The Importance Of Developing A Customer-Driven Mindset

Intro:

Below are some of my personal summaries of articles discussing effective high-value customer service practices that every company should consider. Below is included an analysis of how some of these practices can work in practicality and what bad customer service can actually look like.

In the next article that I will publish, I will talk about how we can take these lessons and apply them practically in a day to day application and how other companies are using these techniques to provide high-quality customer service by applying a developed customer-driven mindset within their culture.

Growing the Real Bottom Line (Dahlke, 2017a):

Often times managers are too focused on their financial bottom line - however, this is a big mistake, they should be focusing their energies on the "Real" bottom line - which is creating customer value - this is done by:

• Managers selecting, training, coaching, and supporting employees to develop the performance competencies they need in order to achieve a customer-driven company mission.
• Managers ought to create an empowering culture within their organization that will help self-motivate the employees to perform at a level that is customer-driven and provide the best level of service that will attract and retain customers.
• Managers guiding employees to develop efficient, cost-effective, and customer-driven processes. 
• This is done by encouraging employees to submit ideas and then facilitating training so that the application of the improvement techniques can be implemented. Managers create a problem-solving culture among the employees where they search for ways to redesign and improve the ways they deliver customer-valued services and products.
• Managers model, promote, and cultivate company-wide, customer-driven teamwork.
•  By training employees, demonstrating teamwork, and encouraging employees to view the organization as a single team – meaning being a team vs. being part of the team – managers create an interdependent culture that delivers high-level customer-valued service and products.

Developing a Customer-Driven Mindset (Dahlke, 2017b):

To achieve a Customer-Driven mindset – there is a technique called “Inter-Section Problem-Solving” – the technique is designed so that people within the organization see each other as customers – internal customers, if you will – while at the same time keeping the focus on the external customers (the regular ones).

When using the word “section” – this can refer to anyone within the organization or any team, department, or workgroup – basically anyone and any part of the organization.

• Being with determining relationships with each person – or section by section depending on the size of the organization.
• Explain to each “section” that they are a subgroup that is dependent on their services or to whom they provide a service.
• They are asked to identify which other subgroup provides them with services.
• We then “map out” the internal relationships of each of these subgroups
• Have them rate how their job is affected by other sections – whether it is easier or harder due to the other section’s activities.
• Ask them to come up with recommendations to the other sections on how they can help make their jobs “easier” and more effective.
• Have the sections meet and discuss their suggestions.
• The meetings are geared and focused on problem-solving, rather than faultfinding and finger-pointing.
• What should come out of these meetings is an effective change that will lead to a cohesive process across all sections.

There are some side benefits that come from such an “inter-section” type of technique.

1. Many of the issues within the organization get solved.
2. People learn to adopt a problem-solving mindset – instead of faultfinding or pointing fingers – they will seek for ways to always solve issues.
3. They will come to appreciate each other and see each other as a unit and even though they are different teams/groups – yet still, they will feel that they are working cohesively. In turn, this will extend to the customer – since the bottom line will be that the customer will benefit from the cohesiveness of the organization in the overall picture. 

Learning Management Systems (Cushard, 2017):

• Self-directed Training: Salespeople have access to a library where different pieces of training are made available to them and they are able to complete the courses on their own time and at their own speed.
• Delivering Training at Lower Cost: eLearning is a much lower cost-effective solution to training staff in various fields. Creating the libraries is a one-time cost, but then can be shared with every new hire and a resource that can always be accessed at any time.
• Resources to Sustain Learning: As an available resource at any given time, the manager can always direct the staff to a particular course in the library when references a certain skill set or if it is determined that a certain skill set needs improvement.

Ethical Retailing – do customers care? (Morgan Stanley, 2016):

Morgan Stanley has conducted a very elaborate and comprehensive study on how much do customers care about ethical retailing. The results are staggering, what does this mean to our conversation? What does this have to do with the way we run our organizations and how do our employees conduct themselves?

When customers feel – and trust me, they will notice – the professionalism of the organization – they will feel the ethical obligation to make the decision whether or not they want to deal with your organization. If they feel that your organization is a negative one – teams are fighting, teams are not cohesive, etc. The customers will not deal with that company. However, if the customer service is impeccable and of high quality. Meaning that all aspect of the company follows the same universal culture – the customers will be impressed and keep coming back.

10 Must-have Customer Service Skills (Shulzhenko, 2017):

What are customers expecting from us as businesses? (yes, they expect the top ten customer service skills from every company they will end up dealing with).

• Effective Listening: Being a good listener is the key to effective communication – people who will call you with an issue expect to be heard and want to be validated.
• Attentiveness: Don’t script your responses. Be present. The client wants to be heard and validated, but above all wants to feel that you actually cared to pay attention to them and look to solve the problem.
• Patience: Many of the customers may come to you when they are frustrated – have the patience to hear them out. This will help you to effectively listen, be attentive and actually show that you are there for the frustrated customer.
• Self-Control: Showing self-control when a client is frustrated actually defuses the anger in the client’s voice – since the client doesn’t feel that they need to raise their voices because someone is actually listening and paying attention to them and not adding to the nerves.
• Clear Communication Skills: These communication skills include verbal and written – they ought to be clear, concise, good grammar, and proper spelling for them to the point in order for them to come through effectively.
• Ability to use “Positive Language”: Just as positive body language is important when you are communicating face-to-face, your facial expressions, tone of voice and other non-verbal cues – so too when it comes to online chat or email – the traditional positive cues are less visible, but they are expressed via words and language. By using positive language in the writing, that will set the overall mood and make the customer more comfortable and feel better.
• Persuasive Speaking Skills: The focus is targeted on the customer and not on the speaker (you). We call the customer by name, we use action-oriented words, and avoid statements like ‘I think’ or ‘I believe’ that express your personal thoughts or opinions. When we put the customers at the center of the conversation, we make them feel more respected and appreciated.
• Time Management: When dealing with customer’s issues, we need to prioritize, set goals, plan, and minimize interruptions and procrastination. Making sure that the issues get taken care of in a timely manner is super important for an effective outcome.
• Taking Responsibility: When things go wrong, sincerely apologize to the customer and make sure they understand that you are responsible over their negative experience and that you will truly do what you can to improve the situation by looking for solutions to the problem - be open and ready to admit to the fault and stand up to the plate.
• Willingness to Improve: When you make the commitment to improve – deliver on that promise. Everyone understands that we always need to improve, but customers simply expect that we truly do improve as we promise. Do whatever it takes to invest in that improvement.

Practical Application of the 3 Managerial Strategies along with the 10 Customer Service Skills

The organization that is run by its managers will develop the type of culture that will focus on the 10 customer service skills by training its employees and being role models in how they treat each other or their customers. Meaning, that the managers will provide workshops, seminars, or other training as well as live demonstrations when they are actually dealing with their own clients. 

For example; The manager of a call center will demonstrate to his or her staff how to take a service call and use the skills that demonstrate their effectiveness in handling situations. When a customer will yell, the manager will show how they are able to keep calm under pressure and listen to the customer. Thus demonstrating in real-life active listening (Shulzhenko, 2017) as well as "Managers model, promote, and cultivate company-wide, customer-driven teamwork" and "Managers selecting, training, coaching, and supporting employees to develop the performance competencies they need in order to achieve a customer-driven company mission" (Dahlke, 2017a). 

What Bad Customer Service Looks Like (Tumka, n.d.):

In this short comedic montage, you will see what bad customer actually looks like – perhaps we are now laughing, however it gets pretty frustrating when it actually happens to us. What would it take to go the extra mile and accommodate the client? Imagine if the restaurant would simply serve the customer the breakfast menu, how happy will that makes him feel – ok, it’s lunch, but he wants the breakfast menu? Each company needs to determine the best practice’s in order to give high-value customer service to their clientele, and that might mean giving the breakfast menu at noon.  

References: 

Dahlke, Arnie (2017a). Grow The Real Bottom Line With Three Managerial Strategies. Touro University Library

Dahlke, Arnie (2017b). Develop A Customer-Driven Mindset. Touro University Library

Cushard, B. (2017). More eLearning needed to improve sales enablement efforts. HCM Sales, Marketing & Alliance Excellence Essentials, 16(2), 37. Retrieved from EBSCO multi-search in the Touro Library

Morgan Stanley (2016). Ethical Retailing—Do Consumers Care? Retrieved from: https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/ethical-retailing-consumers-survey

Shulzhenko, M. (2017). 10 Must-have Customer Service Skills. Retrieved from https://www.providesupport.com/blog/10-skills-for-being-awesome-at-customer-service/

Tumka (n.d.) Bad Customer Service Montage (Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbHwnxCGaI