In May 2005, my colleague, Jovita Thomas-Williams, a human resources executive at MGM Mirage, took the last flight to O’Hare Airport and arrived at midnight at her hotel in Chicago. She was road-weary, and the only thoughts on her mind were getting her hotel key quickly and going to sleep.
She waited impatiently at the registration desk while the guest in front of her engaged in an animated conversation with the desk agent about many aspects of Chicago nightlife. Their voices were loud and full of excitement, which didn’t at all match Jovita’s mood.
When the conversation ended, she moved to the desk and braced herself for the same welcome. Instead, Jovita was pleasantly surprised. The desk agent treated her differently. The agent was calm, informative, and even-tempered. What was even better was that she quickly and professionally checked her in, dispensed the keys, and guided her to the elevators.
As tired as she was, Jovita was intrigued by this high level of customer service and stayed a little longer to ask the desk agent how she was able to shift her behavior so appropriately. She replied that she had noticed Jovita’s facial expression and body language, and these signals had helped her gauge Jovita’s mood.
“Simple But Not Easy”
The caliber of customer service that Jovita experienced is not common, which is why it stood out in neon to her. In order for the registration agent to deliver this service, she needed the ability to “read” her customers’ signs and signals quickly and accurately. She also needed a range of behaviors to draw upon and a willingness to adapt her behavior to meet or exceed the expectations of a particular customer. As we shall see later, this may seem simple to do, but it is not an easy or natural process for most of us.
The Strategic Imperative
Collectively, corporations spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on activities designed to establish their brands. They undertake advertising campaigns, product placements, and celebrity endorsements to create positive impressions of their products and services. By developing their brand images and delivering on their brand “promises,” they hope to solidify the loyalty of their customers. The ultimate achievement is to engender an emotional bond between the brand and the customer and create a brand “ambassador.”
The reality is that in many industries, particularly hotels, gaming, restaurants, retailing, and travel, the frontline customer service employee is the person the company is relying upon to deliver the brand promise, customize the product or service, and resolve customer complaints. This is the moment of truth from the customer’s perspective. If the experience is positive, the company can maintain a long-term relationship, earn great word-of-mouth marketing, and differentiate itself from competitors. If the encounter doesn’t go well, the negative word of mouth will spread and nowadays be amplified by the echo chamber of Internet blogs and websites dedicated to providing “feedback” to corporations.
Why Should They Be Good at It?
When I’ve listened to complaints from managers about the low skill levels of employees in varied roles, I often ask, “Why should they be good at it?” — meaning “Why should people be skillful at a challenging task if you haven’t trained them?” Unfortunately, the essential skill training for customer service is lacking in most companies.
In my book Customer Tells (Kaplan, 2007), I describe the types of skills necessary to consistently meet and exceed customer expectations. The first set of skills is called “Golden Rule skills,” coinciding with the goal of “Treat people the way you want to be treated.” This means that every customer expects to be listened to and treated with respect. Customers want to deal with someone with a positive attitude who is responsive to questions and requests and has the skill to resolve conflicts and problems. These are the fundamentals.
To extend the world-class level of service that Jovita experienced, employees need another set of skills, which are called “Platinum Rule skills.” The Platinum Rule states, “Treat others the way they want to be treated.” To accomplish this, we need to expand our range of approaches and move away from the “one size fits all” school of human relationships. It is good to remember the quotation “If the only tool you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.”
The best training reaches the can do and the will do. To reach the level of the desk agent in Chicago, we need the ability to read our customers and the willingness to adapt our approach.
Senior Management’s Role in Creating a Customer-Focused Culture
As a trainer, you know that the session has gone well when a participant asks, “Is my boss going to take this class?” Training frontline employees in customer service skills is necessary but not sufficient. Senior leaders play a key role in the following ways:
- By linking customer service excellence to key corporate strategies.
- By inspecting what they expect. Employees and their supervisors need to see that the follow-up, measurement, and consequences are commensurate with the importance of customer service.
- By modeling Golden Rule and Platinum Rule skills. If senior leaders demonstrate these skills, learning and credibility increase while employees experience the power of the skills.
Dr. Marty Seldman is an executive coach, organizational psychologist, and author. After receiving his B.A. in Mathematics from Cornell University, he completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Temple University. From 1972 to 1986, Marty specialized in the field of training. This experience included training trainers, designing training, serving as vice president of sales for a training company, and eventually becoming president of his own company.
In 1986, Marty began his career as an executive coach, and he has become the coach of choice for many companies. He has coached thousands of executives in his one-on-one sessions. About one-half of these executives have been women, people of color, and non-U.S. executives. His current clients include PepsiCo, Disney, Becton Dickinson, MGM Mirage, Frito-Lay, Qualcomm, T. Rowe Price, ICI Paints, Satyam, YUM Restaurants, Sun Trust Bank, Pepsi Bottling Group, J.C. Penney, and Johnson Controls.
As an organizational consultant, Marty specializes in team building, conflict resolution, feedback systems and skills, and workshops on building and maintaining trust. With a career spanning more than 30 years and the globe, Marty has trained tens of thousands of executives through his seminars and coached more than 1,500 executives one-on-one.
Marty has also written numerous books, including Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success (Free Press, 2004), which was a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and Super Selling Through Self-Talk: The Ultimate Edge in Sales Success (Price Stern Sloan Inc., 1986). His most recent book is Customer Tells (Kaplan, 2007), which was co-authored with John Futterknecht and Ben Sorensen and focuses on how to deliver exceptional customer service.
Dr. Seldman, who is president of Optimum Associates, LLC, and his team, John Futterknecht and Ben Sorensen, train thousands of individuals every year in organizations across a wide spectrum of industries.
In addition to his corporate work, Marty is active in the nonprofit sector as a coach and consultant. He also serves on the boards of four organizations that work in the areas of human rights and poverty alleviation.
