyze it.

Another action step is to get better at managing customer expectations. This is both an art and a science. For example, did you know:

There's an entire training video on Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning devoted to this topic. You'll need a Lynda.com or LinkedIn Premium account, but you can get a 10-day trial for Lynda.com here.

Insider Perspectives: Ideal's Don Teemsma on Field Service

Don Teemsma, President of Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical

Don Teemsma, President of Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical

Every home owner needs a few go-to service providers.

One of mine is Ideal Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electrical. This company is my first and only phone call anytime I need a plumber, HVAC technician, or electrician. 

Ideal has remodeled two bathrooms in my house, installed a new heating and air conditioning system, installed a new hot water heater, fixed a slab leak, installed a new electrical panel, and made numerous smaller repairs over the years.

Yes, I'm a huge fan.

The work is first-rate, the prices are reasonable, and Ideal's technicians are consistently friendly, helpful, and reliable. The company consistently earns top customer service honors from companies such as Houzz and Angie's List.

If you live in San Diego, you should have this company on speed-dial!

There's one aspect of Ideal's service that particularly fascinates me. How does the company get its field service technicians to consistently arrive on time, do great work, and provide great service?

I sat down with Don Teemsma, Ideal's President and Owner, to ask him how his company sustains a customer-focused culture with its field service technicians.

Q: Ideal offers two-hour appointment windows and your technicians are always on-time or even early. How do you manage this while other service companies struggle to maintain a four-hour appointment window?

"We've tried four-hour appointment windows, but people really don't like that, so we've made a commitment to stick with a two-hour window.

"It starts with our dispatch team. We keep track of all our appointments and technicians via computer and a dispatch board. It's the service manager's job to make sure we're on schedule.

"We're constantly moving the board around to make sure we can fulfill that two-hour commitment. If we see a service call is taking longer than expected, the service manager can proactively call the next customer to let them know there will be a delay or find another qualified technician to move the call to.

"Our service area is also an important factor. We really try to keep our service area tight and not overcommit. That's why we generally don't serve cities in [San Diego's] North County like San Marcos or Escondido. There are too many unknowns like traffic conditions that would make it difficult to keep our appointments and provide a rapid response.

"Maintaining the right parts and supplies on our trucks is also important. We try to keep our trucks fully-stocked so they can handle 80 percent of service calls with the parts on the truck."

 

Q: There's a stereotype of a typical repair technician who is pushy and will try to suggest a lot of expensive repairs. How does Ideal avoid that?

"A lot of field service technicians work on commission. This pay structure means it's in their best interest to try to sell additional repairs and services to their customers.

"We don't want to create that incentive because our business is built on relationships. We'd rather earn a customer's repeat business or get new business through referrals from customers who trust us.

"Our technicians don't work on commission. They tend to prefer it that way. They're in this business because they like to fix stuff and make people happy.

"Many of our technicians will refer to a customer as 'my customer,' because they take a lot of ownership and personal pride in helping the people they serve."

 

Q: What else do you do to ensure your technicians are customer-focused?

"It starts with hiring the right people. 

"We look for integrity in our hiring process. If we don't feel someone has an innate honesty about them, we won't hire them.

"Our interview process includes a few assessments but we also put candidates through three interviews to see if they will fit our culture. For example, one of the things I ask candidates about is whether they perform any service in their community. Are they involved in their church or do they volunteer for a nonprofit organization? People who give back to their community in some way are more likely to be successful in our culture.

"One of the things we do around here is encourage people to constantly improve. If you're not the best at a particular skill, keep working on getting better. Our culture is not to be perfect, but to perfect.

"We really strive to inspire technical excellence. Having good skills allows you to perform better work, get jobs done faster, and solve challenging problems. 

"Over the years we've hired a lot of technicians with good skills who have been nurtured by their coworkers until they've gotten really good at their trade.

"We also have an Ideal Mascot: Mr. Bill. He truly embodies our culture and is a great ambassador for showing care towards our customers."

[Editor's note: Bill has worked the front counter in Ideal's showroom for over 17 years and is a wizard at locating hard-to-find parts. His friendly and helpful service was one of the reasons I personally became an Ideal customer. He helped me track down a part for a leaking toilet tank that I couldn't find at any of the big-box hardware stores.]

 

Q: Ideal's managed to maintain a reputation for outstanding service for many years. How do you keep everyone continuously focused?

"We talk about service a lot. We have company-wide meetings four to six times per year. All of our technicians attend a smaller meeting every other week where we talk about customer service, share customer feedback, and discuss opportunities to improve.

"We're also fortunate that most of our customers are repeat customers or they came to us because they were referred by a customer. These customers tend to be understanding that things can and will go wrong occasionally because we've had a great relationship with them and they trust us to do a good job.

"Many of our technicians have worked here for a long time. They like working for a company with a great reputation and they like the culture, so they work hard to help us continuously deliver great service."

Three Big Trends from LiveChat's Customer Service Report

Chat software provider LiveChat recently released its 2017 Customer Service Report. The latest report is a treasure trove of data on chat. Here is a snapshot of what was included:

  • 13,500 companies that use chat

  • 22 different industries

  • 24 billion website visits

  • 235.7 million chats

  • 11.1 million tickets

A number of important trends jump out. You can read the entire report here or skim below to see what I think are the top three.

(You may also wish to read past blog posts on chat trends here and here.)

Trend #1: Tech Support Loves Chat

Tech companies had the highest customer satisfaction for chat among the industries covered in the report:

  • Web Hosting: 92.91% satisfaction

  • IT Businesses: 92.66% satisfaction

  • Software: 91.17% satisfaction

One of the natural advantages of using chat for technical support is agents can have a nearly real-time conversation with customers while also sharing helpful links and screenshots.

The slight delay between responses actually creates another advantage. LiveChat was kind enough to quote me in the report:

The natural latency of a chat conversation gives customers built-in time to implement the steps required to fix their issue.

 

Trend #2: Chat Demand is Increasing

The average LiveChat customer saw a 4.11 percent increase in chat demand in 2016 compared to the previous year.

Forrester's Kate Leggett offered one explanation why customers may be increasingly choosing chat—they want to avoid the phone.

Organizations can quickly connect customers to an agent with the right skills to answer the question without them having to navigate an arduous interactive voice response.

That high demand leads us to the third big trend.

 

Trend #3: Companies Are Struggling to Keep Up

The report noted businesses experienced a 31.15 percent increase in the average number of monthly tickets.

This number stands out because a ticket is created in LiveChat when a chat agent isn't available (due to high demand or after hours) or a customer's issue can't be resolved on the initial contact.

Meanwhile, average first response time is 56 seconds, which can feel like an eternity to a customer who is waiting for assistance.

Customer service expert Shep Hyken noted that making chat easy for customers is much more important than the length of a chat.

When I get on live chat, whether it is a live agent or AI [artificial intelligence], it doesn’t really matter whether it takes 6 or 12 minutes. If I’m having my question answered and there is little friction between the time I start and the time I get the answer, I will be completely satisfied.

 

What You Can Do

These trends all suggest a few key actions for contact centers that offer chat:

  • Empower your agents to resolve issues in the first conversation

  • Staff chat adequately to prevent long wait times and excess tickets

  • Take advantage of chat's natural latency to provide value-added service

Insider Perspectives: FCR's Jeremy Watkin on Outsourced Service

Jeremy Watkin, Head of Quality

Jeremy Watkin, Head of Quality

Outsourcing your company's customer service is a leap of faith.

Companies like Oregon-based outsourcer FCR can be hired to handle a wide range of customer contacts including phone, email, chat, SMS (Text), and social media. It's often faster and less expensive for small companies and start-ups to use a third-party like FCR than it is to set-up an internal customer service team, but there needs to be a lot of trust.

Will the outsourcer take great care of your customers and do a good job representing your brand?

Jeremy Watkin, FCR's Head of Quality, recently shared with me some of his secrets to outsourcing success. Watkin is the co-author of the Customer Service Life blog and was named one of ICMI's Top 50 Thought Leaders on Twitter. (If you are on Twitter, do yourself a favor and follow him!)

This is the second time I've interviewed Jeremy for the Inside Customer Service blog. We spoke back in 2015 about the impact of team size on corporate culture.

Q: Many people perceive outsourced customer service as inferior. How is FCR trying to change that perception?

"There may be a stigma around outsourcing where the perception is you're hiring second rate folks, but that's really not the case for us. 

"FCR's contact centers are located in small communities in Oregon where there's often high unemployment because other industries like lumber and fishing have declined. These employees tend to be smart, well-educated, and very dedicated.

"We offer our colleagues [FCR's term for "employee" or "agent"] good, well-paying jobs with opportunities for career growth, and the chance to support well-known brands. It's exciting for many of our colleagues to know they get a chance to provide technical support for a cool start-up. It's really interesting to see how colleagues take a lot of pride in the clients they support."

 

Q: Do your colleagues support multiple clients or are they dedicated to one account?

"FCR used to have a shared model where colleagues would support multiple clients, but we've moved away from that. We've found that we can provide better service by having colleagues totally dedicated to one particular client.

"One thing that's really cool about our model is we diversify the clients we serve at each of our contact centers. The way it works is we try to balance seasonal needs, so one client might be ramping down after a busy season while another client's busy season is just starting. This allows us to keep more colleagues employed throughout the year while reacting quickly to our clients' seasonal needs."

 

Q: How do you adapt to the unique service cultures of each client you serve?

"Having colleagues dedicated to a single client helps a lot.

"Another thing that I see that really helps us is FCR is very transparent with our clients. We invite them to visit our contact centers and spend as much or as little time with their team as they want.

"It actually works best when colleagues strongly identify with both FCR and the client they're serving. You'll see colleagues with client swag at their workstations and it's obvious they take a lot of pride in supporting that brand. 

"Many of our clients will also bring in their own trainers when we launch with them to help our colleagues get immersed in their culture. This helps us get to know their service philosophy and adopt their brand voice and style guide if they have one."

 

Q: How do you keep your colleagues engaged with your clients?

"I have a unique perspective because I came from an FCR client to work here. 

"When I was an FCR client, I realized that using an outsourced model meant someone else was managing people who do support for my company. So one thing that we started doing that's really unique for outsourcers was an employee engagement survey. We actually surveyed the FCR colleagues who were supporting us to see what we could do better.

"A lot of our clients now do that.

"Many of our clients act on feedback from our colleagues to improve their products, processes, or services, and take time to empower our colleagues to serve their customers at the highest level. That helps people feel even more connected.

"I've never had an agent or a colleague refuse to talk when I ask about the pain points they're experiencing. We like to run focus groups with our colleagues when a client does a site visit so our clients can hear first-hand what colleagues are hearing from customers. This might help confirm what our client is already seeing in their customer service surveys or reveal a brand new insight. Our colleagues really appreciate being heard like that."

 

Q: A lot of outsourcing relationships are based on cost savings, but FCR is known for providing clients with extra value. How do you do that?

"I spend a lot of time talking to clients and looking for ways to improve not only our service, but the client's overall business.

"For example, I might identify a best practice that one of our client teams is using and share that with our other programs. One of our teams had someone who was a wizard when it comes to generating reports in Zendesk [a customer service software platform]. About half of our clients use Zendesk, so we were able to share those insights with all those other teams.

"Another area where we try to add value is through customer service surveys. We try to marry our quality monitoring process with our clients' surveys so we identify what's driving satisfaction or dissatisfaction and share that insight with our clients. We're also able to share a lot of best practices we learn with all of our clients, so when we work with one client to solve an issue, all of our clients can benefit."

The Best Time to Manage Customer Expectations

We've all seen a customer blow up at an unpleasant surprise.

Many of those situations come down to expectations. The customer expected one thing to happen and something far worse happened instead.

You might know that you can often prevent the customer's anger by effectively managing expectations. The key is to prepare the customer for the worst-case scenario ahead of time using carefully selected language. 

If only it was that easy!

This post examines the importance of timing when managing customer expectations. Let's start with a common situation where customers get upset—air travel.

Photo credit: Jason O'Halloran

Photo credit: Jason O'Halloran

Airlines Struggle with Expectations

There's a lot of reasons why airline passengers are grumpy. 

The boarding process is one of them. Passengers swarm the boarding gate and block access while other people try to squeeze past and board. Frazzled gate agents try to keep up with a barrage of requests.

A passenger inevitably tries to board with three large bags, despite the policy that you only get to bring one personal item (which must go under your seat) and one carry-on that fits in the overhead bin.

Handling this situation is a huge challenge for gate agents.

Most shirk the responsibility and leave it up to the flight attendants to sort out. They'll say they're too busy or they just want to avoid the inevitable blow-up.

Some try to address it as passengers board, which inevitably causes the passenger with three bags to fly off the handle.

They'll say:

"They let me bring my bags on the last flight!" 

Or, 

"The other airline doesn't have a problem with my bags!" 

Or, 

"Then how come I saw three other people board with even more bags than me?!"

It's a tough situation. Most gate agents make it worse with poor timing.

 

How Bad Timing Ruins Expectation Management

Passengers boarding an airplane typically face high anxiety.

They get caught up in the herd mentality and start squeezing in, even if their boarding group won't board for another five minutes. Many passengers are anxious about flying in general, so this only makes it worse.

Research shows we're less open to suggestion when our emotions are running high. That's why trying to manage expectations at the moment a passenger is boarding the plane usually backfires.

Think about situations where you have to manage customer expectations. If their emotions are spiking, it's probably difficult.

Here are some more examples:

  • A hotel guest learns about a $20/night resort fee at check-out.

  • An online shopper learns an item she ordered is out of stock after she places the order.

  • A customer spends an hour in a furniture store picking out the right fabric for a new sofa, only to learn the store's eight week delivery time is too late for his needs.

All of these messages would be better received if they were delivered when the customer wasn't experiencing an emotional peak.

 

Deliver News Before the Emotional Peak

The best time to manage expectations is when emotions are relatively neutral.

This requires proactive service, where you anticipate a challenge before it happens. The specific technique is called The Pre-Emptive Acknowledgement, which is one of my all-time favorites.

For example, the general manager of one of my favorite inns called me a week before my trip to let me know my favorite room wasn't going to be available. (You can read about her master class in expectation management.) It worked out in part because her call came before the emotional peak of checking in after a long day of travel.

What should airline gate agents do?

Gate agents are much more successful when they speak to individual passengers just before the boarding process starts. This allows agents to connect with people one-on-one before emotions start running high. Passengers are much more open to checking their extra bags in this situation.

How can you make timing work for you? Think about how you can better manage expectations with your customers by addressing issues before the emotional peak. 

Here's a short video clip that provides another example.

The clip from my training video, Managing Customer Expectations for Managers. You'll need a LinkedIn Learning subscription to view the full course, but you can get a 30-day trial.

Insider Perspectives: Fonolo's Shai Berger on Skipping the Queue

Shai Berger, CEO, Fonolo

Shai Berger, CEO, Fonolo

Waiting on hold is a terrible customer experience.

You dial a customer service phone number, slog through an endless menu of options, and then wait for what seems like forever. All the while listening to hyperactive marketing messages or sleep-inducing music.

No wonder research from Mattersight reveals that 66 percent of customers are frustrated before they even start talking to a customer service representative!

One solution is to provide your customers with a callback option. This allows customers to receive a callback when an agent is ready, freeing up the customer to do other things in the meantime.

I recently spoke with Shai Berger, CEO and co-founder of Fonolo, a leading callback solution provider. He regularly shares practical advice on the Fonolo blog and on Twitter, so I wanted to get his perspective on how companies can make the case for investing in customer-centric technology like callbacks.

Q: How did Fonolo get started?

"My co-founders and I aren't from the call center industry. We started Fonolo by approaching a problem from a consumer perspective. We couldn't understand why call centers were still putting people on hold.

"This was in 2008. Callback solutions had been around for a long time, but the way they were packaged made it difficult for a lot of contact centers to implement. We were able to make it easier for call centers to implement callbacks by offering a cloud-based solution."

 

Q: Why would a contact center consider offering a callback option?

"Customers don't like being on hold, but its not always preventable. 

"If you really don't want your customers waiting on hold, you can just hire more agents. The problem with that approach is it might be cost-prohibitive. There's a hard cost associated with adding more agents. It's much harder to tie wait times to hard costs.

"If a company is severely understaffed then you really do need to hire more agents. Callbacks can help when your call center is at or near capacity or you get spikes in demand when you're suddenly very busy.

"Demand spikes tend to have a cascading effect. Hold times stretch longer, so you have to juggle around your agent lunch and break schedules, which means there might be fewer agents available later in the day when you need them. It sometimes feels like you can never catch up.

"Callbacks can help smooth out these demand curves so your agents are handling calls at a more predictable rate."

 

Q: How do callbacks improve the customer experience?

"There are a number of factors that influence a customer's perception of wait time. We call it 'dentist chair time,' where an unpleasant experience feels much longer than it really is. (Side note: here's a list of factors that influence wait time perception.)

"These factors work in other areas of customer service, too, such as a physical store where you see people standing around while customers are waiting in line. It makes customers feel like they're being ignored, which makes us more angry about waiting.

"Offering a callback option often means the customer spends the same amount of time waiting to speak to an agent, but that time is spent differently. The customer doesn't have to wait on hold, so the time seems to go faster. We feel better as customers because it seems like the company is being more gracious and our time is being respected."

 

Q: From an operational perspective, how do contact centers integrate callbacks into their phone queue?

"There are really two questions that contact centers need to address.

"The first is when is the callback going to happen? One approach is to use an algorithm to predict when an agent will be available based on historical call data. The problem with this approach is you must have a very predictable call volume or else a customer will receive their callback before an agent is ready or there will be agents available while the customer is still waiting for a callback.

"The other way to time the callback is to hold the customer's place in the queue. This way the callback happens when the customer gets to the front of the queue, which is our preferred approach at Fonolo.

"The second question contact centers need to address is who goes first, the agent or the customer? 

"If the agent goes first, the customer doesn't get a callback until an agent is available. This is great for the customer because they're immediately connected, but it also creates some idle time for the agent.

"If the customer goes first, you use your agents more efficiently by eliminating idle time, but you risk calling customers back and then immediately putting them on hold. This creates a really frustrating customer experience."

 

Q: I can see a lot of penny-pinching executives making callback customers wait for an agent to become available so they could reduce idle time. What's the argument against doing that?

"For many companies, it's a cultural issue. If they're customer focused, they don't want a customer to have to wait on hold again when they receive a call back. The culture in these companies is pointing executives in the right direction.

"We're lucky in that our product appeals to both sides of the equation. A cost-conscious contact center can still save money by implementing callbacks the right way.

"For example, callbacks can lower abandon rates, or the percentage of customers who grow tired of waiting and hang up. If a company is selling a product or service, lower abandon rates mean higher sales."

 

Discussion question: Have you ever used a callback option when calling a contact center? If so, what was the experience like?

Book Review: Chip Bell's Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles

This is a special Friday blog post. 

I just couldn't wait to tell you about Chip Bell's new book, Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles.

I've been lucky enough to see Chip speak at a couple of conferences I attended. His good humor and enthusiasm are contagious, and I could almost hear his voice as I read this book.

Kaleidoscope is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to deliver innovative customer service that's truly memorable. You can apply these concepts whether you're on the frontlines of service, a customer service manager, or an executive looking for a way to differentiate your organization.

It's organized around nine key concepts, and each one is backed by stories, specific ideas, and action steps for implementing them.

  1. Enchantment: Add a Little Sparkle

  2. Grace: Honor Your Customer

  3. Trust: Keep Your Covenants

  4. Generosity: Serve It Forward

  5. Truth: Nurture Total Candor

  6. Mercy: Let It Go

  7. Alliance: Stay...On Purpose

  8. Ease: Take Care of Flow

  9. Passion: Be All There

One of my favorite concepts is "Grace." 

We often encounter customers who seem overly demanding or may have suspicious motives. The concept of Grace tells us to assume their intentions are innocent, treat them with respect, and find a way to help them rather than view those customers with cynicism.

A client of mine recently shared this wonderful story about Grace.

The client is a college and one of the college's employees noticed an elderly couple wandering around campus. She approached the couple to introduce herself and offer assistance.

It turned out the couple had been touring area colleges, looking for the right place to make a substantial donation. They were big believers in education, but were frustrated that they had been ignored while they toured other campuses. This little bit of grace they received on my client's campus sparked a relationship that led to a donation, and now a hall is named after the couple!

Kaleidoscope is available on Amazon in Kindle and beautiful, full-color hardcover. 

A Master Class in Expectation Management

Things can go wrong in a hurry if you don't manage customer expectations.

My wife, Sally, and I recently stayed at The Albion River Inn. It's perched on a cliff overlooking the mouth of the Albion River, about 150 miles North of San Francisco. There are sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and no TV in the rooms.

It's a rare opportunity to relax, recharge, and take a social media vacation. We visit every two years and stay in the same room every time. Room 14.

Not this year.

Room 14 was undergoing maintenance when we arrived, despite the fact that we had reserved this specific room well in advance. 

Were we furious?

On the contrary. We were delighted. That's because Chelsea Strupp, the Inn's general manager, had just delivered a master class on managing customer expectations.

Here's what she did, why it worked, and how you can use the same technique with your customers.

View from room 12 at the Albion River Inn. Photo credit: Sally Toister

View from room 12 at the Albion River Inn. Photo credit: Sally Toister

Strupp's Master Class

We received a voice mail from Strupp about a week before we were scheduled to arrive.

She explained that room 14 was undergoing maintenance and was taking longer than expected. She acknowledged our many stays in this room and said she could make the room available if we really wanted it.

But she also had another offer. Strupp said that she would upgrade us to room 12 at no additional charge if we were willing. 

Sally and I looked online to see pictures of room 12. It looked gorgeous, so I called Strupp back and accepted her offer.

When we arrived at the inn, we were delighted! Room 12 had a better layout (for us) than room 14 and a wood burning fire place. (There's a gas fire place in room 14). 

Despite the fact that we had stayed in room 14 on every visit since 2005, we now have a new favorite room!

 

Why Strupp's Invitation Worked

Strupp did three things very well.

First, she anticipated a potential issue. She and her staff monitored the status of room 14, saw our upcoming reservation, and decided to take action before it became a problem that impacted our stay.

Customer service guru Shep Hyken makes a key distinction between proactive service and anticipatory service on his blog:

Being proactive is noticing something and responding to it... Anticipatory customer service, however, is about being one step ahead. It’s intuitive. It’s not just noticing something. It’s anticipating something.

Second, she acknowledged our value as guests.

In her voice message, Strupp told us that she understood we liked to stay in room 14 because we had stayed in that same room on many visits. This made us instantly feel as though she understood and valued us.

Third, she provided options.

Strupp told us she would make room 14 available if we really wanted it. But she also offered us an upgrade at no charge. In doing so, she made it seem like she was offering us a gift rather than taking something away.

 

How You Can Manage Expectations Like a Pro

You may not have a ready supply of beautiful upgrades to give to your guests, but you can apply the same principles when managing customer expectations.

  1. Anticipate customer needs.

  2. Let the customer know they're valued.

  3. Offer alternatives.

Steps one and two are crucial because they prevent most customers from ever getting angry or upset. 

Imagine what would have happened if we first learned room 14 wasn't available when we were checking in. There's a great chance we'd feel like something was being taken away from us, which could trigger a slew of negative emotions.

Step three is also key. If at all possible, you want your customer to feel like they are getting something better.

Here are a few examples:

  • Offer an upgrade or something extra if that's possible.

  • Suggest an alternative product, service, or experience.

  • Give the gift of attention by going out of your way to make the experience better.

Here's one example that combined all three:

I was visiting Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon to conduct some customer service training. Parking is a bit of challenge there, but my one of my clients offered a wonderful solution.

He explained how my visitor badge allowed me to ride the Portland Aerial Tram at no charge. It offers amazing panoramic views of Portland and takes riders from Portland's South Waterfront directly to OHSU's main campus. (Upgrade!)

My client then explained that I could save time and money by using public transportation to get to the tram instead of renting a car and paying for parking on campus. (New Experience!)

Finally, my client took an extra minute to map out my transportation options, which gave me the confidence to select the correct bus, trolley, and light rail lines to get me arround town. (Attention!)

You can learn more by watching my Managing Customer Expectations training video. You'll need a LinkedIn Learning subscription to view the entire course, but you can get a free 30-day trial.