Latest / Enhance.training / 4 Practical Steps to Deliver Great Customer Service – Essential to Improve Relationships with Internal and External Customers

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4 Practical Steps to Deliver Great Customer Service – Essential to Improve Relationships with Internal and External Customers · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today I have a very special guest with me on the podcast, Pierre from Beyond Satisfaction.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be covering four practical steps to deliver great customer service.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We are both going to be talking about our experiences of customer service from very different contexts.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pierre is an expert in customer service from the hospitality industry with many years of training staff to improve their customer service.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've managed teams for over 20 years in many top companies, managing many stakeholders and a huge variety of internal customers.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: The skills needed to provide great customer service are applicable to nearly every job.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: We all have colleagues, stakeholders, and other people that we need to help and support.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us will be dealing with external customers and suppliers too.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Pierre and I are going to talk through our experiences and are going to be covering four key steps.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, why making it personal creates amazing customer service.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the art of influencing expectations to deliver great customer service.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Third, the steps to take to consistently meet and exceed customer expectations.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then fourth, the essential steps to create a customer service focus in a team.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you that don't know me, I'm Jess Coles, and I've turned around a number of underperforming teams of between 10 and 35 staff, where improving customer service was one of the key improvements I helped the teams make.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll hand over to Pierre so he can tell you more about what he does.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Jess, thank you very much for having me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Really happy to be uh to be here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm Pierre de Fonda of Beyond Satisfaction.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a customer service consultant and trainer, and I'm helping business owners and professionals to have the best strategies and methods around their customers to get the best out of them.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into each of these topics, I have a free 45-minute webinar where I share some of the most important lessons I learnt about managing others, which enable me to dramatically step change team performance within six months across multiple teams.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the description of this webinar.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the description of this podcast to this webinar for those of you that like to learn more about step-changing team performance.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Pierre would also like to share a special offer to listeners as well.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so I got a free audit that I do where I examine what can be done to improve the strategies and methods around customers in order to improve the business performance.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So you can get you can just reach out to me on my website beyondsatisfaction.co.uk or on the link that will be put as well, uh together with the podcast.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like to look at any of those, please do follow through to those links and uh would love to be able to share those with you in more depth.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into the the four key areas that we're going to be talking about today.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to talk about why making it personal creates amazing customer service first.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, Pierre, maybe should ask you what you think about um how you go about making it personal for your customers, um, particularly so you get great customer service.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think making it personal is uh is really important and one of the best ways to do to do so is to understand uh what the customer needs are, but as well being able to acknowledge those needs and adapt yourself to your customers by spending enough time with them to understand what they are, uh, and to really show this extra care by uh showing that you just want to do a little bit more than just providing a service and that you care a little bit a little bit more for your clients than just getting income out of them, but really to provide an exceptional service and go above their needs.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you really need to not only understand their needs but acknowledge their needs and be able to adapt yourself to those needs so you can provide a service that fits their preferences and what they are looking for.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to understand your customer, what practical tips would you suggest or would you go through to help you understand what they actually want?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a very good question.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, I think uh is understanding and being able to know what questions you should ask generally to customers to understand their needs, but as well understand what are the general needs customers will have with a specific offer you're providing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but really understand the reason why they're coming to you by asking specific questions and mostly spending enough time with them.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes people see the uh onboarding uh stage as a way of explaining how things go, but onboarding is as well about understanding what customers are looking for when they go for your offer, and that will go as well to the second part we'll be talking, which is managing expectations, because you need to know what they expect, what they want, what are their preferences, and it's only by asking those questions, asking yourself what questions you want to ask for your customers, from your customers, what information you want to get from them so you can provide your services accordingly.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's that's great.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's certainly my expect uh my experience as well when uh involved in teams and managing teams, um, you have a whole massive range of stakeholders and they all want something different.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so again, my experience is internally focused in the business rather than the external customer.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I view all those stakeholders in the business, the people who are asking me or my team for um help or for output or for reports or whatever it might be, they are my customers effectively, and my team is also my customers.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I would absolutely echo your points around asking lots of questions.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the the first thing I would always, always do is to really understand what are they really asking from me.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um because if I understand what I need to produce for them, then I've got a better chance of getting that right and getting it to the right level.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I can also think around around what their problems are.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to delve into what their problems are, what are they trying to solve by asking me to do X, Y, or Z.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And by doing that, I have a better idea of the context and what their pressures are and what their needs are, even if they haven't said that necessarily up front in their initial request.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I can understand those sort of the background and the backstory and the context of why they're asking something, I feel I can do a much better job of anticipating what they need, what they might want, and then delivering against that.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: That is, I think that is very important.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, it leads me to asking you a question on that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: How will you do as a as a leader to make sure that your team is making it personal themselves with their own customers they're dealing with?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's a great question, and I think we're gonna cover that a bit more later on.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But let me just try and answer that now to some extent.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think first and foremost, it's you need to lead by example, and I think that's one thing.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they need to see how you go about managing different situations because you're gonna have really nice customers, you're gonna have difficult people, you're gonna have upset, stressed, uh, time-poor people, all those different scenarios.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think it's about showing your team what that looks like in terms of how you do it go about doing that.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, I think it's about helping your team build up their kind of toolkit of responses to different situations.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if someone's really angry, how do you you reduce their sort of anger levels and how do you understand what they want, and how do you work out how you're going to deliver against what they want?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I would, as an example in that case, if someone's really angry to me, I'd I would sit there and listen really carefully to what they're asking.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd keep asking them questions and I would listen really carefully to what they're saying, and then try and understand where their pressures are coming from and try and dig into those to some extent.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, I'm effectively trying to show them that I care, that I understand, that I'm working to try and help them solve their problem.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think from certainly from my experience, it doesn't work all the time, but a lot of the time I feel it it brings down that anger level.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's someone trying to help me, so why would I be angry at someone trying to help me?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it brings their anger levels down, they get more rational rather than more uh than very emotional, and then we can work on a problem or work on the problem and create a solution together to try and solve their the issues that they're having that's causing that anger.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that would be maybe an approach that I might try and outline to a team member, I might um coach them through uh a situation they've had and talk about what they did and what they didn't do, and help them uh work out different responses or different options they could have gone through with that person to manage their anger, for instance.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it highlights the fact that either with your employees or your uh your or your customers, uh, even when they are angry, it still comes back to understanding their needs behind this anger, behind these complaints, this the situation they are having, etc.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's really important to understand that yes, uh by showing that you you acknowledge uh their needs and you are looking to understand them, uh, by showing empathy, by showing active listening, by uh asking questions to really help them to uh to express what they want to express.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: That is a great way to be able to bring the situation down and to really be able to help them because they will be more ready to be helped than if you would just be confrontational.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a very important point either with your team or with your customers.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, perfect, perfect.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was also going to ask, um, you know, how do you make your your clients feel valued?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's something you talked about earlier, which I think is such an important um point that you raised.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd quite like to know a bit more about you know what steps, practical steps, would you take to try and make that uh make them feel more valued?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think the first thing to do is to understand why it is important.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um for example, a very simple stat uh customer loyalty.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: 96% of uh customers will say that great customer service will be the number one reason behind loyalty, and actually feeling valued and cared for uh is one of the first things you will generate when you provide amazing customer service.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all about building this genuine relationship and actually do show that you care because sometimes you do care for your customers, but you don't show it.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's actually showing it by again, like we said previously, understanding their needs, acknowledging their needs, but as well trying to go the extremal every time you can go the extremal by showing that they are a little bit more than just clients to you, uh understanding their preferences, showing what they are, remembering things that matters related to what they say, what they like, etc.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But as well, this attention to details you can have uh by remembering their name, remembering a weekend they mentioned to you that they had.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if they have a birthday, uh you know the birth date, uh you can send a birthday card so wish them happy birthday, or even send them some kind of celebration.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for instance, you can ask them what they are celebrating, if they are celebrating if they are uh from a certain religion, they may not be celebrating Christmas, so you can adapt that and send them the specific celebration cards to them on the specific time uh they are celebrating, which is very powerful because it's all those little things where you will be saying to your customers, I care more for you uh than just getting income.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: I really care for you uh to be happy and to provide this personalized service.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that is so important because if you go the extra mile for your clients, that's how they will be able to go and happy to go the extra mile for you by giving those great testimonials, by spending time to write nice feedback, or by talking about you in conversations to give you those indirect referrals that you really want to have to generate more business from them.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect, thank you very much.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's really interesting.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Shall we move on to our next um topic?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, talking about uh the art of influencing expectations and delivering great customer service.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we talked about expectations before, and we all know that expectations are so so important.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I often talk about um you could have to do the exact same piece of work or deliver the same outputs, but depending on your expectations or the expectations you set with that person initially, they could perceive that work as amazing or terrible, and it is all down to expectations.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about expectations.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: How do you um how do you go about setting expectations with your customers?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the first thing to do is to understand what expectations your customers are having with your offer, with your with your branding, with your marketing strategy.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, is what you're putting out there aligned with what you're providing, and do you know what they are expecting?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because the customer journey doesn't start when you are getting in touch with your customers, the customer journey starts when they start to see about your business.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, is the message you're putting out there matching with what you're delivering and what expectation you are setting with this?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then it's about as well having successful customers onboarding by spending enough time with them to ask questions, to understand what their needs are again, but understand what they're expecting, and then mainly asking yourself what information do you want to give your customers so they can fully benefit what you're providing and go towards the good direction.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because sometimes, like you perfectly said, uh you can have two amazing offers if you're not giving those correct informations.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: They may not expect the correct things, and you cannot blame them for that if you haven't given the correct information.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: So he's asking yourself what you want your customers to be aware of, what is part of your terms and conditions that they are most likely to not read, you want maybe to put on an email or mention in your introductory call with them, etc.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: And not only um focusing on that, but having those courageous conversations with your customers, depending on what the situation is.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you feel they should go for a specific offer, you should tell them.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you feel they are unrealistic at some point, you should have those courageous conversations.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we don't want to have those conversations because we don't want to upset the clients, but actually we're not doing a favor to them, and they may be even more upset in the future.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, actually, it leads me to a question I wanted to ask you as well.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: How do you negotiate when faced with unrealistic uh customers and unrealistic expectations?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Great question, and it's a really tough question.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: We all face expectations that we just think, oh my god, how am I going to deliver against that?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the first thing to do, in my view, is to actually acknowledge to yourself that you can't deliver in the way that they are hoping you can, and then start explaining to them, tell them why you're not able to deliver in the way that they hope.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I think you can start bringing that conversation around to what you can do for them and how that would look and what that would do in terms of meeting their expectations or meeting part of their expectations.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when we're talking about expectation management, I always talk to my members of my management training programs that um when you've got expectations that you well, first and foremost, you have to ask about the expectations.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's driving the expectations?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to ask those clarifying questions so you really understand, which we talked about before.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think then next you have to think about, think through what I can actually do and what can't I do to meet those expectations.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a bit of a sort of planning in your head.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have to communicate to them what you can and can't do, and then you explain the why you can and can't do whatever you've you've covered.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think you go into that negotiation period where you're trying to uh meet their expectations and you're going to explain why you can do certain things, but you can't do other things, and they might be out of your control.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, you might not um have the information or you might not have access to certain people or skill sets or whatever that might be.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: You have to negotiate so that they actually have a realistic um ex set of expectations and you can deliver against those realistic set of expectations.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that's one way of um making sure that you don't have really upset people when you've only delivered part of what they asked for.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you say yes and you know that you're gonna not really be able to manage to deliver against what you've they they've asked for, but you're gonna try your best, I think that's a really, really um dangerous position to be in.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I always think it's really important to uh to ask questions and to negotiate to make sure they've got a really realistic uh set of expectations.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's not always easy, it can be quite difficult, but again, if you keep going back to what you can deliver, being very open about what you can deliver and why you can only deliver a certain thing, I think that helps uh a lot because people need to understand what you can and can't do.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: If they don't understand, they're going to have their expectations where they where they originally set them.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you can explain to them and make them understand or bring them on that journey to understand what you can and can't do, I think most people are very, very reasonable about that.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I'd go about it.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think I think as well, managing expectation is not only about what you offer, but how you offer it, what are the clients' requirements and what you need to get from them in order to offer it successfully.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but as well, what will be the outcome?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, if they have the correct expectations on how you're providing it, what you're providing it, what they need to provide from the end, but they have wrong expectations on the outcome, they may blame you for things that you don't want to be blamed for.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think again it highlights that managing expectations for your customers is very important, but you need as well to manage expectations for your team, and I think that is your uh field of expertise.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, is there any other tips you will give when it comes to managing expectations for your team?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good question.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking through what I would what I'd do in terms of the team itself.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think when you're when you're talking about uh managing expectations with your team, so that's the team members that are doing work for you.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would think uh obviously I've talked through the framework that I would normally go through, so that kind of accepting expectations, um, allowing people to plan, uh, communicating and then negotiating to get realistic expectations.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think as we all know, things change, things are always changing.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: In the business world, everything keeps changing, different priorities come up, pressures uh change, um, different e even companies pivot to different uh kind of projects and and directions at times.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I think whenever you're in the middle of doing a piece of work for an internal person or for uh an external client, it's really, really important to keep them up to date with those changes and to make sure that you're re-managing their expectations as you go through those projects because changes happen.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's probably one of the things that I see too many managers and too many leaders not do enough of, and which leaves people, okay, well, you set expectations over at a certain level, but I'm now here two weeks later and things have changed a lot, and you've done something different, and I'm really upset about it because you're not doing what I originally thought you would be doing.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you'd spent you know five minutes here, ten minutes there, during those two weeks, just give them a quick call, pop around to their desk and just explaining that this has happened, this has come up, this is why I've had to reassess and rechange my priorities, which has had an impact on what I can deliver for you.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I can deliver, is that okay?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: People understand that and they're okay about it.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact you've proactively re-managed their expectations, if you like, I feel helps reduce any of those problems you get from expectations being in one place and what you deliver being in a different place, and you don't want that to happen, you want them to be very much aligned.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so actually, I think it really highlights uh the fact that uh you need to have the correct vision when it comes to uh how you you run your business around your customers.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you only focus on customer acquisition, you will only focusing, you will only be focusing on closing the sale, and therefore you will not be focusing on really providing an amazing experience because you can actually get much more out of your current and former clients.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're focusing on customer retention, on really running your business successfully around your current and former clients, you will really be aiming that of using the selling approach to not only sell but to make sure you are selling effectively what you should be selling to make sure they receive what they've been promised.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that is starting from the vision you have around your customers as a business provider.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same for uh for uh leadership, you need to think of what vision you have around your employees and your team.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, brilliant, that's really really useful, isn't it?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's um let's move on to the sort of third area that we've we've we're covering today, which is the steps to take to consistently meet or exceed expectations.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you're looking to at least meet, but hopefully exceed on a consistent basis expectations, what points would you focus on to try and make that happen, either personally or through your team?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well I think it's uh either personally or making your team making Well I think that it's about either you personally or making sure your team uh is regularly monitoring and checking the customer experience and the customer journey because obviously selling effectively, having a successful customer onboarding, making sure that you set expectations right from the beginning is very important, but you need to make sure that it remains consistent throughout the customer journey by having specific processes where you check on your customers, you check on their satisfaction, where you're being proactive rather than being reactive.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Being reactive would be to ask for feedback only at the end of uh providing you offer, it would be about um not really asking much throughout the customer journey and just ask them at the end of how everything went.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: You want to see how things go for your customers throughout the customer journey by having specific calls, by asking specific questions, by having specific one-to-ones with them, etc.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you're really being proactive.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's about thinking and understanding that most part of the time when customers are unhappy, dissatisfied with something, frustrated or lacking of information, only in a small percentage of time they will say it.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And most part of the time, this small percentage of time will be when they are very unhappy.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: You want to anticipate on that to know if something goes wrong before.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: They really complain about it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about really making sure that yourself you lead by example by checking on your customers, but you make sure that your team is doing it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: But you need to have specific processes to do that.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it all depends on how you provide your offer.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: But let's say you have a specific programs of six months you're providing to your customers.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Are you checking halfway through how your customers are doing by having one hour one-to-one with them?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or having specific phone calls every two, three weeks to check how everything is going, etc.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: etc.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's really important.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it leads me to uh another question I wanted to ask you.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: How do you best remind customers what you promised before you deliver it?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great question because I always think that you start a piece of work, uh whether it's an external customer or internal customer, and uh as you go through that work, especially if it's a long period of time, or if it's even if it's just a couple of weeks, people forget exactly what they agreed sometimes.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it can be really, really useful to just remind them um in terms of the agreement, the agreement that you had originally, the expectations that were set, and any changes to those expectations.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it should be done in a in a sort of salesy or a a kind of um unprofessional way.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's just trying to uh be clear as to what you're delivering and how you're going to deliver that, and to make sure they take that in and understand it.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when things change to make sure that process is uh reiterated again to that person.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So some examples would be, you know, I quite often with the slightly more complex um projects or or or work things that I need to deliver for uh for my customers, I'll probably send them a quick email just to list down the couple of bullet points that we've agreed.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that way there's a written reference point to refer to as we go through the project.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Another really useful tip is to have um what the impact of delivering this project in mind is for them.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's a really positive impact to remind them of yes, this piece of work that I'm doing for you will help you do this, this, and this.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So again, keeping them focused on the positives of the outcomes, the how it'll help them, what's in it for them, are all really, really useful ways of doing ways of ensuring that they understand and continue to keep in mind the benefits that they're going to get from what you're doing for them.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Does that answer the question that you Yes, definitely?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it does answer the question.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when it comes to exceeding expectations, is understanding that customer issues or being dissatisfied on something specific is as well a part of the customer journey.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not necessarily a threat.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: What can be a threat is if you're not having specific processes and methods to deal with that and knowing what to do in terms of customer issues or customer complaints.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So once you have those specific processes to know how to handle customer issues, to uh deal with an unhappy customer on something specific, then that's how you will be able to exceed the expectations because they have not only expectations on how you are providing your offer but as well on how you deal with such situations, and they want to see how you're gonna be dealing with it.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So your ability to be having a specific approach to complaints, having a specific way to deal with customer issues so they are becoming satisfied out of the situation is a great way to actually make them even more happy, but it's all about the approach around customer complaints and customer issues.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to see it as a threat, but as an opportunity to make your clients even more happy because you will be exceeding their expectations on something they were not happy.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you go from a threat to an opportunity, and that's really important to have this vision around that.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great answer.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I love that.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I would actually 100% agree with it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I often see the kind of make or break of uh building relationships and um creating that kind of oh wow, this person's really helped me out, comes from how you deal with the problems, not the it's all going well and that's that's all fine.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's when things kind of you know issues come up or or things change, or there's something that needs to be um kind of worked through together as a as a as a you know customer and a someone providing something to that customer or in internally it might be a manager or it might be a team member and so on.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: That dynamic and sorting out those problems gives some is usually where I see the opportunity to create really, really good customer service because you're helping them solve problems um as you go through, and they can see how much you care and how much your effort you're putting into uh making sure that you deliver.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: That is very true, and I think you need to spread this mindset throughout your team because otherwise uh that's how you can spread very bad working culture within your within your working environment, by such as blaming culture, for instance, or people do not knowing how to react with complaints or seeing it as something bad, so they will not be honest or take accountability about it, and that that is that can become very dangerous.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think as a leader, I think you'll agree with me uh when I say that it's all about sharing this value that is not a threat as long as you do the right things from it and you know what to do with it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's uh a great way to uh to introduce our last section that we're going to be talking about, which is the essential techniques to create a customer service focus in your team.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is actually quite a hard thing to instill in a team.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think we are you know talking people generally are happier about how they personally deliver customer service, but when they have to try and um change or improve the customer service in the teams that they are looking after and managing, I think that's where the challenges start to become more significant.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, how would how would you start um trying to instill a really strong and beneficial customer service, sort of focus and a team?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's all about sharing, first of all, the correct vision about how customer service is important, but as well the correct values around it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think it's something I always say when I train uh employees on customer service is that in the eyes of the customers, the person they're dealing with maybe the main person they're dealing with, so in their eyes, they represent the business.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, whatever the roles they have, whatever the positions they have within the company, when they are in touch with the clients, in the customer's eyes, they are the business, they represent the business.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it highlights how important it is for them to provide good customer service.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: But as well, understanding that uh customers, customers are the are the heart of the business because without customers the business does not succeed, do not cannot cannot work.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that is really important to highlight this.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes when you have a team dealing with customers on a regular basis, you can get into a routine that can become very unhealthy because you you just deal with so many customers that they are one amongst others, but you do not want to give this feeling to the customers because they are unique and they need to be uh and they have unique needs, and I think that they need to feel this way when they are dealing with employees, and that's really important to make them understand this this part by by really showing them that customer service will really be something that will make them stand out as individuals, but generally would make therefore the business stand out as well.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think from from my perspective, when I think about how do I improve uh the team that I'm looking after and how they deal with people in the business or or external to the business, again, I think from from my perspective, certainly lead by example is a really, really important um uh element because employees and team members they don't pay that much attention to what you say, but they really really pay attention to what you do, the decisions you make, the behaviours you display, those are the things that they are looking at all the time.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're there to uh give them a live example of how you think you should deal with certain situations, then they're much more likely to follow that.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think alongside that, personally as well, I would uh spend some time talking through different scenarios and thinking about how they're going to handle that, so a bit of training.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think finally for me it's about being really clear about what they can and can't do.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you give them authority to think on their own, to deal with certain situations without having to come back to you as the manager or to other parts of the organization?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it might be you know setting a budget they could spend, for instance, to help them resolve issues that they they are faced with or with customers, um, which they can just decide how much to do on themselves or what actions to take up to a certain point themselves, and that gives them the authority, it gives them the ability to respond quickly, um, all of those things that actually are really important.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you don't want them to be kind of uh I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: They should know exactly what they can and can't do and what's expected of them.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I think those are those are all really important points from my perspective.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Have you got anything else you want to add to that, Pierre?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, it uh it leads me to uh highlighting how important it is to provide the best environment to your team so they can provide great customer service.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think even if you are a leader who leads by example, you cannot really address things to your team if you are not giving them the tools and the environment in order to perform well in terms of uh training, like you said, in terms of specific tools they need to use when they deal with customers, in terms of support when they need to have support, in terms of enough team members in a day.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you are an employee taking too much phone calls without having any time for yourself, um working very long hours and then you being blamed because one customer out of hundred you didn't deal dealt with well with them.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that is very harsh to to have uh to kind of address this to the employee, because the employee would be like, Well, yes, but obviously a mistake sometimes is not only coming from the employees doing something bad, is about uh what do you do as a leader to provide the correct environment to make sure that they have all the the tools and the ability to give to give them the abilities to provide great customer service.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't do that, uh you cannot just focus on the mistake they've made with the specific customers because there's more to that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's sometimes understanding again what is the source behind a mistake, behind something that happens, and what is your part of responsibility as a leader to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, again, it's all about taking account, leading by example by taking accountability on the things you can do better yourself as a leader.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I also think uh one of the critical jobs of a manager or leader is to spot problems or to spot roadblocks that your team members are faced with and remove them as much as you possibly can.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, back to your point around uh making sure the environment's right and they've got the right tools, I think that's super, super important.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, you can leverage the efforts of the team members that you have to do the right thing, to look after their customers in the right way and to provide great customer service.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't do that, that's how you can implement a blaming culture again, because if you address something to an employee on something, yes, they could have done better, but you just address it without helping the employees to do better by removing problems out of their way, by giving them uh everything they need to perform well, by giving them enough support, then they will not take the feedback as constructive, they will take it as an attack, and that's how you can start to create a very bad working environment uh within the working place.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, agreed.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's super, super important to always as a manager leader or anyone who's trying to help somebody else uh do better at their job, is to make sure that whatever you do, it's absolutely in their their best interests.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because if they're doing a really good job, certainly from my perspective as a manager of a team or leader of a team, if they're doing a great job, then the team does a great job, which impacts back on me because that's going to help me as a manager in my career.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very, very important to do absolutely everything you can to help your team members uh be as good as they possibly can at doing what they do.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's why, as well, leadership and customer service are so related because the idea of customer service can be compared to an iceberg where the image part of the iceberg is when you are in contact with your clients, but there is so many things under the water that keeps the iceberg floating, and leadership is definitely one of them.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, just I think that's pretty a good place to draw this podcast to a close.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to uh recap quickly what we've covered today.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's the four key areas.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, why making it personal creates amazing customer service?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the art of influencing expectations in delivering great customer service.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, think about that questioning and listening skills that we talked about.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Third, the the steps to take to consistently meet or exceed expectations.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then fourth, finally, we talked about the essential techniques to create a customer service focus in your team.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me, Pierre, today.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really, really good to have you on the podcast, and I look forward to uh to uh hearing from you again.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's uh Pierre from Beyond Satisfaction.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can find his website at beyondsatisfaction.co.uk.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: So do take a look at all he has to offer to improve your customer service.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have any issues and questions around that, do get in touch with him, he'll be delighted to try and help you.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks very much for me, Jess Coles at Enhanced Training, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.